Non-detection of Previously Reported Transits of HD 97658b with MOST Photometry

Author(s)
Diana Dragomir, Jaymie M. Matthews, Andrew W. Howard, Victoria Antoci, Rainer Kuschnig, Werner Wolfgang Weiss
Abstract

The radial velocity-discovered exoplanet HD 97658b was recently announced to transit, with a derived planetary radius of 2.93 ± 0.28 R?. As a transiting super-Earth orbiting a bright star, this planet would make an attractive candidate for additional observations, including studies of its atmospheric properties. We present and analyze follow-up photometric observations of the HD 97658 system acquired with the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars space telescope. Our results show no transit with the depth and ephemeris reported in the announcement paper. For the same ephemeris, we rule out transits for a planet with radius larger than 2.09 R?, corresponding to the reported 3s lower limit. We also report new radial velocity measurements which continue to support the existence of an exoplanet with a period of 9.5 days, and obtain improved orbital parameters.

Organisation(s)
Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s)
University of British Columbia (UBC), University of California, Berkeley
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics
Volume
759
ISSN
0004-637X
Publication date
2012
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103003 Astronomy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/24faf01e-4760-4582-9fbf-eab832c4b29b