Abstract
The effect of stellar multiplicity on planetary architecture and orbital dynamics provides an important context for exoplanet demographics. We present a volume-limited catalog of up to 300 ...pc of 66 stars hosting planets and planet candidates from Kepler, K2, and TESS with significant Hipparcos-Gaia proper motion anomalies, which indicates the presence of companions. We assess the reliability of each transiting planet candidate using ground-based follow-up observations, and find that the TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) with significant proper anomalies show nearly four times more false positives due to eclipsing binaries compared to TOIs with marginal proper anomalies. In addition, we find tentative evidence that orbital periods of planets orbiting TOIs with significant proper anomalies are shorter than those orbiting TOIs without significant proper anomalies, consistent with the scenario that stellar companions can truncate planet-forming disks. Furthermore, TOIs with significant proper anomalies exhibit lower Gaia differential velocities in comparison to field stars with significant proper anomalies, suggesting that planets are more likely to form in binary systems with low-mass substellar companions or stellar companions at wider separation. Finally, we characterize the three-dimensional architecture of LTT 1445 ABC using radial velocities, absolute astrometry from Gaia and Hipparcos, and relative astrometry from imaging. Our analysis reveals that LTT 1445 is a nearly flat system, with a mutual inclination of ∼2.°88 between the orbit of BC around A and that of C around B. This coplanarity may explain why multiple planets around LTT 1445 A survive in the dynamically hostile environments of this system.
Abstract
Warm Jupiters are close-in giant planets with relatively large planet–star separations (i.e., 10 <
a
/
R
⋆
< 100). Given their weak tidal interactions with their host stars, measurements of ...stellar obliquity may be used to probe the initial obliquity distribution and dynamical history for close-in gas giants. Using spectroscopic observations, we confirm the planetary nature of TOI-1859b and determine the stellar obliquity of TOI-1859 to be
λ
= 38.9
−
2.7
+
2.8
° relative to its planetary companion using the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect. TOI-1859b is a 64 day warm Jupiter orbiting around a late F dwarf and has an orbital eccentricity of 0.57
−
0.16
+
0.12
inferred purely from transit light curves. The eccentric and misaligned orbit of TOI-1859b is likely an outcome of dynamical interactions, such as planet–planet scattering and planet–disk resonance crossing.
Abstract
We report the discovery and validation of two long-period giant exoplanets orbiting the early K dwarf TOI-4600 (
V
= 12.6,
T
= 11.9), first detected using observations from the Transiting ...Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) by the TESS Single Transit Planet Candidate Working Group. The inner planet, TOI-4600 b, has a radius of 6.80 ± 0.31
R
⊕
and an orbital period of 82.69 days. The outer planet, TOI-4600 c, has a radius of 9.42 ± 0.42
R
⊕
and an orbital period of 482.82 days, making it the longest-period confirmed or validated planet discovered by TESS to date. We combine TESS photometry and ground-based spectroscopy, photometry, and high-resolution imaging to validate the two planets. With equilibrium temperatures of 347 K and 191 K, respectively, TOI-4600 b and c add to the small but growing population of temperate giant exoplanets that bridge the gap between hot/warm Jupiters and the solar system’s gas giants. TOI-4600 is a promising target for further transit and precise RV observations to measure the masses and orbits of the planets as well as search for additional nontransiting planets. Additionally, with Transit Spectroscopy Metric values of ∼30, both planets are amenable for atmospheric characterization with JWST. Together, these will lend insight into the formation and evolution of planet systems with multiple giant exoplanets.
We describe the construction of a highly reliable sample of ~7000 optically faint periodic variable stars with light curves obtained by the asteroid survey LINEAR across 10,000 deg super(2) of the ...northern sky. Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) based photometric recalibration of the LINEAR data for about 25 million objects, we selected ~200,000 most probable candidate variables with r < 17 and visually confirmed and classified ~7000 periodic variables using phased light curves. The reliability and uniformity of visual classification across eight human classifiers was calibrated and tested using a catalog of variable stars from the SDSS Stripe 82 region and verified using an unsupervised machine learning approach. We find that the combination of light-curve features and colors enables classification schemes much more powerful than when colors or light curves are each used separately.
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
We report the discovery of TOI-2180 b, a 2.8
M
J
giant planet orbiting a slightly evolved G5 host star. This planet transited only once in Cycle 2 of the primary Transiting Exoplanet Survey ...Satellite (TESS) mission. Citizen scientists identified the 24 hr single-transit event shortly after the data were released, allowing a Doppler monitoring campaign with the Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory to begin promptly. The radial velocity observations refined the orbital period of TOI-2180 b to be 260.8 ± 0.6 days, revealed an orbital eccentricity of 0.368 ± 0.007, and discovered long-term acceleration from a more distant massive companion. We conducted ground-based photometry from 14 sites spread around the globe in an attempt to detect another transit. Although we did not make a clear transit detection, the nondetections improved the precision of the orbital period. We predict that TESS will likely detect another transit of TOI-2180 b in Sector 48 of its extended mission. We use giant planet structure models to retrieve the bulk heavy-element content of TOI-2180 b. When considered alongside other giant planets with orbital periods over 100 days, we find tentative evidence that the correlation between planet mass and metal enrichment relative to stellar is dependent on orbital properties. Single-transit discoveries like TOI-2180 b highlight the exciting potential of the TESS mission to find planets with long orbital periods and low irradiation fluxes despite the selection biases associated with the transit method.
