2010/03/30 by A. Moya, P. J. Amado, D. Barrado +6 · 72 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Asteroseismology #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Computer science #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #Rotation (mathematics) #Star (game theory) #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00863.x
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters 405(1), L81-L85 (Oxford University Press) · 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted in MNRAS Letters
arxiv created 2010/03/30 · openalex publication_date 2010/04/16 · arxiv updated 2015/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Discovery of the first planetary system by direct imaging, around HR8799, has made the age determination of the host star a very important task. This determination is the key to deriving accurate masses of the planets and to studying the dynamical stability of the system. The age of this star has been estimated using different procedures. In this Letter we show that some of these procedures have problems and large uncertainties, and the real age of this star is still unknown, needing more observational constraints. Therefore we have developed a comprehensive modelling of HR8799 and, taking advantage of its γ Doradus-type pulsations, we have estimated the age of the star using asteroseismology. The accuracy in the age determination depends on the rotation velocity of the star, and therefore an accurate value of the inclination angle is required to solve the problem. Nevertheless, we find that the age estimate for this star previously published in the literature ([30, 160]Myr) is unlikely, and a more accurate value might be around a Gyr. This determination has significant implications for the value of the mass of the objects orbiting HR8799. An age around ≈1 Gyr implies that these objects would be brown dwarfs.