WASP-128 is a relatively bright (V= 12.37) G0-dwarf, known to host a transiting brown dwarf in a short-period orbit (Hodžić et al. 2018 arXiv:1807.07557 (H18)). Very few such objects are known, which makes WASP-128 a prime target for further observations to better understand giant planet / brown dwarf properties,including formation and migration histories. To facilitate the planning of future observations of WASP-128b, we improve the orbital ephemeris of the system, by using the seven transits of WASP-128 observed by TESS. We note that our orbital period differs significantly from that of H18: it is more than $14\,σ$ (using their uncertainty) larger. This results in our ephemeris predicting a mid-2020 transit to occur almost eight hours later than the H18 ephemeris. We find, however, no evidence for any period variation.
WASP-12 b, WASP-33 b, WASP-36 b, and WASP-46 b are four transiting planetary systems which we have studied. These systems' light curves were derived from observations made by the Transiting Light Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and some ground-based telescopes. We used Exofast-v1 to model these light curves and calculate mid-transit times. Also, we plotted TTV diagrams for them using derived mid-transit times and those available within the literature. O-C analysis of these timings enables us to refine the linear ephemeris of four systems. We measured WASP-12's tidal quality factor based on a…
We present four new light curves of transiting exoplanets WASP-1b and HAT-P-20b, observed within the TASTE (The Asiago Search for Transit timing variations of Exoplanets) project. We re-analyzed light curves from the literature in a homogeneous way, calculating a refined ephemeris and orbital-physical parameters for both objects. WASP-1b does not show any significant Transit Timing Variation signal at the 120 s-level. As for HAT-P-20b, we detected a deviation from our re-estimated linear ephemeris that could be ascribed to the presence of a perturber or, more probably, to a previously unnotice…
We present 22 new transit observations of the exoplanets WASP-18Ab, WASP-19b, and WASP-77Ab, from the Transit Monitoring in the South (TraMoS) project. We simultaneously model our newly collected transit light curves with archival photometry and radial velocity data, to obtain refined physical and orbital parameters. We include TESS light curves of the three exoplanets to perform an extended analysis of the variations in their transit mid-time (TTV) and to refine their planetary orbital ephemeris. We did not find significant $\rm TTV_{RMS}$ variations larger than 47, 65, and 86 seconds for WAS…
The hot-Neptune HD219666b (= TOI-118.01) was an early discovery from Sector 1 of the TESS transit survey. Being a rare "Neptune desert" planet, and transiting a bright, V = 9.9 star, it is a prime target for further study including atmospheric characterisation. Targeting exoplanet transits with major facilities such as HST and the imminent JWST depends on an accurate ephemeris. Here we report a recovery of the transit in WASP-South data, enabling an ephemeris from data spanning 8 years that has a period uncertainty which is smaller by a factor 60 compared to the discovery paper.
Most hot Jupiters are expected to spiral in towards their host stars due to transfering of the angular momentum of the orbital motion to the stellar spin. Their orbits can also precess due to planet-star interactions. Calculations show that both effects could be detected for the very-hot exoplanet WASP-12 b using the method of precise transit timing over a timespan of the order of 10 yr. We acquired new precise light curves for 29 transits of WASP-12 b, spannning 4 observing seasons from November 2012 to February 2016. New mid-transit times, together with literature ones, were used to refine t…
We recover transits of WASP-18 b and WASP-33 b from Hipparcos (1989-1993) photometry. Marginal detections of HAT-P-56 b and HAT-P-2 b may be also present in the data. New ephemerides are fitted to WASP-18 b and WASP-33 b. A tentative (~1.3 sigma) orbital decay is measured for WASP-18 b, but the implied tidal quality factor (Q' ~ 5 x 10^5) is small and survival time (<10^6 years) is too short to be likely. No orbital decay is measured for WASP-33 b, and a limit of Q' > 2 x 10^5 is placed. For both planets, the uncertainties in published ephemerides appear underestimated: the uncertainty in the …
We report photometric follow-up observations of thirteen exoplanets (HATS-1 b, HATS2 b, HATS-3 b, HAT-P-18 b, HAT-P-27 b, HAT-P-30 b, HAT-P-55 b, KELT-4A b, WASP-25 b, WASP-42 b, WASP-57 b, WASP-61 b and WASP-123 b), as part of the Original Research By Young Twinkle Students (ORBYTS) programme. All these planets are potentially viable targets for atmospheric characterisation and our data, which were taken using the LCOGT network of ground-based telescopes, will be combined with observations from other users of ExoClock to ensure that the transit times of these planets continue to be well-known…
