A close-in giant planet escapes engulfment by its star

Marc Hon (), Daniel Huber, Nicholas Z. Rui, Jim Fuller, Dimitri Veras, James S. Kuszlewicz, Oleg Kochukhov, Amalie Stokholm, Jakob Lysgaard Rørsted, Mutlu Yıldız, Zeynep Çelik Orhan, Sibel Örtel, Chen Jiang, Daniel R. Hey, Howard Isaacson, Jingwen Zhang, Mathieu Vrard, Keivan G. Stassun, Benjamin J. Shappee, Jamie Tayar, Zachary R. Claytor, Corey Beard, Timothy R. Bedding, Casey Brinkman, Tiago L. Campante, William J. Chaplin, Ashley Chontos, Steven Giacalone, Rae Holcomb, Andrew W. Howard, Jack Lubin, Mason MacDougall, Benjamin T. Montet, Joseph M. A. Murphy, Joel Ong, Daria Pidhorodetska, Alex S. Polanski, Malena Rice, Dennis Stello, Dakotah Tyler, Judah Zandt and Lauren M. Weiss
Additional contact information
Marc Hon: University of Hawaii
Daniel Huber: University of Hawaii
Nicholas Z. Rui: California Institute of Technology
Jim Fuller: California Institute of Technology
Dimitri Veras: University of Warwick
James S. Kuszlewicz: Heidelberg University
Oleg Kochukhov: Uppsala University
Amalie Stokholm: Aarhus University
Jakob Lysgaard Rørsted: Aarhus University
Mutlu Yıldız: Ege University
Zeynep Çelik Orhan: Ege University
Sibel Örtel: Ege University
Chen Jiang: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
Daniel R. Hey: University of Hawaii
Howard Isaacson: University of California Berkeley
Jingwen Zhang: University of Hawaii
Mathieu Vrard: The Ohio State University
Keivan G. Stassun: Vanderbilt University
Benjamin J. Shappee: University of Hawaii
Jamie Tayar: University of Hawaii
Zachary R. Claytor: University of Hawaii
Corey Beard: University of California, Irvine
Timothy R. Bedding: University of Sydney
Casey Brinkman: University of Hawaii
Tiago L. Campante: Universidade do Porto
William J. Chaplin: University of Birmingham
Ashley Chontos: University of Hawaii
Steven Giacalone: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
Rae Holcomb: University of Florida
Andrew W. Howard: California Institute of Technology
Jack Lubin: University of Florida
Mason MacDougall: University of California, Los Angeles
Benjamin T. Montet: University of New South Wales
Joseph M. A. Murphy: University of California, Santa Cruz
Joel Ong: University of Hawaii
Daria Pidhorodetska: University of California, Riverside
Alex S. Polanski: University of Kansas
Malena Rice: Yale University
Dennis Stello: University of Sydney
Dakotah Tyler: University of California, Los Angeles
Judah Zandt: University of California, Los Angeles
Lauren M. Weiss: University of Notre Dame

Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7967, 917-920

Abstract: Abstract When main-sequence stars expand into red giants, they are expected to engulf close-in planets1–5. Until now, the absence of planets with short orbital periods around post-expansion, core-helium-burning red giants6–8 has been interpreted as evidence that short-period planets around Sun-like stars do not survive the giant expansion phase of their host stars9. Here we present the discovery that the giant planet 8 Ursae Minoris b10 orbits a core-helium-burning red giant. At a distance of only 0.5 au from its host star, the planet would have been engulfed by its host star, which is predicted by standard single-star evolution to have previously expanded to a radius of 0.7 au. Given the brief lifetime of helium-burning giants, the nearly circular orbit of the planet is challenging to reconcile with scenarios in which the planet survives by having a distant orbit initially. Instead, the planet may have avoided engulfment through a stellar merger that either altered the evolution of the host star or produced 8 Ursae Minoris b as a second-generation planet11. This system shows that core-helium-burning red giants can harbour close planets and provides evidence for the role of non-canonical stellar evolution in the extended survival of late-stage exoplanetary systems.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06029-0

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