A third exoplanetary system with misaligned orbital and stellar spin axes

John Asher Johnson, Joshua N. Winn, Simon Albrecht, Andrew W. Howard, Geoffrey W. Marcy, J. Zachary Gazak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

80 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present evidence that the WASP-14 exoplanetary system has misaligned orbital and stellarrotational axes, with an angle A = -33.1° ± 7.4° between their sky projections. The evidence is based on spectroscopic observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect as well as new photometric observations. WASP-14 is now the third system known to have a significant spin-orbit misalignment, and all three systems have "super-Jupiter" planets (M P > 3 MJup) and eccentric orbits. This finding suggests that the migration and subsequent orbital evolution of massive, eccentric exoplanets is somehow different from that of less massive close-in Jupiters, the majority of which have well-aligned orbits.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1104-1111
Number of pages8
JournalPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Volume121
Issue number884
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2009
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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