Back to "Normal" for the Disintegrating Planet Candidate KIC 12557548 b

KIC 12557548 b is the first of a growing class of intriguing disintegrating planet candidates, which lose mass in the form of a metal-rich vapor that condenses into dust particles. Here, we follow up on two perplexing observations of the system: (1) the transits appeared shallower than average in 20...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astronomical journal 2018-12, Vol.156 (6), p.281
Main Authors: Schlawin, Everett, Hirano, Teruyuki, Kawahara, Hajima, Teske, Johanna, Green, Elizabeth M., Rackham, Benjamin V., Fraine, Jonathan, Bushra, Rafia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
comets: general
Disintegration
Dust
Dust particles
eclipses
Extrasolar planets
Grain size
High resolution
K stars
Periodic variations
Photometry
Planets
planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability
Principal components analysis
Spacecraft
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
stars: fundamental parameters
stars: individual (KIC 12557548, Kepler 1520)
Transits
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Summary:KIC 12557548 b is the first of a growing class of intriguing disintegrating planet candidates, which lose mass in the form of a metal-rich vapor that condenses into dust particles. Here, we follow up on two perplexing observations of the system: (1) the transits appeared shallower than average in 2013 and 2014, and (2) the parameters derived from a high-resolution spectrum of the star differed from other results using photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy. We observe five transits of the system with the 61-inch Kuiper telescope in 2016 and show that they are consistent with photometry from the Kepler spacecraft in 2009-2013, suggesting that the dusty tail has returned to normal length and mass. We also evaluate high-resolution archival spectra from the Subaru HDS spectrograph and find them to be consistent with a main-sequence Teff = 4440 70 K star in agreement with the photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy. This disfavors the hypothesis that planet disintegration affected the analysis of prior high-resolution spectra of this star. We apply Principal Component Analysis to the Kepler long-cadence data to understand the modes of disintegration. There is a tentative 491-day periodicity of the second principal component, which corresponds to possible long-term evolution of the dust grain sizes, though the mechanism on such long timescales remains unclear.
ISSN:0004-6256
1538-3881
DOI:10.3847/1538-3881/aaeb32