Rossiter-McLaughlin Observations of 55 Cnc e
Abstract
We present Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of the transiting super-Earth 55 Cnc e collected during six transit events between 2012 January and 2013 November with HARPS and HARPS-N. We detect no radial velocity signal above 35 cm s-1 (3σ) and confine the stellar v sin i sstarf to 0.2 ± 0.5 km s-1. The star appears to be a very slow rotator, producing a very low amplitude Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. Given such a low amplitude, the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of 55 Cnc e is undetected in our data, and any spin-orbit angle of the system remains possible. We also performed Doppler tomography and reach a similar conclusion. Our results offer a glimpse of the capacity of future instrumentation to study low amplitude Rossiter-McLaughlin effects produced by super-Earths.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- September 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/2041-8205/792/2/L31
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1408.2007
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJ...792L..31L
- Keywords:
-
- planets and satellites: formation;
- planets and satellites: individual: 55 Cancri e;
- stars: individual: 55 Cancri;
- techniques: radial velocities;
- techniques: spectroscopic;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters