A Lack of Planets in 47 Tucanae from a Hubble SpaceTelescope Search*

Ronald L. Gilliland; T. M. Brown; P. Guhathakurta; A. Sarajedini; E. F. Milone; M. D. Albrow; N. R. Baliber; H. Bruntt; A. Burrows; D. Charbonneau; P. Choi; W. D. Cochran; P. D. Edmonds; S. Frandsen; J. H. Howell; D. N. C. Lin; G. W. Marcy; M. Mayor; D. Naef; S. Sigurdsson; C. R. Stagg; D. A. Vandenberg; S. S. Vogt; M. D. Williams

doi:10.1086/317334

A Lack of Planets in 47 Tucanae from a Hubble Space Telescope Search^*

Ronald L. Gilliland¹, T. M. Brown², P. Guhathakurta³, A. Sarajedini⁴, E. F. Milone⁵, M. D. Albrow¹, N. R. Baliber⁶, H. Bruntt⁷, A. Burrows⁸, D. Charbonneau^2,9, P. Choi³, W. D. Cochran⁶, P. D. Edmonds⁹, S. Frandsen⁷, J. H. Howell³, D. N. C. Lin³, G. W. Marcy¹⁰, M. Mayor¹¹, D. Naef¹¹, S. Sigurdsson¹², C. R. Stagg⁵, D. A. Vandenberg¹³, S. S. Vogt³, and M. D. Williams⁵

Published 2000 November 28 • © 2000. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 545, Number 1 Citation Ronald L. Gilliland et al 2000 ApJ 545 L47 DOI 10.1086/317334

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Author affiliations

¹ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218

² High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307; NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation

³ UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

⁴ Astronomy Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459

⁵ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada

⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712

⁷ Institute for Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721

⁹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

¹⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720

¹¹ Observatoire de Genève, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

¹² Department of Astronomy, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802

¹³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada

Dates

Received 2000 August 25
Accepted 2000 October 10
Published 2000 November 28

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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 Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (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.

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Footnotes

*
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained at STScI, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

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A Lack of Planets in 47 Tucanae from a Hubble Space Telescope Search*