ABSTRACT
We report the discovery of TOI-530b, a transiting Saturn-like planet around an M0.5V dwarf, delivered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The host star is located at a ...distance of 147.7 ± 0.6 pc with a radius of R* = 0.54 ± 0.03 R⊙ and a mass of M* = 0.53 ± 0.02 M⊙. We verify the planetary nature of the transit signals by combining ground-based multiwavelength photometry, high-resolution spectroscopy from SPIRou as well as high-angular-resolution imaging. With V = 15.4 mag, TOI-530b is orbiting one of the faintest stars accessible by ground-based spectroscopy. Our model reveals that TOI-530b has a radius of 0.83 ± 0.05 RJ and a mass of 0.37 ± 0.08 MJ on a 6.39-d orbit. TOI-530b is the sixth transiting giant planet hosted by an M-type star, which is predicted to be infrequent according to core accretion theory, making it a valuable object to further study the formation and migration history of similar planets. Furthermore, we identify a potential dearth of hot massive giant planets around M-dwarfs with separation distance smaller than 0.1 au and planet-to-star mass ratio between 2 × 10−3 and 10−2. We also find a possible correlation between hot giant planet formation and the metallicity of its parent M-dwarf. We discuss the potential formation channel of such systems.
Abstract
Astronomers do not have a complete picture of the effects of wide-binary companions (semimajor axes greater than 100 au) on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. We investigate these ...effects using new data from Gaia Early Data Release 3 and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission to characterize wide-binary systems with transiting exoplanets. We identify a sample of 67 systems of transiting exoplanet candidates (with well-determined, edge-on orbital inclinations) that reside in wide visual binary systems. We derive limits on orbital parameters for the wide-binary systems and measure the minimum difference in orbital inclination between the binary and planet orbits. We determine that there is statistically significant difference in the inclination distribution of wide-binary systems with transiting planets compared to a control sample, with the probability that the two distributions are the same being 0.0037. This implies that there is an overabundance of planets in binary systems whose orbits are aligned with those of the binary. The overabundance of aligned systems appears to primarily have semimajor axes less than 700 au. We investigate some effects that could cause the alignment and conclude that a torque caused by a misaligned binary companion on the protoplanetary disk is the most promising explanation.
Abstract
The lowest possible mass of ONeMg white dwarfs (WDs) has not been clarified despite its importance in the formation and evolution of WDs. We tackle this issue by studying the properties of ...V1405 Cas (Nova Cassiopeiae 2021), which is an outlier given a combination of its very slow light-curve evolution and the recently reported neon-nova identification. We report its rapid spectral evolution in the initial phase, covering 9.88, 23.77, 33.94, 53.53, 71.79, and 81.90 hr after the discovery. The first spectrum is characterized by lines from highly ionized species, most noticeably He
ii
and N
iii
. These lines are quickly replaced by lower-ionization lines, e.g., N
ii
, Si
ii
, and O
i
. In addition, Al
ii
(6237 Å) starts emerging as an emission line at the second epoch. We perform emission-line strength diagnostics, showing that the density and temperature quickly decrease toward later epochs. This behavior, together with the decreasing velocity seen in H
α
, H
β
, and He
i
, indicates that the initial nova dynamics is reasonably well described by an expanding fireball on top of an expanding photosphere. Interestingly, the strengths of the N
iii
and Al
ii
indicate large enhancement in abundance, pointing to a ONeMg WD progenitor as is consistent with its neon-nova classification. Given its low-mass nature inferred by the slow light-curve evolution and relatively narrow emission lines, it provides a challenge to the stellar evolution theory that predicts the lower limit of the ONeMg WD mass being ∼1.1
M
⊙
.
Abstract
We present optical and near-infrared observations of SN 2019ehk, which was initially reported as a Type Ib supernova (SN). We show that it evolved to a Ca-rich transient according to its ...spectral properties and evolution in late phases. However, it shows a few properties distinct from those of the canonical Ca-rich transients: a short-duration first peak in the light curve, high peak luminosity, and association with a star-forming environment. Indeed, some of these features are shared with iPTF14gqr and iPTF16hgs, which are candidates for a special class of core-collapse SNe: the so-called ultra-stripped envelope SNe, i.e., a relatively low-mass He (or C+O) star explosion in a binary as a precursor of short-period double neutron star (NS) binaries. The estimated ejecta mass (0.4
M
⊙
) and explosion energy (1.7 × 10
50
erg) are consistent with this scenario. The analysis of the first peak suggests the existence of dense circumstellar material in the vicinity of the progenitor, implying a CCSN origin. Based on this analysis, we suggest SN 2019ehk is another candidate for a low-mass He star explosion. It might create a double NS binary, but with a wide separation. These candidates for low-mass stripped envelope SNe, including ultra-stripped envelope SN candidates, seem to form a subpopulation among Ca-rich transients, associated with young population. We propose that the key to distinguishing this population is the early first peak in their light curves.
