THE LICK-CARNEGIE EXOPLANET SURVEY: A URANUS-MASS FOURTH PLANET FOR GJ 876 IN AN EXTRASOLAR LAPLACE CONFIGURATION
- UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington DC, 20015-1305 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy and NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of Hawaii-Monoa, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
Continued radial velocity (RV) monitoring of the nearby M4V red dwarf star GJ 876 with Keck/High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph has revealed the presence of a Uranus-mass fourth planetary companion in the system. The new planet has a mean period of P{sub e} = 126.6 days (over the 12.6-year baseline of the RV observations), and a minimum mass of m{sub e} sin i{sub e} = 12.9 {+-} 1.7 M {sub +}. The detection of the new planet has been enabled by significant improvements to our RV data set for GJ 876. The data have been augmented by 36 new high-precision measurements taken over the past five years. In addition, the precision of all of the Doppler measurements have been significantly improved by the incorporation of a high signal-to-noise template spectrum for GJ 876 into the analysis pipeline. Implementation of the new template spectrum improves the internal rms errors for the velocity measurements taken during 1998-2005 from 4.1 m s{sup -1} to 2.5 m s{sup -1}. Self-consistent, N-body fits to the RV data set show that the four-planet system has an invariable plane with an inclination relative to the plane of the sky of i = 59.{sup 0}5. The fit is not significantly improved by the introduction of a mutual inclination between the planets 'b' and 'c', but the new data do confirm a non-zero eccentricity, e{sub d} = 0.207 {+-} 0.055 for the innermost planet, 'd'. In our best-fit coplanar model, the mass of the new component is m{sub e} = 14.6 {+-} 1.7 M {sub +}. Our best-fitting model places the new planet in a three-body resonance with the previously known giant planets (which have mean periods of P{sub c} = 30.4 and P{sub b} = 61.1 days). The critical argument, {psi}{sub Laplace} = {lambda} {sub c} - 3{lambda} {sub b} + 2{lambda} {sub e}, for the Laplace resonance librates with an amplitude of {Delta}{psi}{sub Laplace} = 40{sup 0} {+-} 13{sup 0} about {psi}{sub Laplace} = 0{sup 0}. Numerical integration indicates that the four-planet system is stable for at least a billion years (at least for the coplanar cases). This resonant configuration of three giant planets orbiting an M dwarf primary differs from the well-known Laplace configuration of the three inner Galilean satellites of Jupiter, which are executing very small librations about {psi}{sub Laplace} = 180{sup 0} and which never experience triple conjunctions. The GJ 876 system, by contrast, comes close to a triple conjunction between the outer three planets once per every orbit of the outer planet, 'e'.
- OSTI ID:
- 21454970
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 719, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/719/1/890; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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