Planet formation theories predict a large but still undetected population of short-period terrestrial planets orbiting brown dwarfs. Should specimens of this population be discovered transiting relatively bright and nearby brown dwarfs, the Jupiter-size and the low luminosity of their hosts would make them exquisite targets for detailed atmospheric characterisation with JWST and future ground-based facilities. The eventual discovery and detailed study of a significant sample of transiting terrestrial planets orbiting nearby brown dwarfs could prove to be useful not only for comparative exoplanetology but also for astrobiology, by bringing us key information on the physical requirements and timescale for the emergence of life.
In this context, we present a search for transit-signals in archival time-series photometry acquired by the Spitzer Space Telescope for a sample of 44 nearby brown dwarfs. While these 44 targets were not particularly selected for their brightness, the high precision of their Spitzer light curves allows us to reach sensitivities below Earth-sized planets for 75% of the sample and down to Europa-sized planets on the brighter targets. We could not identify any unambiguous planetary signal. Instead, we could compute the first limits on the presence of planets on close-in orbits. We find that within a 1.28 day orbit, the occurrence rate of planets with a radius between 0.75 and 3.25 R$_\oplus$ is η < 67 $\pm$ 1%. For planets with radii between 0.75 and 1.25 R$_\oplus$, we place a 95% confident upper limit of η < 87 $\pm$ 3%. If we assume an occurrence rate of η = 27% for these planets with radii between 0.75 and 1.25 R$_\oplus$, as the discoveries of the Kepler-42b and TRAPPIST-1b systems would suggest, we estimate that 175 brown dwarfs need to be monitored in order to guarantee (95%) at least one detection.
The occurrence of planets orbiting ultracool dwarfs is poorly constrained. We present results from a Guest Observer program on NASA's K2 spacecraft to search for transiting planets orbiting a sample of 827 ultracool dwarfs. Having found no transiting planets in our sample, we determined an upper limit on the occurrence of planets. We simulated planets orbiting our sample for a range of orbital periods and sizes. For the simulated planets that transit their host, we injected the transit light curve into the real K2 light curves, then attempted to recover the injected planets. For a given occurr…
This paper aims to derive a map of relative planet occurrence rates that can provide constraints on the overall distribution of terrestrial planets around FGK stars. Based on the planet candidates in the Kepler DR25 data release, I first generate a continuous density map of planet distribution using a Gaussian kernel model and correct the geometric factor that the discovery space of a transit event decreases along with the increase of planetary orbital distance. Then I fit two exponential decay functions of detection efficiency along with the increase of planetary orbital distance and the decr…
We present robust planet occurrence rates for Kepler planet candidates around M stars for planet radii $R_p = 0.5-4~\textrm{R}_\oplus$ and orbital periods $P = 0.5-256$ days using the approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) technique. This work incorporates the final Kepler DR25 planet candidate catalog and data products and augments them with updated stellar properties using Gaia DR2 and 2MASS PSC. We apply a set of selection criteria to select a sample of 1,746 Kepler M dwarf targets that host 89 associated planet candidates. These early M dwarfs and late K dwarfs were selected from cross-ref…
We present a systematic search for transiting giant planets ($0.6 R_{\rm J} \leq R_{\rm P} \leq 2.0 R_{\rm J}$) orbiting nearby low-mass stars ($M_{*} \leq 0.71 M_{\odot}$). The formation of giant planets around low-mass stars is predicted to be rare by the core-accretion planet formation theory. We search 91,306 low-mass stars in the TESS 30 minute cadence photometry detecting fifteen giant planet candidates, including seven new planet candidates which were not known planets or identified as TOIs prior to our search. Our candidates present an exciting opportunity to improve our knowledge of t…
With the discovery of a planetary system around TRAPPIST-1, there has been a surge of interest in ultracool dwarfs as potential planet hosts. Planetary systems around ultracool dwarfs represent our best chance of characterising temperate rocky-planet atmospheres with JWST. However, TRAPPIST-1 remains the only known system of its kind, and the occurrence rate of planets around ultracool dwarfs is still poorly constrained. We seek to perform a complete transit search on the ultracool dwarfs observed by NASA's K2 mission to constrain the occurrence rate of planets around these stars. We filter an…
Hot Jupiters form an enigmatic class of object with yet unclear formation pathways. Determination of their occurrence rates as function orbit, planet and stellar mass, and system age, can be an important ingredient for understanding how they form. To date, various Hot Jupiters have been discovered orbiting red giant stars and deriving their incidence would be highly interesting. In this study we aim to determine the number of Hot Jupiters in a well-defined sample of red giants, estimate their occurrence rate and compare it with that for A, F and G-type stars. A sample of 14474 red giant stars,…
