Following the TraCS of exoplanets with Pan-Planets: Wendelstein-1b and Wendelstein-2b

Obermeier, C.; Steuer, J.; Kellermann, H.; Saglia, R. P.; Henning, Th; Riffeser, A.; Hopp, U.; Stefansson, G.; Canas, C.; Ninan, J.; Mahadevan, S.; Isaacson, H.; Howard, A. W.; Livingston, J.; Koppenhoefer, J. and Bender, R. (2020): Following the TraCS of exoplanets with Pan-Planets: Wendelstein-1b and Wendelstein-2b. In: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 639, A130

Abstract

Hot Jupiters seem to get rarer with decreasing stellar mass. The goal of the Pan-Planets transit survey was the detection of such planets and a statistical characterization of their frequency. Here, we announce the discovery and validation of two planets found in that survey, Wendelstein-1b and Wendelstein-2b, which are two short-period hot Jupiters that orbit late K host stars. We validated them both by the traditional method of radial velocity measurements with the HIgh Resolution Echelle Spectrometer and the Habitable-zone Planet Finder instruments and then by their Transit Color Signature (TraCS). We observed the targets in the wavelength range of 4000 24 000 angstrom and performed a simultaneous multiband transit fit and additionally determined their thermal emission via secondary eclipse observations. Wendelstein-1b is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.0314(-0.0061)(+0.0061) R-J and mass of 0.592(-0.129)(+0.165) M-J, orbiting a K7V dwarf star at a period of 2.66 d, and has an estimated surface temperature of about 1727(-90)(+78) K. Wendelstein-2b is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.1592(-0.0210)(+0.0204) R-J and a mass of 0.731(-0.311)(+0.541) M-J, orbiting a K6V dwarf star at a period of 1.75 d, and has an estimated surface temperature of about 1852(-140)(+120) K. With this, we demonstrate that multiband photometry is an effective way of validating transiting exoplanets, in particular for fainter targets since radial velocity follow-up becomes more and more costly for those targets.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 0004-6361
• Language: English