We studied three exoplanetary systems with transiting planets: WASP-92, WASP-93 and WASP-118. Using ground-based photometric observations of WASP-92 and WASP-93 and Kepler-K2 observations of WASP-118, we redetermined the orbital and physical parameters of these planets. The precise times of all transits were determined. We constructed O-C diagrams of transits and analysed possible transit timing variations. We did not observe any significant deviation from a linear ephemeris for any of the selected exoplanets. We put upper-mass limits for other hypothetical planets in these systems. Using long…
We present high-precision radial velocity observations of WASP-17 throughout the transit of its close-in giant planet, using the MIKE spectrograph on the 6.5m Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. By modeling the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, we find the sky-projected spin-orbit angle to be lambda = 167.4 \pm 11.2 deg. This independently confirms the previous finding that WASP-17b is on a retrograde orbit, suggesting it underwent migration via a mechanism other than just the gravitational interaction between the planet and the disk. Interestingly, our result for lambda differs by 45 \p…
Orbit Refinement of WASP-18 b and Evidence Against the Existence of WASP-18 c
Christ University（基督大学）；Exoplanet Watch（系外行星观测计划）；California State University, San Marcos（圣马科斯加州州立大学）；University of California, Riverside（加州大学河滨分校）；Mackenzie Presbyterian University（麦肯锡长老会大学）；American Association of Variable Star Observers（变星观测者美国协会）
利用 205 条凌星光变曲线和 449 条径向速度测量，精化 WASP-18 b 的轨道历元并检验 WASP-18 c 的存在性，发现凌星计时和径向速度数据均不支持 WASP-18 c 的存在。
We present here observations of the transit of WASP-10b on 14 October 2009 UT taken from the University of Arizona's 1.55 meter Kuiper telescope on Mt. Bigelow. Conditions were photometric and accuracies of 2.0 mmag RMS were obtained throughout the transit. We have found that the ratio of the planet to host star radii is in agreement with the measurements of Christian et al. (2008) instead of the refinements of Johnson et al. (2009), suggesting that WASP-10b is indeed inflated beyond what is expected from theoretical modeling. We find no evidence for large (> 20 s) transit timing variations in…
We report on the detection of transit timing variations (TTV) of WASP-161b by using the combination of TESS data and archival data. The midpoint of the transits in TESS data are offset by $\sim$67 minutes in Jan. 2019, and $\sim$203 minutes in Jan. 2021, based on the ephemeris published in previous work. We are able to reproduce the transit timings from the archival light curve (SSO-Europa; Jan. 2018) and find SSO-Europa timing is consistent with the published ephemeris under a constant period assumption. Conversely, we find that the SSO-Europa transit midpoint indicates a 6.62-minute variatio…
We present a empirical study of orbital decay for the exoplanet WASP-19b, based on mid-time measurements of 74 complete transits (12 newly obtained by our team and 62 from the literature), covering a 10-year baseline. A linear ephemeris best represents the mid-transit times as a function of epoch. Thus, we detect no evidence of the shortening of WASP-19b's orbital period and establish an upper limit of its steady changing rate, $\dot{P}=-2.294$ ms $yr^{-1}$, and a lower limit for the modified tidal quality factor $Q'_{\star} = (1.23 \pm 0.231) \times 10^{6}$. Both are in agreement with previou…
We present 13 high-precision and four additional light curves of four bright southern-hemisphere transiting planetary systems: WASP-22, WASP-41, WASP-42 and WASP-55. In the cases of WASP-42 and WASP-55, these are the first follow-up observations since their discovery papers. We present refined measurements of the physical properties and orbital ephemerides of all four systems. No indications of transit timing variations were seen. All four planets have radii inflated above those expected from theoretical models of gas-giant planets; WASP-55b is the most discrepant with a mass of 0.63 Mjup and …
As part of the long-term radial velocity monitoring of known transiting planets -- designed to measure orbital eccentricities, spin-orbit alignments and further planetary companions -- we have acquired radial velocity data for the two transiting systems WASP-12 and WASP-14, each harbouring gas giants on close orbits (orbital period of 1.09 and 2.24 days respectively). In both cases, the initial orbital solution suggested a significant orbital eccentricity, 0.049+-0.015 for WASP-12 and 0.091+-0.003 for WASP-14. Since then, measurements of the secondary eclipse of WASP-12 in the infrared have in…
