A seven-planet resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1

June 2017 • 2017NatAs...1E.129L

Authors • Luger, Rodrigo • Sestovic, Marko • Kruse, Ethan • Grimm, Simon L. • Demory, Brice-Olivier • Agol, Eric • Bolmont, Emeline • Fabrycky, Daniel • Fernandes, Catarina S. • Van Grootel, Valérie • Burgasser, Adam • Gillon, Michaël • Ingalls, James G. • Jehin, Emmanuël • Raymond, Sean N. • Selsis, Franck • Triaud, Amaury H. M. J. • Barclay, Thomas • Barentsen, Geert • Howell, Steve B. • Delrez, Laetitia • de Wit, Julien • Foreman-Mackey, Daniel • Holdsworth, Daniel L. • Leconte, Jérémy • Lederer, Susan • Turbet, Martin • Almleaky, Yaseen • Benkhaldoun, Zouhair • Magain, Pierre • Morris, Brett M. • Heng, Kevin • Queloz, Didier

Abstract • The TRAPPIST-1 system is the first transiting planet system found orbiting an ultracool dwarf star ¹ . At least seven planets similar in radius to Earth were previously found to transit this host star ² . Subsequently, TRAPPIST-1 was observed as part of the K2 mission and, with these new data, we report the measurement of an 18.77 day orbital period for the outermost transiting planet, TRAPPIST-1 h, which was previously unconstrained. This value matches our theoretical expectations based on Laplace relations ³ and places TRAPPIST-1 h as the seventh member of a complex chain, with three-body resonances linking every member. We find that TRAPPIST-1 h has a radius of 0.752 R _⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 173 K. We have also measured the rotational period of the star to be 3.3 days and detected a number of flares consistent with a low-activity, middle-aged, late M dwarf.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2017NatAs...1..129L
• DATA http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/DisplayOverview/nph-DisplayOverview?type=REFERENCE&bibcode=2017NatAs...1E.129L
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04166
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41550-017-0129