KELT-12b: A $P sim 5$ Day, Highly Inflated Hot Jupiter Transiting a Mildly Evolved Hot Star

We report the discovery of KELT-12b, a highly inflated Jupiter-mass planet transiting a mildly evolved host star. We identified the initial transit signal in the KELT-North survey data and established the planetary nature of the companion through precise follow-up photometry, high-resolution spectroscopy, precise radial velocity measurements, and high-resolution adaptive optics imaging. Our preferred best-fit model indicates that the $V = 10.64$ host, TYC 2619-1057-1, has $T_{rm eff} = 6278 pm 51$ K, $log{g_star} = 3.89^{+0.054}_{-0.051}$, and [Fe/H] = $0.19^{+0.083}_{-0.085}$, with an inferred mass $M_{star} = 1.59^{+0.071}_{-0.091} M_odot$ and radius $R_star = 2.37 pm 0.18 R_odot$. The planetary companion has $M_{rm P} = 0.95 pm 0.14 M_{rm J}$, $R_{rm P} = 1.79^{+0.18}_{-0.17} R_{rm J}$, $log{g_{rm P}} = 2.87^{+0.097}_{-0.098}$, and density $rho_{rm P} = 0.21^{+0.075}_{-0.054}$ g cm$^{-3}$, making it one of the most inflated giant planets known. The time of inferior conjunction in ${rm BJD_{TDB}}$ is $2457088.692055 pm 0.0009$ and the period is $P = 5.0316144 pm 0.0000306$ days. Despite the relatively large separation of $sim0.07$ AU implied by its $sim 5.03$-day orbital period, KELT-12b receives significant flux of $2.93^{+0.33}_{-0.30} times 10^9$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ from its host. We compare the radii and insolations of transiting gas-giant planets around hot ($T_{rm eff} geq 6250$ K) and cool stars, noting that the observed paucity of known transiting giants around hot stars with low insolation is likely due to selection effects. We underscore the significance of long-term ground-based monitoring of hot stars and space-based targeting of hot stars with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for inflated giants in longer-period orbits.