Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009sptz.prop..541b&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #541
Computer Science
Scientific paper
Our team has collected good evidence for a planet smaller than the Earth transiting the nearby M-dwarf star GJ 436, which is already known to host a Neptune-sized planet. We first identified the signal in a 3-week-long photometric monitoring campaign by the NASA EPOXI Mission. Based on the EPOXI data, we predicted a transit event in an extant Spitzer 8-micron data set of this star. Our subsequent analysis of those Spitzer data confirmed the signal of the predicted depth and at the predicted time. However, the existing EPOXI and Spitzer data are not sufficient to support such an extraordinary claim. We propose to confirm the existence of this planet by observing the star for 18 hours spanning a predicted time of transit and at a wavelength where the signal-to-noise would provide an ironclad detection. With a radius only 75% that of the Earth, the new planet GJ 436c would be by far the smallest exoplanet yet discovered and indeed the first exoplanet akin to the terrestrial planets of the Solar system. Moreover, the star's low mass and nearby distance imply that the planetary mass could be estimated from a dedicated radial-velocity campaign. When combined with the radius estimate we will obtain from our proposed Spitzer data, this would provide the first constraint on the average density and hence bulk composition of an Earth-like exoplanet. We argue for Director's Discretionary Time based both on the compelling scientific opportunity to study an Earth-like exoplanet, and the fact that our prediction for the transit times degrades rapidly with time, making it imperative to obtain these observations in the 2010 Jan 14 - Feb 25 visibility window. If successful, our program would provide a dramatic example of the value of an extended Warm Mission during the coming years when humanity uncovers the population of rock and ice exoplanets orbiting nearby stars.
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