WASP-13b is a sub-Jupiter mass exoplanet orbiting a G1V type star with a period of 4.35 days. The current uncertainty in its impact parameter (0 < b < 0.46) resulted in poorly defined stellar and planetary radii. To better constrain the impact parameter we have obtained high precision transit observations with the RISE instrument mounted on 2.0 m Liverpool Telescope. We present four new transits which are fitted with an MCMC routine to derive accurate system parameters. We found an orbital inclination of 85.2 \pm 0.3 degrees resulting in stellar and planetary radii of 1.56 \pm 0.04 R\odot and …
From its discovery, the WASP-18 system with its massive transiting planet on a tight orbit was identified as a unique laboratory for studies on tidal planet-star interactions. In an analysis of Doppler data, which include five new measurements obtained with the HIRES/Keck-I instrument between 2012 and 2018, we show that the radial velocity signal of the photosphere following the planetary tidal potential can be distilled for the host star. Its amplitude is in agreement with both theoretical predictions of the equilibrium tide approximation and an ellipsoidal modulation observed in an orbital p…
Massive exoplanets on extremely tight orbits, such as WASP-12 b, induce equilibrium tides in their host stars. Following the orbital motion of the planet, the tidal fluid flow in the star can be detected with the radial velocity method. Its signature manifests as the second harmonics of the orbital frequency that mimics a non-zero orbital eccentricity. Using the new radial velocity measurements acquired with the HARPS-N spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and combining them with the literature data, we show that the apparent eccentricity of WASP-12 b's orbit is non-zero at a 5.8 s…
The transiting planet WASP-12 b was identified as a potential target for transit timing studies because a departure from a linear ephemeris was reported in the literature. Such deviations could be caused by an additional planet in the system. We attempt to confirm the existence of claimed variations in transit timing and interpret its origin. We organised a multi-site campaign to observe transits by WASP-12 b in three observing seasons, using 0.5-2.6-metre telescopes. We obtained 61 transit light curves, many of them with sub-millimagnitude precision. The simultaneous analysis of the best-qual…
Many of the known hot Jupiters are formally unstable to tidal orbital decay. The only hot Jupiter for which orbital decay has been directly detected is WASP-12, for which transit timing measurements spanning more than a decade have revealed that the orbital period is decreasing at a rate of $dP/dt\approx 10^{-9}$, corresponding to a reduced tidal quality factor of about $2\times 10^5$. Here, we present a compilation of transit-timing data for WASP-12 and eleven other systems which are especially favorable for detecting orbital decay: KELT-16; WASP-18, 19, 43, 72, 103, 114, and 122; HAT-P-23; H…
Exoplanet research is now target rich with a wide diversity of systems making it difficult for high demand observatories to undertake follow up observations over extended periods of time. We investigate the effectiveness of using 0.4m-class telescopes for monitoring transiting hot Jupiters and their host stars. We consider two representative case studies: WASP-52b with 13 new transits, and HAT-P-23b with 17 new transits and concurrent photometric monitoring covering 78 days. We present updated system parameters and combine our new transit times with previously published results to calculate ne…
Although WASP-14 b is one of the most massive and densest exoplanets on a tight and eccentric orbit, it has never been a target of photometric follow-up monitoring or dedicated observing campaigns. We report on new photometric transit observations of WASP-14 b obtained within the framework of "Transit Timing Variations @ Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative" (TTV@YETI). We collected 19 light-curves of 13 individual transit events using six telescopes located in five observatories distributed in Europe and Asia. From light curve modelling, we determined the planetary, stellar, and geometrical pro…
We present new spectroscopic and photometric observations of the transiting exoplanetary system WASP-3. Spectra obtained during two separate transits exhibit the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect and allow us to estimate the sky-projected angle between the planetary orbital axis and the stellar rotation axis, lambda = 3.3^{+2.5}_{-4.4} degrees. This alignment between the axes suggests that WASP-3b has a low orbital inclination relative to the equatorial plane of its parent star. During our first night of spectroscopic measurements, we observed an unexpected redshift briefly exceeding the expecte…
We used GTC instrument OSIRIS to obtain long-slit spectra in the optical range (520-1040 nm) of the planetary host star WASP-43 (and a reference star) during a full primary transit event and four partial transit observations. We integrated the stellar flux of both stars in different wavelength regions producing several light curves. We fitted transit models to these curves to measure the star-to-planet radius ratio, Rp/Rs, across wavelength among other physical parameters. We measure a Rp/Rs in the white light curve of 0.15988^{+0.00133}_{-0.00145}. We present a tentative detection of an exces…
