Back to Search Start Over

TESS Spots a Super-Puff: The Remarkably Low Density of TOI-1420b

Authors :
Yoshida, Stephanie
Vissapragada, Shreyas
Latham, David W.
Bieryla, Allyson
Thorngren, Daniel P.
Eastman, Jason D.
López-Morales, Mercedes
Barkaoui, Khalid
Beichmam, Charles
Berlind, Perry
Buchave, Lars A.
Calkins, Michael L.
Ciardi, David R.
Collins, Karen A.
Cosentino, Rosario
Crossfield, Ian J. M.
Dai, Fei
DiTomasso, Victoria
Dowling, Nicholas
Esquerdo, Gilbert A.
Forés-Toribio, Raquel
Ghedina, Adriano
Goliguzova, Maria V.
Golub, Eli
Gonzales, Erica J.
Horta, Ferran Grau
Higuera, Jesus
Hoch, Nora
Horne, Keith
Howell, Steve B.
Jenkins, Jon M.
Klusmeyer, Jessica
Laloum, Didier
Lissauer, Jack J.
Logsdon, Sarah E.
Malavolta, Luca
Matson, Rachel A.
Matthews, Elisabeth C.
McLeod, Kim K.
Medina, Jennifer V.
Muñoz, Jose A.
Osborn, Hugh P.
Safonov, Boris
Schlieder, Joshua
Schmidt, Michael
Schweiker, Heidi
Seager, Sara
Sozzetti, Alessandro
Srdoc, Gregor
Stefánsson, Guđmundur
Strakhov, Ivan A.
Striegel, Stephanie
Villaseñor, Joel
Winn, Joshua N.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

We present the discovery of TOI-1420b, an exceptionally low-density ($\rho = 0.08\pm0.02$ g cm$^{-3}$) transiting planet in a $P = 6.96$ day orbit around a late G dwarf star. Using transit observations from TESS, LCOGT, OPM, Whitin, Wendelstein, OAUV, Ca l'Ou, and KeplerCam along with radial velocity observations from HARPS-N and NEID, we find that the planet has a radius of $R_p$ = 11.9 $\pm$ 0.3 $R_\Earth$ and a mass of $M_p$ = 25.1 $\pm$ 3.8 $M_\Earth$. TOI-1420b is the largest-known planet with a mass less than $50M_\Earth$, indicating that it contains a sizeable envelope of hydrogen and helium. We determine TOI-1420b's envelope mass fraction to be $f_{env} = 82^{+7}_{-6}\%$, suggesting that runaway gas accretion occurred when its core was at most $4-5\times$ the mass of the Earth. TOI-1420b is similar to the planet WASP-107b in mass, radius, density, and orbital period, so a comparison of these two systems may help reveal the origins of close-in low-density planets. With an atmospheric scale height of 1950 km, a transmission spectroscopy metric of 580, and a predicted Rossiter-McLaughlin amplitude of about $17$ m s$^{-1}$, TOI-1420b is an excellent target for future atmospheric and dynamical characterization.

Details

Database :
arXiv
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.2309.09945
Document Type :
Working Paper