开普勒的首颗岩石行星：Kepler-10b
摘要
NASA的开普勒任务使用凌星测光法来确定类太阳恒星宜居带内或附近地球大小行星的出现频率。该任务在实现这一目标方面达到了一个里程碑：发现了其首颗岩石行星Kepler-10b。检测到两组不同的凌星事件：1) 152 ± 4 ppm的变暗，持续1.811 ± 0.024小时，星历表为T[BJD]=2454964.57375+N*0.837495天；2) 376 ± 9 ppm的变暗，持续6.86 ± 0.07小时，星历表为T[BJD]=2454971.6761+N*45.29485天。对测光和像素流量时间序列的统计检验确定了行星候选者的可行性，从而触发了地面后续观测。四十次精密多普勒测量被用于确认短周期凌星事件是由行星伴星引起的。其母星足够明亮，可以进行星震学分析。在超过4个月的时间里以1分钟采样率收集测光数据，从中检测到19个不同的脉动频率。对这些频率进行建模，得到了对恒星基本性质的精确了解。Kepler-10是一颗相对年老（11.9 ± 4.5 Gyr）但其他方面类似太阳的主序星，其Teff=5627 ± 44 K，Mstar=0.895 ± 0.060 Msun，Rstar=1.056 ± 0.021 Rsun。同时拟合凌星光变曲线和精密多普勒测量的物理模型，对Kepler-10b的性质给出了严格的约束，表明其岩石成分：Mpl=4.56 ± 1.29 Mearth，Rpl=1.416 ± 0.036 Rearth，密度=8.8 ± 2.9 g/cc。Kepler-10b是迄今为止发现的最小凌星系外行星。
引用
@article{arxiv.1102.0605,
title = {KEPLER's First Rocky Planet: Kepler-10b},
author = {Natalie M. Batalha and William J. Borucki and Stephen T. Bryson and Lars A. Buchhave and Douglas A. Caldwell and Jorgen Christensen-Dalsgaard and David Ciardi and Edward W. Dunham and Francois Fressin and Thomas N. Gautier and Ronald L. Gilliland and Michael R. Haas and Steve B. Howell and Jon M. Jenkins and Hans Kjeldsen and David G. Koch and David W. Latham and Jack J. Lissauer and Geoffrey W. Marcy and Jason F. Rowe and Dimitar D. Sasselov and Sara Seager and Jason H. Steffen and Guillermo Torres and Gibor S. Basri and Timothy M. Brown and David Charbonneau and Jessie Christiansen and Bruce Clarke and William D. Cochran and Andrea Dupree and Daniel C. Fabrycky and Debra Fischer and Eric B. Ford and Jonathan Fortney and Forrest R. Girouard and Matthew J. Holman and John Johnson and Howard Isaacson and Todd C. Klaus and Pavel Machalek and Althea V. Moorehead and Robert C. Morehead and Darin Ragozzine and Peter Tenenbaum and Joseph Twicken and Samuel Quinn and Jeffrey VanCleve and Lucianne M. Walkowicz and William F. Welsh and Edna Devore and Alan Gould},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1102.0605},
year = {2011}
}
备注
Accepted, Astrophysical Journal, November 25, 2010; Eexpected publication date: February 20, 2011