On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gliese 876

doi:10.1086/508562

The Astrophysical Journal

Quick search Find article

Quick search

All journals This journal only

Find article
Volume number: Issue number (if known): Article or page number:

The Astrophysical Journal Volume 653 Number 1 Create an alert RSS this journal

P. D. Shankland et al. 2006 ApJ 653 700 doi:10.1086/508562

On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gliese 876

FREE

P. D. Shankland^1,2, E. J. Rivera³, G. Laughlin³, D. L. Blank¹, A. Price⁴, B. Gary⁴, R. Bissinger⁴, F. Ringwald⁵, G. White¹, G. W. Henry⁶, P. McGee⁷, A. S. Wolf³, B. Carter⁸, S. Lee⁹, J. Biggs¹⁰, B. Monard¹¹ and M. C. B. Ashley¹²

Show affiliations

paul.shankland@usno.navy.mil

¹ Centre for Astronomy, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811, Australia
² Current address: US Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20392-5420
³ University of California/Lick Observatory, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
⁴ American Association of Variable Star Observers, Clinton B. Ford Astronomical Data and Research Center, 25 Birch St., Cambridge, MA 02138
⁵ Department of Physics, California State University, Fresno, 2345 East San Ramon Avenue, M/S MH37, Fresno, CA 93740
⁶ Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, 3500 John A. Merritt Boulevard, Box 9501, Nashville, TN 37209
⁷ School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
⁸ Centre for Astronomy, Solar Radiation and Climate Physics, University of Southern Queensland, Towoomba 4350, Australia
⁹ Anglo-Australian Observatory, 167 Vimiera Road, Eastwood NSW 2122, Australia
¹⁰ Perth Observatory, Walnut Road, Bickley WA 6076, Australia
¹¹ Bronberg Observatory, Centurion 0157, Pretoria, South Africa
¹² School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Tag this article Full text PDF (696 KB) View as HTML

Abstract References Cited By

We report the results of a globally coordinated photometric campaign to search for transits by the P ~ 30 day and P ~ 60 day outer planets of the three-planet system orbiting the nearby M dwarf Gl 876. These two planets experience strong mutual perturbations, which necessitate the use of a dynamical (four-body) model to compute transit ephemerides for the system. Our photometric data have been collected from published archival sources, as well as from our photometric campaigns that were targeted to specific transit predictions. Our analysis indicates that transits by planet c (P ~ 30 days) do not currently occur, in concordance with the best-fit i = 50° coplanar configuration obtained by dynamical fits to the most recent radial velocity data for the system. Transits by planet b (P ~ 60 day) are not entirely ruled out by our observations, but our data indicate that it is very unlikely that they occur. Our experience with the Gl 876 system suggests that a distributed ground-based network of small telescopes can be used to search for transits of very low mass M stars by terrestrial-sized planets.

Your last 10 viewed

On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gliese 876
P. D. Shankland et al. 2006 ApJ 653 700
Galactic dark matter as a bulk effect on the brane
C G Böhmer and T Harko 2007 Class. Quantum Grav. 24 3191
Bäcklund transformations, D-branes and fluxes in minimal type 0 strings
James E Carlisle et al 2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 12451
Free vortex and vortex-pair lifetimes in classical two-dimensional easy-plane magnets
D A Dimitrov and G M Wysin 1998 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 10 7453
Growth and Characterization of Cu₂O Films Made by Rapid Thermal Oxidation Technique
Raid A. Ismail et al 2005 Chinese Phys. Lett. 22 2977
Real-time prediction of respiratory motion based on local regression methods
D Ruan et al 2007 Phys. Med. Biol. 52 7137
Three-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Cold Fronts in Magnetically Turbulent ICM
N. Asai et al. 2007 ApJ 663 816
Energy and system size dependence of charged particle elliptic flow and v₂/ε scaling
Sergei A Voloshin (for the STAR Collaboration) 2007 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 34 S883
Significance of ghost orbit bifurcations in semiclassical spectra
T Bartsch et al 1999 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 3013
NMR characterization of spin-½ alternating antiferromagnetic chains in the high-pressure phase of (V O)₂P₂O₇
J Kikuchi et al 2004 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16 L167

Share

View by subject

All journals
This journal only

IOPscience

The Astrophysical Journal

The Astrophysical Journal

On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gliese 876

Share

View by subject

Export