English

The Kepler-19 System: A Transiting 2.2 R_Earth Planet and a Second Planet Detected via Transit Timing Variations

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2015-05-30 v1

Abstract

We present the discovery of the Kepler-19 planetary system, which we first identified from a 9.3-day periodic transit signal in the Kepler photometry. From high-resolution spectroscopy of the star, we find a stellar effective temperature Teff=5541 \pm 60 K, a metallicity [Fe/H]=-0.13 \pm 0.06, and a surface gravity log(g)=4.59 \pm 0.10. We combine the estimate of Teff and [Fe/H] with an estimate of the stellar density derived from the photometric light curve to deduce a stellar mass of M_star = 0.936 \pm 0.040 M_Sun and a stellar radius of R_star = 0.850 \pm 0.018 R_Sun. We rule out the possibility that the transits result from an astrophysical false positive by first identifying the subset of stellar blends that reproduce the precise shape of the light curve. We conclude that the planetary scenario is more than three orders of magnitude more likely than a blend. The blend scenario is independently disfavored by the achromaticity of the transit: we measure a transit depth with Spitzer at 4.5 {\mu}m of 547+113-110 ppm, consistent with the depth measured in the Kepler optical bandpass of 567\pm6 ppm. We determine a physical radius of the planet Kepler-19b of R_p = 2.209 \pm 0.048 R_Earth. From radial-velocity observations of the star, we find an upper limit on the planet mass of 20.3 M_Earth, corresponding to a maximum density of 10.4 g cm^-3. We report a significant sinusoidal deviation of the transit times from a predicted linear ephemeris, which we conclude is due to an additional perturbing body in the system. We cannot uniquely determine the orbital parameters of the perturber, as various dynamical mechanisms match the amplitude, period, and shape of the transit timing signal and satisfy the host star's radial velocity limits. However, the perturber in these mechanisms has period <160 days and mass <6 M_Jup, confirming its planetary nature as Kepler-19c. [Abridged]

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.1561,
  title  = {The Kepler-19 System: A Transiting 2.2 R_Earth Planet and a Second Planet Detected via Transit Timing Variations},
  author = {Sarah Ballard and Daniel Fabrycky and Francois Fressin and David Charbonneau and Jean-Michel Desert and Guillermo Torres and Geoffrey Marcy and Christopher J. Burke and Howard Isaacson and Christopher Henze and Jason H. Steffen and David R. Ciardi and Steven B. Howell and William D. Cochran and Michael Endl and Stephen T. Bryson and Jason F. Rowe and Matthew J. Holman and Jack J. Lissauer and Jon M. Jenkins and Martin Still and Eric B. Ford and Jessie L. Christiansen and Christopher K. Middour and Michael R. Haas and Jie Li and Jennifer R. Hall and Sean McCauliff and Natalie M. Batalha and David G. Koch and William J. Borucki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.1561},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

50 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