The GAPS Project: First Results

TL;DR

The GAPS project utilizes the HARPS-N spectrograph to discover and characterize diverse exoplanetary systems, achieving notable firsts in binary systems with planets, cluster-hosted planets, and super-Earths around M-dwarfs.

Contribution

This paper reports the first results from the GAPS project, showcasing new exoplanet discoveries and system characterizations using high-precision radial velocity measurements.

Findings

First confirmed binary system with both stars hosting planets

First planetary system discovered in an open cluster

Detection of Super-Earths orbiting an M-dwarf star

Abstract

The GAPS programme is an Italian project aiming to search and characterize extra-solar planetary systems around stars with different characteristics (mass, metallicity, environment). GAPS was born in 2012, when single research groups joined in order to propose a long-term multi-purpose observing program for the exploitation of the extraordinary performances of the HARPS-N spectrograph, mounted at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. Now this group is a concerted community in which wide range of expertise and capabilities are shared in order to reach a more important role in the wider international context. We present the results achieved up to now from the GAPS radial velocity survey: they were obtained in both the two main objectives of the project, the planet detection and the characterization of already known exoplanetary systems. With GAPS we detected, for instance, the first confirmed binary system in which both components host planets (Desidera et al. 2014), the first planetary system around a star in an open cluster (Malavolta et al. 2016), a system of Super-Earths orbiting an M-dwarf star (Affer et al. 2016).