Abstract
Current planet hunting methods using the radial velocity method are limited to observing middle-aged main-sequence stars where the signatures of stellar activity are much less than on young stars that have just arrived on the main-sequence. In this work we apply our knowledge from the surface imaging of these young stars to place realistic limitations on the possibility of detecting orbiting planets. In general we find that the magnitude of the stellar jitter is directly proportional to the stellar vsini. For G and K dwarfs, we find that it is possible, for models with high stellar activity and low stellar vsini, to be able to detect a 1 MJupiter mass planet within 50 epochs of observations and for the M dwarfs it is possible to detect a habitable zone Earth-like planet in 10s of observational epochs.
Highlights
The vast majority of the currently known 900 extra-solar planets have been detected using the radial velocity method
Current planet hunting methods using the radial velocity method are limited to observing middleaged main-sequence stars where the signatures of stellar activity are much less than on young stars that have just arrived on the main-sequence
In this work we apply our knowledge from the surface imaging of these young stars to place realistic limitations on the possibility of detecting orbiting planets
Summary
The vast majority of the currently known 900 extra-solar planets have been detected using the radial velocity method. One major obstacle in detecting planets around young (zero age main-sequence) stars is that these stars are generally more active than older stars such as the Sun. Activity signatures in the form of starspots, plage and convective motions can distort absorption line profiles leading to time variant line asymmetries. In addition to the degree of stellar activity how the activity signatures are distributed on the stellar surface is important Lower latitude spots, such as those observed on the Sun, result in a higher RV jitter than high latitude spots such as those observed on young active Solar-type stars [1]. We give an overview of the known signatures of stellar activity on G, K and M dwarfs
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