We present an improved estimate of the occurrence rate of small planets orbiting small stars by searching the full four-year Kepler data set for transiting planets using our own planet detection pipeline and conducting transit injection and recovery simulations to empirically measure the search completeness of our pipeline. We identified 156 planet candidates, including one object that was not previously identified as a Kepler Object of Interest. We inspected all publicly available follow-up images, observing notes, and centroid analyses, and corrected for the likelihood of false positives. We…
We present the discovery of a substellar companion on a wide orbit around the ~2.5 Msun star HIP 78530, which is a member of the 5 Myr-old Upper Scorpius association. We have obtained follow-up imaging over two years and show that the companion and primary share common proper motion. We have also obtained JHK spectroscopy of the companion and confirm its low surface gravity, in accordance with the young age of the system. A comparison with Drift-Phoenix synthetic spectra indicates an effective temperature of 2800+/-200 K and a comparison with template spectra of young and old dwarfs indicates …
Since planet occurrence and primordial atmospheric retention probability increase with period, the occurrence-weighted median planets discovered by transit surveys may bear little resemblance to the low-occurrence, short-period planets sculpted by atmospheric escape ordinarily used to calibrate mass--radius relations and planet formation models. An occurrence-weighted mass--radius relation for the low-mass planets discovered so far by transit surveys orbiting solar-type stars requires both occurrence-weighted median Earth-mass and Neptune-mass planets to have a few percent of their masses in h…
CONTEXT: Most current radial velocity planet search programs have concentrated on stars of one solar mass. Our knowledge on the frequency of giant planets and brown dwarf companions to more massive stars is thus rather limited. In the case of solar-like stars, the frequency of short-period brown dwarf companions and very massive planets seems to be low. AIMS: Here we present evidence for a substellar companion to 30 Ari B, an F-star of 1.16 $\pm$ 0.04 $\rm M_\odot$ that is a member of a hierarchical triple system. METHODS: The companion was detected by means of precise radial velocity measurem…
We aim to detect and characterize substellar companions to K giant stars, to further our knowledge of planet formation and stellar evolution of intermediate-mass stars. For more than a decade we have used Doppler spectroscopy to acquire high precision radial velocity measurements of K giant stars. All data for this survey have been taken at Lick Observatory. Our survey includes 373 G and K giants. Radial velocity data showing periodic variations are fitted with Keplerian orbits using a chi^2 minimization technique. We report the presence of two substellar companions to the K giant stars tau Ge…
We present exoplanet occurrence rates estimated with approximate Bayesian computation for planets with radii between 0.5 and 16 $R_{\bigoplus}$ and orbital periods between 0.78 and 400 days, orbiting FGK dwarf stars. We base our results on an independent planet catalogue compiled from our search of all ~200,000 stars observed over the Kepler mission, with precise planetary radii supplemented by Gaia DR2-incorporated stellar radii. We take into account detection and vetting efficiency, planet radius uncertainty, and reliability against transit-like noise signals in the data. By analyzing our FG…
The co-planarity of solar-system planets led Kant to suggest that they formed from an accretion disk, and the discovery of hundreds of such disks around young stars as well as hundreds of co-planar planetary systems by the Kepler satellite demonstrate that this formation mechanism is extremely widespread. Many moons in the solar system, such as the Galilean moons of Jupiter, also formed out of the accretion disks that coalesced into the giant planets. We report here the discovery of an intermediate system OGLE-2013-BLG-0723LB/Bb composed of a Venus-mass planet orbiting a brown dwarf, which may…
We report the discovery of a substellar companion around the giant star HIP67537. Based on precision radial velocity measurements from CHIRON and FEROS high-resolution spectroscopic data, we derived the following orbital elements for HIP67537$\,b$: m$_b$sin$i$ = 11.1$^{+0.4}_{-1.1}$ M$_{\rm {\tiny jup}}$, $a$ = 4.9$^{+0.14}_{-0.13}$ AU and $e$ = 0.59$^{+0.05}_{-0.02}$. Considering random inclination angles, this object has $\gtrsim$ 65% probability to be above the theoretical deuterium-burning limit, thus it is one of the few known objects in the planet to brown-dwarf transition region. In add…
We characterize the occurrence rate of planets, ranging in size from 0.5-16 R$_\oplus$, orbiting FGK stars with orbital periods from 0.5-500 days. Our analysis is based on results from the "DR25" catalog of planet candidates produced by NASA's Kepler mission and stellar radii from Gaia "DR2". We incorporate additional Kepler data products to accurately characterize the efficiency of planets being recognized as a "threshold crossing events" (TCE) by Kepler's Transiting Planet Search pipeline and labeled as a planet candidate by the robovetter. Using a hierarchical Bayesian model, we derive plan…
