No Arabic abstract
We report the discovery and validation of four extrasolar planets hosted by the nearby, bright, Sun-like (G3V) star HD~108236 using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We present transit photometry, reconnaissance and precise Doppler spectroscopy as well as high-resolution imaging, to validate the planetary nature of the objects transiting HD~108236, also known as the TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 1233. The innermost planet is a possibly-rocky super-Earth with a period of $3.79523_{-0.00044}^{+0.00047}$ days and has a radius of $1.586pm0.098$ $R_oplus$. The outer planets are sub-Neptunes, with potential gaseous envelopes, having radii of $2.068_{-0.091}^{+0.10}$ $R_oplus$, $2.72pm0.11$ $R_oplus$, and $3.12_{-0.12}^{+0.13}$ $R_oplus$ and periods of $6.20370_{-0.00052}^{+0.00064}$ days, $14.17555_{-0.0011}^{+0.00099}$ days, and $19.5917_{-0.0020}^{+0.0022}$ days, respectively. With V and K$_{rm s}$ magnitudes of 9.2 and 7.6, respectively, the bright host star makes the transiting planets favorable targets for mass measurements and, potentially, for atmospheric characterization via transmission spectroscopy. HD~108236 is the brightest Sun-like star in the visual (V) band known to host four or more transiting exoplanets. The discovered planets span a broad range of planetary radii and equilibrium temperatures, and share a common history of insolation from a Sun-like star ($R_star = 0.888 pm 0.017$ R$_odot$, $T_{rm eff} = 5730 pm 50$ K), making HD 108236 an exciting, opportune cosmic laboratory for testing models of planet formation and evolution.
We report the discovery of the 1.008-day, ultra-short period (USP) super-Earth HD 213885b (TOI-141b) orbiting the bright ($V=7.9$) star HD 213885 (TOI-141, TIC 403224672), detected using photometry from the recently launched TESS mission. Using FEROS, HARPS and CORALIE radial-velocities, we measure a precise mass of $8.8pm0.6$ $M_oplus$ for this $1.74 pm 0.05$ $R_oplus$ exoplanet, which provides enough information to constrain its bulk composition, which is similar to Earths but enriched in iron. The radius, mass and stellar irradiation of HD 213885b are, given our data, very similar to 55 Cancri e, making this exoplanet a good target to perform comparative exoplanetology of short period, highly irradiated super-Earths. Our precise radial-velocities reveal an additional $4.78$-day signal which we interpret as arising from a second, non-transiting planet in the system, HD 213885c (TOI-141c), whose minimum mass of $19.95pm 1.4$ $M_oplus$ makes it consistent with being a Neptune-mass exoplanet. The HD 213885 system is very interesting from the perspective of future atmospheric characterization, being the second brightest star to host an ultra-short period transiting super-Earth (with the brightest star being, in fact, 55 Cancri). Prospects for characterization with present and future observatories are discussed.
We report the discovery of a planetary system orbiting TOI-763 (aka CD-39 7945), a $V=10.2$, high proper motion G-type dwarf star that was photometrically monitored by the TESS space mission in Sector 10. We obtain and model the stellar spectrum and find an object slightly smaller than the Sun, and somewhat older, but with a similar metallicity. Two planet candidates were found in the light curve to be transiting the star. Combining TESS transit photometry with HARPS high-precision radial velocity follow-up measurements confirm the planetary nature of these transit signals. We determine masses, radii, and bulk densities of these two planets. A third planet candidate was discovered serendipitously in the radial velocity data. The inner transiting planet,TOI-763 b, has an orbital period of $P_mathrm{b}$ = 5.6~days, a mass of $M_mathrm{b}$ = $9.8pm0.8$ $M_oplus$, and a radius of $R_mathrm{b}$ = $2.37pm0.10$ $R_oplus$. The second transiting planet,TOI-763 c, has an orbital period of $P_mathrm{c}$ = 12.3~days, a mass of $M_mathrm{c}$ = $9.3pm1.0$ $M_oplus$, and a radius of $R_mathrm{c}$ = $2.87pm0.11$ $R_oplus$. We find the outermost planet candidate to orbit the star with a period of $sim$48~days. If confirmed as a planet it would have a minimum mass of $M_mathrm{d}$ = $9.5pm1.6$ $M_oplus$. We investigated the TESS light curve in order to search for a mono transit by planet~d without success. We discuss the importance and implications of this planetary system in terms of the geometrical arrangements of planets orbiting G-type stars.
