Small Friends of Hot Jupiters

Hot Jupiters are Jupiter-sized gas giant exoplanets that closely orbit their host star in periods of about 10 days or less. Early models hypothesized that these exoplanets formed away from the star, then over time drifted to their characteristically closer locations. However, new theories predict that Hot Jupiters form at their close proximity during the process of core accretion (Batygin et al. 2015). In fact, a super-Earth and a Neptune-sized exoplanet have already been detected in the Hot Jupiter-hosting star WASP-47 (Becker et al. 2015). We will present our analysis of radial velocity time series plots to determine whether low-mass, short-period planets have been previously overlooked in systems of stars which host Hot Jupiters.The SAO REU program is funded in part by the National Science Foundation REU and Department of Defense ASSURE programs under NSF Grant no. 1262851.