Upper limits on exosatellites around β Pictoris b
Matthew A. Kenworthy (Universiteit Leiden)
Rico Landman (Universiteit Leiden)
Andrew Vanderburg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Joseph E. Rodriguez (Michigan State University)
Jayne L. Birkby (University of Oxford)
Isabella Macias (University of Florida, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Darío González Picos (Universiteit Leiden)
Sydney A. Jenkins (Michigan State University)
Elina Kleisioti (Universiteit Leiden, TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
Tomas Stolker (Universiteit Leiden)
Ioannis Koutalios (Universiteit Leiden)
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Abstract
(Formula presented) Pictoris b is one of the closest known directly imaged gas giant exoplanets with an orbit that is almost edge-on to our line of sight, making it an ideal target for radial velocity monitoring to search for massive exomoons. We measure the radial velocity of (Formula presented) Pictoris b over several epochs between October 2024 and March 2025 by using the cross-correlation of a template spectrum with absorption lines in the planet’s atmosphere, giving a mean precision of 160 m s(Formula presented). The resultant set of radial velocities is analysed with a periodogram to search for candidate radial velocity (RV) signals indicating a massive exomoon. Although we do not detect an exomoon signal in our data, our detection limits for a single moon are 80 Earth masses at (Formula presented) d and 1 Jupiter at (Formula presented) d, comparable to RV exomoon searches around other substellar companions. The RV limit is comparable with the astrometric exomoon limit at a period of 7 d and a mass of 150 (Formula presented), where for longer periods the astrometric searches have lower mass limits. With an additional observing season, the upgraded CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES+) can detect a planet/moon mass ratio of (Formula presented) ((Formula presented) ) with a period of up to one day, and can detect a Neptune-mass moon at hundreds of Jupiter radii.
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