1. Confirmation of the radial velocity super-Earth K2-18c with HARPS and CARMENES
- Author
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A. Wünsche, Francesco Pepe, Michel Mayor, Nuno C. Santos, Nicola Astudillo-Defru, Xavier Bonfils, Stéphane Udry, Felipe Murgas, François Bouchy, René Doyon, T. Forveille, Kristen Menou, X. Delfosse, C. Lovis, Ryan Cloutier, Jose-Manuel Almenara, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), Institut de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes (iREX), Université de Montréal (UdeM), Universidad de Concepción [Chile], Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019]), Observatoire Astronomique de l'Université de Genève (ObsGE), Université de Genève (UNIGE), Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IASTRO), Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP), Universidade do Porto [Porto], Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), and Universidade do Porto
- Subjects
planets and satellites: detection ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Signal ,fundamental parameters -planets and satellites ,Planet ,radial velocities -planets and satellites ,techniques: radial velocities ,0103 physical sciences ,individual ,planets and satellites: fundamental parameters ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Spectrograph ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,Physics ,K2-18 ,Super-Earth ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,planets and satellites: individual: K2-18 ,Planetary system ,data analysis -planets and satellites ,methods: data analysis ,Radial velocity ,detectionmethods ,Wavelength ,[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,techniques ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
In an earlier campaign to characterize the mass of the transiting temperate super-Earth K2-18b with HARPS, a second, non-transiting planet was posited to exist in the system at $\sim 9$ days. Further radial velocity follow-up with the CARMENES spectrograph visible channel revealed a much weaker signal at 9 days which also appeared to vary chromatically and temporally leading to the conclusion that the origin of the 9 day signal was more likely to be related to stellar activity than to being planetary. Here we conduct a detailed re-analysis of all available RV time-series, including a set of 31 previously unpublished HARPS measurements, to investigate the effects of time-sampling and of simultaneous modelling of planetary + activity signals on the existence and origin of the curious 9 day signal. We conclude that the 9 day signal is real and was initially seen to be suppressed in the CARMENES data due to a small number of anomalous measurements, although the exact cause of these anomalies remains unknown. Investigation of the signal's evolution in time, with wavelength, and detailed model comparison reveals that the 9 day signal is most likely planetary in nature. By this analysis, we reconcile the conflicting HARPS and CARMENES results and measure precise and self-consistent planet masses of $m_{p,b} = 8.63 \pm 1.35$ and $m_{p,c}\sin{i_c}=5.62 \pm 0.84$ M$_{\oplus}$. This work, along with the previously published RV papers on the K2-18 planetary system, highlight the importance of understanding one's time-sampling and of simultaneous planet + stochastic activity modelling, particularly when searching for sub-Neptune-sized planets with radial velocities., 19 pages, 10 figures (including 9 interactive figures when viewed in Adobe Acrobat), accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Published
- 2019