Using the precise times of mid-egress of the eclipsing polar HU Aqr, we
discovered that this polar is orbited by two or more giant planets. The two
planets detected so far have masses of at least 5.9 and 4.5\,M_{Jup}. Their
respective distances from the polar are 3.6 AU and 5.4 AU with periods of 6.54
and 11.96 years, respectively. The observed rate of period decrease derived
from the downward parabolic change in O-C curve is a factor 15 larger than the
value expected for gravitational radiation. This indicates that it may be only
a part of a long-period cyclic variation, revealing the presence of one more
planet. It is interesting to note that the two detected circumbinary planets
follow the Titus-Bode law of solar planets with n=5 and 6. We estimate that
another 10 years of observations will reveal the presence of the predicted
third planet.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
We report here the tentative discovery of a Jovian planet in orbit around the rapidly pulsating subdwarf B-type (sdB-type) eclipsing binary NY Vir. By using new determined eclipse times together with those collected from the literature, we detect that the observed-calculated (O-C) curve of NY Vir shows a smallamplitude cyclic variation with a period of 7.9 years and a semiamplitude of 6.1 s, while it undergoes a downward parabolic change (revealing a period decrease at a rate ofṖ = −9.2 × 10 −12 ). The periodic variation was analyzed for the lighttravel time effect via the presence of a third body. The mass of the tertiary companion was determined to be M 3 sin i ′ = 2.3(±0.3) M Jupiter when a total mass of 0.60 M ⊙ for NY Vir is adopted. This suggests that it is most probably a giant circumbinary planet orbiting NY Vir at a distance of about 3.3 astronomical units (AU). Since the rate of period decrease can not be explained by true angular momentum loss caused by gravitational radiation or/and magnetic braking, the observed downward parabolic change in the O-C diagram may be only a part of a long-period (longer than 15 years) cyclic variation, which may reveal the presence of another Jovian planet (∼ 2.5M Jupiter ) in the system.
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