We present 4 new transit observations of the exoplanet WASP-28b observed between August 2011 and October 2013. Employing another 11 transits available in the literature we compute new ephemeris and redetermine the physical parameters of the star and the exoplanet. Considering 3 yrs of observations, we find no periodic TTVs or long-term variations of the inclination of the orbit, i, or the depth of the transit, k, that could be attributable to the presence of another planetary mass-body in the system. We also study the relations between i and k with different factors that characterize the light…
The TASTE project is searching for low-mass planets with the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) technique, by gathering high-precision, short-cadence light curves for a selected sample of transiting exoplanets. It has been claimed that the "hot Jupiter" WASP-3b could be perturbed by a second planet. Presenting eleven new light curves (secured at the IAC80 and UDEM telescopes) and re-analyzing thirty-eight archival light curves in a homogeneous way, we show that new data do not confirm the previously claimed TTV signal. However, we bring evidence that measurements are not consistent with a constant…
We present time-series photometric observations of thirteen transits in the planetary systems WASP-24, WASP-25 and WASP-26. All three systems have orbital obliquity measurements, WASP-24 and WASP-26 have been observed with Spitzer, and WASP-25 was previously comparatively neglected. Our light curves were obtained using the telescope-defocussing method and have scatters of 0.5 to 1.2 mmag relative to their best-fitting geometric models. We used these data to measure the physical properties and orbital ephemerides of the systems to high precision, finding that our improved measurements are in go…
Theoretical calculations and some indirect observations show that massive exoplanets on tight orbits must decay due to tidal dissipation within their host stars. This orbital evolution could be observationally accessible through precise transit timing over a course of decades. The rate of planetary in-spiralling may not only help us to understand some aspects of evolution of planetary systems, but also can be used as a probe of the stellar internal structure. In this paper we present results of transit timing campaigns organised for a carefully selected sample of hot Jupiter-like planets which…
We present new photometric observations of WASP-15 and WASP-16, two transiting extrasolar planetary systems with measured orbital obliquities but without photometric follow-up since their discovery papers. Our new data for WASP-15 comprise observations of one transit simultaneously in four optical passbands using GROND on the MPG/ESO 2.2m telescope, plus coverage of half a transit from DFOSC on the Danish 1.54m telescope, both at ESO La Silla. For WASP-16 we present observations of four complete transits, all from the Danish telescope. We use these new data to refine the measured physical prop…
We present photometric observations of two transits in the WASP-50 planetary system, obtained using the ESO New Technology Telescope and the defocussed-photometry technique. The rms scatters for the two datasets are 258 and 211\,ppm with a cadence of 170 to 200\,s, setting a new record for ground-based photometric observations of a point source. The data were modelled and fitted using the \textsc{prism} and \textsc{gemc} codes, and the physical properties of the system calculated. We find the mass and radius of the hot star to be $0.861\pm 0.057\Msun$ and $0.855\pm0.019\Rsun$, respectively. Fo…
WASP-12b stands out among the planets of its class of hot Jupiters because of the observed fast orbital decay attributed to tidal dissipation. The measured rate of the orbital period is $\stackrel{\bf\centerdot}{\textstyle{P}}_{\rm orb}\,=\,-\,29\pm3\;\mbox{ms/yr}\;$=$\;(9.2\pm1.0)\times10^{-10}\;\mbox{s/s}$. In the literature heretofore, all attempts to explain this high rate were based on the assumption that the orbital evolution is dominated by the tides in the star. Since the modified tidal quality factor in yellow dwarfs is insufficient to warrant such a decay rate, a hypothesis was put f…
We present seven new transiting hot Jupiters from the WASP-South survey. The planets are all typical hot Jupiters orbiting stars from F4 to K0 with magnitudes of V = 10.3 to 12.5. The orbital periods are all in the range 3.9--4.6 d, the planetary masses range from 0.4--2.3 Mjup and the radii from 1.1--1.4 Mjup. In line with known hot Jupiters, the planetary densities range from Jupiter-like to inflated (rho = 0.13--1.07 rho_jup). We use the increasing numbers of known hot Jupiters to investigate the distribution of their orbital periods and the 3--4-d "pile-up".
