Spin–Orbit Misalignment and Precession in the Kepler-13Ab Planetary System
Article
Article Title | Spin–Orbit Misalignment and Precession in the Kepler-13Ab Planetary System |
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ERA Journal ID | 1048 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Herman, Miranda K. (Author), de Mooij, Ernst J. W. (Author), Huang, Chelsea X. (Author) and Jayawardhana, Ray (Author) |
Journal Title | The Astronomical Journal |
Journal Citation | 155 (1), pp. 1-8 |
Article Number | 13 |
Number of Pages | 8 |
Year | 2017 |
Publisher | IOP Publishing |
Place of Publication | United States |
ISSN | 0004-6256 |
1538-3881 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa991f |
Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aa991f |
Abstract | Gravity darkening induced by rapid stellar rotation provides us with a unique opportunity to characterize the spin-orbit misalignment of a planetary system through analysis of its photometric transit. We use the gravity-darkened transit modeling code simuTrans to reproduce the transit light curve of Kepler-13Ab by separately analyzing phase-folded transits for 12 short-cadence Kepler quarters. We verify the temporal change in impact parameter indicative of spin-orbit precession identified by Szabó et al. and Masuda, reporting a rate of change day-1. We further investigate the effect of light dilution on the fitted impact parameter and find that less than 1% of additional light is sufficient to explain the seasonal variation seen in the Kepler quarter data. We then extend our precession analysis to the phase curve data from which we report a rate of change day-1. This value is consistent with that of the transit data at a lower significance and provides the first evidence of spin-orbit precession based solely on the temporal variation of the secondary eclipse. |
Keywords | planets and satellites: individual (Kepler-13, KOI-13); stars: rotation; techniques: photometric; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510109. Stellar astronomy and planetary systems |
Public Notes | For access to this article, please click on the URL link provided. |
Byline Affiliations | University of Toronto, Canada |
Dublin City University, Ireland | |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States | |
York University, Canada | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q7259/spin-orbit-misalignment-and-precession-in-the-kepler-13ab-planetary-system
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