KELT-7b: A HOT JUPITER TRANSITING A BRIGHT V = 8.54 RAPIDLY ROTATING F-STAR

We report the discovery of KELT-7b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a mass of 1.28 ± 0.18 M[subscript J], radius of 1.533[+0.046 over -0.047] R[subscript J], and an orbital period of 2.7347749 ± 0.0000039 days. The bright host star (HD 33643; KELT-7) is an F-star with V = 8.54, T[subscript eff] = 6789[+50 over -49] K, [Fe/H] = 0.139[+0.075 over -0.081], and log g = 4.149 ± 0.019]. It has a mass of 1.535 [+0.066 over -0.054] M[subscript ⊙], a radius of 1.732[+0.043 over -0.045] R[subscript ⊙], and is the fifth most massive, fifth hottest, and the ninth brightest star known to host a transiting planet. It is also the brightest star around which Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) has discovered a transiting planet. Thus, KELT-7b is an ideal target for detailed characterization given its relatively low surface gravity, high equilibrium temperature, and bright host star. The rapid rotation of the star (73 ± 0.5 km s[superscript −1]) results in a Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with an unusually large amplitude of several hundred m s[superscript −1]. We find that the orbit normal of the planet is likely to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis, with a projected spin–orbit alignment of λ = 9[° over .]7 ± 5[° over .]2. This is currently the second most rapidly rotating star to have a reflex signal (and thus mass determination) due to a planetary companion measured.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Origins Program Grant NNX11AG85G

CONSTRAINTS ON A SECOND PLANET IN THE WASP-3 SYSTEM

There have been previous hints that the transiting planet WASP-3b is accompanied by a second planet in a nearby orbit, based on small deviations from strict periodicity of the observed transits. Here we present 17 precise radial velocity (RV) measurements and 32 transit light curves that were acquired between 2009 and 2011. These data were used to refine the parameters of the host star and transiting planet. This has resulted in reduced uncertainties for the radii and masses of the star and planet. The RV data and the transit times show no evidence for an additional planet in the system. Therefore, we have determined the upper limit on the mass of any hypothetical second planet, as a function of its orbital period.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Origins program)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Progra

Kepler-62: A Five-Planet System with Planets of 1.4 and 1.6 Earth Radii in the Habitable Zone

We present the detection of five planets—Kepler-62b, c, d, e, and f—of size 1.31, 0.54, 1.95, 1.61 and 1.41 Earth radii (R[subscript ⊕]), orbiting a K2V star at periods of 5.7, 12.4, 18.2, 122.4, and 267.3 days, respectively. The outermost planets, Kepler-62e and -62f, are super–Earth-size (1.25 R[subscript ⊕] < planet radius ≤ 2.0 R[subscript ⊕]) planets in the habitable zone of their host star, respectively receiving 1.2 ± 0.2 times and 0.41 ± 0.05 times the solar flux at Earth’s orbit. Theoretical models of Kepler-62e and -62f for a stellar age of ~7 billion years suggest that both planets could be solid, either with a rocky composition or composed of mostly solid water in their bulk.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Kepler Participating Scientist Program Grant NNX12AC76G

ERRATUM: “A SMALLER RADIUS FOR THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET WASP-10b” (2009, ApJ, 692, L100)

We have identified an error in our Heliocentric Julian Dates (HJDs) of observation caused by incorrect input to the code used to convert from JD to HJD. The times in Table 1 have been corrected by adding 0.006382 day to each entry in the original Column 1. Similarly, the measured mid-transit time in Table 2 has been changed to Tc = 2454664.037295. We also note that the header in Column 1 of Table 1 is incorrect. The label should read HJD, rather than BJD. The updated Tables 1 and 2 have been included herein. This error has no impact on our main conclusions. We thank Pedro Valdes Sada and Gracjan Maciejewski for pointing out the incorrect mid-transit time

Stellar Spin-Orbit Misalignment in a Multiplanet System

Stars hosting hot Jupiters are often observed to have high obliquities, whereas stars with multiple coplanar planets have been seen to have low obliquities. This has been interpreted as evidence that hot-Jupiter formation is linked to dynamical disruption, as opposed to planet migration through a protoplanetary disk. We used asteroseismology to measure a large obliquity for Kepler-56, a red giant star hosting two transiting coplanar planets. These observations show that spin-orbit misalignments are not confined to hot-Jupiter systems. Misalignments in a broader class of systems had been predicted as a consequence of torques from wide-orbiting companions, and indeed radial velocity measurements revealed a third companion in a wide orbit in the Kepler-56 system.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Science Mission Directorate)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Postdoctoral Program at Ames Research Center)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Graduate Research Fellowship)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, grant DGE1144469)Netherlands Organization for Scientific ResearchBelgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO, contract PRODEX COROT)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Kepler Participating Scientist program)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF grant AST-1105930)David & Lucile Packard FoundationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (Hubble Fellow