We present here three transit observations of HAT-P-9b taken on 14 February 2010, 18 February 2010, and 05 April 2010 UT from the University of Arizona's 1.55 meter Kuiper telescope on Mt. Bigelow. Our transit light curves were obtained in the I filter for all our observations, and underwent the same reduction process. All three of our transits deviated significantly (approximately 24 minutes earlier) from the ephemeris of Shporer et al. (2008). However, due to the large time span between our observed transits and those of Shporer et al. (2008), a 6.5 second (2 sigma) shift downwards in orbita…
WASP-33b is a retrograde hot Jupiter with a period of 1.2 days orbiting around a rapidly rotating and pulsating A-type star. A previous study found that the transit chord of WASP-33b had changed slightly from 2008 to 2014 based on Doppler tomographic measurements. They attributed the change to orbital precession caused by the non-zero oblateness of the host star and the misaligned orbit. We aim to confirm and more precisely model the precession behavior using additional Doppler tomographic data of WASP-33b obtained with the High Dispersion Spectrograph on the 8.2m Subaru telescope in 2011, as …
We report the discovery of WASP-117b, the first planet with a period beyond 10 days found by the WASP survey. The planet has a mass of $M_p= 0.2755 \pm 0.0089 \, M_{J}$, a radius of $R_p= 1.021_{-0.065}^{+0.076}\, R_{J}$ and is in an eccentric ($ e= 0.302 \pm 0.023 $), $ 10.02165 \pm 0.00055 $~d orbit around a main-sequence F9 star. The host star's brightness (V=10.15 mag) makes WASP-117 a good target for follow-up observations, and with a periastron planetary equilibrium temperature of $T_{eq}= 1225_{-39}^{+36}$ K and a low planetary mean density ($ρ_p= 0.259_{-0.048}^{+0.054} \, ρ_{J}$) it i…
A tidal interaction between a star and a close-in exoplanet leads to shrinkage of the planetary orbit and eventual tidal disruption of the planet. Measuring the shrinkage of the orbits will allow for the tidal quality parameter of the star ($Q'_\star$) to be measured, which is an important parameter to obtain information about stellar interiors. We analyse data from TESS for two targets known to host close-in hot Jupiters, WASP-18 and WASP-19, to measure the current limits on orbital period variation and provide new constrains on $Q'_\star$. We modelled the transit shape using all the availabl…
Motivated by the previously reported high orbital decay rate of the planet WASP-43b, eight newly transit light curves are obtained and presented. Together with other data in literature, we perform a self-consistent timing analysis with data covering a timescale of 1849 epochs. The results give an orbital decay rate dP/dt = -0.02890795\pm 0.00772547 sec/year, which is one order smaller than previous values. This slow decay rate corresponds to a normally assumed theoretical value of stellar tidal dissipation factor. In addition, through the frequency analysis, the transit timing variations prese…
We detected the transit of HAT-P-6b at HJD 2454698.3908 +/- 0.0011 and that of WASP-1b at HJD 2454774.3448 +/- 0.0023. The updated orbital periods of the planets are 3.852992 +/- 0.000005 days (HAT-P-6b) and 2.519970 +/- 0.000003 days (WASP-1b). There is no indication of any departures from constant orbital period in these systems.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) recently observed 18 transits of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b. The sequence of transits occurred 81.6 $\pm$ 11.7 seconds earlier than had been predicted, based on data stretching back to 2007. This is unlikely to be the result of a clock error, because TESS observations of other hot Jupiters (WASP-6b, 18b, and 46b) are compatible with a constant period, ruling out an 81.6-second offset at the 6.4$σ$ level. The 1.3-day orbital period of WASP-4b appears to be decreasing at a rate of $\dot{P} = -12.6 \pm 1.2$ milliseconds per year. The apparent period c…
We have analysed radial velocity measurements for known transiting exoplanets to study the empirical signature of tidal orbital evolution for close-in planets. Compared to standard eccentricity determination, our approach is modified to focus on the rejection of the null hypothesis of a circular orbit. We are using a MCMC analysis of radial velocity measurements and photometric constraints, including a component of correlated noise, as well as Bayesian model selection to check if the data justifies the additional complexity of an eccentric orbit. We find that among planets with non-zero eccent…
We present a visible-light full orbital phase curve of the transiting planet WASP-18b measured by the TESS Mission. The phase curve includes the transit, secondary eclipse, and sinusoidal modulations across the orbital phase shaped by the planet's atmospheric characteristics and the star-planet gravitational interaction. We measure the beaming (Doppler boosting) and tidal ellipsoidal distortion phase modulations and show that the amplitudes of both agree with theoretical expectations. We find that the light from the planet's day-side hemisphere occulted during secondary eclipse, with a relativ…
