Period variations in extrasolar transiting planet OGLE-TR-111b

DÍAZ, RODRIGO F.; ROJO, PATRICIO; MELITA, MARIO; HOYER, SERGIO; MINNITI, DANTE; MAUAS, PABLO J. D.; RUÍZ, MARÍA TERESA

Harvard

Simposio; IAU Symposium No.253 "Transiting Planets"; 2009

IAU

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.