Kavli Affiliate: Saul Rappaport
| First 5 Authors: Marc Hon, Saul Rappaport, Avi Shporer, Andrew Vanderburg, Karen A. Collins
| Summary:
We report the discovery of BD+05$,$4868$,$Ab, a transiting exoplanet
orbiting a bright ($V=10.16$) K-dwarf (TIC 466376085) with a period of 1.27
days. Observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
reveal variable transit depths and asymmetric transit profiles that are
characteristic of comet-like tails formed by dusty effluents emanating from a
disintegrating planet. Unique to BD+05$,$4868$,$Ab is the presence of
prominent dust tails in both the trailing and leading directions that
contribute to the extinction of starlight from the host star. By fitting the
observed transit profile and analytically modeling the drift of dust grains
within both dust tails, we infer large grain sizes ($sim1-10,mu$m) and a
mass loss rate of $10,M_{rm oplus},$Gyr$^{-1}$, suggestive of a lunar-mass
object with a disintegration timescale of only several Myr. The host star is
probably older than the Sun and is accompanied by an M-dwarf companion at a
projected physical separation of 130 AU. The brightness of the host star,
combined with the planet’s relatively deep transits ($0.8-2.0%$), presents
BD+05$,$4868$,$Ab as a prime target for compositional studies of rocky
exoplanets and investigations into the nature of catastrophically evaporating
planets.
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