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arXiv · 1805.05240

A search for transiting planets in the $\beta$ Pictoris system

M. Mol Lous·E. Weenk·M. A. Kenworthy·K. Zwintz·R. Kuschnig
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Abstract

The bright $(V=3.86)$ star $\beta$ Pictoris is a nearby young star with a debris disk and gas giant exoplanet, $\beta$ Pictoris b, in a multi-decade orbit around it. Both the planet's orbit and disk are almost edge-on to our line of sight. We carry out a search for any transiting planets in the $\beta$ Pictoris system with orbits of less than 30 days that are coplanar with the planet $\beta$ Pictoris b. We search for a planetary transit using data from the BRITE-Constellation nanosatellite BRITE-Heweliusz, analyzing the photometry using the Box-Fitting Least Squares Algorithm (BLS). The sensitivity of the method is verified by injection of artificial planetary transit signals using the Bad-Ass Transit Model cAlculatioN (BATMAN) code. No planet was found in the BRITE-Constellation data set. We rule out planets larger than 0.6 $\mathrm{R_J}$ for periods of less than 5 days, larger than 0.75 $\mathrm{R_J}$ for periods of less than 10 days, and larger than 1.05 $\mathrm{R_J}$ for periods of less than 20 days.

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M. Mol Lous, E. Weenk, M. A. Kenworthy, K. Zwintz, R. Kuschnig. 2018-05-14. A search for transiting planets in the $\beta$ Pictoris system. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361%2F201731941

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