Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Asteroids with satellites are natural laboratories to constrain the formation and evolution of our solar system. The binary Trojan asteroid (624) Hektor is the only known Trojan asteroid to possess a small satellite. Based on WM Keck adaptive optics observations, we found a unique and stable orbital solution, which is uncommon in comparison to the ...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Through photometric monitoring of the extended transit window of HD 97658b with the MOST space telescope, we have found that this exoplanet transits with an ephemeris consistent with that predicted from radial velocity measurements. The mid-transit times are 5.6 σ earlier than those of the unverified transit-like signals reported in 2011, and we fi...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We consider the Roche critical density (ρ Roche), the minimum density of an orbiting object that, at a given distance from its planet, is able to hold itself together by self- gravity. It is directly related to the more familiar" Roche limit," the distance from a planet at which a strengthless orbiting object of given density is pulled apart by tid...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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 photo...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We report the detection of carbon monoxide (CO) emission from the young supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) at wavelengths corresponding to the fundamental vibrational mode at 4.65 μm. We obtained AKARI Infrared Camera spectra toward four positions which unambiguously reveal the broad characteristic CO ro-vibrational band profile. The observed p...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We have detected transits of the innermost planet" e" orbiting 55? Cnc (V= 6.0), based on two weeks of nearly continuous photometric monitoring with the MOST space telescope. The transits occur with the period (0.74 days) and phase that had been predicted by Dawson & Fabrycky, and with the expected duration and depth for the crossing of a Sun- like...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
In this Letter, we present an overview of the rich population of systems with multiple candidate transiting planets found in the first four months of Kepler data. The census of multiples includes 115 targets that show two candidate planets, 45 with three, eight with four, and one each with five and six, for a total of 170 systems with 408 candidate...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We report the discovery of a tight substellar companion to the young solar analog PZ Tel, a member of the β Pic moving group observed with high-contrast adaptive optics imaging as part of the Gemini Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager Planet-Finding Campaign. The companion was detected at a projected separation of 16.4±1.0 AU (0 farcs 33±0 farcs 01)...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We report the detection of the eclipse of the very hot Jupiter WASP-12b via z -band time-series photometry obtained with the 3.5 m Astrophysical Research Consortium telescope at Apache Point Observatory. We measure a decrease in flux of 0.082%±0.015% during the passage of the planet behind the star. That planetary flux is equally well reproduced by...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kepler photometry has revealed two unusual transiting companions: one orbiting an early A-star and the other orbiting a late B-star. In both cases, the occultation of the companion is deeper than the transit. The occultation and transit with follow-up optical spectroscopy reveal a 9400 K early A-star, KOI-74 (KIC 6889235), with a companion in a 5.2...
