The Weihai Observatory search for close-in planets orbiting giant stars

Robert A. Wittenmyer, Dongyang Gao, Shao Ming Hu, Eva Villaver, Michael Endl, Duncan Wright
(Submitted on 22 Jul 2015)
Planets are known to orbit giant stars, yet there is a shortage of planets orbiting within ~0.5 AU (P<100 days). First-ascent giants have not expanded enough to engulf such planets, but tidal forces can bring planets to the surface of the star far beyond the stellar radius. So the question remains: are tidal forces strong enough in these stars to engulf all the missing planets? We describe a high-cadence observational program to obtain precise radial velocities of bright giants from Weihai Observatory of Shandong University. We present data on the planet host Beta Gem (HD 62509), confirming our ability to derive accurate and precise velocities; our data achieve an rms of 7.3 m/s about the Keplerian orbit fit. This planet-search programme currently receives ~100 nights per year, allowing us to aggressively pursue short-period planets to determine whether they are truly absent.
Comments: Accepted for publication in PASP
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1507.06051 [astro-ph.EP]
(or arXiv:1507.06051v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Robert Wittenmyer
[v1] Wed, 22 Jul 2015 03:58:38 GMT (20kb)
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.06051