A compact multi-planet system around a bright nearby star from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project

Staab, D.; Haswell, C. A.; Barnes, J. R.; Anglada-Escudé, G.; Fossati, L.; Doherty, J. P. J.; Cooper, J.; Jenkins, J. S.; Díaz, M. R. and Soto, M. G. (2020). A compact multi-planet system around a bright nearby star from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project. Nature Astronomy, 4(4) pp. 399–407.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0974-x

Abstract

To put the Solar System’s terrestrial planets in context, the detection and characterization of low-mass exoplanets is important but challenging. The Dispersed Matter Planet Project targets stars with anomalously low Ca II H and K chromospheric emission, indicative of circumstellar absorbing gas. Here we report high-precision, high-cadence radial-velocity measurements of the F8V star DMPP-1 (HD 38677). These were motivated by depressed Ca II H and K line cores indicative of short-period, ablating planets producing circumstellar gas. We find a compact planetary system with orbital periods of about 2.9–19 days, comprising three super-Earth-mass planets (about 3–10 M_⊕) and one Neptune-mass planet (about 24 M_⊕). The irradiated super-Earths may be remnant cores of giant planets after mass loss while crossing the Neptune desert. A priori inferences about the presence of short-period planets enabled the efficient discovery of the DMPP-1 planets. We anticipate informative follow-up characterization studies.

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