We present the discovery by the WASP-South survey of WASP-121 b, a new remarkable short-period transiting hot Jupiter. The planet has a mass of
$1.183_{-0.062}^{+0.064}$
M
Jup, a radius of 1.865 ± ...0.044 R
Jup, and transits every
$1.274\,9255_{-0.000\,0025}^{+0.000\,0020}$
days an active F6-type main-sequence star (V = 10.4,
$1.353_{-0.079}^{+0.080}$
M⊙, 1.458 ± 0.030 R⊙, T
eff = 6460 ± 140 K). A notable property of WASP-121 b is that its orbital semimajor axis is only ∼1.15 times larger than its Roche limit, which suggests that the planet is close to tidal disruption. Furthermore, its large size and extreme irradiation (∼7.1 109 erg s−1 cm−2) make it an excellent target for atmospheric studies via secondary eclipse observations. Using the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, we indeed detect its emission in the z
′-band at better than ∼4σ, the measured occultation depth being 603 ± 130 ppm. Finally, from a measurement of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with the CORALIE spectrograph, we infer a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of
$257{^{\circ}_{.}} 8_{-5{^{\circ}_{.}} 5}^{+5{^{\circ}_{.}} 3}$
. This result may suggest a significant misalignment between the spin axis of the host star and the orbital plane of the planet. If confirmed, this high misalignment would favour a migration of the planet involving strong dynamical events with a third body.
We describe seven exoplanets transiting stars of brightness V = 10.1-12.4. WASP-130b is a 'warm Jupiter' having an orbital period of 11.6 d around a metal-rich G6 star. Its mass and radius (1.23 plus ...or minus 0.04 M sub( Jup) and 0.89 plus or minus 0.03 R sub( Jup)) support the trend that warm Jupiters have smaller radii than hot Jupiters. WASP-131b is a bloated Saturn-mass planet (0.27 M sub( Jup) and 1.22 R sub( Jup)). Its large scaleheight and bright (V = 10.1) host star make it a good target for atmospheric characterization. WASP-132b (0.41 M sub( Jup) and 0.87 R sub( Jup)) is among the least irradiated and coolest of WASP planets, having a 7.1-d orbit around a K4 star. WASP-139b is a 'super-Neptune' akin to HATS-7b and HATS-8b, being the lowest mass planet yet found by WASP (0.12 M sub( Jup) and 0.80 R sub( Jup)). The metal-rich K0 host star appears to be anomalously dense, akin to HAT-P-11. WASP-140b is a 2.4-M sub( Jup) planet in an eccentric (e = 0.047 plus or minus 0.004) 2.2-d orbit. The planet's radius is large (1.4 R sub( Jup)), but uncertain owing to the grazing transit (b = 0.93). The 10.4-d rotation period of the K0 host star suggests a young age, and the time-scale for tidal circularization is likely to be the lowest of all known eccentric hot Jupiters. WASP-141b (2.7 M sub( Jup), 1.2 R sub( Jup) and P = 3.3 d) and WASP-142b (0.84 M sub( Jup), 1.53 R sub( Jup) and P = 2.1 d) are typical hot Jupiters orbiting metal-rich F stars. We show that the period distribution within the hot-Jupiter bulge does not depend on the metallicity of the host star.
We report the discovery of the transiting exoplanets WASP-69b, WASP-70Ab and WASP-84b, each of which orbits a bright star (V ~ 10). WASP-69b is a bloated Saturn-mass planet (0.26 MJup, 1.06 RJup) in ...a 3.868-d period around an active, ~1-Gyr, mid-K dwarf. ROSAT detected X-rays 60 plus or minus 27 arcsec from WASP-69. If the star is the source then the planet could be undergoing mass-loss at a rate of ~10... g s-1. This is one to two orders of magnitude higher than the evaporation rate estimated for HD 209458b and HD 189733b, both of which have exhibited anomalously large Lyman ... absorption during transit. WASP-70Ab is a sub-Jupiter-mass planet (0.59 MJup, 1.16 RJup) in a 3.713-d orbit around the primary of a spatially resolved, 9-10-Gyr, G4+K3 binary, with a separation of 3.3 arcsec ( greater than or equal to 800 au). WASP-84b is a sub-Jupiter-mass planet (0.69 MJup, 0.94 RJup) in an 8.523-d orbit around an active, ~1-Gyr, early-K dwarf. Of the transiting planets discovered from the ground to date, WASP-84b has the third-longest period. For the active stars WASP-69 and WASP-84, we pre-whitened the radial velocities using a low-order harmonic series. We found that this reduced the residual scatter more than did the oft-used method of pre-whitening with a fit between residual radial velocity and bisector span. The system parameters were essentially unaffected by pre-whitening. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We present a kinematically-unbiased search to identify young, nearby low-mass members of kinematic moving groups (MGs). Objects with both rotation periods shorter than 5 d in the SuperWASP All-Sky ...Survey and X-ray counterparts in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey were chosen to create a catalogue of several thousand rapidly rotating, X-ray active FGK stars. These objects are expected to be either young single stars or tidally locked spectroscopic binaries. We obtained optical spectra for a sub-sample of 146 stars to determine their ages and kinematics, and in some cases repeat radial velocity measurements were used to identify binarity. 26 stars are found to have lithium abundances consistent with an age of ≤200 Myr, and show no evidence for binarity and in most cases measurements of H α and v sin i support their youthful status. Based on their youth, their radial velocities and estimates of their three-dimensional kinematics, we find 11 objects that may be members of known MGs, eight that do not appear associated with any young MG and a further seven that are close to the kinematics of the recently proposed ‘Octans-Near’ MG, and which may be the first members of this MG found in the Northern hemisphere. The initial search mechanism was ∼18 per cent efficient at identifying likely-single stars younger than 200 Myr, of which 80 per cent were early-K spectral types.