We propose to use Kepler in 2-wheel mode to conduct a detailed search for Earth-sized planets orbiting ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs (spectral types from M7 to L3). This population of objects presents several advantages for exoplanet surveys. First, ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs are small and thus result in favorable planet-to-star area ratios. Second, because of their low effective temperature, the inner edge of their habitable zone is extremely close (2 to 3 days only). Third, our targets are bright at infrared wavelengths, which will enable detailed follow-up studies. Our program th…
We confirm and characterize the exoplanetary systems Kepler-445 and Kepler-446: two mid-M dwarf stars, each with multiple, small, short-period transiting planets. Kepler-445 is a metal-rich ([Fe/H]=+0.25 $\pm$ 0.10) M4 dwarf with three transiting planets, and Kepler-446 is a metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-0.30 $\pm$ 0.10) M4 dwarf also with three transiting planets. Kepler-445c is similar to GJ 1214b: both in planetary radius and the properties of the host star. The Kepler-446 system is similar to the Kepler-42 system: both are metal-poor with large galactic space velocities and three short-period, likel…
An Aligned Very-Low-Mass Star Orbiting an M dwarf and Obliquity Patterns Across Giant Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and Binary Stars
Westlake University（西湖大学）；Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学）；Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic, Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学马格尼克天文台）；Université de Genève（日内瓦大学）；Observatoire de Genève, Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève（日内瓦大学天文学系日内瓦天文台）
Our knowledge of the populations and occurrence rates of planets orbiting evolved intermediate-mass stars lags behind that for solar-type stars by at least a decade. Some radial velocity surveys have targeted these low-luminosity giant stars, providing some insights into the properties of their planetary systems. Here we present the final data release of the Pan-Pacific Planet Search, a 5-year radial velocity survey using the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. We present 1293 precise radial velocity measurements for 129 stars, and highlight six potential substellar-mass companions which require …
The most abundant stars in the Galaxy, M dwarfs, are very commonly hosts to diverse systems of low-mass planets. Their abundancy implies that the general occurrence rate of planets is dominated by their occurrence rate around such M dwarfs. In this article, we combine the M dwarf surveys conducted with the HIRES/Keck, PFS/Magellan, HARPS/ESO, and UVES/VLT instruments supported with data from several other instruments. We analyse the radial velocities of an approximately volume- and brightness-limited sample of 426 nearby M dwarfs in order to search for Doppler signals of cadidate planets. In a…
We report the discovery of TOI-2119b, a transiting brown dwarf (BD) that orbits and is completely eclipsed by an active M-dwarf star. Using light curve data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission and follow-up high-resolution Doppler spectroscopic observations, we find the BD has a radius of $R_b = 1.08 \pm 0.03{\rm R_J}$, a mass of $M_b = 64.4 \pm 2.3{\rm M_J}$, an orbital period of $P = 7.200865 \pm 0.00002$ days, and an eccentricity of $e=0.337\pm 0.002$. The host star has a mass of $M_\star = 0.53 \pm 0.02{\rm M_\odot}$, a radius of $R_\star= 0.50 \pm 0.01{\rm R_\odot}$, an…
In the frame of the search for extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs around early-type main-sequence stars, we present the detection of a giant planet around the young F-type star HD113337. We estimated the age of the system to be 150 +100/-50 Myr. Interestingly, an IR excess attributed to a cold debris disk was previously detected on this star. The SOPHIE spectrograph on the 1.93m telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence was used to obtain ~300 spectra over 6 years. We used our SAFIR tool, dedicated to the spectra analysis of A and F stars, to derive the radial velocity variations. The data …
Kepler is a space telescope that searches Sun-like stars for planets. Its major goal is to determine η_Earth, the fraction of Sunlike stars that have planets like Earth. When a planet 'transits' or moves in front of a star, Kepler can measure the concomitant dimming of the starlight. From analysis of the first four months of those measurements for over 150,000 stars, Kepler's science team has determined sizes, surface temperatures, orbit sizes and periods for over a thousand new planet candidates. In this paper, we characterize the period probability distribution function of the super-Earth an…
In recent years there have been many attempts to characterize the occurrence of stellar, BD and planetary-mass companions to solar-type stars, with the aim of constraining formation mechanisms. From RV observations a dearth of companions with masses between 10-40 MJup has been noticed at close separations, suggesting the possibility of a distinct formation mechanism for objects above and below this range. We present a model for the substellar companion mass function (CMF). It consists of the superposition of the planet and BD companion mass distributions, assuming that we can extrapolate the R…
