Key Planets for Exogeology in the 2020s: Discoveries from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project
Abstract
HST revealed a complete lack of chromospheric emission from extreme hot Jupiter (hJ) host star WASP-12. We since found ~40% of hJ hosts have anomalously low chromospheric emission in Ca II H&K. We attribute this to absorption in diffuse circumstellar gas, originiating from the highly irradiated planets. Archival spectra of thousands of bright, nearby stars revealed a few main sequence field stars with similar deficits in the Ca II H&K line cores. These stars were not known planet hosts; we hypothesized they harboured, close-in, mass-losing, low mass, small planets. The Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP) targets them, making high precision, high cadence RV measurements to find ~Earth-mass planets in short period (≲6 d) orbits. We have found planets wherever we have more than 60 RV measurements. We will present results from our first three planetary system discoveries, statistical assessment of our underlying hypotheses, and sketch the implications of our findings.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Extreme Solar Systems Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- August 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019ESS.....420107H