Exact eccentric fits do not resolve the published GJ 887 short-period ambiguity in 282 HARPS nights

We compare an exact eccentric orbit at a fixed 4.42490-day period with two circular waves at 4.42490 and 2.21661 days. The public HARPS table gives 282 nightly means. The two-wave model reduces weighted loss by 3.785 at a fixed 2 m/s error floor. The fitted candidate amplitude is 0.378 m/s. Four conditional residual tests give tail estimates from 0.0500 to 0.1450, with 399 trials for each time group size. The result does not provide a robust rejection of the eccentric alternative. The models use fixed periods and a simple nuisance fit. They do not include a full stellar activity model or independent confirmation. This is a test of an existing candidate, not a new planet report. The package includes original code, aggregate results, a figure, source hashes and external retrieval steps. Source rows and derivative row tables are excluded.

astronomy · GJ 887 · radial velocity · eccentric orbit · planet candidate · correlated noise · null result