  The Dispersed Matter Planet Project targets stars with anomalously low Ca II
H&K chromospheric emission. High precision, high cadence radial velocity
measurements of the F8V star HD 38677 / DMPP-1 reveal four short period
planets. DMPP-1 has log(R'HK) = -5.16 which probably indicates the presence of
circumstellar absorbing gas arising from an ablating hot planet. The planets
have P$_{\rm orb}$ ~ 2.9 - 19 d, i.e., a compact planetary system with
super-Earth (~3 M$_\oplus$) to Neptune-mass (~24 M$_\oplus$) planets. These
irradiated planets may be chthonian: remnant cores of giant planets after
mass-loss while crossing the Neptune desert. Modelling the possible long-term
activity indicators while searching for Keplerian signals modifies the
recovered planetary signals. A priori inferences about the presence of short
period planets allowed the efficient discovery of the DMPP-1 planets. They have
great potential for novel and informative follow-up characterisation studies.
