Searching for Trojan Asteroids in the HD 209458 System: Space-based MOST Photometry and Dynamical Modeling

TL;DR

This study searches for Trojan asteroid swarms around the star HD 209458 using space-based photometry and dynamical modeling, setting upper limits on their presence and providing guidance for future exoTrojan searches.

Contribution

It combines observational data analysis with dynamical and collisional modeling to constrain the existence and detectability of Trojan asteroids in exoplanetary systems.

Findings

Set an upper limit on Trojan optical depth in HD 209458 system.

Detection limit corresponds to ~1 lunar mass of asteroids.

Young systems (<1 Myr) are prime candidates for Trojan detection.

Abstract

We have searched Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) satellite photometry obtained in 2004, 2005, and 2007 of the solar-type star HD 209458 for Trojan asteroid swarms dynamically coupled with the system's transiting "hot Jupiter" HD 209458b. Observations of the presence and nature of asteroids around other stars would provide unique constraints on migration models of exoplanetary systems. Our results set an upper limit on the optical depth of Trojans in the HD 209458 system that can be used to guide current and future searches of similar systems by upcoming missions. Using cross-correlation methods with artificial signals implanted in the data, we find that our detection limit corresponds to a relative Trojan transit depth of 1\times10-4, equivalent to ~1 lunar mass of asteroids, assuming power-law Trojan size distributions similar to Jupiter's Trojans in our solar system. We confirm with dynamical interpretations that some asteroids could have migrated inward with the planet to its current orbit at 0.045 AU, and that the Yarkovsky effect is ineffective at eliminating objects of > 1 m in size. However, using numerical models of collisional evolution we find that, due to high relative speeds in this confined Trojan environment, collisions destroy the vast majority of the asteroids in <10 Myr. Our modeling indicates that the best candidates to search for exoTrojan swarms in 1:1 mean resonance orbits with "hot Jupiters" are young systems (ages of about 1 Myr or less). Years of Kepler satellite monitoring of such a system could detect an asteroid swarm with a predicted transit depth of 3\times10-7.