Search for: All records

The obliquity of a star, or the angle between its spin axis and the average orbit normal of its companion planets, provides a unique constraint on that system’s evolutionary history. Unlike the solar system, where the Sun’s equator is nearly aligned with its companion planets, many hot-Jupiter systems have been discovered with large spin–orbit misalignments, hosting planets on polar or retrograde orbits. We demonstrate that, in contrast to stars harboring hot Jupiters on circular orbits, those with eccentric companions follow no population-wide obliquity trend with stellar temperature. This finding can be naturally explained through a combination of high-eccentricity migration and tidal damping. Furthermore, we show that the joint obliquity and eccentricity distributions observed today are consistent with the outcomes of high-eccentricity migration, with no strict requirement to invoke the other hot-Jupiter formation mechanisms of disk migration or in situ formation. At a population-wide level, high-eccentricity migration can consistently shape the dynamical evolution of hot-Jupiter systems.

 

Abstract We confirm the planetary nature of two gas giants discovered by TESS to transit M dwarfs with stellar companions at wide separations. TOI-3984 A ( J = 11.93) is an M4 dwarf hosting a short-period (4.353326 ± 0.000005 days) gas giant ( M p = 0.14 ± 0.03 M J and R p = 0.71 ± 0.02 R J ) with a wide-separation white dwarf companion. TOI-5293 A ( J = 12.47) is an M3 dwarf hosting a short-period (2.930289 ± 0.000004 days) gas giant ( M p = 0.54 ± 0.07 M J and R p = 1.06 ± 0.04 R J ) with a wide-separation M dwarf companion. We characterize both systems using a combination of ground- and space-based photometry, speckle imaging, and high-precision radial velocities from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID spectrographs. TOI-3984 A b ( T eq = 563 ± 15 K and TSM = 138 − 27 + 29 ) and TOI-5293 A b ( T eq = 675 − 30 + 42 K and TSM = 92 ± 14) are two of the coolest gas giants among the population of hot Jupiter–sized gas planets orbiting M dwarfs and are favorable targets for atmospheric characterization of temperate gas giants and 3D obliquity measurements to probe system architecture and migration scenarios. 

The distribution of spin–orbit angles for systems with wide-separation, tidally detached exoplanets offers a unique constraint on the prevalence of dynamically violent planetary evolution histories. Tidally detached planets provide a relatively unbiased view of the primordial stellar obliquity distribution, as they cannot tidally realign within the system lifetime. We present the third result from our Stellar Obliquities in Long-period Exoplanet Systems (SOLES) survey: a measurement of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect across two transits of the tidally detached warm Jupiter TOI-1478 b with the WIYN/NEID and Keck/HIRES spectrographs, revealing a sky-projected spin–orbit angle$\lambda ={6.2}_{-5.5}^{+5.9}°$. Combining this new measurement with the full set of archival obliquity measurements, including two previous constraints from the SOLES survey, we demonstrate that, in single-star systems, tidally detached warm Jupiters are preferentially more aligned than closer-orbiting hot Jupiters. This finding has two key implications: (1) planets in single-star systems tend to form within aligned protoplanetary disks, and (2) warm Jupiters form more quiescently than hot Jupiters, which, in single-star systems, are likely perturbed into a misaligned state through planet–planet interactions in the post-disk-dispersal phase. We also find that lower-mass Saturns span a wide range of spin–orbit angles, suggesting a prevalence of planet–planet scattering and/or secular mechanisms in these systems.

 

Abstract We present spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect for WASP-148b, the only known hot Jupiter with a nearby warm-Jupiter companion, from the WIYN/NEID and Keck/HIRES instruments. This is one of the first scientific results reported from the newly commissioned NEID spectrograph, as well as the second obliquity constraint for a hot Jupiter system with a close-in companion, after WASP-47. WASP-148b is consistent with being in alignment with the sky-projected spin axis of the host star, with λ = − 8 .° 2 − 9 .° 7 + 8 .° 7 . The low obliquity observed in the WASP-148 system is consistent with the orderly-alignment configuration of most compact multi-planet systems around cool stars with obliquity constraints, including our solar system, and may point to an early history for these well-organized systems in which migration and accretion occurred in isolation, with relatively little disturbance. By contrast, previous results have indicated that high-mass and hot stars appear to more commonly host a wide range of misaligned planets: not only single hot Jupiters, but also compact systems with multiple super-Earths. We suggest that, to account for the high rate of spin–orbit misalignments in both compact multi-planet and isolated-hot-Jupiter systems orbiting high-mass and hot stars, spin–orbit misalignments may be caused by distant giant planet perturbers, which are most common around these stellar types. 

ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a warm sub-Saturn, TOI-257b (HD 19916b), based on data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The transit signal was detected by TESS and confirmed to be of planetary origin based on radial velocity observations. An analysis of the TESS photometry, the Minerva-Australis, FEROS, and HARPS radial velocities, and the asteroseismic data of the stellar oscillations reveals that TOI-257b has a mass of MP = 0.138 ± 0.023 $\rm {M_J}$ (43.9 ± 7.3 $\, M_{\rm \oplus}$), a radius of RP = 0.639 ± 0.013 $\rm {R_J}$ (7.16 ± 0.15 $\, \mathrm{ R}_{\rm \oplus}$), bulk density of $0.65^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ (cgs), and period $18.38818^{+0.00085}_{-0.00084}$ $\rm {days}$. TOI-257b orbits a bright (V = 7.612 mag) somewhat evolved late F-type star with M* = 1.390 ± 0.046 $\rm {M_{sun}}$, R* = 1.888 ± 0.033 $\rm {R_{sun}}$, Teff = 6075 ± 90 $\rm {K}$, and vsin i = 11.3 ± 0.5 km s−1. Additionally, we find hints for a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet on a ∼71 day orbit using the radial velocity data. This system joins the ranks of a small number of exoplanet host stars (∼100) that have been characterized with asteroseismology. Warm sub-Saturns are rare in the known sample of exoplanets, and thus the discovery of TOI-257b is important in the context of future work studying the formation and migration history of similar planetary systems. 

Our understanding of planetary systems different to our own has grown dramatically in the past 30 yr. However, our efforts to ascertain the degree to which the Solar system is abnormal or unique have been hindered by the observational biases inherent to the methods that have yielded the greatest exoplanet hauls. On the basis of such surveys, one might consider our planetary system highly unusual – but the reality is that we are only now beginning to uncover the true picture. In this work, we use the full 18-yr archive of data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search to examine the abundance of ‘cool Jupiters’ – analogues to the Solar system’s giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. We find that such planets are intrinsically far more common through the cosmos than their siblings, the hot Jupiters. We find that the occurrence rate of such ‘cool Jupiters’ is $6.73^{+2.09}_{-1.13}$ per cent, almost an order of magnitude higher than the occurrence of hot Jupiters (at $0.84^{+0.70}_{-0.20}$ per cent). We also find that the occurrence rate of giant planets is essentially constant beyond orbital distances of ∼1 au. Our results reinforce the importance of legacy radial velocity surveys for the understanding of the Solar system’s place in the cosmos.