Published in

EDP Sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, (636), p. A58, 2020

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201937179

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

A hot terrestrial planet orbiting the bright M dwarf L 168-9 unveiled by TESS

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We report the detection of a transiting super-Earth-sized planet (R= 1.39 ± 0.09R) in a 1.4-day orbit around L 168-9 (TOI-134), a bright M1V dwarf (V= 11,K= 7.1) located at 25.15 ± 0.02 pc. The host star was observed in the first sector of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. For confirmation and planet mass measurement purposes, this was followed up with ground-based photometry, seeing-limited and high-resolution imaging, and precise radial velocity (PRV) observations using the HARPS andMagellan/PFS spectrographs. By combining the TESS data and PRV observations, we find the mass of L 168-9 b to be 4.60 ± 0.56Mand thus the bulk density to be 1.74−0.33+0.44times higher than that of the Earth. The orbital eccentricity is smaller than 0.21 (95% confidence). This planet is a level one candidate for the TESS mission’s scientific objective of measuring the masses of 50 small planets, and it is one of the most observationally accessible terrestrial planets for future atmospheric characterization.