THE STELLAR OBLIQUITY, PLANET MASS, AND VERY LOW ALBEDO OF QATAR-2 FROM K2 PHOTOMETRY

The Qatar-2 transiting exoplanet system was recently observed by the {\it Kepler} telescope as part of {\it K2} Campaign 6. The photometric time series has one-minute time sampling and a precision of about 690~ppm, after filtering out artifacts and spurious trends. We identify dozens of starspot-crossing events, when the planet eclipsed a relatively dark region of the stellar photosphere. The observed patterns in the sequence of these events demonstrate that the planet always transits over the same range of stellar latitudes, and therefore that the stellar obliquity is less than about 10$^\circ$. We support this conclusion with two different modeling approaches: one based on explicit identification and timing of the events, and the other based on fitting the light curves with a spotted-star model. We are also able to refine the usual transit parameters and measure the stellar rotation period ($18.5 \pm 1.9$~days), corresponding to a 'gyrochronological' age of $1.4 \pm 0.3$ Gyr. Coherent flux variations with the same period as the transits are seen throughout the entire light curve. These variations are well modeled as the combined effects of ellipsoidal light variations ($17.4 \pm 2.8$~ppm) and Doppler boosting ($11.9 \pm 2.5$~ppm). The magnitudes of these effects are both consistent with a planetary mass of $2.6 \pm 0.5~ M_{\text{Jup}}$, which is in turn consistent with the mass determined by the Doppler technique. No occultations are detected, giving a 2$\sigma$ upper limit of $0.013$ on the planet's visual geometric albedo. The measured transit times are consistent with a constant orbital period. In particular we find no evidence for orbital decay, although we are only able to place a weak lower bound on the relevant tidal quality factor: $Q'_\star > 1.5\times 10^4$~(95\% confidence).Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables. Accepted to A

Improved spectroscopic parameters for transiting planet hosts

We report homogeneous spectroscopic determinations of the effective temperature, metallicity, and projected rotational velocity for the host stars of 56 transiting planets. Our analysis is based primarily on the stellar parameter classification (SPC) technique. We investigate systematic errors by examining subsets of the data with two other methods that have often been used in previous studies (Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) and MOOG). The SPC and SME results, both based on comparisons between synthetic spectra and actual spectra, show strong correlations between T [subscript eff], [Fe/H], and log g when solving for all three quantities simultaneously. In contrast the MOOG results, based on a more traditional curve-of-growth approach, show no such correlations. To combat the correlations and improve the accuracy of the temperatures and metallicities, we repeat the SPC analysis with a constraint on log g based on the mean stellar density that can be derived from the analysis of the transit light curves. Previous studies that have not taken advantage of this constraint have been subject to systematic errors in the stellar masses and radii of up to 20% and 10%, respectively, which can be larger than other observational uncertainties, and which also cause systematic errors in the planetary mass and radius

The Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect of the Transiting Exoplanet XO-4b

We report photometric and radial velocity observations of the XO-4 transiting planetary system, conducted with the FLWO 1.2 m telescope and the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope. Based on the new light curves, the refined transit ephemeris of XO-4b is $P$ $=$ 4.1250828$\ \pm\$0.0000040 d and $T_{\rm c}$ [BJD$_{\rm TDB}$] $=$ 2454485.93323$\ \pm\$0.00039. We measured the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect of XO-4b and estimated the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis to be $\lambda$ $=$ $-$46$^\circ\!\!\!.$7 $\ ^{{+8^\circ\!\!\!.1}}_{{\ -6^\circ\!\!\!.1}}$. This measurement of $\lambda$ is less robust than in some other cases because the impact parameter of the transit is small, causing a strong degeneracy between $\lambda$ and the projected stellar rotational velocity. Nevertheless, our finding of a spin–orbit misalignment suggests that the migration process for XO-4b involved few-body dynamics rather than interaction with a gaseous disk. In addition, our result conforms with the pattern reported by Winn et al. (2010, ApJ, 718, L145) that high obliquities are preferentially found for stars with effective temperatures hotter than 6250 K.Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Fellowship for Research DC1: 22-5935)Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Fellowship for Research PD: 20-8141)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Origins program grant NNX09AD36G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Origins program grant NNX09AB33G

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS ) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its two-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical CCD cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I[subscript C] (approximately less than) 13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from one month to one year, depending mainly on the star's ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10-100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every four months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations

DOPPLER MONITORING OF THE WASP-47 MULTIPLANET SYSTEM

We present precise Doppler observations of WASP-47, a transiting planetary system featuring a hot Jupiter with both inner and outer planetary companions. This system has an unusual architecture and also provides a rare opportunity to measure planet masses in two different ways: the Doppler method, and the analysis of transit-timing variations (TTV). Based on the new Doppler data, obtained with the Planet Finder Spectrograph on the Magellan/Clay 6.5 m telescope, the mass of the hot Jupiter is 370 ± 29[subscript ⊕]. This is consistent with the previous Doppler determination as well as the TTV determination. For the inner planet WASP-47e, the Doppler data lead to a mass of 12.2 ± 3.7[subscript ⊕], in agreement with the TTV-based upper limit of <22 M[subscript ⊕] (95% confidence). For the outer planet WASP-47d, the Doppler mass constraint of 10.4 ± 8.4[subscript ⊕] is consistent with the TTV-based measurement of $15.2[+6.7 over -7.6] M[subscript ⊕].United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Origins Program Grant NNX11AG85G