American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2(721), p. L153-L157, 2010
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/721/2/l153
Full text: Download
We report the detection of a giant planet in a 6.4950 day orbit around the 1.68 M ☉ subgiant HD 102956. The planet has a semimajor axis a = 0.081 AU and a minimum mass MP sin i =0.96 M Jup. HD 102956 is the most massive star known to harbor a hot Jupiter, and its planet is only the third known to orbit within 0.6 AU of a star more massive than 1.5 M ☉. Based on our sample of 137 subgiants with M >1.45 M ☉, we find that 0.5%-2.3% of A-type stars harbor a close-in planet (a < 0.1 AU) with MP sin i > 1 M Jup, consistent with hot-Jupiter occurrence for Sun-like stars. Thus, the paucity of planets with 0.1 AU < a < 1.0 AU around intermediate-mass stars may be an exaggerated version of the "period valley" that is characteristic of planets around Sun-like stars.