Kepler-78 (KIC 8435766) was identified by Sanchis-Ojeda et al. (2013) as
harbouring a transiting planet of 1.16 times the size of the Earth and an
orbital period of only 8.5 hours. While the exquisite Kepler photometry was
able to determine its radius and period, the mass of the planet (and thus its
mean density) remained unconstrained in the absence of precise radial-velocity
measurements. Here we present an accurate mass measurement of Kepler-78b using
the HARPS-N spectrograph, recently installed on the Telescopio Nazionale
Galileo (INAF) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain.
These new data yield a mass of 1.86 Earth masses. The resulting mean density of
the planet is 5.57 grams per cubic centimetre, which is similar to that of the
Earth and implies a composition of iron and rock. Kepler-78b, which orbits a
Sun-like star called Kepler 78 located in the Cygnus constellation at a
distance of about 400 light years from us, is now the smallest exoplanet for
which both the mass and radius are known accurately.
Description
[1310.7987] An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density
%0 Generic
%1 pepe2013earthsized
%A Pepe, Francesco
%A Cameron, Andrew Collier
%A Latham, David W.
%A Molinari, Emilio
%A Udry, Stéphane
%A Bonomo, Aldo S.
%A Buchhave, Lars A.
%A Charbonneau, David
%A Cosentino, Rosario
%A Dressing, Courtney D.
%A Dumusque, Xavier
%A Figueira, Pedro
%A Fiorenzano, Aldo F. M.
%A Gettel, Sara
%A Harutyunyan, Avet
%A Haywood, Raphaëlle D.
%A Horne, Keith
%A Lopez-Morales, Mercedes
%A Lovis, Christophe
%A Malavolta, Luca
%A Mayor, Michel
%A Micela, Giusi
%A Motalebi, Fatemeh
%A Nascimbeni, Valerio
%A Phillips, David
%A Piotto, Giampaolo
%A Pollacco, Don
%A Queloz, Didier
%A Rice, Ken
%A Sasselov, Dimitar
%A Ségransan, Damien
%A Sozzetti, Alessandro
%A Szentgyorgyi, Andrew
%A Watson, Christopher A.
%D 2013
%K earth planet
%R 10.1038/nature12768
%T An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.7987
%X Kepler-78 (KIC 8435766) was identified by Sanchis-Ojeda et al. (2013) as
harbouring a transiting planet of 1.16 times the size of the Earth and an
orbital period of only 8.5 hours. While the exquisite Kepler photometry was
able to determine its radius and period, the mass of the planet (and thus its
mean density) remained unconstrained in the absence of precise radial-velocity
measurements. Here we present an accurate mass measurement of Kepler-78b using
the HARPS-N spectrograph, recently installed on the Telescopio Nazionale
Galileo (INAF) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain.
These new data yield a mass of 1.86 Earth masses. The resulting mean density of
the planet is 5.57 grams per cubic centimetre, which is similar to that of the
Earth and implies a composition of iron and rock. Kepler-78b, which orbits a
Sun-like star called Kepler 78 located in the Cygnus constellation at a
distance of about 400 light years from us, is now the smallest exoplanet for
which both the mass and radius are known accurately.
@misc{pepe2013earthsized,
abstract = {Kepler-78 (KIC 8435766) was identified by Sanchis-Ojeda et al. (2013) as
harbouring a transiting planet of 1.16 times the size of the Earth and an
orbital period of only 8.5 hours. While the exquisite Kepler photometry was
able to determine its radius and period, the mass of the planet (and thus its
mean density) remained unconstrained in the absence of precise radial-velocity
measurements. Here we present an accurate mass measurement of Kepler-78b using
the HARPS-N spectrograph, recently installed on the Telescopio Nazionale
Galileo (INAF) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain.
These new data yield a mass of 1.86 Earth masses. The resulting mean density of
the planet is 5.57 grams per cubic centimetre, which is similar to that of the
Earth and implies a composition of iron and rock. Kepler-78b, which orbits a
Sun-like star called Kepler 78 located in the Cygnus constellation at a
distance of about 400 light years from us, is now the smallest exoplanet for
which both the mass and radius are known accurately.},
added-at = {2013-10-31T09:00:36.000+0100},
author = {Pepe, Francesco and Cameron, Andrew Collier and Latham, David W. and Molinari, Emilio and Udry, Stéphane and Bonomo, Aldo S. and Buchhave, Lars A. and Charbonneau, David and Cosentino, Rosario and Dressing, Courtney D. and Dumusque, Xavier and Figueira, Pedro and Fiorenzano, Aldo F. M. and Gettel, Sara and Harutyunyan, Avet and Haywood, Raphaëlle D. and Horne, Keith and Lopez-Morales, Mercedes and Lovis, Christophe and Malavolta, Luca and Mayor, Michel and Micela, Giusi and Motalebi, Fatemeh and Nascimbeni, Valerio and Phillips, David and Piotto, Giampaolo and Pollacco, Don and Queloz, Didier and Rice, Ken and Sasselov, Dimitar and Ségransan, Damien and Sozzetti, Alessandro and Szentgyorgyi, Andrew and Watson, Christopher A.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2e79ea8bdd466b5b19054864744ba5d96/miki},
description = {[1310.7987] An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density},
doi = {10.1038/nature12768},
interhash = {7bac6b69acda465b80faa7f2235e7aed},
intrahash = {e79ea8bdd466b5b19054864744ba5d96},
keywords = {earth planet},
note = {cite arxiv:1310.7987Comment: 10 Pages, 8 figures, 5 tables, data. Nature, 2013 (published online Oct. 30)},
timestamp = {2013-10-31T09:00:36.000+0100},
title = {An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.7987},
year = 2013
}