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Timing Transits to Find Extrasolar Earths Eric Agol, Jason Steffen (UW) Re’em Sari (Caltech) Will Clarkson (Southampton) (MNRAS, in press)
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Planetary Transits HD 209458 Seven (and counting) other transiting planets have been found
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Overview: The Physics Known transiting planet Transit times are equally spaced.
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Overview: The Physics Unknown perturbing planet Known transiting planet Transit times are NOT equally spaced.
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Overview: The Signal Eclipse Number Time _ = Eclipse Number Time Eclipse Number Time Transit Times Best-Fit Orbit Timing Residuals
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early late on time Limit: Non-interacting Planets
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Limit: Widely Separated Planets Perturbing planet remains nearly constant during one orbit of transiting planet.
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Changing distance to inner binary alters the effective mass of the host star. Limit: Widely Separated Planets
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Circular j:j+1 Resonant Systems Conjunction changes eccentricity and period New period alters conjunction longitude When conjunction longitude changes by ~1/2 orbit, the process reverses Libration drives timing deviations: For Earth mass planet in 2:1 resonance around HD 209458, ~3 minute signal over 150 days!
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Resonant libration
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Initially Circular Orbits P trans /P pert -1
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Eccentricity Dependence Perturber Eccentricity Period Ratio HD 209458 perturbed by an Earth-mass planet:
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Known Multi-Planet Systems
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Upsilon Andromedae M 1 >0.7 M J, M 2 >1.2 M J, e 1 ≈ 0.012, e 2 ≈ 0.28, P 1 ≈ 4.6d, P 2 ≈ 241 d Not in resonance - large axis ratio -> small timing variations of inner planet (but 12% chance of transiting); outer planet has larger variations (but small transit probability):
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55 Cancri M 1 >2 M J, M 2 >0.5 M J, e 1 ≈ 0.02, e 2 ≈ 0.34, P 1 ≈ 14.7d, P 2 ≈ 44 d Nearly in 3:1 resonance - large perturbations! If it were transiting (4% chance), t of inner planet would be hours
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Gliese 876 e 1 ≈0.15, e 2 ≈ 0.04, P 1 ≈ 30.1d, P 2 ≈ 61 d, transit probability ≈ 1.5% Nearly in 2:1 resonance - P lib ≈ 600 d. Long timescale variations due to precession: t ≈ eP/ ≈ 1.4 d
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Sensitivity Comparison HD 209458 Sensitivity - 10 sec rms, 10- Astrometry 1 as Radial Velocity 0.5m/s Mass (Solar Masses) Period Ratio
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Fitting Simulated Data Transit times are dirtied with Poisson noise Parameter space is sampled with simulated annealing algorithm Best fit 2 is found with downhill simplex method Confidence limits for eccentricity & semi-major axis are found by marginalizing over other parameters
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Confidence Limits transit number red dots: noisy data black dots: best-fit planet For HD 209458, noise corresponds to 10 second RMS
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Confidence Limits eccentricity of perturbing planet Semi- major axis ratio of planets Parameters m 1 1.0 m 2 0.80 a 2 2.8613 (2.861) e 1 0.0069 e 2 0.0015 (0.015) 1 0.60 2 0.982 (0.928) 1 0.587 2 0.84 (0.84)
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Applications Detection of terrestrial mass planets (although best sensitivity for resonant planets - these may be captured via migration - Narayan et al. 2004, Mandell & Sigurdsson 2004, Thommes 2005) Measurement of the mass of terrestrial planets (confirms they are not blends of Jupiter mass planets + brighter stars) Measurement of the mass-radius relation of the host star - cross-check of photospheric mass/radius measurement Measurement of inclination of non-transiting planet (if transiting planet shows timing variations)
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Conclusions: Multiple planets can produce variations in the timing of eclipse due to star wobble and orbital frequency perturbations - grows with mass, period, eccentricity, and proximity to resonance This effect can be used to detect very small planets Multiple applications make this a technique well worth pursuing - terrestrial mass planets can be detected with current technology!
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