A SUPER-EARTH TRANSITING A NAKED-EYE STAR

By J. Winn, J. Matthews, R. Dawson, D. Fabrycky, M. Holman, T. Kallinger, R. Kuschnig, D. Sasselov, D. Dragomir, D. Guenther and 4 more. 2011

228 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have detected transits of the innermost planet “e” orbiting 55 Cnc (V = 6.0), based on two weeks of nearly continuous photometric monitoring with the MOST space telescope. The transits occur with the period (0.74 days) and phase that had been predicted by Dawson & Fabrycky, and with the expected duration and depth for the crossing of a Sun-like star by a hot super-Earth. Assuming the star's mass and radius to be 0.963+0.051− 0.029 M☉ and 0.943 ± 0.010 R☉, the planet's mass, radius, and mean density are 8.63 ± 0.35 M⊕, 2.00 ± 0.14 R⊕, and 5.9+1.5− 1.1 g cm−3, respectively. The mean density is comparable to that of Earth, despite the greater mass and consequently greater compression of the interior of 55 Cnc e. This suggests a rock-iron composition supplemented by a significant mass of water, gas, or other light elements. Outside of transits, we detected a sinusoidal signal resembling the expected signal due to the changing illuminated phase of the planet, but with a full range (168 ± 70 ppm) too large to be reflected light or thermal emission. This signal has no straightforward interpretation and should be checked with further observations. The host star of 55 Cnc e is brighter than that of any other known transiting planet, which will facilitate future investigations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Education, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e3152f0af7bee9caf2688270acbed6d5ed287739

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Citations in the corpus

DETECTION OF AN ATMOSPHERE AROUND THE SUPER-EARTH 55 CANCRI E (2015, methodology): “Transits from space of 55 Cancri e were observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope (Demory et al. 2011) and MOST space telescope (Winn et al. 2011), confirming its small size (∼ 2R⊕).”
HOW THERMAL EVOLUTION AND MASS-LOSS SCULPT POPULATIONS OF SUPER-EARTHS AND SUB-NEPTUNES: APPLICATION TO THE KEPLER-11 SYSTEM AND BEYOND (2012, unknown): “…2009; Queloz et al. 2009; Hatzes et al. 2011), Kepler-20b (Fressin et al. 2012; Gautier et al. 2012), Kepler-18b (Cochran et al. 2011), 55 Cancri e (Winn et al. 2011; Demory et al. 2011), GJ 1214b (Charbonneau et al. 2009), Kepler-36c (Carter et al. 2012), Kepler-30b (Fabrycky et al. 2012;…”
POSSIBLE DISINTEGRATING SHORT-PERIOD SUPER-MERCURY ORBITING KIC 12557548 (2012, methodology): “Winn et al. (2011) estimate its mass and radius to be ∼9M⊕ and 2R⊕.”
A POSSIBLE CARBON-RICH INTERIOR IN SUPER-EARTH 55 Cancri e (2012, methodology): “We adopt the latest estimate of its mass, M = 8.37 ± 0.38 M⊕ (Endl et al. 2012), and two values for its radius, Rp = 2.04 ± 0.15R⊕ in the visible (Winn et al. 2011, Gillon et al. 2012), and Rp = 2.20 ± 0.12R⊕ for a gray radius obtained by combining the visible and infrared (4.5 µm) radii (Demory et…”
THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE: SIMULATIONS OF PLANET DETECTIONS AND ASTROPHYSICAL FALSE POSITIVES (2015, methodology): “We also include the systems tabulated by Winn et al. (2011b) in their study of Kepler-16.”
PHOTOCHEMISTRY IN TERRESTRIAL EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES. I. PHOTOCHEMISTRY MODEL AND BENCHMARK CASES (2012, background): “…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. 2011; Winn et al. 2011; Demory et al. 2011; Batalha et al. 2011; Lissauer et al., 2011; Borucki et al. 2011; Fressin et al 2012; Cochran et al. 2012).”
A STUDY OF THE SHORTEST-PERIOD PLANETS FOUND WITH KEPLER (2014, background): “Among the best known USP planets are 55 Cnc e (Dawson & Fabrycky 2010; Winn et al. 2011; Demory et al. 2011a), CoRoT-7b (Léger et al. 2009; Queloz et al. 2009), and Kepler-10b (Batalha et al. 2011).”
THE FLAT TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM OF THE SUPER-EARTH GJ1214b FROM WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 ON THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2011, background): “…2.7 R⊕ and a mass of 6.5 M⊕, the transiting planet GJ1214b (Charbonneau et al. 2009) is a member of the growing population of exoplanets whose masses and radii are known to be between those of Earth and Neptune (see Léger et al. 2009; Batalha et al. 2011; Lissauer et al. 2011; Winn et al. 2011).”
MIGRATION THEN ASSEMBLY: FORMATION OF NEPTUNE-MASS PLANETS INSIDE 1 AU (2011, background): “Indeed, there is a growing accumulation of recent results demonstrating the misalignment of stellar spin and planetary orbits in many hot Jupiter systems (e.g., Winn et al. 2011a, and references therein).”
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE NEAR-IR TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF THE SUPER-EARTH HD 97658B (2014, background): “There are currently three superEarths known to transit relatively bright stars, including: GJ 1214b (mK = 8.8; Charbonneau et al. 2009), 55 Cancri e (mK = 4.0; Winn et al. 2011; Demory et al. 2011), and HD 97658b (mK = 5.7; Dragomir et al. 2013).”
KEPLER-18b, c, AND d: A SYSTEM OF THREE PLANETS CONFIRMED BY TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS, LIGHT CURVE VALIDATION, WARM-SPITZER PHOTOMETRY, AND RADIAL VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS (2011, background): “Kepler-18b, together with 55Cnc e (Winn et al. 2011), are likely our best known cases yet of water planets with substantial steam atmospheres (given their high surface temperatures).”
Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e with warm Spitzer (2011, methodology): “In the preprint version of this paper, we reported a planetary radius 30% larger than the one initially obtained by Winn et al. (2011) in the visible with MOST.”
COLLISIONS BETWEEN GRAVITY-DOMINATED BODIES. I. OUTCOME REGIMES AND SCALING LAWS (2011, result): “The prediction is in very good agreement with observations of rocky exoplanets (e.g., Kepler 10b and 55 Cnc e, Winn et al. 2011; Batalha et al. 2011).”
ALL SIX PLANETS KNOWN TO ORBIT KEPLER-11 HAVE LOW DENSITIES (2013, methodology): “The three planets that lie above this threshold in the upper right are Kepler-10 b (Batalha et al. 2011), CoRoT-7 b (Léger et al. 2009; Queloz et al. 2009; Hatzes et al. 2011), and 55 Cancri e (Winn et al. 2011; Demory et al. 2011), none of which are expected to have H/He envelopes.”