English

A Revised Density Estimate for the Largest Known Exoplanet, HAT-P-67 b

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2025-04-29 v2

Abstract

Low-density (ρ<0.1 g cm3\rho < 0.1 \rm{~g~cm^{-3}}) hot Saturns are expected to quickly (<100<100 Myr) lose their atmospheres due to stellar irradiation, explaining their rarity. HAT-P-67 b seems to be an exception, with ρ<0.09 g cm3\rho < 0.09 \rm{~g~cm^{-3}} and maintaining its atmosphere to well after 1 Gyr. We present a photometric and spectroscopic follow-up of HAT-P-67 b to determine how it avoided mass loss. HAT-P-67 b orbits a V=10.1V=10.1 evolved F-type star in a 4.81 day orbit. We present new radial velocity observations of the system from the NEID spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5m Telescope from a follow-up campaign robust to stellar activity. We characterize the activity using photometry and activity indicators, revealing a stellar rotation period (5.40±0.095.40\pm0.09 d) near HAT-P-67 b's orbital period. We mitigate the stellar activity using a constrained quasi-periodic Gaussian process through a joint fit of archival ground-based photometry, TESS photometry, and our NEID observations, obtaining a planetary mass of Mp=0.45±0.15 MJM_p = 0.45 \pm 0.15~M_{\rm J}. Combined with a radius measurement of Rp=2.140±0.025 RJR_p=2.140 \pm 0.025~R_{\rm J}, this yields a density of ρp=0.0610.021+0.020 g cm3\rho_p = 0.061^{+0.020}_{-0.021} \rm{~g~cm^{-3}}, making HAT-P-67 b the second lowest-density hot giant known to date. We find the recent evolution of the host star caused mass loss for HAT-P-67 b to only recently occur. The planet will be tidally disrupted/engulfed in 150500\sim 150-500 Myr, shortly after losing its atmosphere. With rapid atmospheric mass loss, a large, helium leading tail, and upcoming observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, HAT-P-67 b is an exceptional target for future studies, for which an updated mass measurement provides important context.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.13997,
  title  = {A Revised Density Estimate for the Largest Known Exoplanet, HAT-P-67 b},
  author = {Gavin Wang and William O. Balmer and Laurent Pueyo and Daniel Thorngren and Stephen P. Schmidt and Le-Chris Wang and Kevin C. Schlaufman and Guðmundur Stefánsson and Zafar Rustamkulov and David K. Sing},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.13997},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

25 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables. Accepted to AJ. v2 updates tidal evolution analysis with correct stellar age

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:03:46.046Z