Published March 20, 2016 | Version Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Stellar Activity and Exclusion of the Outer Planet in the HD 99492 System

  • 1. ROR icon San Francisco State University
  • 2. ROR icon Tennessee State University
  • 3. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 4. ROR icon Swarthmore College
  • 5. ROR icon Yale University
  • 6. ROR icon University of Hawaii at Manoa
  • 7. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 8. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

A historical problem for indirect exoplanet detection has been contending with the intrinsic variability of the host star. If the variability is periodic, it can easily mimic various exoplanet signatures, such as radial velocity (RV) variations that originate with the stellar surface rather than the presence of a planet. Here we present an update for the HD 99492 planetary system, using new RV and photometric measurements from the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey. Our extended time series and subsequent analyses of the Ca ii H&K emission lines show that the host star has an activity cycle of ~13 years. The activity cycle correlates with the purported orbital period of the outer planet, the signature of which is thus likely due to the host star activity. We further include a revised Keplerian orbital solution for the remaining planet, along with a new transit ephemeris. Our transit-search observations were inconclusive.

Additional Information

© 2016 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 February 19; accepted 2016 March 1; published 2016 March 14. G.W.H. acknowledges long-term support from Tennessee State University and the State of Tennessee through its Centers of Excellence program. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. The results reported herein benefited from collaborations and/or information exchange within NASA's Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

Attached Files

Published - Kane_2016_ApJL_820_L5.pdf

Submitted - 1603.00487.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
78331
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20170619-132717282

Related works

Funding

Tennessee State University
State of Tennessee
W. M. Keck Foundation
NASA/JPL/Caltech

Dates

Created
2017-06-19
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-15
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