A possibly inflated planet around the bright young star DS Tucanae A
Abstract
Context. The origin of the observed diversity of planetary system architectures is one of the main topics of exoplanetary research. The detection of a statistically significant sample of planets around young stars allows us to study the early stages of planet formation and evolution, but only a handful are known so far. In this regard a considerable contribution is expected from the NASA TESS satellite, which is now performing a survey of 85% of the sky to search for short-period transiting planets.
Aims: In its first month of operation TESS found a planet candidate with an orbital period of 8.14 days around a member of the Tuc-Hor young association ( 40 Myr), the G6V main component of the binary system DS Tuc. If confirmed, it would be the first transiting planet around a young star suitable for radial velocity and/or atmospheric characterisation. Our aim is to validate the planetary nature of this companion and to measure its orbital and physical parameters.
Methods: We obtained accurate planet parameters by coupling an independent reprocessing of the TESS light curve with improved stellar parameters and the dilution caused by the binary companion; we analysed high-precision archival radial velocities to impose an upper limit of about 0.1 MJup on the planet mass; we finally ruled out the presence of external companions beyond 40 au with adaptive optics images.
Results: We confirm the presence of a young giant (R = 0.50 RJup) planet having a non-negligible possibility to be inflated (theoretical mass ≲ 20 M⊕) around DS Tuc A. We discuss the feasibility of mass determination, Rossiter-McLaughlin analysis, and atmosphere characterisation allowed by the brightness of the star.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201935598
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1904.01591
- Bibcode:
- 2019A&A...630A..81B
- Keywords:
-
- planets and satellites: fundamental parameters;
- techniques: photometric;
- techniques: spectroscopic;
- techniques: radial velocities;
- techniques: imaging spectroscopy;
- stars: individual: DS Tuc A;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in A&