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Towards the characterization of the hot Neptune/super-Earth population around nearby bright stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

C. Lovis
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland email: christophe.lovis@obs.unige.ch
M. Mayor
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland email: christophe.lovis@obs.unige.ch
F. Bouchy
Affiliation:
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis Bd Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
F. Pepe
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland email: christophe.lovis@obs.unige.ch
D. Queloz
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland email: christophe.lovis@obs.unige.ch
S. Udry
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland email: christophe.lovis@obs.unige.ch
W. Benz
Affiliation:
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
C. Mordasini
Affiliation:
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract

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The HARPS search for low-mass extrasolar planets has been ongoing for more than 4 years, targeting originally about 400 bright FGK dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. The published low-mass planetary systems coming from this survey are fully confirmed by subsequent observations, which demonstrate the sub-m/s long-term stability reached by HARPS. The complex RV curves of these systems have led us to focus on a smaller sample of stars, accumulating more data points per star. We perform a global search in our data to assess the existence of the large population of ice giants and super-Earths predicted by numerical simulations of planet formation. We indeed detect about 45 candidates having minimum masses below 30 M and orbital periods below 50 days. These numbers are preliminary since the existence of these objects has to be confirmed by subsequent observations. However, they indicate that about 30% of solar-type stars may have such close-in, low-mass planets. Some emerging properties of this low-mass population are presented. We finally discuss the prospects for finding transiting objects among these candidates, which may possibly yield the first nearby, transiting super-Earth.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

References

Bouchy, F., Mayor, M., Lovis, C., Udry, S., Benz, W., Bertaux, J.-L., Delfosse, X., Mordasini, C., Pepe, F., & Queloz, D. 2008, A&A, in prep.Google Scholar
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