Detection of period variations in extrasolar transiting planet OGLE-TR-111b.

RODRIGO F. DIAZ, PATRICIO ROJO, MARIO MELITA, SERGIO HOYER, DANTE MINNITI, PABLO J.D. MAUAS, MARIA TERESA RUIZ

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

EDP SCIENCES S A

Año: 2009 vol. 682 p. 49 - 52

0004-6361

Two consecutive transits of planetary companion OGLE-TR-111b were observed in the I band. Combining these observations with data from the literature, we find that the timing of the transits cannot be explained by a constant period, and that the observed variations cannot be originated by the presence of a satellite. However, a perturbing planet with the mass of the Earth in an exterior orbit could explain the observations if the orbit of OGLE-TR-111b is eccentric. We also show that the eccentricity needed to explain the observations is not ruled out by the radial velocity data found in the literature.