A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii

Peter Plavchan; Thomas Barclay; Jonathan Gagné; Peter Gao; Bryson Cale; William Matzko; Diana Dragomir; Sam Quinn; Dax Feliz; Keivan Stassun; Ian J M Crossfield; David A Berardo; David W Latham; Ben Tieu; Guillem Anglada-Escudé; George Ricker; Roland Vanderspek; Sara Seager; Joshua N Winn; Jon M Jenkins; Stephen Rinehart; Akshata Krishnamurthy; Scott Dynes; John Doty; Fred Adams; Dennis A Afanasev; Chas Beichman; Mike Bottom; Brendan P Bowler; Carolyn Brinkworth; Carolyn J Brown; Andrew Cancino; David R Ciardi; Mark Clampin; Jake T Clark; Karen Collins; Cassy Davison; Daniel Foreman-Mackey; Elise Furlan; Eric J Gaidos; Claire Geneser; Frank Giddens; Emily Gilbert; Ryan Hall; Coel Hellier; Todd Henry; Jonathan Horner; Andrew W Howard; Chelsea Huang; Joseph Huber; Stephen R Kane; Matthew Kenworthy; John Kielkopf; David Kipping; Chris Klenke; Ethan Kruse; Natasha Latouf; Patrick Lowrance; Bertrand Mennesson; Matthew Mengel; Sean M Mills; Tim Morton; Norio Narita; Elisabeth Newton; America Nishimoto; Jack Okumura; Enric Palle; Joshua Pepper; Elisa V Quintana; Aki Roberge; Veronica Roccatagliata; Joshua E Schlieder; Angelle Tanner; Johanna Teske; C G Tinney; Andrew Vanderburg; Kaspar von Braun; Bernie Walp; Jason Wang; Sharon Xuesong Wang; Denise Weigand; Russel White; Robert A Wittenmyer; Duncan J Wright; Allison Youngblood; Hui Zhang; Perri Zilberman

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z

A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii

Nature. 2020 Jun;582(7813):497-500. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z. Epub 2020 Jun 24.

Authors

Peter Plavchan¹, Thomas Barclay^{2

3}, Jonathan Gagné⁴, Peter Gao⁵, Bryson Cale⁶, William Matzko⁶, Diana Dragomir^{7

8}, Sam Quinn⁹, Dax Feliz¹⁰, Keivan Stassun¹⁰, Ian J M Crossfield^{7

11}, David A Berardo⁷, David W Latham⁹, Ben Tieu⁶, Guillem Anglada-Escudé¹², George Ricker⁷, Roland Vanderspek⁷, Sara Seager⁷, Joshua N Winn¹³, Jon M Jenkins¹⁴, Stephen Rinehart³, Akshata Krishnamurthy⁷, Scott Dynes⁷, John Doty³, Fred Adams¹⁵, Dennis A Afanasev³, Chas Beichman^{16

17}, Mike Bottom¹⁸, Brendan P Bowler¹⁹, Carolyn Brinkworth²⁰, Carolyn J Brown²¹, Andrew Cancino²², David R Ciardi¹⁷, Mark Clampin³, Jake T Clark²¹, Karen Collins⁹, Cassy Davison²³, Daniel Foreman-Mackey²⁴, Elise Furlan¹⁶, Eric J Gaidos²⁵, Claire Geneser²⁶, Frank Giddens²², Emily Gilbert²⁷, Ryan Hall²³, Coel Hellier²⁸, Todd Henry²⁹, Jonathan Horner²¹, Andrew W Howard³⁰, Chelsea Huang⁷, Joseph Huber²², Stephen R Kane³¹, Matthew Kenworthy³², John Kielkopf³³, David Kipping³⁴, Chris Klenke²², Ethan Kruse³, Natasha Latouf⁶, Patrick Lowrance³⁵, Bertrand Mennesson¹⁶, Matthew Mengel²¹, Sean M Mills³⁰, Tim Morton³⁶, Norio Narita^{37

38

39

40

41}, Elisabeth Newton⁴², America Nishimoto²², Jack Okumura²¹, Enric Palle⁴¹, Joshua Pepper⁴³, Elisa V Quintana³, Aki Roberge³, Veronica Roccatagliata^{44

45

46}, Joshua E Schlieder³, Angelle Tanner²⁶, Johanna Teske⁴⁷, C G Tinney⁴⁸, Andrew Vanderburg¹⁹, Kaspar von Braun⁴⁹, Bernie Walp⁵⁰, Jason Wang^{5

30}, Sharon Xuesong Wang⁴⁷, Denise Weigand²², Russel White²³, Robert A Wittenmyer²¹, Duncan J Wright²¹, Allison Youngblood³, Hui Zhang⁵¹, Perri Zilberman⁵²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. pplavcha@gmu.edu.
² Center for Space Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
⁴ Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
⁷ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
⁹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
¹² School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK.
¹³ Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
¹⁴ SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁷ NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
²⁰ University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA.
²¹ University of Southern Queensland, Centre for Astrophysics, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
²² Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA.
²³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
²⁴ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA.
²⁵ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA.
²⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
²⁸ Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK.
²⁹ RECONS Institute, Chambersburg, PA, USA.
³⁰ Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
³² Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
³⁴ Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
³⁵ IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³⁶ Astronomy Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³⁷ Department of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁸ JST, PRESTO, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁹ Astrobiology Center, NINS, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴⁰ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, NINS, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴¹ Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
⁴² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
⁴³ Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
⁴⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica "Enrico Fermi", Universita' di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
⁴⁵ INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy.
⁴⁶ INFN, Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
⁴⁷ Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁴⁸ Exoplanetary Science at UNSW, School of Physics, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴⁹ Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
⁵⁰ NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Hilo, HI, USA.
⁵¹ School of Astronomy and Space Science, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁵² SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA.

Abstract

AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre-main-sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years¹. AU Mic possesses a relatively rare² and spatially resolved³ edge-on debris disk extending from about 35 to 210 astronomical units from the star⁴, and with clumps exhibiting non-Keplerian motion^5-7. Detection of newly formed planets around such a star is challenged by the presence of spots, plage, flares and other manifestations of magnetic 'activity' on the star^8,9. Here we report observations of a planet transiting AU Mic. The transiting planet, AU Mic b, has an orbital period of 8.46 days, an orbital distance of 0.07 astronomical units, a radius of 0.4 Jupiter radii, and a mass of less than 0.18 Jupiter masses at 3σ confidence. Our observations of a planet co-existing with a debris disk offer the opportunity to test the predictions of current models of planet formation and evolution.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Abstract

Publication types

Grants and funding