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A planet-sized transiting star around OGLE-TR-122

2005; EDP Sciences; Volume: 433; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/0004-6361

1432-0746

F. Pont, C. Melo, F. Bouchy, S. Udry, D. Queloz, M. Mayor, N. C. Santos,

Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

We report the discovery and characterisation of OGLE-TR-122b, the smallest main-sequence star to date with a direct radius determination. OGLE-TR-122b transits around its solar-type primary every 7.3-days. With and , it is by far the smallest known eclipsing M-dwarf. The derived mass and radius for OGLE-TR-122b are in agreement with the theoretical expectations. OGLE-TR-122b is the first observational evidence that stars can indeed have radii comparable or even smaller than giant planets. In such cases, the photometric signal is exactly that of a transiting planet and the true nature of the companion can only be determined with high-resolution spectroscopy.