Exoplanet systems with multiple transiting planets are natural laboratories for testing planetary astrophysics. One such system is HD 191939 (TOI-1339), a bright (V=9) and Sun-like (G9V) star, which TESS found to host three transiting planets (b, c, and d). The planets have periods of 9, 29, and 38 days each with similar sizes from 3 to 3.4 $R_{oplus}$. To further characterize the system, we measured the radial velocity (RV) of HD 191939 over 415 days with Keck/HIRES and APF/Levy. We find that $M_b = 10.4 pm 0.9 M_{oplus}$ and $M_c = 7.2 pm 1.4 M_{oplus}$, which are low compared to most known planets of comparable radii. The RVs yield only an upper-limit on $M_d$ (<5.8 $M_{oplus}$ at 2$sigma$). The RVs further reveal a fourth planet (e) with a minimum mass of $0.34 pm 0.01 M_{Jup}$ and an orbital period of 101.4 $pm$ 0.4 days. Despite its non-transiting geometry, secular interactions between planet e and the inner transiting planets indicate that planet e is coplanar with the transiting planets ($Delta$i < 10$^{circ}$). We identify a second non-transiting sub-stellar companion (f) with a mass of 8-59 $M_{Jup}$ and period of 9-46 years based on a joint analysis of RVs and astrometry from $Gaia$ and $Hipparcos$. As a bright star hosting multiple planets with well-measured masses, HD 191939 presents many options for comparative planetary astronomy including characterization with JWST.
We present the discovery of the Kepler-20 planetary system, which we initially identified through the detection of five distinct periodic transit signals in the Kepler light curve of the host star 2MASSJ19104752+4220194. We find a stellar effective temperature Teff=5455+-100K, a metallicity of [Fe/H]=0.01+-0.04, and a surface gravity of log(g)=4.4+-0.1. Combined with an estimate of the stellar density from the transit light curves we deduce a stellar mass of Mstar=0.912+-0.034 Msun and a stellar radius of Rstar=0.944^{+0.060}_{-0.095} Rsun. For three of the transit signals, our results strongly disfavor the possibility that these result from astrophysical false positives. We conclude that the planetary scenario is more likely than that of an astrophysical false positive by a factor of 2e5 (Kepler-20b), 1e5 (Kepler-20c), and 1.1e3 (Kepler-20d), sufficient to validate these objects as planetary companions. For Kepler-20c and Kepler-20d, the blend scenario is independently disfavored by the achromaticity of the transit: From Spitzer data gathered at 4.5um, we infer a ratio of the planetary to stellar radii of 0.075+-0.015 (Kepler-20c) and 0.065+-0.011 (Kepler-20d), consistent with each of the depths measured in the Kepler optical bandpass. We determine the orbital periods and physical radii of the three confirmed planets to be 3.70d and 1.91^{+0.12}_{-0.21} Rearth for Kepler-20b, 10.85 d and 3.07^{+0.20}_{-0.31} Rearth for Kepelr-20c, and 77.61 d and 2.75^{+0.17}_{-0.30} Rearth for Kepler-20d. From multi-epoch radial velocities, we determine the masses of Kepler-20b and Kepler-20c to be 8.7+-2.2 Mearth and 16.1+-3.5 Mearth, respectively, and we place an upper limit on the mass of Kepler-20d of 20.1 Mearth (2 sigma).
Although several thousands of exoplanets have now been detected and characterized, observational biases have led to a paucity of long-period, low-mass exoplanets with measured masses and a corresponding lag in our understanding of such planets. In this paper we report the mass estimation and characterization of the long-period exoplanet Kepler-538b. This planet orbits a Sun-like star (V = 11.27) with M_* = 0.892 +/- (0.051, 0.035) M_sun and R_* = 0.8717 +/- (0.0064, 0.0061) R_sun. Kepler-538b is a 2.215 +/- (0.040, 0.034) R_earth sub-Neptune with a period of P = 81.73778 +/- 0.00013 d. It is the only known planet in the system. We collected radial velocity (RV) observations with HIRES on Keck I and HARPS-N on the TNG. We characterized stellar activity by a Gaussian process with a quasi-periodic kernel applied to our RV and cross correlation function full width at half maximum (FWHM) observations. By simultaneously modeling Kepler photometry, RV, and FWHM observations, we found a semi-amplitude of K = 1.68 +/- (0.39, 0.38) m s^-1 and a planet mass of M_p = 10.6 +/- (2.5, 2.4) M_earth. Kepler-538b is the smallest planet beyond P = 50 d with an RV mass measurement. The planet likely consists of a significant fraction of ices (dominated by water ice), in addition to rocks/metals, and a small amount of gas. Sophisticated modeling techniques such as those used in this paper, combined with future spectrographs with ultra high-precision and stability will be vital for yielding more mass measurements in this poorly understood exoplanet regime. This in turn will improve our understanding of the relationship between planet composition and insolation flux and how the rocky to gaseous transition depends on planetary equilibrium temperature.