• Corpus ID: 8075117

A Lack of Planets in 47 Tucanae from an HST Search

@article{Gilliland2000ALO,
  title={A Lack of Planets in 47 Tucanae from an HST Search},
  author={Ronald L. Gilliland and Timothy M. Brown and Puragra Guhathakurta and Ata Sarajedini and Eugene Frank Milone and Michael D. Albrow and Nairn Reese Baliber and Hans Bruntt and Adam S. Burrows and David Charbonneau and Philip Ilho Choi and William D. Cochran and Peter Edmonds and S{\o}ren Frandsen and J. H. Howell and Douglas N. C. Lin and Geoffrey W. Marcy and Michel Mayor and Dominique Naef and Steinn Sigurdsson and Christopher Russell Stagg and Don A. VandenBerg and Steven S. Vogt and M. Diane Williams},
  journal={arXiv: Astrophysics},
  year={2000}
}

• R. Gilliland, T. Brown, +21 authors M. Williams
• Published 25 September 2000
• Physics, Geology
• arXiv: Astrophysics

Author(s): Gilliland, Ronald L; Brown, TM; Guhathakurta, P; Sarajedini, A; Milone, EF; Albrow, MD; Baliber, NR; Bruntt, H; Burrows, A; Charbonneau, D; Choi, P; Cochran, WD; Edmonds, PD; Frandsen, S; Howell, JH; Lin, DNC; Marcy, GW; Mayor, M; Naef, D; Sigurdsson, S; Stagg, CR; VandenBerg, DA; Vogt, SS; Williams, MD | Abstract: We report results from a large Hubble Space Telescope project to observe a significant (~34,000) ensemble of main sequence stars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae with a goal of defining the frequency of inner-orbit, gas-giant planets. Simulations based on the characteristics of the 8.3 days of time-series data in the F555W and F814W WFPC2 filters show that ~17 planets should be detected by photometric transit signals if the frequency of hot Jupiters found in the solar neighborhood is assumed to hold for 47 Tuc. The experiment provided high-quality data sufficient to detect planets. A full analysis of these WFPC2 data reveals ~75 variables, but NO light curves resulted for which a convincing interpretation as a planet could be made. The planet frequency in 47 Tuc is at least an order of magnitude below that for the solar neighborhood. The cause of the absence of close-in planets in 47 Tuc is not yet known; presumably the low metallicity and/or crowding of 47 Tuc interfered with planet formation, with orbital evolution to close-in positions, or with planet survival.