The Space Photometry Revolution CoRoT Symposium 3, Kepler KASC-7 joint meeting 6-11 Jul 2014 Toulouse (France)

# Abstracts > Van Grootel Valerie

Friday 11
Session 2 - Extrasolar planets and planet systems
Hans Kjeldsen (chair)
› 11:50 - 12:10 (20min)
HD 97658 and its super-Earth
Valerie Van Grootel  1@  , Michaël Gillon  1@  , Diana Valencia  2@  , Nikku Madhusudhan  3@  , Diana Dragomir  4@  , Alex Howe  5@  , Adam Burrows  5@
1 : Université de Liège  (ULg)
2 : UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
3 : University of Cambridge
4 : Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network  (LCOGT)
5 : Princeton

Super-Earths transiting nearby bright stars are key objects that simultaneously allow for accurate measurements of both their mass and radius, providing essential constraints on their internal composition. We present here the confirmation, based on Spitzer transit observations, that the super-Earth HD 97658 b transits its host star. HD 97658 is a low-mass ($M_*=0.77\pm0.05\,M_{\odot}$) K1 dwarf, as determined from the Hipparcos parallax and stellar evolution modeling. To constrain the planet parameters, we carry out Bayesian global analyses of Keck-HIRES radial velocities, and MOST and Spitzer photometry. HD 97658 b is a massive ($M_P=7.55^{+0.83}_{-0.79} M_{\oplus}$) and large ($R_{P} = 2.247^{+0.098}_{-0.095} R_{\oplus}$ at 4.5 $\mu$m) super-Earth. We investigate the possible internal compositions for HD 97658 b. Our results indicate a large rocky component, by at least 60% by mass, and very little H-He components, at most 2% by mass. We also discuss how future asteroseismic observations can improve the knowledge of the HD 97658 system, in particular by constraining its age. Orbiting a bright host star, HD 97658 b will be a key target for coming space missions TESS, CHEOPS, PLATO, and also JWST, to characterize thoroughly its structure and atmosphere.

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