We report the discovery by the CoRoT space mission of a transiting brown dwarf orbiting a F7V star with an orbital period of 3.06 days. CoRoT-15b has a radius of 1.12 +0.30 -0.15 Rjup, a mass of 63.3 +- 4.1 Mjup, and is thus the second transiting companion lying in the theoretical mass domain of brown dwarfs. CoRoT-15b is either very young or inflated compared to standard evolution models, a situation similar to that of M-dwarfs stars orbiting close to solar-type stars. Spectroscopic constraints and an analysis of the lightcurve favors a spin period between 2.9 and 3.1 days for the central sta…
Exoplanet surveys around M dwarfs have detected a growing number of exoplanets with Earth-like insolation. It is expected that some of those planets are rocky planets with the potential for temperate climates favourable to surface liquid water. However, various models predict that terrestrial planets orbiting in the classical habitable zone around M dwarfs have no water or too much water, suggesting that habitable planets around M dwarfs might be rare. Here we present the results of an updated planetary population synthesis model, which includes the effects of water enrichment in the primordia…
We report precise Doppler measurements of the nearby (d = 10.34 pc) M dwarf Gl649 that reveal the presence of a planet with a minimum mass Msini = 0.328 Mjup in an eccentric (e = 0.30), 598.3 day orbit. Our photometric monitoring reveals Gl649 to be a new variable star with brightness changes on both rotational and decadal timescales. However, neither of these timescales are consistent with the 600-day Doppler signal and so provide strong support for planetary reflex motion as the best interpretation of the observed radial velocity variations. Gl649b is only the seventh Doppler-detected giant …
The very recent discovery of planets orbiting very low mass stars sheds light on these exotic objects. Planetary systems around low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are very different from our solar system: the planets are expected to be much closer than Mercury, in a layout that could resemble the system of Jupiter and its moons. The recent discoveries point in that direction with, for example, the system of Kepler-42 and especially the system of TRAPPIST-1 which has seven planets in a configuration very close to the moons of Jupiter. Low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are thought to be very common i…
Context: So far more than 60 substellar companions have been discovered around giant stars. These systems present physical and orbital properties that contrast to those detected orbiting less evolved stars. Aims: We are conducting a radial velocity survey of 166 bright giant stars in the southern hemisphere. The main goals of our project are to detect and characterize planets in close-in orbits around giant stars in order to study the effects of the host star evolution on their orbital and physical properties. Methods: We have obtained precision radial velocities for the giant stars HIP67851 a…
We report the detection of two new planets orbiting the K giants HD 86950 and HD 222076, based on precise radial velocities obtained with three instruments: AAT/UCLES, FEROS, and CHIRON. HD 86950b has a period of 1270$\pm$57 days at $a=2.72\pm$0.08 AU, and m sin $i=3.6\pm$0.7 Mjup. HD 222076b has $P=871\pm$19 days at $a=1.83\pm$0.03 AU, and m sin $i=1.56\pm$0.11 Mjup. These two giant planets are typical of the population of planets known to orbit evolved stars. In addition, we find a high-amplitude periodic velocity signal ($K\sim$50 m/s) in HD 29399, and show that it is due to stellar variabi…
NSVS 14256825 is the second sdOB + dM eclipsing binary systems with an orbital period of 2.65 hours. The special binary was reported to contain circumbinary planets or brown dwarfs by using the timing method. However, different results were derived by different authors because of the insufficient coverage of eclipse timings. Since 2008, we have monitored this binary for about 10 years by using several telescopes and 84 new times of light minimum in high precision were obtained. It is found that the O-C curve is increasing recently and it shows a cyclic variation with a period of 8.83 years and…
Young, nearby stars are ideal targets to search for planets using the direct imaging technique. The determination of stellar parameters is crucial for the interpretation of imaging survey results particularly since the luminosity of substellar objects has a strong dependence on system age. We have conducted a large program with NaCo at the VLT in order to search for planets and brown dwarfs in wide orbits around 86 stars. A large fraction of the targets observed with NaCo were poorly investigated in the literature. We performed a study to characterize the fundamental properties (age, distance,…
