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| Paper: |
MOST Spacebased Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanet System HD 209458b: Transit Timing to Search for Additional Planets |
| Volume: |
366, Transiting Extrasolar Planets Workshop |
| Page: |
164 |
| Authors: |
Miller-Ricci, E.; Rowe, J.F.; Sasselov, D.; Matthews, J.M.; Guenther, D.B.; Kuschnig, R.; Moffat, A.F.J.; Rucinski, S.M.; Walker, G.A.H.; Weiss, W.W. |
| Abstract: |
We report on the measurement of transit times for the HD 209458 planetary system from photometry obtained with the MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space telescope. Deviations from a constant orbital period can indicate the presence of additional planets in the system that are yet undetected, potentially with masses approaching Earth mass. The MOST data sets of HD 209458 from 2004 and 2005 represent unprecedented time coverage with nearly continuous observations spanning 14 and 43 days and monitoring 2 and 12 consecutive transits, respectively. The transit times we obtain show no variations and allow us to place strong limits on the presence of additional close-in planets in the system, in some cases down to an Earth mass. This result, together with previous radial velocity and transit timing work, now eliminates the possibility that a perturbing planet could be responsible for the additional heat source needed to explain HD 209458b’s anomalous low density. |
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