1. A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii
- Author
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Plavchan, Peter, Barclay, Thomas, Gagné, Jonathan, Gao, Peter, Cale, Bryson, Matzko, William, Dragomir, Diana, Quinn, Sam, Feliz, Dax, Stassun, Keivan, Crossfield, Ian JM, Berardo, David A, Latham, David W, Tieu, Ben, Anglada-Escudé, Guillem, Ricker, George, Vanderspek, Roland, Seager, Sara, Winn, Joshua N, Jenkins, Jon M, Rinehart, Stephen, Krishnamurthy, Akshata, Dynes, Scott, Doty, John, Adams, Fred, Afanasev, Dennis A, Beichman, Chas, Bottom, Mike, Bowler, Brendan P, Brinkworth, Carolyn, Brown, Carolyn J, Cancino, Andrew, Ciardi, David R, Clampin, Mark, Clark, Jake T, Collins, Karen, Davison, Cassy, Foreman-Mackey, Daniel, Furlan, Elise, Gaidos, Eric J, Geneser, Claire, Giddens, Frank, Gilbert, Emily, Hall, Ryan, Hellier, Coel, Henry, Todd, Horner, Jonathan, Howard, Andrew W, Huang, Chelsea, Huber, Joseph, Kane, Stephen R, Kenworthy, Matthew, Kielkopf, John, Kipping, David, Klenke, Chris, Kruse, Ethan, Latouf, Natasha, Lowrance, Patrick, Mennesson, Bertrand, Mengel, Matthew, Mills, Sean M, Morton, Tim, Narita, Norio, Newton, Elisabeth, Nishimoto, America, Okumura, Jack, Palle, Enric, Pepper, Joshua, Quintana, Elisa V, Roberge, Aki, Roccatagliata, Veronica, Schlieder, Joshua E, Tanner, Angelle, Teske, Johanna, Tinney, CG, Vanderburg, Andrew, von Braun, Kaspar, Walp, Bernie, Wang, Jason, Wang, Sharon Xuesong, Weigand, Denise, White, Russel, Wittenmyer, Robert A, Wright, Duncan J, Youngblood, Allison, Zhang, Hui, and Zilberman, Perri
- Subjects
General Science & Technology - 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 motion5-7. 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 star8,9. 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.
- Published
- 2020