New Observations and a Possible Detection of Parameter Variations in the Transits of Gliese 436b

Abstract

We present ground-based observations of the transiting Neptune-mass planet Gl 436b obtained with the 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory and other supporting telescopes. Included in this is an observed transit in early 2005, over two years before the earliest reported transit detection. We have compiled all available transit data to date and perform a uniform modeling using the JKTEBOP code. We do not detect any transit timing variations of amplitude greater than ~1 minute over the ~3.3 year baseline. We do however find possible evidence for a self-consistent trend of increasing orbital inclination, transit width, and transit depth, which supports the supposition that Gl 436b is being perturbed by another planet of < 12 Earth Masses in a non-resonant orbit.

6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Accepted to ApJ Letters

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Cited by in corpus (22)

• A featureless transmission spectrum for the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b
• Parameter Estimation from Time-Series Data with Correlated Errors: A Wavelet-Based Method and its Application to Transit Light Curves
• Compositional diversity in the atmospheres of hot Neptunes, with application to GJ 436b
• A Spitzer Transmission Spectrum for the Exoplanet GJ 436b, Evidence for Stellar Variability, and Constraints on Dayside Flux Variations
• A global analysis of Spitzer and new HARPS data confirms the loneliness and metal-richness of GJ 436 b
• Ground-based near-UV observations of 15 transiting exoplanets: Constraints on their atmospheres and no evidence for asymmetrical transits
• Methane in the atmosphere of the transiting hot Neptune GJ436b?
• The GJ 436 System: Directly Determined Astrophysical Parameters of an M-Dwarf and Implications for the Transiting Hot Neptune
• A Search for Additional Planets in the NASA EPOXI Observations of the Exoplanet System GJ 436
• A Quasi-Stationary Solution to Gliese 436b's Eccentricity
• Revisiting Spitzer transit observations with Independent Component Analysis: new results for the GJ436 system
• Lack of Transit Timing Variations of OGLE-TR-111b: A re-analysis with six new epochs
• Interior structure models of GJ 436b
• TASTE: The Asiago Search for Transit timing variations of Exoplanets. I. Overview and improved parameters for HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-14b
• Five New Transit Epochs of the Exoplanet OGLE-TR-111b
• Quantifying the challenges of detecting unseen planetary companions with transit timing variations
• Transit Timing Variation Analysis of OGLE-TR-132b with Seven New Transits
• J band Variability of M Dwarfs in the WFCAM Transit Survey
• Transit timing analysis of CoRoT-1b
• A SuperWASP search for additional transiting planets in 24 known systems
• Eccentricity modulation of a close-in planet by a companion - application to GJ 436 system
• Formation and tidal evolution of hot super-Earths in multiple planetary systems