A Transit Timing Analysis of Nine Rise Light Curves of the Exoplanet System TrES-3
Abstract
We present nine newly observed transits of TrES-3, taken as part of a transit timing program using the RISE instrument on the Liverpool Telescope. A Markov-Chain Monte Carlo analysis was used to determine the planet-star radius ratio and inclination of the system, which were found to be Rp /R sstarf = 0.1664+0.0011 -0.0018 and i = 81.73+0.13 -0.04, respectively, consistent with previous results. The central transit times and uncertainties were also calculated, using a residual-permutation algorithm as an independent check on the errors. A re-analysis of eight previously published TrES-3 light curves was conducted to determine the transit times and uncertainties using consistent techniques. Whilst the transit times were not found to be in agreement with a linear ephemeris, giving χ2 = 35.07 for 15 degrees of freedom, we interpret this to be the result of systematics in the light curves rather than a real transit timing variation. This is because the light curves that show the largest deviation from a constant period either have relatively little out-of-transit coverage or have clear systematics. A new ephemeris was calculated using the transit times and was found to be Tc (0) = 2454632.62610 ± 0.00006 HJD and P = 1.3061864 ± 0.0000005 days. The transit times were then used to place upper mass limits as a function of the period ratio of a potential perturbing planet, showing that our data are sufficiently sensitive to have probed sub-Earth mass planets in both interior and exterior 2:1 resonances, assuming that the additional planet is in an initially circular orbit.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- August 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1078
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0905.4680
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...700.1078G
- Keywords:
-
- methods: data analysis;
- planetary systems;
- stars: individual: TrES-3;
- techniques: photometric;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 21 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