We report the discovery of TOI-172 b from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, a massive hot Jupiter transiting a slightly evolved G star with a 9.48-day orbital period. This is ...the first planet to be confirmed from analysis of only the TESS full frame images, because the host star was not chosen as a two-minute cadence target. From a global analysis of the TESS photometry and follow-up observations carried out by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program Working Group, TOI-172 (TIC 29857954) is a slightly evolved star with an effective temperature of Teff = 5645 50 K, a mass of M = M , radius of R = R , a surface gravity of log g = , and an age of . Its planetary companion (TOI-172 b) has a radius of RP = RJ, a mass of MP = MJ, and is on an eccentric orbit ( ). TOI-172 b is one of the few known massive giant planets on a highly eccentric short-period orbit. Future study of the atmosphere of this planet and its system architecture offer opportunities to understand the formation and evolution of similar systems.
Abstract
We study the red-optical photometry of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121 b as observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and model its atmosphere through a radiative transfer ...simulation. Given its short orbital period of ∼1.275 days, inflated state, and bright host star, WASP-121 b is exceptionally favorable for detailed atmospheric characterization. Toward this purpose, we use
allesfitter
to characterize its full red-optical phase curve, including the planetary phase modulation and secondary eclipse. We measure the day- and nightside brightness temperatures in the TESS passband as
and
K, respectively, and do not find a statistically significant phase shift between the brightest and substellar points. This is consistent with inefficient heat recirculation on the planet. We then perform an atmospheric retrieval analysis to infer the dayside atmospheric properties of WASP-121 b, such as its bulk composition, albedo, and heat recirculation. We confirm the temperature inversion in the atmosphere and suggest H
−
, TiO, and VO as potential causes of the inversion, absorbing heat at optical wavelengths at low pressures. Future Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope observations of WASP-121 b will benefit from its first full phase curve measured by TESS.
Warm, large exoplanets with 10-100 day orbital periods pose a major challenge to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve. Although high eccentricity tidal migration has been ...invoked to explain their proximity to their host stars, a handful reside in or near orbital resonance with nearby planets, suggesting a gentler history of in situ formation or disk migration. Here we confirm and characterize a pair of warm, large exoplanets discovered by the TESS Mission orbiting K-dwarf TOI-216. Our analysis includes additional transits and transit exclusion windows observed via ground-based follow-up. We find two families of solutions, one corresponding to a sub-Saturn-mass planet accompanied by a Neptune-mass planet and the other to a Jupiter in resonance with a sub-Saturn-mass planet. We prefer the second solution based on the orbital period ratio, the planet radii, the lower free eccentricities, and libration of the 2:1 resonant argument, but cannot rule out the first. The free eccentricities and mutual inclination are compatible with stirring by other, undetected planets in the system, particularly for the second solution. We discuss prospects for better constraints on the planets' properties and orbits through follow-up, including transits observed from the ground.
We present light curves from a magnitude limited set of stars and other stationary luminous objects from the TESS Full Frame Images, as reduced by the MIT Quick Look Pipeline (QLP). Our light curves ...cover the full two-year TESS Primary Mission and include ∼14,770,000 and ∼9,600,000 individual light curve segments in the Southern and Northern ecliptic hemispheres, respectively. We describe the detrending techniques we used to create the light curves, and compare the noise properties with theoretical expectations. All of the QLP light curves are available at MAST as a High Level Science Product (HLSP) via doi:10.17909/t9-r086-e880 (https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/qlp). This is the largest collection of TESS photometry available to the public to date.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is the first high-precision full-sky photometric survey in space. We extracted light curves from a magnitude limited set of stars and other stationary ...luminous objects from the TESS Full Frame Images using the MIT Quick Look Pipeline. Here, we describe the techniques used to create light curves.
