WASP-14b: 7.3 M_J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit

Y. C. Joshi , D. Pollacco , A. Collier Cameron , I. Skillen , E. Simpson , I. Steele , R. A. Street , H. C. Stempels , D. J. Christian , L. Hebb , F. Bouchy , N. P. Gibson , G. Hébrard , F. P. Keenan , B. Loeillet , J. Meaburn , C. Moutou , B. Smalley , I. Todd , R. G. West , D. R. Anderson , S. Bentley , B. Enoch , C. A. Haswell , C. Hellier , K. Horne , J. Irwin , T. A. Lister , I. Mcdonald , P. Maxted , M. Mayor , A. J. Norton , N. Parley , C. Perrier (1) , F. Pont , D. Queloz , R. Ryans , A. M. S. Smith , S. Udry , P. J. Wheatley , D. M. Wilson

1 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

We report the discovery of a 7.3 MJ exoplanet WASP-14b, one of the most massive transiting exoplanets observed to date. The planet orbits the 10th-magnitude F5V star USNO-B111118-0262485 with a period of 2.243752 d and orbital eccentricity e = 0.09. A simultaneous fit of the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 7.3 +/- 0.5 MJ and a radius of 1.28 +/- 0.08 RJ. This leads to a mean density of about 4.6 gcm-3 making it the densest transiting exoplanets yet found at an orbital period less than 3 d. We estimate this system to be at a distance of 160 +/- 20 pc. Spectral analysis of the host star reveals a temperature of 6475 +/- 100 K, logg = 4.07 cms-2 and v sini = 4.9 +/- 1.0 kms-1, and also a high lithium abundance, logN(Li) = 2.84 +/- 0.05. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate suggest an age for the system of about 0.5-1.0 Gyr.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Y. C. Joshi, D. Pollacco, A. Collier Cameron, I. Skillen, E. Simpson, et al.. WASP-14b: 7.3 M_J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2009, 392, pp.1532. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14178.x⟩. ⟨hal-00479885⟩