A full transit of v 2 Lupi d and the search for an exomoon in its Hill sphere with CHEOPS
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

The planetary system around the naked-eye star v2 Lupi (HD 136352; TOI-2011) is composed of three exoplanets with masses of 4.7, 11.2, and 8.6 Earth masses (M⊕). The TESS and CHEOPS missions revealed that all three planets are transiting and have radii straddling the radius gap separating volatile-rich and volatile-poor super-earths. Only a partial transit of planet d had been covered so we re-observed an inferior conjunction of the long-period 8.6 M⊕ exoplanet v2 Lup d with the CHEOPS space telescope. We confirmed its transiting nature by covering its whole 9.1 h transit for the first time. We refined the planet transit ephemeris to P = 107.13610.0022+0.0019 days and Tc = 2459009.77590.0096+0.0101 BJDTDB, improving by ~40 times on the previously reported transit timing uncertainty. This refined ephemeris will enable further follow-up of this outstanding long-period transiting planet to search for atmospheric signatures or explore the planet s Hill sphere in search for an exomoon. In fact, the CHEOPS observations also cover the transit of a large fraction of the planet s Hill sphere, which is as large as the Earth s, opening the tantalising possibility of catching transiting exomoons. We conducted a search for exomoon signals in this single-epoch light curve but found no conclusive photometric signature of additional transiting bodies larger than Mars. Yet, only a sustained follow-up of v2 Lup d transits will warrant a comprehensive search for a moon around this outstanding exoplanet.

Planets and satellites: general

Planets and satellites: individual: HD 136352

Planets and satellites: detection

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Publicerad i

Astronomy and Astrophysics

0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)

Vol. 671 art. nr A154

Kategorisering

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2011)

Subatomär fysik

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Identifikatorer

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202244790

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Senast uppdaterat

2025-03-09