A ~7.5 M⊕ Planet Orbiting the Nearby Star, GJ 876

By E. Rivera, Jack J. Lissauer, R. P. Butler, G. Marcy, S. Vogt, Debra A. Fischer, Timothy M. Brown, Gregory Laughlin, G. Henry. 2005

369 citations recorded by the source corpus.

High-precision, high-cadence radial velocity monitoring over the past 8 yr at the W. M. Keck Observatory reveals evidence for a third planet orbiting the nearby (4.69 pc) dM4 star GJ 876. The residuals of three-body Newtonian fits, which include GJ 876 and Jupiter-mass companions b and c, show significant power at a periodicity of 1.9379 days. Self-consistently fitting the radial velocity data with a model that includes an additional body with this period significantly improves the quality of the fit. These four-body (three-planet) Newtonian fits find that the minimum mass of companion "d" is m sin i = 5.89 ± 0.54 M⊕ and that its orbital period is 1.93776 (±7 × 10-5) days. Assuming coplanar orbits, an inclination of the GJ 876 planetary system to the plane of the sky of ~50° gives the best fit. This inclination yields a mass for companion d of m = 7.53 ± 0.70 M⊕, making it by far the lowest mass companion yet found around a main-sequence star other than our Sun. Precise photometric observations at Fairborn Observatory confirm low-level brightness variability in GJ 876 and provide the first explicit determination of the star's 96.7 day rotation period. Even higher precision short-term photometric measurements obtained at Las Campanas imply that planet d does not transit GJ 876.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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TRANSITS OF EARTH-LIKE PLANETS (2009, neutral): “The fifteen planets are: COROT-7b ～7 MEarth (Leger et al. in prep), GJ 876 d, ～7.5 MEarth (Rivera et al. 2005); OGLE-05390L b, ～5.5 MEarth (Beaulieu et al. 2006); Gl 581 c and Gl 581 d, ～ 5.03 MEarth and 8.6 MEarth (Udry et al. 2007); HD40307 b, HD40307 c and HD40307 d～4.2, 6.7, and 9.4 MEarth (Mayo”
The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets - XXXI. The M-dwarf sample (2011, background): “The third planet detected around GJ 876 was the first known super-Earth, Gl 876d (Rivera et al. 2005).”
On the evolution of multiple protoplanets embedded in a protostellar disc (2006, background): “…and COROT will extend the discovery-space of extrasolar planets further, covering the sub-Neptune mass range where current observations typically cannot detect planets (e.g. Bonfils et al. 2005; Marcy et al. 2005; Rivera et al. 2005; Vogt et al. 2005; Santos et al. 2004; Butler et al. 2003, 2004).”
Catalog of Nearby Exoplanets (2006, methodology): “; K0: Korzennik et al. (2000); LC5: Lo Curto (2005); Le5: Lee et al. (2005); Lt9: Latham et al. (1989); Lv5: Lovis et al. (2005); MA4: McArthur et al. (2004); MC4: McCarthy et al. (2004), Mo5: Moutou et al. (2005); My3: http://obswww.unige.ch/∼naef/planet/geneva planets.html; My4: Mayor et al. (2004”
Three-dimensional simulations of multiple protoplanets embedded in a protostellar disc (2008, background): “The observed lower limits on extrasolar planet mass are continuing to decrease, while at the same time the number of known multiple planet systems is continuing to grow (Rivera et al. 2005; Lovis et al. 2006; Udry et al. 2007).”
Spectroscopic parameters for 451 stars in the HARPS GTO planet search program - Stellar [Fe/H] and the frequency of exo-Neptunes (2008, background): “…orbiting a solar-like star (Mayor & Queloz 1995), including several planets in the Neptune-mass regime (e.g. McArthur et al. 2004; Santos et al. 2004b; Butler et al. 2004; Vogt et al. 2005; Rivera et al. 2005; Bonfils et al. 2005a, 2007; Udry et al. 2006, 2007; Lovis et al. 2006; Melo et al. 2007).”
