A Terrestrial Planet in a ~1 AU Orbit Around One Member of a ~15 AU Binary

A. Gould , A. Udalski , I.-G. Shin , I. Porritt , J. Skowron , C. Han , J. C. Yee , S. Koz{\l}owski

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J.-Y. Choi R. Poleski {\L}. Wyrzykowski K. Ulaczyk P. Pietrukowicz P. Mr\'oz M.K. Szyma\'nski M. Kubiak I. Soszy\'nski G. Pietrzy\'nski B.S. Gaudi G.W. Christie J. Drummond J. McCormick T. Natusch H. Ngan T.-G. Tan M. Albrow D.L. Depoy K.-H. Hwang Y.K. Jung C.-U. Lee H. Park R.W. Pogge F. Abe D. P. Bennett I. A. Bond C. S. Botzler M. Freeman A. Fukui D. Fukunaga Y. Itow N. Koshimoto P. Larsen C. H. Ling K. Masuda Y. Matsubara Y. Muraki S. Namba K. Ohnishi L. Philpott N. J. Rattenbury To. Saito D. J. Sullivan T. Sumi D. Suzuki P. J. Tristram N. Tsurumi K. Wada N. Yamai P. C. M. Yock A. Yonehara Y. Shvartzvald D. Maoz S. Kaspi M. Friedmann

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classification 🌌 astro-ph.EP

keywords planethostsystemsbinarybinary-starmassesmicrolensingperp

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We detect a cold, terrestrial planet in a binary-star system using gravitational microlensing. The planet has low mass (2 Earth masses) and lies projected at $a_{\perp,ph}$ ~ 0.8 astronomical units (AU) from its host star, similar to the Earth-Sun distance. However, the planet temperature is much lower, T<60 Kelvin, because the host star is only 0.10--0.15 solar masses and therefore more than 400 times less luminous than the Sun. The host is itself orbiting a slightly more massive companion with projected separation $a_{\perp,ch}=$10--15 AU. Straightforward modification of current microlensing search strategies could increase their sensitivity to planets in binary systems. With more detections, such binary-star/planetary systems could place constraints on models of planet formation and evolution. This detection is consistent with such systems being very common.

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A Terrestrial Planet in a ~1 AU Orbit Around One Member of a ~15 AU Binary

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