The Youngest Planet to Have a Spin-Orbit Alignment Measurement AU Mic b
Article
Article Title | The Youngest Planet to Have a Spin-Orbit Alignment Measurement AU Mic b |
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ERA Journal ID | 1048 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Addison, Brett C. (Author), Horner, Jonathan (Author), Wittenmyer, Robert A. (Author), Heitzmann, Alexis (Author), Plavchan, Peter (Author), Wright, Duncan J. (Author), Nicholson, Belinda A. (Author), Marshall, Jonathan P. (Author), Clark, Jake T. (Author), Gunther, Maximilian N. (Author), Kane, Stephen R. (Author), Hirano, Teruyuki (Author), Wang, Songhu (Author), Kielkopf, John (Author), Shporer, Avi (Author), Tinney, C. G. (Author), Zhang, Hui (Author), Ballard, Sarah (Author), Bedding, Timothy (Author), Bowler, Brendan P. (Author), Mengel, Matthew W. (Author), Okumura, Jack (Author), Gaidos, Eric (Author) and Wang, Xian-Yu (Author) |
Journal Title | The Astronomical Journal |
Journal Citation | 162 (4), pp. 1-12 |
Article Number | 137 |
Number of Pages | 12 |
Year | 2021 |
Publisher | IOP Publishing |
Place of Publication | United States |
ISSN | 0004-6256 |
1538-3881 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac1685 |
Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ac1685 |
Abstract | We report measurements of the sky-projected spin-orbit angle for AU Mic b, a Neptune-size planet orbiting a very young (∼20 Myr) nearby pre-main-sequence M-dwarf star, which also hosts a bright, edge-on, debris disk. The planet was recently discovered from preliminary analysis of radial-velocity observations and confirmed to be transiting its host star from photometric data from the NASA's TESS mission. We obtained radial-velocity measurements of AU Mic over the course of two partially observable transits and one full transit of planet b from high-resolution spectroscopic observations made with the Minerva-Australis telescope array. Only a marginal detection of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect signal was obtained from the radial velocities, in part due to AU Mic being an extremely active star and the lack of full transit coverage plus sufficient out-of-transit baseline. As such, a precise determination of the obliquity for AU Mic b is not possible in this study and we find a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of λ = 47-54+26°. This result is consistent with both the planet's orbit being aligned or highly misaligned with the spin axis of its host star. Our measurement independently agrees with, but is far less precise than observations carried out on other instruments around the same time that measure a low-obliquity orbit for the planet. AU Mic is the youngest exoplanetary system for which the projected spin-orbit angle has been measured, making it a key data point in the study of the formation and migration of exoplanets - particularly given that the system is also host to a bright debris disk. |
Keywords | Exoplanets; Hot Neptunes; Exoplanet astronomy; Radial velocity; Exoplanet detection methods; Dynamical evolution; 498; 754; 486; 1332; 489; 421; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Astrophysics; - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510109. Stellar astronomy and planetary systems |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
Byline Affiliations | Centre for Astrophysics |
Centre for Astrophysics | |
George Mason University, United States | |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States | |
University of California, United States | |
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan | |
Indiana University Bloomington, United States | |
School of Mathematics, Physics and Computing | |
University of New South Wales | |
Nanjing University, China | |
University of Florida, United States | |
University of Texas, United States | |
University of Texas at Austin, United States | |
University of Hawaii, United States | |
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6wqx/the-youngest-planet-to-have-a-spin-orbit-alignment-measurement-au-mic-b
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