Abstract
The Kepler and TESS missions have demonstrated that planets are ubiquitous. However, the success of these missions heavily depends on ground-based radial velocity (RV) surveys, which ...combined with transit photometry can yield bulk densities and orbital properties. While most Kepler host stars are too faint for detailed follow-up observations, TESS is detecting planets orbiting nearby bright stars that are more amenable to RV characterization. Here, we introduce the TESS-Keck Survey (TKS), an RV program using ∼100 nights on Keck/HIRES to study exoplanets identified by TESS. The primary survey aims are investigating the link between stellar properties and the compositions of small planets; studying how the diversity of system architectures depends on dynamical configurations or planet multiplicity; identifying prime candidates for atmospheric studies with JWST; and understanding the role of stellar evolution in shaping planetary systems. We present a fully automated target selection algorithm, which yielded 103 planets in 86 systems for the final TKS sample. Most TKS hosts are inactive, solar-like, main-sequence stars (4500 K ≤
T
eff
<6000 K) at a wide range of metallicities. The selected TKS sample contains 71 small planets (
R
p
≤ 4
R
⊕
), 11 systems with multiple transiting candidates, six sub-day-period planets and three planets that are in or near the habitable zone (
S
inc
≤ 10
S
⊕
) of their host star. The target selection described here will facilitate the comparison of measured planet masses, densities, and eccentricities to predictions from planet population models. Our target selection software is publicly available and can be adapted for any survey that requires a balance of multiple science interests within a given telescope allocation.
We present the discovery of TOI-1518b—an ultra-hot Jupiter orbiting a bright star (V = 8.95). The transiting planet is confirmed using high-resolution optical transmission spectra from EXPRES. It is ...inflated, with Rp = 1.875 ± 0.053 RJ, and exhibits several interesting properties, including a misaligned orbit (240.34 (+0.93, -0.98) degrees) and nearly grazing transit (b=0.9036 (+0.0061, -0.0053)). The planet orbits a fast-rotating F0 host star (Teff ≃ 7300 K) in 1.9 days and experiences intense irradiation. Notably, the TESS data show a clear secondary eclipse with a depth of 364 ± 28 ppm and a significant phase-curve signal, from which we obtain a relative day–night planetary flux difference of roughly 320 ppm and a 5.2σ detection of ellipsoidal distortion on the host star. Prompted by recent detections of atomic and ionized species in ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres, we conduct an atmospheric cross-correlation analysis. We detect neutral iron (5.2σ), at K(p) = 157 (+68, -44) km/s and V(sys) = -16 (+2, -4), adding another object to the small sample of highly irradiated gas-giant planets with Fe detections in transmission. Detections so far favor particularly inflated gas giants with radii ≳1.78 R(J), which may be due to observational bias. With an equilibrium temperature of T(eq) = 2492 ± 38 K and a measured dayside brightness temperature of 3237 ± 59 K (assuming zero geometric albedo), TOI-1518b is a promising candidate for future emission spectroscopy to probe for a thermal inversion.
We report the confirmation and characterisation of TOI-1820 b, TOI-2025 b, and TOI-2158 b, three Jupiter-sized planets on short-period orbits around G-type stars detected by TESS. Through our ...ground-based efforts using the FIES and Tull spectrographs, we have confirmed these planets and characterised their orbits, and find periods of around 4.9 d, 8.9 d, and 8.6 d for TOI-1820 b, TOI-2025 b, and TOI-2158 b, respectively. The sizes of the planets range from 0.96 to 1.14 Jupiter radii, and their masses are in the range from 0.8 to 4.4 Jupiter masses. For two of the systems, namely TOI-2025 and TOI-2158, we see a long-term trend in the radial velocities, indicating the presence of an outer companion in each of the two systems. For TOI-2025 we furthermore find the star to be well aligned with the orbit, with a projected obliquity of 9
−31
+33
°. As these planets are all found in relatively bright systems (
V
~ 10.9–11.6 mag), they are well suited for further studies, which could help shed light on the formation and migration of hot and warm Jupiters.
ABSTRACT We report the discovery of two transiting planets detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), TOI-2374 b and TOI-3071 b, orbiting a K5V and an F8V star, respectively, with ...periods of 4.31 and 1.27 d, respectively. We confirm and characterize these two planets with a variety of ground-based and follow-up observations, including photometry, precise radial velocity monitoring and high-resolution imaging. The planetary and orbital parameters were derived from a joint analysis of the radial velocities and photometric data. We found that the two planets have masses of (57 ± 4) M⊕ or (0.18 ± 0.01) MJ, and (68 ± 4) M⊕ or (0.21 ± 0.01) MJ, respectively, and they have radii of (6.8 ± 0.3) R⊕ or (0.61 ± 0.03) RJ and (7.2 ± 0.5) R⊕ or (0.64 ± 0.05) RJ, respectively. These parameters correspond to sub-Saturns within the Neptunian desert, both planets being hot and highly irradiated, with Teq ≈ 745 K and Teq ≈ 1812 K, respectively, assuming a Bond albedo of 0.5. TOI-3071 b has the hottest equilibrium temperature of all known planets with masses between 10 and 300 M⊕ and radii less than 1.5 RJ. By applying gas giant evolution models we found that both planets, especially TOI-3071 b, are very metal-rich. This challenges standard formation models which generally predict lower heavy-element masses for planets with similar characteristics. We studied the evolution of the planets’ atmospheres under photoevaporation and concluded that both are stable against evaporation due to their large masses and likely high metallicities in their gaseous envelopes.