HAT-P-47b AND HAT-P-48b: Two Low Density Sub-Saturn-Mass Transiting Planets on the Edge of the Period--Mass Desert

• Main Authors: Bakos, G. Ã., Hartman, J. D., Torres, G., Latham, D. W., Sato, B., Bieryla, A., Shporer, A., Howard, A. W., Fulton, B. J., Buchhave, L. A., Penev, K., Kovács, G., Kovács, T., Csubry, Z., Esquerdo, G. A., Everett, M., Szklenár, T., Quinn, S. N., Béky, B., Marcy, G. W., Noyes, R. W., Lázár, J., Papp, I., Sári, P.
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: planetary systems — stars: individual (HAT-P-47; GSC 2324-00031; HAT-P-48; GSC 2326-00214) — techniques: spectroscopic; photometric; Norway; Jupiter; Observatorio; Saturn; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1606.04556

We report the discovery of two new transiting extrasolar planets orbiting moderately bright (V = 10.7 and 12.2 mag) F stars (masses of 1.39 M_⊙ and 1.10 M_⊙, respectively). The planets have periods of P = 4.7322 d and 4.4087 d, and masses of 0.21 MJ and 0.17 MJ which are almost half-way between those of Neptune and Saturn. With radii of 1.31 R_J and 1.13 R_J, these very low density planets are the two lowest mass planets with radii in excess that of Jupiter. Comparing with other recent planet discoveries, we find that sub-Saturns (0.18M_J < M_p < 0.3M_J) and super-Neptunes (0.05M_J < M_p < 0.18M_J) exhibit a wide range of radii, and their radii exhibit a weaker correlation with irradiation than higher mass planets. The two planets are both suitable for measuring the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and for atmospheric characterization. Measuring the former effect would allow an interesting test of the theory that star-planet tidal interactions are responsible for the tendency of close-in giant planets around convective envelope stars to be on low obliquity orbits. Both planets fall on the edge of the short period Neptunian desert in the semi-major axis-mass plane. Submitted on 14 Jun 2016. HATNet operations have been funded by NASA grants NNG04GN74G, NNX08AF23G, NNX13AJ15G and SAO IR&D grants. We acknowledge partial support also from the Kepler Mission under NASA Cooperative Agreement NCC2-1390 (D.W.L., PI). This research has made use of Keck telescope time granted through NOAO (A284Hr, A245Hr) and NASA (N108Hr, N154Hr, N130Hr). Based in part on data collected at Subaru Telescope (program o11170), which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. This paper presents observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This paper uses observations obtained with facilities of the Las ...