Looking for Super-Earths in the HD 189733 System: A Search for Transits in Most Space-Based Photometry

Abstract

We have made a comprehensive transit search for exoplanets down to ~1.5 - 2 Earth radii in the HD 189733 system, based on 21-days of nearly uninterrupted broadband optical photometry obtained with the MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) satellite in 2006. We have searched these data for realistic limb-darkened transits from exoplanets other than the known hot Jupiter, HD 189733b, with periods ranging from about 0.4 days to one week. Monte Carlo statistical tests of the data with synthetic transits inserted into the data-set allow us to rule out additional close-in exoplanets with sizes ranging from about 0.15 - 0.31 RJ (Jupiter radii), or 1.7 - 3.5 RE (Earth radii) on orbits whose planes are near that of HD 189733b. These null results constrain theories that invoke lower-mass hot Super-Earth and hot Neptune planets in orbits similar to HD 189733b due to the inward migration of this hot Jupiter. This work also illustrates the feasibility of discovering smaller transiting planets around chromospherically active stars.

Accepted for publication in ApJ: 10 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Homogeneous studies of transiting extrasolar planets. I. Light curve analyses
• SOAP 2.0: A tool to estimate the photometric and radial velocity variations induced by stellar spots and plages
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Day-Night Circulation Patterns of HD 189733b
• Stellar activity of planetary host star HD 189733
• MOST Spacebased Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanet System HD 189733: Precise Timing Measurements for Transits Across an Active Star
• A study of the performance of the transit detection tool DST in space-based surveys. Application of the CoRoT pipeline to Kepler data
• Early science with SPIRou: near-infrared radial velocity and spectropolarimetry of the planet-hosting star HD 189733
• Deriving stellar inclination of slow rotators using stellar activity
• The Rise of ROME. I. A Multiwavelength Analysis of the Star-Planet Interaction in the HD 189733 System
• The NASA EPOXI mission of opportunity to gather ultraprecise photometry of known transiting exoplanets
• What to Expect from Transiting Multiplanet Systems
• Preliminary Results on HAT-P-4, TrES-3, XO-2, and GJ 436 from the NASA EPOXI Mission
• A Search for Exotrojans in Transiting Exoplanetary systems