English

Spin-orbit alignments for Three Transiting Hot Jupiters: WASP-103b, WASP-87b, & WASP-66b

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2016-05-25 v2

Abstract

We have measured the sky-projected spin-orbit alignments for three transiting Hot Jupiters, WASP-103b, WASP-87b, and WASP-66b, using spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, with the CYCLOPS2 optical-fiber bundle system feeding the UCLES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The resulting sky projected spin-orbit angles of λ=3±33\lambda = 3^{\circ}\pm33^{\circ}, λ=8±11\lambda = -8^{\circ}\pm11^{\circ}, and λ=4±22\lambda = -4^{\circ}\pm22^{\circ} for WASP-103b, WASP-87b, and WASP-66b, respectively, suggest that these three planets are likely on nearly aligned orbits with respect to their host star's spin axis. WASP-103 is a particularly interesting system as its orbital distance is only 20% larger than its host star's Roche radius and the planet likely experiences strong tidal effects. WASP-87 and WASP-66 are hot (Teff=6450±120T_{eff}=6450\pm120 K and Teff=6600±150T_{eff}=6600\pm150 K, respectively) mid-F stars making them similar to the majority of stars hosting planets on high obliquity orbits. Moderate spin-orbit misalignments for WASP-103b and WASP-66b are consistent with our data, but polar and retrograde orbits are not favored for these systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.05754,
  title  = {Spin-orbit alignments for Three Transiting Hot Jupiters: WASP-103b, WASP-87b, & WASP-66b},
  author = {B. C. Addison and C. G. Tinney and D. J. Wright and D. Bayliss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.05754},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Published in the Astrophysical Journal. 18 pages, 8 figures, and 9 tables