TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging
AU - Beard, Corey
AU - Robertson, Paul
AU - Lubin, Jack
AU - Ford, Eric B.
AU - Mahadevan, Suvrath
AU - Stefansson, Gudmundur
AU - Wright, Jason T.
AU - Wolf, Eric
AU - Kofman, Vincent
AU - Venkatesan, Vidya
AU - Kopparapu, Ravi
AU - Arendtsz, Roan
AU - Holcomb, Rae
AU - Martinez, Raquel A.
AU - Sallum, Stephanie
AU - Luhn, Jacob K.
AU - Bender, Chad F.
AU - Blake, Cullen H.
AU - Cochran, William D.
AU - Delamer, Megan
AU - Diddams, Scott A.
AU - Endl, Michael
AU - Halverson, Samuel
AU - Kanodia, Shubham
AU - Krolikowski, Daniel M.
AU - Lin, Andrea S.J.
AU - Logsdon, Sarah E.
AU - McElwain, Michael W.
AU - Monson, Andrew
AU - Ninan, Joe P.
AU - Rajagopal, Jayadev
AU - Roy, Arpita
AU - Schwab, Christian
AU - Terrien, Ryan C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2025/11/3
Y1 - 2025/11/3
N2 - We present the discovery of GJ 251 c, a candidate super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of its M dwarf host star. Using high-precision Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID RVs, in conjunction with archival RVs from the Keck I High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer, the Calar Alto High-resolution Search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrograph, and the Spectropolarimétre Infrarouge, we improve the measured parameters of the known planet, (Formula presented), and we significantly constrain the minimum mass of GJ 251 c, placing it in a plausibly terrestrial regime (Formula presented). Using activity mitigation techniques that leverage chromatic information content, we perform a color-dependent analysis of the system and a detailed comparison of more than 50 models that describe the nature of the planets and stellar activity in the system. Due to GJ 251’s proximity to Earth (5.5 pc), next generation, 30 meter class telescopes will likely be able to image terrestrial planets in GJ 251’s HZ. In fact, GJ 251 c is currently the best candidate for terrestrial, HZ planet imaging in the northern sky.
AB - We present the discovery of GJ 251 c, a candidate super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of its M dwarf host star. Using high-precision Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID RVs, in conjunction with archival RVs from the Keck I High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer, the Calar Alto High-resolution Search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrograph, and the Spectropolarimétre Infrarouge, we improve the measured parameters of the known planet, (Formula presented), and we significantly constrain the minimum mass of GJ 251 c, placing it in a plausibly terrestrial regime (Formula presented). Using activity mitigation techniques that leverage chromatic information content, we perform a color-dependent analysis of the system and a detailed comparison of more than 50 models that describe the nature of the planets and stellar activity in the system. Due to GJ 251’s proximity to Earth (5.5 pc), next generation, 30 meter class telescopes will likely be able to image terrestrial planets in GJ 251’s HZ. In fact, GJ 251 c is currently the best candidate for terrestrial, HZ planet imaging in the northern sky.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105019768885
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105019768885#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.3847/1538-3881/ae0e20
DO - 10.3847/1538-3881/ae0e20
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105019768885
SN - 0004-6256
VL - 170
JO - Astronomical Journal
JF - Astronomical Journal
IS - 5
M1 - 279
ER -