Tidally locked gas giants are typically in several-day orbits, implying a modest role for rotation in the atmospheric circulation. Nevertheless, there exist a class of gas-giant, highly irradiated objects---brown dwarfs orbiting white dwarfs in extremely tight orbits---whose orbital and hence rotation periods are as short as 1-2 hours. Phase curves and other observations have already been obtained for this class of objects, raising fundamental questions about the role of increasing planetary rotation rate in controlling the circulation. So far, most modeling studies have investigated rotation …
A universal brown dwarf desert formed between planets and stars
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交大李政道研究所）；Department of Physics, University of Warwick（华威大学物理系）；Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick（华威大学系外行星与宜居性中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学物理学院天体物理研究所）；Center for Cosmology and Computational Astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study in Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学物理学高等研究院宇宙学与计算天体物理中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester（莱斯特大学物理与天文学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Georgia（佐治亚大学物理与天文系）；Center for Simulational Physics, The University of Georgia（佐治亚大学模拟物理中心）
Astrometric measurements are presented for seven nearby stars with previously detected planets: six M dwarfs (GJ 317, GJ 667C, GJ 581, GJ 849, GJ 876, and GJ 1214) and one K dwarf (BD $-$10 3166). Measurements are also presented for six additional nearby M dwarfs without known planets, but which are more favorable to astrometric detections of low mass companions, as well as three binary systems for which we provide astrometric orbit solutions. Observations have baselines of three to thirteen years, and were made as part of the RECONS long-term astrometry and photometry program at the CTIO/SMAR…
Using spectroscopic radial velocities with the APOGEE instrument and Gaia distance estimates, we demonstrate that Kepler-503b, currently considered a validated Kepler planet, is in fact a brown-dwarf/low-mass star in a nearly circular 7.2-day orbit around a subgiant star. Using a mass estimate for the primary star derived from stellar models, we derive a companion mass and radius of $0.075\pm0.003 \ M_{\odot}$ ($78.6\pm3.1 \ M_{Jup}$) and $0.099^{+0.006}_{-0.004}\ R_{\odot}$ ($0.96^{+0.06}_{-0.04}\ R_{Jup}$), respectively. Assuming the system is coeval, the evolutionary state of the primary in…
The anomalously large radii of highly-irradiated gaseous exoplanets has long been a mystery. One mechanism suggested as a solution for hot Jupiters is the heating of the deep atmosphere via the vertical advection of potential temperature resulting in an increased internal entropy. Here we intend to explore if this mechanism can also explain the observed brown dwarf radii trend: a general increase in radius with irradiation, with an exception for highly-irradiated brown dwarfs orbiting white dwarfs. We use a 3D GCM, DYNAMICO, to run a series of long-timescale models of the atmospheres of Kepler…
L-type and T-type dwarfs span the boundaries between main-sequence stars, brown dwarfs, and planetary-mass objects. For these reasons, L and T dwarfs are the perfect laboratories for exploring the relationship between planet formation and moon formation, and evidence suggests they may be swarming with close-in rocky satellites, though none have been found to date. The discovery of satellites orbiting L or T dwarfs will have transformative implications for the nature of planets, moons and even life in the Universe. These transiting satellites will be prime targets for characterization with NASA…
We report initial results of a large radial velocity survey of K dwarfs up to a distance of 50 pc from the Solar System, to look for stellar, brown dwarf, and jovian planets using radial velocities from the CHIRON spectrograph on the CTIO/SMARTS 1.5m telescope. We identify three new exoplanet candidates orbiting host stars in the K dwarf survey, and confirm a hot Jupiter from TESS orbiting TOI 129. Our techniques are confirmed via five additional known exoplanet orbiting K dwarfs, bringing the number of orbital solutions presented here to 9, each hosting an exoplanet candidate with a minimum m…
The mass domain where massive extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs overlap is still poorly understood due to the paucity of brown dwarfs orbiting close to solar-type stars, the so-called brown dwarf desert. In this paper we collect all of available data about close brown dwarfs around solar type stars and their host stars from literature and study the demographics of the brown dwarf desert. The data clearly show a short period and a medium mass gap in the brown dwarf period-mass distribution diagram ($ 35<m\sin i<55 M_{\rm Jup}$ and $P<100$ days), representing the "driest land" in the brown dwa…
This study presents observations of two possible substellar survivors of post-main sequence engulfment, currently orbiting white dwarf stars. Infrared and optical spectroscopy of GD 1400 reveal a 9.98 h orbital period, where the benchmark brown dwarf has $M_2=68\pm8$ M$_{\rm Jup}$, $T_{\rm eff}\approx2100$ K, and a cooling age under 1 Gyr. A substellar mass in the lower range of allowed values is favoured by the gravitational redshift of the primary. Synthetic brown dwarf spectra are able to reproduce the observed CO bands, but lines below the bandhead are notably overpredicted. The known infr…