ABSTRACT Over the past several decades, conventional spectral analysis techniques of polluted white dwarfs have become powerful tools to learn about the geology and chemistry of extrasolar bodies. ...Despite their proven capabilities and extensive legacy of scientific discoveries, these techniques are, however, still limited by their manual, time-intensive, and iterative nature. As a result, they are susceptible to human errors and are difficult to scale up to population-wide studies of metal pollution. This paper seeks to address this problem by presenting cecilia, the first machine learning (ML)-powered spectral modelling code designed to measure the metal abundances of intermediate-temperature (10 000 ≤ Teff ≤ 20 000 K), Helium-rich polluted white dwarfs. Trained with more than 22 000 randomly drawn atmosphere models and stellar parameters, our pipeline aims to overcome the limitations of classical methods by replacing the generation of synthetic spectra from computationally expensive codes and uniformly spaced model grids, with a fast, automated, and efficient neural-network-based interpolator. More specifically, cecilia combines state-of-the-art atmosphere models, powerful artificial intelligence tools, and robust statistical techniques to rapidly generate synthetic spectra of polluted white dwarfs in high-dimensional space, and enable accurate (≲0.1 dex) and simultaneous measurements of 14 stellar parameters – including 11 elemental abundances – from real spectroscopic observations. As massively multiplexed astronomical surveys begin scientific operations, cecilia’s performance has the potential to unlock large-scale studies of extrasolar geochemistry and propel the field of white dwarf science into the era of Big Data. In doing so, we aspire to uncover new statistical insights that were previously impractical with traditional white dwarf characterization techniques.
Abstract
We present 2241 exoplanet candidates identified with data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) during its 2 yr Prime Mission. We list these candidates in the TESS Objects of ...Interest (TOI) Catalog, which includes both new planet candidates found by TESS and previously known planets recovered by TESS observations. We describe the process used to identify TOIs, investigate the characteristics of the new planet candidates, and discuss some notable TESS planet discoveries. The TOI catalog includes an unprecedented number of small planet candidates around nearby bright stars, which are well suited for detailed follow-up observations. The TESS data products for the Prime Mission (sectors 1–26), including the TOI catalog, light curves, full-frame images, and target pixel files, are publicly available at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
Abstract
We present the detection of 1617 new transiting-planet candidates, identified in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) full-frame images observed during the Primary Mission ...(Sectors 1–26). These candidates were initially detected by the Quick-Look Pipeline (QLP), which extracts full-frame image lightcurves for, and searches all stars brighter than, TESS magnitude
T
= 13.5 mag in each sector. However, QLP heavily relies on manual inspection for the identification of planet candidates, limiting vetting efforts to planet-hosting stars brighter than
T
= 10.5 mag and leaving millions of potential transit signals unvetted. We describe an independent vetting pipeline applied to QLP transit search results, incorporating both automated vetting tests and manual inspection to identify promising planet candidates around these fainter stars. The new candidates discovered by this ongoing project will allow TESS to significantly improve the statistical power of demographic studies of giant, close-in exoplanets.
We report the detection of a transiting planet around π Men (HD 39091), using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The solar-type host star is unusually bright (V = 5.7) and ...was already known to host a Jovian planet on a highly eccentric, 5.7 yr orbit. The newly discovered planet has a size of 2.04 0.05 R⊕ and an orbital period of 6.27 days. Radial-velocity data from the High-Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Searcher and Anglo-Australian Telescope/University College London Echelle Spectrograph archives also displays a 6.27 day periodicity, confirming the existence of the planet and leading to a mass determination of 4.82 0.85 M⊕. The star's proximity and brightness will facilitate further investigations, such as atmospheric spectroscopy, asteroseismology, the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, astrometry, and direct imaging.
We present a systematic phase curve analysis of known transiting systems observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) during year one of the primary mission. Using theoretical ...predictions for the amplitude of the planetary longitudinal atmospheric brightness modulation, stellar ellipsoidal distortion and Doppler boosting, as well as brightness considerations to select targets with likely detectable signals, we applied a uniform data processing and light-curve modeling framework to fit the full-orbit phase curves of 22 transiting systems with planet-mass or brown dwarf companions, including previously published systems. Statistically significant secondary eclipse depths and/or atmospheric brightness modulation amplitudes were measured for HIP 65A, WASP-18, WASP-19, WASP-72, WASP-100, WASP-111, WASP-121, and WASP-122/KELT-14. For WASP-100b, we found marginal evidence that the brightest region of the atmosphere is shifted eastward away from the substellar point. We detected significant ellipsoidal distortion signals in the light curves of HIP 65A, TOI-503, WASP-18, and WASP-30, with HIP 65A, TOI-503 and WASP-18 also exhibiting Doppler boosting. The measured amplitudes of these signals agree with the predictions of theoretical models. Combining the optical secondary eclipse depths with previously published Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 m measurements, we derived dayside brightness temperatures and visible-light geometric albedos for a subset of the analyzed systems. We also calculated updated transit ephemerides combining the transit timings from the TESS light curves with previous literature values.