Moulds, V.E., Watson, C.A., Bonfils, X. et al. (2 more authors) (2013) Finding exoplanets orbiting young active stars - I. Technique. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 430. pp. 1709-1721. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Stellar activity, such as starspots, can induce radial velocity (RV) variations that can mask or even mimic the RV signature of orbiting exoplanets. For this reason RV exoplanet surveys have been unsuccessful when searching for planets around young, active stars and are therefore failing to explore an important regime which can help to reveal how planets form and migrate. This paper describes a new technique to remove spot signatures from the stellar line-profiles of moderately rotating, active stars (v sin i ranging from 10 to 50 km s−1). By doing so it allows planetary RV signals to be uncovered. We used simulated models of a G5V type star with differing dark spots on its surface along with archive data of the known active star HD 49933 to validate our method. The results showed that starspots could be effectively cleaned from the line-profiles so that the stellar RV jitter was reduced by more than 80 per cent. Applying this procedure to the same models and HD 49933 data, but with fake planets injected, enabled the effective removal of starspots so that Jupiter mass planets on short orbital periods were successfully recovered. These results show that this approach can be useful in the search for hot-Jupiter planets that orbit around young, active stars with a v sin i of ∼10–50 km s−1.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article has been accepted for publication in MNRAS ©: 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Nov 2017 14:46 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2017 14:46 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sts709 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/sts709 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:122800 |