Astrophysical Parameters and Habitable Zone of the Exoplanet Hosting Star GJ 581

March 2011 • 2011ApJ...729L..26V

Authors • von Braun, Kaspar • Boyajian, Tabetha S. • Kane, Stephen R. • van Belle, Gerard T. • Ciardi, David R. • López-Morales, Mercedes • McAlister, Harold A. • Henry, Todd J. • Jao, Wei-Chun • Riedel, Adric R. • Subasavage, John P. • Schaefer, Gail • ten Brummelaar, Theo A. • Ridgway, Stephen • Sturmann, Laszlo • Sturmann, Judit • Mazingue, Jude • Turner, Nils H. • Farrington, Chris • Goldfinger, P. J. • Boden, Andrew F.

Abstract • GJ 581 is an M dwarf host of a multiplanet system. We use long-baseline interferometric measurements from the CHARA Array, coupled with trigonometric parallax information, to directly determine its physical radius to be 0.299 ± 0.010 R _sun. Literature photometry data are used to perform spectral energy distribution fitting in order to determine GJ 581's effective surface temperature T _EFF = 3498 ± 56 K and its luminosity L = 0.01205 ± 0.00024 L _sun. From these measurements, we recompute the location and extent of the system's habitable zone and conclude that two of the planets orbiting GJ 581, planets d and g, spend all or part of their orbit within or just on the edge of the habitable zone.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2011ApJ...729L..26V
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/729/2/L26/pdf
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0237
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2011/V/2011ApJ...729L..26V.html
• ELECTR https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/729/2/L26