Kavli Affiliate: Roland Vanderspek
| Summary:
We report the confirmation of TOI-6324 b, an Earth-sized (1.059 $pm$ 0.041 R$_oplus$) ultra-short-period (USP) planet orbiting a nearby ($sim$20 pc) M dwarf. Using the newly commissioned Keck Planet Finder (KPF) spectrograph, we have measured the mass of TOI-6324 b 1.17 $pm$ 0.22 M$_oplus$. Because of its extremely short orbit of just $sim$6.7 hours, TOI-6324 b is intensely irradiated by its M dwarf host, and is expected to be stripped of any thick, H/He envelope. We were able to constrain its interior composition and found an iron core mass fraction (CMF = 27$pm$37%) consistent with that of Earth ($sim$33%) and other confirmed USPs. TOI-6324 b is the closest to Earth-sized USP confirmed to date. TOI-6324 b is a promising target for JWST phase curve and secondary eclipse observations (Emission Spectroscopy Metric = 25) which may reveal its surface mineralogy, day-night temperature contrast, and possible tidal deformation. From 7 sectors of TESS data, we report a tentative detection of the optical phase curve variation with an amplitude of 42$pm$28 ppm.
| Search Query: arXiv Query: search_query=au:”Vanderspek Roland”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=10
Read More