Direct Discovery of the Inner Exoplanet in the HD206893 System

Abstract

Long term precise radial velocity (RV) monitoring of HD206893, as well as anomalies in the system proper motion, have suggested the presence of an additional, inner companion in the system. In this work we describe the results of a search for the companion responsible for this RV drift and proper motion anomaly. Utilizing information from ongoing precision RV measurements with the HARPS spectrograph, as well as Gaia host star astrometry, we have undertaken a multi-epoch search for the purported additional planet using the VLTI/GRAVITY instrument. We report a high significance detection of the purported companion HD206893c over three epochs, with clear evidence for Keplerian orbital motion.

Type
Publication
Astronomy and Astrophysics
William Otto Balmer
William Otto Balmer
Ph.D. Candidate

My research interests include distributed robotics, mobile computing and programmable matter.