The Astrophysical Journal

The Astrophysical Journal

Hubble Space Telescope Time-Series Photometry of the Transiting Planet of HD 209458*

Author

Timothy M. Brown 1, David Charbonneau 1,2, Ronald L. Gilliland 3, Robert W. Noyes 2 and Adam Burrows 4

Affiliations

1 High Altitude Observatory/National Center for Atmospheric Research, 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80307. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation
2 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
3 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
4 Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721

E-mail

timbrown@hao.ucar.edu dcharbonneau@cfa.harvard.edu rnoyes@cfa.harvard.edu gillil@stsci.edu aburrows@as.arizona.edu

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Create an alert RSS this journal

Issue

Volume 552, Number 2

Citation

Timothy M. Brown et al 2001 ApJ 552 699

doi: 10.1086/320580


Article References Cited By
 
Tag this article Full text PDF (289 KB) View as HTML
ABSTRACT

We have observed four transits of the planet of HD 209458 using the STIS spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Summing the recorded counts over wavelength between 582 and 638 nm yields a photometric time series with 80 s time sampling and relative precision of about 1.1 × 10-4 per sample. The folded light curve can be fitted within observational errors using a model consisting of an opaque circular planet transiting a limb-darkened stellar disk. In this way we estimate the planetary radius Rp = 1.347 ± 0.060 RJup, the orbital inclination i = 86fdg6 ± 0fdg14, the stellar radius R* = 1.146 ± 0.050 Rsun, and one parameter describing the stellar limb darkening. Our estimated radius is smaller than those from earlier studies but is consistent within measurement errors and also with theoretical estimates of the radii of irradiated Jupiter-like planets. Satellites or rings orbiting the planet would, if large enough, be apparent from distortions of the light curve or from irregularities in the transit timings. We find no evidence for either satellites or rings, with upper limits on satellite radius and mass of 1.2 R⊕ and 3 M⊕, respectively. Opaque rings, if present, must be smaller than 1.8 planetary radii in radial extent. The high level of photometric precision attained in this experiment confirms the feasibility of photometric detection of Earth-sized planets circling Sun-like stars.

 
Footnote
*  Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.
Subject headings
binaries: eclipsing; planetary systems; stars: individual (HD 209458, HD 209458); techniques: photometric

Dates

Issue 2 (2001 May 10)

Received 2000 November 21 , accepted for publication 2001 January 18



Your last 10 viewed
  1. Hubble Space Telescope Time-Series Photometry of the Transiting Planet of HD 209458

    Timothy M. Brown et al 2001 ApJ 552 699

  2. Finite-element modeling of flextensional electroacoustic transducers

    V V Varadan et al 1993 Smart Mater. Struct. 2 201

  3. Anticommutator analogues of certain identities involving repeated commutators

    I Mendas and P Milutinovic 1990 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 23 537

  4. Determination of the rigidity modulus of thin soft coatings by indentation measurements

    D J Taylor and A M Kragh 1970 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 3 29

  5. Cosmological evolution of alpha driven by a general coupling with quintessence

    Valerio Marra and Francesca Rosati JCAP05(2005)011

  6. Remanence Properties and Magnetization Reversal Mechanism of Fe Nanowire Arrays

    Wang Jian-Bo et al 2004 Chinese Phys. Lett. 21 945

  7. Network data analysis server (NDAS) prototype development

    S Márka et al 2002 Class. Quantum Grav. 19 1537

  8. Transverse electron swarm parameters by a Fourier-transformed Boltzmann equation analysis

    H Date et al 1993 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 26 1211

  9. Relativistic theory for time comparisons: a review

    Gérard Petit and Peter Wolf 2005 Metrologia 42 S138

  10. APERTURE SYNTHESIS OBSERVATIONS OF THE NEARBY SPIRAL NGC 6503: MODELING THE THIN AND THICK H I DISKS

    Eric W. Greisen et al 2009 The Astronomical Journal 137 4718

Article links

View by subject


Export