KELT-1b: A STRONGLY IRRADIATED, HIGHLY INFLATED, SHORT PERIOD, 27 JUPITER-MASS COMPANION TRANSITING A MID-F STAR

By R. Siverd, T. Beatty, Joshua A. Pepper, Jason Eastman, K. Collins, A. Bieryla, D. Latham, Lars A. Buchhave, E. Jensen, J. Crepp and 22 more. 2012

194 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the discovery of KELT-1b, the first transiting low-mass companion from the wide-field Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope-North (KELT-North) transit survey. A joint analysis of the spectroscopic, radial velocity, and photometric data indicates that the V = 10.7 primary is a mildly evolved mid-F star with Teff  =  6516 ± 49 K, log g  =  4.228+0.014−0.021, and [Fe/H]  =  0.052 ± 0.079, with an inferred mass M*  =  1.335  ±  0.063 M☉ and radius R* = 1.471+0.045−0.035 R☉. The companion is a low-mass brown dwarf or a super-massive planet with mass MP  =  27.38 ± 0.93 MJup and radius RP  =  1.116+0.038−0.029 RJup. The companion is on a very short (∼29 hr) period circular orbit, with an ephemeris Tc(BJDTDB) = 2455909.29280 ± 0.00023 and P = 1.217501 ± 0.000018 days. KELT-1b receives a large amount of stellar insolation, resulting in an estimated equilibrium temperature assuming zero albedo and perfect redistribution of Teq = 2423+34−27 K. Comparison with standard evolutionary models suggests that the radius of KELT-1b is likely to be significantly inflated. Adaptive optics imaging reveals a candidate stellar companion to KELT-1 with a separation of 588 ± 1 mas, which is consistent with an M dwarf if it is at the same distance as the primary. Rossiter–McLaughlin measurements during transit imply a projected spin–orbit alignment angle λ = 2 ± 16 deg, consistent with a zero obliquity for KELT-1. Finally, the  vsin I* = 56 ± 2 km s−1 of the primary is consistent at ∼2σ with tidal synchronization. Given the extreme parameters of the KELT-1 system, we expect it to provide an important testbed for theories of the emplacement and evolution of short-period companions, as well as theories of tidal dissipation and irradiated brown dwarf atmospheres.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4942e01d5d6245ff1901ea86c85572c373df2805

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. D. Charbonneau
2. J. Irwin
3. Keivan G. Stassun
4. E. Agol
5. Jon Fortney
6. C. Burke
7. R. Heller
8. M. Hippke

In Instrumentation

1. D. Charbonneau
2. Keivan G. Stassun
3. E. Agol
4. J. Irwin
5. Jason Eastman
6. K. Collins
7. R. Heller
8. M. Hippke

Citations in the corpus

• Optimized transit detection algorithm to search for periodic transits of small planets (2019, background): “…(± 0.0122) d. Empirical thresholds for a transit detection have been proposed to range from SDE > 6 (Dressing & Charbonneau 2015), SDE > 6.5 (Livingston et al. 2018), SDE > 7 (Siverd et al. 2012), 6–8 as a function of period (Pope et al. 2016; Aigrain et al. 2016), and up to 10 (Wells et al. 2018).”
• Accurate Empirical Radii and Masses of Planets and Their Host Stars with Gaia Parallaxes (2016, methodology): “…et al. (2016) used a custom version of EXOFAST (Eastman et al. 2013) that allows multiple RV and transit data sets to be simultaneously fitted (see Siverd et al. 2012 for more details) to perform a KELT-15 global system fit to spectroscopic parameters, RV data, and photometric follow-up light…”
• EXOFAST: A Fast Exoplanetary Fitting Suite in IDL (2012, methodology): “We used this code to fit the KELT-1b data (Siverd et al. 2012), adding the ability to fit an arbitrary number of transits (with TTVs), RV zero points, and the Rossiter Mclaughlin effect.”
• Tidal Dissipation in Stars and Giant Planets (2014, background): “However, the host stars of several hot Jupiters are said to be spinning faster than expected (Pont 2009; Husnoo et al. 2012), suggesting a tidal transfer of angular momentum from the orbit to the stellar rotation in these systems, and two stars (τ Boo and CoRoT-3) show rotation compatible with synch”
• FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS AND SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF YOUNG AND FIELD AGE OBJECTS WITH MASSES SPANNING THE STELLAR TO PLANETARY REGIME (2015, unknown): “…0.4–12.7 Gyr brown dwarfs OGLE-TR-122b (Pont et al. 2005), CoRoT-3b (Deleuil et al. 2008), CoRoT-15b (Bouchy et al. 2010), WASP-30b (Anderson et al. 2010), LHS 6343 C (Johnson et al. 2011), KELT-1b (Siverd et al. 2012), KOI-205b (Díaz et al. 2013), KOI-415b (Moutou et al. 2013), and SDSS J141126.”
• ASTROIMAGEJ: IMAGE PROCESSING AND PHOTOMETRIC EXTRACTION FOR ULTRA-PRECISE ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT CURVES (2016, background): “…most of the∼ 30 member Kilo-degree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT; Pepper et al. 2003, 2007) transit survey photometric follow-up team, so far resulting in 10 planets published (Siverd et al. 2012; Beatty et al. 2012; Pepper et al. 2013; Collins et al. 2014; Bieryla et al. 2015; Fulton et al.…”
• TRANSIT DETECTION IN THE MEarth SURVEY OF NEARBY M DWARFS: BRIDGING THE CLEAN-FIRST, SEARCH-LATER DIVIDE (2012, methodology): “Using these methods, surveys such as TrES (Alonso et al. 2004), HATNet (Bakos et al. 2004), XO (McCullough et al. 2005), WASP (Pollacco et al. 2006) and KELT (Siverd et al. 2012; Beatty et al. 2012) have made the ground-based detection of hot gas giants transiting Sun-like stars routine.”