HATS-8b: A low-density transiting super-neptune

D. Bayliss, J. D. Hartman, G. Bakos, K. Penev, G. Zhou, R. Brahm, M. Rabus, A. Jordán, L. Mancini, M. De Val-Borro, W. Bhatti, N. Espinoza, Z. Csubry, A. W. Howard, B. J. Fulton, L. A. Buchhave, T. Henning, B. Schmidt, S. Ciceri, R. W. NoyesH. Isaacson, G. W. Marcy, V. Suc, J. Lázár, I. Papp, P. Sári

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

HATS-8b is a low density transiting super-Neptune discovered as part of the HATSouth project. The planet orbits its solar-like G-dwarf host (V = , = K) with a period of days. HATS-8b is the third lowest-mass transiting exoplanet to be discovered from a wide-field ground-based search, and with a mass of it is approximately halfway between the masses of Neptune and Saturn. However, HATS-8b has a radius of , resulting in a bulk density of just . The metallicity of the host star is super-solar ( = ), providing evidence against the idea that low-density exoplanets form from metal-poor environments. The low density and large radius of HATS-8b results in an atmospheric scale height of almost 1000 km, and in addition to this there is an excellent reference star of nearly equal magnitude at just 19″ separation in the sky. These factors make HATS-8b an exciting target for future atmospheric characterization studies, particularly for long-slit transmission spectroscopy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number49
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume150
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2015

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • planetary systems
  • stars: individual (HATS-8)
  • techniques: photometric
  • techniques: spectroscopic

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