Precise mass and radius of a transiting super-Earth planet orbiting the M dwarf TOI-1235: a planet in the radius gap?
Journal article, 2020
We report the confirmation of a transiting planet around the bright weakly active M0.5 V star TOI-1235 (TYC 4384-1735-1, V ≈ 11.5 mag), whose transit signal was detected in the photometric time series of sectors 14, 20, and 21 of the TESS space mission. We confirm the planetary nature of the transit signal, which has a period of 3.44 d, by using precise RV measurements with the CARMENES, HARPS-N, and iSHELL spectrographs, supplemented by high-resolution imaging and ground-based photometry. A comparison of the properties derived for TOI-1235 b with theoretical models reveals that the planet has a rocky composition, with a bulk density slightly higher than that of Earth. In particular, we measure a mass of Mp = 5.9 ± 0.6 M⊕ and a radius of Rp = 1.69 ± 0.08 R⊕, which together result in a density of ρp = 6.7- 1.1+ 1.3 g cm-3. When compared with other well-characterized exoplanetary systems, the particular combination of planetary radius and mass places our discovery in the radius gap, which is a transition region between rocky planets and planets with significant atmospheric envelopes. A few examples of planets occupying the radius gap are known to date. While the exact location of the radius gap for M dwarfs is still a matter of debate, our results constrain it to be located at around 1.7 R⊕ or larger at the insolation levels received by TOI-1235 b (~60 S⊕). This makes it an extremely interesting object for further studies of planet formation and atmospheric evolution.
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
stars: late-type
techniques: photometric
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
stars: individual: TOI-1235
techniques: radial velocities
Author
P. Bluhm
Heidelberg University
R. Luque
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
N. Espinoza
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
E. Palle
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
J. A. Caballero
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
S. Dreizler
University of Göttingen
J. Livingston
University of Tokyo
S. Mathur
University of La Laguna
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
A. Quirrenbach
Heidelberg University
S. Stock
Heidelberg University
V. Van Eylen
University College London (UCL)
G. Nowak
University of La Laguna
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
E. D. Lopez
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Szilard Csizmadia
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
M. Zapatero-Osorio
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
P. Schöfer
University of Göttingen
J. Lillo-Box
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
M. Oshagh
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
E. González-Álvarez
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
P. J. Amado
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
D. Barrado
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
V. J. S. Bejar
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
B. Cale
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
P. Chaturvedi
Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
C. Cifuentes
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
W. D. Cochran
The University of Texas at Austin
K. I. Collins
George Mason University
M. Cortés-Contreras
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
E. Díez Alonso
University of Oviedo
M. El Mufti
University of Khartoum
George Mason University
A. Ercolino
Campo Catino Astronomical Observatory
Malcolm Fridlund
Leiden University
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
E. Gaidos
University of Hawaii
R. A. Garcia
University Paris-Saclay
Iskra Georgieva
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
L. Gonzalez-Cuesta
University of La Laguna
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
P. Guerra
Albanyà Astronomical Observatory
Artie P. Hatzes
Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
Th Henning
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
E. Herrero
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) - CSIC
D. Hidalgo
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
G. Isopi
Campo Catino Astronomical Observatory
S. V. Jeffers
University of Göttingen
J. M. Jenkins
NASA Ames Research Center
E. L. N. Jensen
Swarthmore College
P. Kabath
Czech Academy of Sciences
A. Kaminski
Heidelberg University
J. Kemmer
Heidelberg University
Judith Korth
University of Cologne
D. Kossakowski
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
M. Kürster
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
M. Lafarga
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) - CSIC
F. Mallia
Campo Catino Astronomical Observatory
D. Montes
Complutense University
J. C. Morales
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) - CSIC
M. Morales-Calderon
Spanish Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC)
F. Murgas
University of La Laguna
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
N. Narita
University of Tokyo
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
V. M. Passegger
University of Hamburg
University of Oklahoma
S. Pedraz
CAHA- Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán
Carina Persson
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
P. Plavchan
George Mason University
H. Rauer
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Technische Universität Berlin
S. Redfield
Wesleyan University
S. Reffert
Heidelberg University
A. Reiners
University of Göttingen
I Ribas
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) - CSIC
G. Ricker
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
C. Rodíguez-López
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)
A. R. G. Santos
Space Science Institute
S. Seager
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
M. Schlecker
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
A. Schweitzer
University of Hamburg
Y. Shan
University of Göttingen
M. G. Soto
Queen Mary University of London
J. Subjak
Czech Academy of Sciences
L. Tal-Or
University of Göttingen
Ariel University
T. Trifonov
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
S. Vanaverbeke
AstroLAB IRIS
KU Leuven
R. Vanderspek
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
J. Wittrock
George Mason University
M. Zechmeister
University of Göttingen
F. Zohrabi
Mississippi State University
Astronomy and Astrophysics
0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)
Vol. 639 A132Exoplanets from space – CHEOPS and PLATO, ESA’s next two projects
Swedish National Space Board (174/18), 2017-01-01 -- 2022-12-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Roots
Basic sciences
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202038160