Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging

Abstract We present the discovery of GJ 251 c, a candidate super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of its M dwarf host star. Using high-precision Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID RVs, in conjunction with archival RVs from the Keck I High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer, the Calar Alto High-resolution Search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrograph, and the Spectropolarimétre Infrarouge, we improve the measured parameters of the known planet, GJ 251 b ( P b = 14.2370 days; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> <mml:mi>sin</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>i</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:math> = 3.85 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.33</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> M ⊕ ), and we significantly constrain the minimum mass of GJ 251 c, placing it in a plausibly terrestrial regime ( P c = 53.647 ± 0.044 days; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> <mml:mi>sin</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>i</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = 3.84 ± 0.75 M ⊕ ). Using activity mitigation techniques that leverage chromatic information content, we perform a color-dependent analysis of the system and a detailed comparison of more than 50 models that describe the nature of the planets and stellar activity in the system. Due to GJ 251’s proximity to Earth (5.5 pc), next generation, 30 meter class telescopes will likely be able to image terrestrial planets in GJ 251’s HZ. In fact, GJ 251 c is currently the best candidate for terrestrial, HZ planet imaging in the northern sky.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2025-10-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae0e20
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.15
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article

Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging

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Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging

Eric B. Ford, Samuel Halverson, Joe Philip Ninan, Jack Lubin, Sarah E. Logsdon, Michael Endl, Scott A. Diddams, Jacob K. Luhn, Chad F. Bender, Corey Beard, Ryan C. Terrien, Vincent Kofman, Eric Wolf, Michael W. McElwain, Shubham Kanodia, Arpita Roy, Daniel M. Krolikowski, Christian Schwab, Ravi Kopparapu, Vidya Venkatesan, Megan Delamer, Paul M. Robertson, Andrea S. J. Lin, Steph Sallum, Guđmundur Stefánsson, Jason T. Wright, Raquel A. Martinez, Cullen H. Blake, Suvrath Mahadevan, Jayadev Rajagopal, William D. Cochran, Rae Holcomb, Andrew Monson, Roan Arendtsz
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract We present the discovery of GJ 251 c, a candidate super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of its M dwarf host star. Using high-precision Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID RVs, in conjunction with archival RVs from the Keck I High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer, the Calar Alto High-resolution Search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrograph, and the Spectropolarimétre Infrarouge, we improve the measured parameters of the known planet, GJ 251 b ( P b = 14.2370 days; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> <mml:mi>sin</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>i</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:math> = 3.85 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.33</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> M ⊕ ), and we significantly constrain the minimum mass of GJ 251 c, placing it in a plausibly terrestrial regime ( P c = 53.647 ± 0.044 days; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> <mml:mi>sin</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>i</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> = 3.84 ± 0.75 M ⊕ ). Using activity mitigation techniques that leverage chromatic information content, we perform a color-dependent analysis of the system and a detailed comparison of more than 50 models that describe the nature of the planets and stellar activity in the system. Due to GJ 251’s proximity to Earth (5.5 pc), next generation, 30 meter class telescopes will likely be able to image terrestrial planets in GJ 251’s HZ. In fact, GJ 251 c is currently the best candidate for terrestrial, HZ planet imaging in the northern sky.

The Astronomical JournalVol. 170(5)
Openalex Percentile: Top 15%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
1.15
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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