WD0137-349 is a white dwarf-brown dwarf binary system in a 116 min orbit. We present radial velocity observations and multiwaveband photometry from V, R and I in the optical, to J, H and ... in the ...near-IR and 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 ...m in the mid-IR. The photometry and light curves show variability in all wavebands, with the amplitude peaking at 4.5 ...m, where the system is also brightest. Fluxes and brightness temperatures were computed for the heated and unheated atmosphere of the brown dwarf (WD0137-349B) using synthetic spectra of the white dwarf using model atmosphere simulations. We show that the flux from the brown dwarf dayside is brighter than expected in the ... and 4.5 ...m bands when compared to models of irradiated brown dwarfs with full energy circulation and suggest this overluminosity may be attributed to ... fluorescence or ... being generated in the atmosphere by the UV irradiation. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We present the results of a study of a large sample of A and Am stars with spectral types from Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and light curves from Wide Area ...Search for Planets (WASP). We find that, unlike normal A stars, ... Sct pulsations in Am stars are mostly confined to the effective temperature range 6900<Teff<7600 K. We find evidence that the incidence of pulsations in Am stars decreases with increasing metallicism (degree of chemical peculiarity). The maximum amplitude of the pulsations in Am stars does not appear to vary significantly with metallicism. The amplitude distributions of the principal pulsation frequencies for both A and Am stars appear very similar and agree with results obtained from Kepler photometry. We present evidence that suggests turbulent pressure is the main driving mechanism in pulsating Am stars, rather than the ...-mechanism, which is expected to be suppressed by gravitational settling in these stars. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
The star 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2 was recently discovered to be a binary star in which an A-type dwarf star eclipses the remnant of a disrupted red giant star (WASP 0247−25 B). The remnant is in a ...rarely observed state evolving to higher effective temperatures at nearly constant luminosity prior to becoming a very low mass white dwarf composed almost entirely of helium, i.e. it is a pre-helium white dwarf (pre-He-WD). We have used the photometric database from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) to find 17 eclipsing binary stars with orbital periods P = 0.7-2.2 d with similar light curves to 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2. The only star in this group previously identified as a variable star is the brightest one, EL CVn, which we adopt as the prototype for this class of eclipsing binary star. The characteristic light curves of EL CVn-type stars show a total eclipse by an A-type dwarf star of a smaller, hotter star and a secondary eclipse of comparable depth to the primary eclipse. We have used new spectroscopic observations for six of these systems to confirm that the companions to the A-type stars in these binaries have very low masses (
). This includes the companion to EL CVn which was not previously known to be a pre-He-WD. EL CVn-type binary star systems will enable us to study the formation of very low mass white dwarfs in great detail, particularly in those cases where the pre-He-WD star shows non-radial pulsations similar to those recently discovered in WASP0247−25 B.
We present the discovery of three new transiting giant planets, first detected with the WASP telescopes, and establish their planetary nature with follow up spectroscopy and ground-based photometric ...light curves. WASP-92 is an F7 star, with a moderately inflated planet orbiting with a period of 2.17 d, which has R sub( p) = 1.461 plus or minus 0.077R sub( J) and M sub( p) = 0.805 plus or minus 0.068M sub( J). WASP-93b orbits its F4 host star every 2.73 d and has R sub( p) = 1.597 plus or minus 0.077R sub( J) and M sub( p) = 1.47 plus or minus 0.029M sub( J). WASP-118b also has a hot host star (F6) and is moderately inflated, where R sub( p) = 1.440 plus or minus 0.036R sub( J) and M sub( p) = 0.514 plus or minus 0.020M sub( J) and the planet has an orbital period of 4.05 d. They are bright targets (V = 13.18, 10.97 and 11.07, respectively) ideal for further characterization work, particularly WASP-118b, which is being observed by K2 as part of campaign 8. The WASP-93 system has sufficient angular momentum to be tidally migrating outwards if the system is near spin-orbit alignment, which is divergent from the tidal behaviour of the majority of hot Jupiters discovered.
We report detection of thermal emission from the exoplanet WASP-19b at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 μm. We used the InfraRed Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope to observe two occultations of ...WASP-19b by its host star. We combine our new detections with previous measurements of WASP-19b's emission at 1.6 and 2.09 μm to construct a spectral energy distribution of the planet's dayside atmosphere. By comparing this with model-atmosphere spectra, we find that the dayside atmosphere of WASP-19b lacks a strong temperature inversion. As WASP-19 is an active star (log R'HK = -4.50 ± 0.03), this finding supports the hypothesis of Knutson, Howard and Isaacson that inversions are suppressed in hot Jupiters orbiting active stars. The available data are unable to differentiate between a carbon-rich and an oxygen-rich atmosphere. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Issue Title: Extreme Horizontal Branch Stars and Related Objects We report the results of an on-going programme to collect lightcurves for EHB binaries with orbital periods P 1 d. Degenerate and ...non-degenerate companions are clearly distinguished by the presence or absence of a reflection effect in these binaries. The amplitude of the reflection effect can be combined with other data to provide an estimate of the mass of the companion star. We find that the fraction of sdB binaries in our sample which have non-degenerate companions is 0.08±0.06 (1-σ error). These non-degenerate companions have very low masses ( 0.1M). This property is not predicted by existing population synthesis models.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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