Enhanced lithium depletion in Sun-like stars with orbiting planets

Bibcode
2009Natur.462..189I
DOI
10.1038/nature08483
Israelian, Garik; Delgado Mena, Elisa; Santos, Nuno C.; Sousa, Sergio G.; Mayor, Michel; Udry, Stephane; Domínguez Cerdeña, Carolina; Rebolo, Rafael; Randich, Sofia
Bibliographical reference

Nature, Volume 462, Issue 7270, pp. 189-191 (2009).

Advertised on:
11
2009
Journal
Nature
Number of authors
9
IAC number of authors
5
Citations
133
Refereed citations
106
Description
The surface abundance of lithium on the Sun is 140 times less than the protosolar value, yet the temperature at the base of the surface convective zone is not hot enough to burn-and hence deplete-Li (refs 2, 3). A large range of Li abundances is observed in solar-type stars of the same age, mass and metallicity as the Sun, but such a range is theoretically difficult to understand. An earlier suggestion that Li is more depleted in stars with planets was weakened by the lack of a proper comparison sample of stars without detected planets. Here we report Li abundances for an unbiased sample of solar-analogue stars with and without detected planets. We find that the planet-bearing stars have less than one per cent of the primordial Li abundance, while about 50 per cent of the solar analogues without detected planets have on average ten times more Li. The presence of planets may increase the amount of mixing and deepen the convective zone to such an extent that the Li can be burned.
Related projects
Discovery of a system of super-Earths orbiting the star HD 176986 with about 5.7 and 9.2 Earth masses.
Very Low Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs and Planets

Our goal is to study the processes that lead to the formation of low mass stars, brown dwarfs and planets and to characterize the physical properties of these objects in various evolutionary stages. Low mass stars and brown dwarfs are likely the most numerous type of objects in our Galaxy but due to their low intrinsic luminosity they are not so

Rafael
Rebolo López
In progress
Project Image
Observational Tests of the Processes of Nucleosynthesis in the Universe

Several spectroscopic analyses of stars with planets have recently been carried out. One of the most remarkable results is that planet-harbouring stars are on average more metal-rich than solar-type disc stars. Two main explanations have been suggested to link this metallicity excess with the presence of planets. The first of these, the “self

Garik
Israelian
In progress
Type
Refereed
Stellar & Interstellar Physics (FEEI)

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