Title of programme: Confirming and characterising a Catastrophically Disintegrating Hot Rocky Planet orbiting DMPP-1
Abstract: The catastrophically disintegrating exoplanets (CDEs) were discovered through the variable transits of their dust clouds. The dust co-exists with, and condenses from, the sublimated metal-rich vapour from the surface of a minor planet heated to ~2100K by proximity to its host star. They offer rich opportunities to probe the compositions of rocky bodies outside our own Solar System. Sadly, however, known CDEs orbit stars too faint for the necessary detailed follow-up observations. The Dispersed Matter Planet Project seeks CDE analogues and progenitors orbiting bright, nearby stars. Our target, DMPP-1, is a bright F dwarf hosting a compact multi-planet system of low mass planets detected by our RV programme. TESS data revealed a transit detected at 5 sigma, i.e. a false alarm probability of 1.6%. The transit does not correspond to any of the RV periodicities, but the mass threshold of the extant RV data is about 1 M_Earth. The insolation suffered by this putative transiting planet is an exact match to that of the known Kepler CDEs. This TESS transit could therefore correspond to a CDE, or CDE progenitor orbiting a star brighter than V=8. We propose to verify the transit beyond doubt by obtaining CHEOPS coverage of four transits, and to assess the marginal evidence for variable transit depth, which would indicate a dusty transit. We will also perform a sensitive search for transits of the RV planets and other bodies, and analyse the data for phase-curve signals.
Temporal Coverage
2021-12-20T00:30:00Z / 2021-12-23T09:07:00Z
Version
3.0
Mission Description
CHEOPS (Benz et al., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-020-09679-4) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The satellite has a single payload comprising an ultra-high precision photometer covering the 330 - 1100 nm wavelength range in a single photometric band. Observations are made as part of the Guaranteed Time Observing Programme that is formulated by the CHEOPS Science Team, and the Guest Observers Programme through which the Community at large can apply for CHEOPS time.