How black holes accrete surrounding matter is a fundamental yet unsolved question in astrophysics. It is generally believed that matter is absorbed into black holes via accretion disks, the state of ...which depends primarily on the mass-accretion rate. When this rate approaches the critical rate (the Eddington limit), thermal instability is supposed to occur in the inner disk, causing repetitive patterns of large-amplitude X-ray variability (oscillations) on timescales of minutes to hours. In fact, such oscillations have been observed only in sources with a high mass-accretion rate, such as GRS 1915+105 (refs 2, 3). These large-amplitude, relatively slow timescale, phenomena are thought to have physical origins distinct from those of X-ray or optical variations with small amplitudes and fast timescales (less than about 10 seconds) often observed in other black-hole binaries-for example, XTE J1118+480 (ref. 4) and GX 339-4 (ref. 5). Here we report an extensive multi-colour optical photometric data set of V404 Cygni, an X-ray transient source containing a black hole of nine solar masses (and a companion star) at a distance of 2.4 kiloparsecs (ref. 8). Our data show that optical oscillations on timescales of 100 seconds to 2.5 hours can occur at mass-accretion rates more than ten times lower than previously thought. This suggests that the accretion rate is not the critical parameter for inducing inner-disk instabilities. Instead, we propose that a long orbital period is a key condition for these large-amplitude oscillations, because the outer part of the large disk in binaries with long orbital periods will have surface densities too low to maintain sustained mass accretion to the inner part of the disk. The lack of sustained accretion--not the actual rate--would then be the critical factor causing large-amplitude oscillations in long-period systems.
Abstract
We report on multicolor photometry of the short-period dwarf nova CSS130418:174033+414756 during the 2013 superoutburst. The system showed an unusually short superhump period of 0.046346(67) ...d during stage A, which is one of the shortest periods among dwarf novae below the period minimum. We found that the bluest peaks in g΄ − Ic color variations tended to coincide with the brightness minima of the superhump modulations. We also studied nightly-averaged superhump amplitudes in the g΄, Rc, and Ic bands and found that they have less dependence on wavelength. These properties are likely to be in common with dwarf novae exhibiting superhumps. We successfully obtained g΄ − Rc and Rc − Ic colors during the temporal dip. The color indices were significantly bluer compared with other dips of WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. By using the period of the growing superhumps, we estimated the mass ratio to be q = 0.077(5), which is much larger than the previous study.
Abstract
The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of planetary evolution by providing ...new opportunities to discover young exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and Fürnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called “Group-X” by the former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this association, and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members using TESS data. The clear color–period sequence indicates that the association is the same age as the 300 ± 50 Myr old NGC 3532. We obtained optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically validate TOI 2048 b, which is a 2.1 ± 0.2
R
⊕
radius planet on a 13.8-day orbit around its 300 Myr old host star.
Abstract
Type IIn/Ia-CSM supernovae (SNe IIn/Ia-CSM) are classified by their characteristic spectra, which exhibit narrow hydrogen emission lines originating from strong interaction with a ...circumstellar medium (CSM) together with broad lines of intermediate-mass elements. We performed intensive follow-up observations of SN IIn/Ia-CSM 2020uem, including photometry, spectroscopy, and polarimetry. In this paper, we focus on the results of polarimetry. We performed imaging polarimetry at 66 days and spectropolarimetry at 103 days after discovery. SN 2020uem shows a high continuum polarization of 1.0%–1.5% without wavelength dependence. Besides, the polarization degree and position angle keep roughly constant. These results suggest that SN 2020uem is powered by strong interaction with a confined and aspherical CSM. We performed simple polarization modeling, based on which we suggest that SN 2020uem has an equatorial-disk/torus CSM. Besides, we performed semi-analytic light-curve modeling and estimated the CSM mass. We revealed that the mass-loss rate in the final few hundred years immediately before the explosion of SN 2020uem is in the range of 0.01–0.05
M
⊙
yr
−1
, and that the total CSM mass is 0.5–4
M
⊙
. The CSM mass can be accommodated by not only a red supergiant (RSG), but also by a red giant (RG) or an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. As a possible progenitor scenario of SN 2020uem, we propose a white dwarf binary system including an RG, RSG, or AGB star, especially a merger scenario via common envelope evolution, i.e., the core-degenerate scenario or a variant.
Abstract Hot Jupiters were many of the first exoplanets discovered in the 1990s, but in the decades since their discovery the mysteries surrounding their origins have remained. Here we present nine ...new hot Jupiters (TOI-1855 b, TOI-2107 b, TOI-2368 b, TOI-3321 b, TOI-3894 b, TOI-3919 b, TOI-4153 b, TOI-5232 b, and TOI-5301 b) discovered by NASA’s TESS mission and confirmed using ground-based imaging and spectroscopy. These discoveries are the first in a series of papers named the Migration and Evolution of giant ExoPlanets survey and are part of an ongoing effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters orbiting FGK stars, with a limiting Gaia G -band magnitude of 12.5. This effort aims to use homogeneous detection and analysis techniques to generate a set of precisely measured stellar and planetary properties that is ripe for statistical analysis. The nine planets presented in this work occupy a range of masses (0.55 M J < M P < 3.88 M J ) and sizes (0.967 R J < R P < 1.438 R J ) and orbit stars that have an effective temperature in the range of 5360 K < T eff < 6860 K with Gaia G -band magnitudes ranging from 11.1 to 12.7. Two of the planets in our sample have detectable orbital eccentricity: TOI-3919 b ( e = 0.259 − 0.036 + 0.033 ) and TOI-5301 b ( e = 0.33 − 0.10 + 0.11 ). These eccentric planets join a growing sample of eccentric hot Jupiters that are consistent with high-eccentricity tidal migration, one of the three most prominent theories explaining hot Jupiter formation and evolution.