An m sin i = 24 M⊕ Planetary Companion to the Nearby M Dwarf GJ 176
Abstract
We report the detection of a planetary companion with a minimum mass of m sin i = 0.0771 MJup = 24.5 M⊕ to the nearby (d = 9.4 pc) M2.5 V star GJ 176. The star was observed as part of our M dwarf planet search at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The detection is based on 5 years of high-precision differential radial velocity (RV) measurements using the High-Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). The orbital period of the planet is 10.24 days. GJ 176 thus joins the small (but increasing) sample of M dwarfs hosting short-period planets with minimum masses in the Neptune-mass range. Low-mass planets could be relatively common around M dwarfs, and the current detections might represent the tip of a rocky planet population.
Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1086/524703
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0709.0944
- Bibcode:
- 2008ApJ...673.1165E
- Keywords:
-
- planetary systems;
- stars: individual: GJ 176;
- techniques: radial velocities;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 13 pages preprint, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