The Mass of CoRoT-7b

Hatzes, Artie P.; Fridlund, Malcolm; Nachmani, Gil; Mazeh, Tsevi; Valencia, Diana; Hébrard, Guillaume; Carone, Ludmila; Pätzold, Martin; Udry, Stephane; Bouchy, Francois; Deleuil, Magali; Moutou, Claire; Barge, Pierre; Bordé, Pascal; Deeg, H. J.; Tingley, B.; Dvorak, Rudolf; Gandolfi, Davide; Ferraz-Mello, Sylvio; Wuchterl, Günther; Guenther, Eike; Guillot, Tristan; Rauer, Heike; Erikson, Anders; Cabrera, Juan; Csizmadia, Szilard; Léger, Alain; Lammer, Helmut; Weingrill, Jörg; Queloz, Didier; Alonso, Roi; Rouan, Daniel; Schneider, Jean
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 743, Issue 1, article id. 75 (2011).

Advertised on:
12
2011
Number of authors
33
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
104
Refereed citations
92
Description
The mass of CoRoT-7b, the first transiting super-Earth exoplanet, is still a subject of debate. A wide range of masses have been reported in the literature ranging from as high as 8 M ⊕ to as low as 2.3 M ⊕. This range in mass is largely due to the activity level of the star that contributes a significant amount of radial velocity (RV) "jitter" and how the various methods correct this jitter. Although most mass determinations give a density consistent with a rocky planet, the lower value permits a bulk composition that can be up to 50% water. We present an analysis of the CoRoT-7b RV measurements that uses very few and simple assumptions in treating the activity signal. By analyzing those RV data for which multiple measurements were made in a given night, we remove the activity related RV contribution without any a priori model. We argue that the contribution of activity to the final RV curve is negligible and that the K-amplitude due to the planet is well constrained. This yields a mass of 7.42 ± 1.21 M ⊕ and a mean density of ρ = 10.4 ± 1.8 gm cm-3. CoRoT-7b is similar in mass and radius to the second rocky planet to be discovered, Kepler-10b, and within the errors they have identical bulk densities—they are virtual twins. These bulk densities lie close to the density-radius relationship for terrestrial planets similar to what is seen for Mercury. CoRoT-7b and Kepler-10b may have an internal structure more like Mercury than the Earth.
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