Discovery of a planet around the K giant star 4 UMa

Context. For the past 3 years we have been monitoring a sample of 62 K giant stars using precise stellar radial velocity measurements with high accuracy taken at the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg. Aims. To search for sub-stellar companions to giant stars and to understand the nature of the diverse radial velocity variations exhibited by K giant stars. Methods. We present precise stellar radial velocity measurements of the K1III giant star 4 UMa (HD 73108). These were obtained using the coudé echelle spectrograph of 2-m Alfred Jensch Telescope. The wavelength reference for the radial velocity measurements was provided by an iodine absorption cell. Results. Our measurements reveal that the radial velocity of 4 UMa exhibits a periodic variation of 269.3 days with a semiamplitude K = 216.8 m s −1. A Keplerian orbit with an eccentricity, e = 0.43 ± 0.02 is the most reasonable explanation for the radial velocity variations. The orbit yields a mass function, f (m) = (2.05 ± 0.24) × 10 −7 M⊙. From our high resolution spectra we calculate a metallicity of −0.25 ± 0.05 and derive a stellar mass of 1.23 M⊙ ± 0.15 for the host star. Conclusions. The K giant star 4 UMa hosts a substellar companion with minimum mass M sin i = 7.1 ± 1.6 MJupiter.