HAT-P-31b,c: A transiting, eccentric, hot Jupiter and a long-period, massive third body

  • D. M. Kipping
  • , J. Hartman
  • , G. Á Bakos
  • , G. Torres
  • , D. W. Latham
  • , D. Bayliss
  • , L. L. Kiss
  • , B. Sato
  • , B. Béky
  • , Géza Kovcs
  • , S. N. Quinn
  • , L. A. Buchhave
  • , J. Andersen
  • , G. W. Marcy
  • , A. W. Howard
  • , D. A. Fischer
  • , J. A. Johnson
  • , R. W. Noyes
  • , D. D. Sasselov
  • , R. P. Stefanik
  • J. Lázár, I. Papp, P. Sári, G. Frész

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the discovery of HAT-P-31b, a transiting exoplanet orbiting the V = 11.660 dwarf star GSC 2099-00908. HAT-P-31b is the first planet discovered with the Hungarian-made Automated Telescope (HAT) without any follow-up photometry, demonstrating the feasibility of a new mode of operation for the HATNet project. The 2.17MJ , 1.1RJ planet has a period of Pb = 5.0054days and maintains an unusually high eccentricity of eb = 0.2450 ± 0.0045, determined through Keck, FIbr-fed chelle Spectrograph, and Subaru high-precision radial velocities (RVs). Detailed modeling of the RVs indicates an additional quadratic residual trend in the data detected to very high confidence. We interpret this trend as a long-period outer companion, HAT-P-31c, of minimum mass 3.4MJ and period ≥2.8years. Since current RVs span less than half an orbital period, we are unable to determine the properties of HAT-P-31c to high confidence. However, dynamical simulations of two possible configurations show that orbital stability is to be expected. Further, if HAT-P-31c has non-zero eccentricity, our simulations show that the eccentricity of HAT-P-31b is actively driven by the presence of c, making HAT-P-31 a potentially intriguing dynamical laboratory.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number95
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume142
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2011
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • planetary systems
  • stars: individual (HAT-P-31, GSC 2099-00908)
  • techniques: photometric
  • techniques: spectroscopic

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