3
|
Vanderburg A, Rappaport SA, Xu S, Crossfield IJM, Becker JC, Gary B, Murgas F, Blouin S, Kaye TG, Palle E, Melis C, Morris BM, Kreidberg L, Gorjian V, Morley CV, Mann AW, Parviainen H, Pearce LA, Newton ER, Carrillo A, Zuckerman B, Nelson L, Zeimann G, Brown WR, Tronsgaard R, Klein B, Ricker GR, Vanderspek RK, Latham DW, Seager S, Winn JN, Jenkins JM, Adams FC, Benneke B, Berardo D, Buchhave LA, Caldwell DA, Christiansen JL, Collins KA, Colón KD, Daylan T, Doty J, Doyle AE, Dragomir D, Dressing C, Dufour P, Fukui A, Glidden A, Guerrero NM, Guo X, Heng K, Henriksen AI, Huang CX, Kaltenegger L, Kane SR, Lewis JA, Lissauer JJ, Morales F, Narita N, Pepper J, Rose ME, Smith JC, Stassun KG, Yu L. A giant planet candidate transiting a white dwarf. Nature 2020; 585:363-367. [PMID: 32939071 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2713-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Accepted: 07/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets outside the Solar System1, most of which orbit stars that will eventually evolve into red giants and then into white dwarfs. During the red giant phase, any close-orbiting planets will be engulfed by the star2, but more distant planets can survive this phase and remain in orbit around the white dwarf3,4. Some white dwarfs show evidence for rocky material floating in their atmospheres5, in warm debris disks6-9 or orbiting very closely10-12, which has been interpreted as the debris of rocky planets that were scattered inwards and tidally disrupted13. Recently, the discovery of a gaseous debris disk with a composition similar to that of ice giant planets14 demonstrated that massive planets might also find their way into tight orbits around white dwarfs, but it is unclear whether these planets can survive the journey. So far, no intact planets have been detected in close orbits around white dwarfs. Here we report the observation of a giant planet candidate transiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534 (TIC 267574918) every 1.4 days. We observed and modelled the periodic dimming of the white dwarf caused by the planet candidate passing in front of the star in its orbit. The planet candidate is roughly the same size as Jupiter and is no more than 14 times as massive (with 95 per cent confidence). Other cases of white dwarfs with close brown dwarf or stellar companions are explained as the consequence of common-envelope evolution, wherein the original orbit is enveloped during the red giant phase and shrinks owing to friction. In this case, however, the long orbital period (compared with other white dwarfs with close brown dwarf or stellar companions) and low mass of the planet candidate make common-envelope evolution less likely. Instead, our findings for the WD 1856+534 system indicate that giant planets can be scattered into tight orbits without being tidally disrupted, motivating the search for smaller transiting planets around white dwarfs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Vanderburg
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. .,Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
| | - Saul A Rappaport
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Siyi Xu
- NSF's NOIRLab/Gemini Observatory, Hilo, HI, USA
| | - Ian J M Crossfield
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Juliette C Becker
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Bruce Gary
- Hereford Arizona Observatory, Hereford, AZ, USA
| | - Felipe Murgas
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain
| | - Simon Blouin
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
| | - Thomas G Kaye
- Raemor Vista Observatory, Sierra Vista, AZ, USA.,Laboratory for Space Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Enric Palle
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain
| | - Carl Melis
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Brett M Morris
- Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Laura Kreidberg
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany.,Center for Astrophysics
- Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Varoujan Gorjian
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Caroline V Morley
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Andrew W Mann
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Hannu Parviainen
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain
| | - Logan A Pearce
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Elisabeth R Newton
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Andreia Carrillo
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Ben Zuckerman
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Lorne Nelson
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
| | - Greg Zeimann
- Hobby-Eberly Telescope, University of Texas, Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Warren R Brown
- Center for Astrophysics
- Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - René Tronsgaard
- DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Beth Klein
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - George R Ricker
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Roland K Vanderspek
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - David W Latham
- Center for Astrophysics
- Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sara Seager
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Joshua N Winn
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | | | - Fred C Adams
- Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.,Astronomy Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Björn Benneke
- Départment de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,Institut de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes (iREx), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - David Berardo
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Lars A Buchhave
- DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Douglas A Caldwell
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA.,SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA
| | | | - Karen A Collins
- Center for Astrophysics
- Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Knicole D Colón
- Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory (Code 667), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
| | - Tansu Daylan
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Alexandra E Doyle
- Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Diana Dragomir
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Courtney Dressing
- Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Patrick Dufour
- Départment de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,Institut de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes (iREx), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Akihiko Fukui
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain.,Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Ana Glidden
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Natalia M Guerrero
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Xueying Guo
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Kevin Heng
- Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Andreea I Henriksen
- DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Chelsea X Huang
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Lisa Kaltenegger
- Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.,Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Stephen R Kane
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - John A Lewis
- Center for Astrophysics
- Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Farisa Morales
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.,Department of Physics and Astronomy, Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA, USA
| | - Norio Narita
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Tenerife, Spain.,Astrobiology Center, Tokyo, Japan.,PRESTO, JST, Tokyo, Japan.,National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.,Komaba Institute for Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Joshua Pepper
- Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
| | - Mark E Rose
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
| | - Jeffrey C Smith
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA.,SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA
| | - Keivan G Stassun
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Physics, Fisk University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Liang Yu
- Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions, Spring, TX, USA
| |
Collapse
|