The Continuing Search for Exoplanet Transits in Gliese 876
Abstract
The Gliese 876 system is a prime candidate for continued study, as it is one of the few known multiple systems. As part of a Bowman Naval Research scholarship project at the U.S. Naval Academy, photometric observations of this M4V parent and its three planets have continued as a senior research project with the support of the US Naval Observatory, using the USNO 24" cassegrain. Our primary goal has been first to further constrain the orbital dynamics by further validating that planets c and b still do not transit the parent, and then as well to observe and characterize any variability that could be attributed to this flare star (and thus obfuscate transit detections). In our observations we focused our efforts on the transit predictions made by UCSC/UCO/Lick's TransitSearch. To date, our observations of GJ 876 have not yielded additional transits by planets b and c around the parent star, as expected. This is in agreement with TransitSearch dynamical models of Gliese 876 which predicts that the 2:1 mean-motion resonances of the outer two planets have precessed them from an opportunity for occultation.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #207
- Pub Date:
- June 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AAS...20721208P