Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-t9bwh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-15T15:15:26.654Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Habitable Worlds Around M Dwarf Stars: The CAPSCam Astrometric Planet Search

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Alan P. Boss
Affiliation:
DTM, Carnegie Institution, 5241 Broad Branch Road, N.W., Washington DC, 20015-1305, United States email: boss@dtm.ciw.edu
Alycia J. Weinberger
Affiliation:
DTM, Carnegie Institution, 5241 Broad Branch Road, N.W., Washington DC, 20015-1305, United States email: weinberger@dtm.ciw.edu
Guillem Anglada-Escudé
Affiliation:
The Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena CA, 91101, United States email: ian@obs.carnegiescience.edu
Ian B. Thompson
Affiliation:
Institut für Astrophysik, Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany email: guillem.anglada@gmail.com
Rafael Brahm
Affiliation:
Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago, Chile email: rabrahm@uc.cl
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

M dwarf stars are attractive targets in the search for habitable worlds as a result of their relative abundance and proximity, making them likely targets for future direct detection efforts. Hot super-Earths as well as gas giants have already been detected around a number of early M dwarfs, and the former appear to be the high-mass end of the population of rocky, terrestrial exoplanets. The Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search (CAPS) program has been underway since March 2007, searching ~ 100 nearby late M, L, and T dwarfs for gas giant planets on orbits wide enough for habitable worlds to orbit interior to them. The CAPSCam-N camera on the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory has demonstrated the ability to detect planets as low in mass as Saturn orbiting at several AU around late M dwarfs within 15 pc. Over the next decade, the CAPS program will provide new constraints on the planetary census around late M dwarf stars, and hence on the suitability of these nearby planetary systems for supporting life.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

References

Anglada-Escudé, G., et al. 2012a, ApJ, 746, 37Google Scholar
Anglada-Escudé, G., et al. 2012b, ApJL, 751, L16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonfils, X., et al. 2011, A&A, 549, A109Google Scholar
Borucki, W., et al. 2011, ApJ, 736, 19Google Scholar
Boss, A. P., et al. 2009, PASP, 121, 1218CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouchy, F., et al. 2009, A&A, 496, 527Google Scholar
Cassan, A., et al. 2012, Nature, 481, 167Google Scholar
Gatewood, G. D., et al. 1980, Icarus, 41, 205Google Scholar
Lo Curto, G., et al. 2010, A&A, 512, A48Google Scholar
Mayor, M., et al. 2009, A&A, 507, 487Google Scholar
Muterspaugh, M. W., et al. 2011, AJ, 140, 1657CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarter, J., et al. 2007, Astrobiology, 7, 30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogt, S. S., et al. 2010, ApJ, 723, 954Google Scholar
Weinberger, A. J., et al. 2013, ApJ 762 article id. 118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberger, A. J., et al. 2013, ApJ 767 article id. 96Google Scholar