A low-eccentricity migration pathway for a 13-h-period Earth analogue in a four-planet system

It is commonly accepted that exoplanets with orbital periods shorter than one day, also known as ultra-short-period (USP) planets, formed further out within their natal protoplanetary disks before migrating to their current-day orbits via dynamical interactions. One of the most accepted theories suggests a violent scenario involving high-eccentricity migration followed by tidal circularization. Here we present the discovery of a four-planet system orbiting the bright (V = 10.5) K6 dwarf star TOI-500. The innermost planet is a transiting, Earth-sized USP planet with an orbital period of similar to 13 hours, a mass of 1.42 +/- 0.18 M-circle plus,a radius of 1.166(-0.058)(+0.061) R-circle plus and a mean density of 4.89(-0.88)(+1.03) g cm(-3). Via Doppler spectroscopy, we discovered that the system hosts 3 outer planets on nearly circular orbits with periods of 6.6, 26.2 and 61.3 days and minimum masses of 5.03 +/- 0.41 M-circle plus, 33.12 +/- 0.88 M-circle plus and 15.05(-1.11)(+1.12) M-circle plus, respectively. The presence of both a USP planet and a low-mass object on a 6.6-day orbit indicates that the architecture of this system can be explained via a scenario in which the planets started on low-eccentricity orbits then moved inwards through a quasi-static secular migration. Our numerical simulations show that this migration channel can bring TOI-500 b to its current location in 2 Gyr, starting from an initial orbit of 0.02 au. TOI-500 is the first four-planet system known to host a USP Earth analogue whose current architecture can be explained via a non-violent migration scenario.

Automated summary

Researchers discovered a four-planet system orbiting the bright star TOI-500, including an Earth-sized ultra-short-period planet and three outer planets. Through simulations, they found that the system's architecture can be explained by a non-violent migration scenario.