TEN NEW AND UPDATED MULTIPLANET SYSTEMS AND A SURVEY OF EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS (2008, background): “Rivera et al. (2005) report the mean anomaly of the planets to be Md = 309.5◦ ± 5.1◦, Mc = 308.5 ◦ ± 1.4◦, and Mb = 175.5 ◦ ± 6.0◦ respectively, at a Julian Date of 2452490.”
PHOTOCHEMISTRY IN TERRESTRIAL EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES. I. PHOTOCHEMISTRY MODEL AND BENCHMARK CASES (2012, background): “A large number of super Earths are being detected (e.g., Rivera et al. 2005; Udry et al. 2007; Forveille et al. 2009; Léger et al. 2009; Charbonneau et al. 2009; Mayor et al. 2009; Vogt et al. 2010; Rivera et al. 2010; Dawson & Fabrycky 2010; Holman et al. 2010; Howard et al. 2011; Bonfils et al.…”
THE MUSCLES TREASURY SURVEY. I. MOTIVATION AND OVERVIEW (2016, background): “It is estimated to have an age of 5.6 ± 0.1 Gyr and a subsolar metallicity, [Fe/H] = −0.26 (Tsantaki et al. 2013), based on its 47 day rotation period.”
The LCES HIRES/Keck Precision Radial Velocity Exoplanet Survey (2017, background): “…the first transiting extrasolar planet (Henry et al. 2000), the first discovery of a Neptune-mass planet outside the solar system (Butler et al. 2004), the first direct mass measurement (without isin( ) ambiguity) of Gliese 876 d, the first super-Earth (Rivera et al. 2005), and many others.”
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs (2018, methodology): “The radial velocity (RV) technique has been successfully applied to detect such companions around M dwarfs given the relatively low mass of these stars (Marcy et al. 1998; Rivera et al. 2005; Udry et al. 2007; Bonfils et al. 2013; Anglada-Escudé et al. 2016).”
The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets - XIII. A planetary system with 3 super-Earths (4.2, 6.9, and 9.2 M) (2008, background): “Doppler spectroscopy also revealed quite a few planets with m 2 sin i less than 10 M ⊕ : GJ 876 d, m 2 sin i = 5.9 M ⊕ (Rivera et al. 2005); GJ 581 c and d, with m 2 sin i of 5.1 and 8.2 M ⊕ , respectively (Udry et al. 2007); HD 181433 b with m 2 sin i = 7.5 M ⊕ (Bouchy et al. 2008).”
Detailed Models of Super-Earths: How Well Can We Infer Bulk Properties? (2007, background): “The first three super-Earths discovered are: GJ876d—a 7.5 M planet at 0.02 AU from its star (Rivera et al. 2005), OGLE-2005-BLG390Lb—a 5M planet at 5 AU (Beaulieu et al. 2006), and HD 69830b—a 10.8M planet at 0.08 AU (Lovis et al. 2006).”
Exploring the Frequency of Close-in Jovian Planets around M Dwarfs (2006, background): “…Neptunes by Butler et al. (2004) and Bonfils et al. (2005b) and of an additional planet with an extremely low mass of m 7:5 M in the GJ 876 system (Rivera et al. 2005) further support the notion that M dwarf stars remain a fruitful and interesting hunting ground for highprecision radial velocity…”
Radius and Structure Models of the First Super-Earth Planet (2006, background): “In our solar system the snow line was at about 2Y3 AU, but GJ 876 is a small, 0.32 M , star (Rivera et al. 2005).”
Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extrasolar Planets (2007, neutral): “…2007; Gillon et al. 2007; Johnson et al. 2006; Knutson et al. 2007; Laughlin et al. 2005; Lovis et al. 2006; McArthur et al. 2004; Maness 2007; Mayor 2004; Moutou et al. 2006; Rivera et al. 2005; Udry et al. 2002; Valenti & Fischer 2005; Vogt et al. 2005; Wright et al. 2006; and Zucker et al. 2004.”
Five Planets Orbiting 55 Cancri (2007, methodology): “It is likely that one can obtain an improved chi-square by adopting a self-consistent N-body model for the stellar reflex velocity (e.g. Rivera et al. 2005).”