A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii

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AU Mic Nature paper v4.pdf (4.79 MB)

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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2400-z

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/19181

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UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II)
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UMBC Physics Department

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2020-06-24

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journal articles postprints
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Plavchan, P., Barclay, T., Gagné, J. et al. A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii. Nature 582, 497–500 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z

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Abstract

AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre-main-sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years. AU Mic possesses a relatively rare and spatially resolved edge-on debris disk extending from about 35 to 210 astronomical units from the star4, and with clumps exhibiting non-Keplerian motion. Detection of newly formed planets around such a star is challenged by the presence of spots, plage, flares and other manifestations of magnetic ‘activity’ on the star. Here we report observations of a planet transiting AU Mic. The transiting planet, AU Mic b, has an orbital period of 8.46 days, an orbital distance of 0.07 astronomical units, a radius of 0.4 Jupiter radii, and a mass of less than 0.18 Jupiter masses at 3σ confidence. Our observations of a planet co-existing with a debris disk offer the opportunity to test the predictions of current models of planet formation and evolution.