The WASP-18 system, with its massive and extremely close-in planet, WASP-18b (M$_{p}$ = 10.3M$_{J}$, a = 0.02 AU, P = 22.6 hours), is one of the best known exoplanet laboratories to directly measure Q', the modified tidal quality factor and proxy for efficiency of tidal dissipation, of the host star. Previous analysis predicted a rapid orbital decay of the planet toward its host star that should be measurable on the time scale of a few years, if the star is as dissipative as is inferred from the circularization of close-in solar-type binary stars. We have compiled published transit and seconda…
WASP-12b is a transiting hot Jupiter on a 1.09-day orbit around a late-F star. Since the planet's discovery in 2008, the time interval between transits has been decreasing by $29\pm 2$ msec year$^{-1}$. This is a possible sign of orbital decay, although the previously available data left open the possibility that the planet's orbit is slightly eccentric and is undergoing apsidal precession. Here, we present new transit and occultation observations that provide more decisive evidence for orbital decay, which is favored over apsidal precession by a $Δ\mathrm{BIC}$ of 22.3 or Bayes factor of 70,0…
We present 15 new transit observations of the exoplanet WASP-43b in the $i'$,$g'$, and $R$ filters with the 1.0-m telescopes of Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) Network and the IAC80 telescope. We combine our 15 new light curves with 52 others from literature, to analyze homogeneously all the available transit light curves of this exoplanet. By extending the time span of the monitoring of the transits to more than $5~yr$, and by analyzing the individual mid-times of 72 transits, we study the proposed shortening of the orbital period of WASP-43b. We estimate that the times of tr…
The Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS) conducts radial velocity and photometric monitoring of known exoplanets in order to refine planetary orbits and predictions of possible transit times. This effort is primarily directed towards planets not known to transit, but a small sample of our targets consist of known transiting systems. Here we present precision photometry for 6 WASP planets acquired during their transit windows. We perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis for each planet and combine these data with previous measurements to redetermine the period an…
We present evidence that the WASP-14 exoplanetary system has misaligned orbital and stellar-rotational axes, with an angle lambda = 33.1 +/- 7.4 deg between their sky projections. The evidence is based on spectroscopic observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect as well as new photometric observations. WASP-14 is now the third system known to have a significant spin-orbit misalignment, and all three systems have "super-Jupiter" planets (M_P > 3 Mjup) and eccentric orbits. This finding suggests that the migration and subsequent orbital evolution of massive, eccentric exoplanets is somehow di…
By analysing the K2 short-cadence photometry we detect starspot occultation events in the lightcurve of WASP-107, the host star of a warm-Saturn exoplanet. WASP-107 also shows a rotational modulation with a period of 17.5 +/- 1.4 d. Given that the rotational period is nearly three times the planet's orbital period, one would expect in an aligned system to see starspot occultation events to recur every three transits. The absence of such occultation recurrences suggests a misaligned orbit unless the starspots' lifetimes are shorter than the star's rotational period. We also find stellar variabi…
Massive companions in close orbits around G dwarfs are thought to undergo rapid orbital decay due to runaway tidal dissipation. We report here the discovery of WASP-128b, a brown dwarf discovered by the WASP survey transiting a G0V host on a $2.2\,\mathrm{d}$ orbit, where the measured stellar rotation rate places the companion in a regime where tidal interaction is dominated by dynamical tides. Under the assumption of dynamical equilibrium, we derive a value of the stellar tidal quality factor $\log{Q_\star'} = 6.96 \pm 0.19$. A combined analysis of ground-based photometry and high-resolution …
This paper introduces a series of papers aiming to study the dozens of low mass eclipsing binaries (EBLM), with F, G, K primaries, that have been discovered in the course of the WASP survey. Our objects are mostly single-line binaries whose eclipses have been detected by WASP and were initially followed up as potential planetary transit candidates. These have bright primaries, which facilitates spectroscopic observations during transit and allows the study of the spin-orbit distribution of F, G, K+M eclipsing binaries through the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. Here we report on the spin-orbit ang…
WASP-80b is a warm Jupiter transiting a bright late-K/early-M dwarf, providing a good opportunity to extend the atmospheric study of hot Jupiters toward the lower temperature regime. We report multi-band, multi-epoch transit observations of WASP-80b by using three ground-based telescopes covering from optical (g', Rc, and Ic bands) to near-infrared (NIR; J, H, and Ks bands) wavelengths. We observe 5 primary transits, each of which in 3 or 4 different bands simultaneously, obtaining 17 independent transit light curves. Combining them with results from previous works, we find that the observed t…
WASP-12 is a hot Jupiter system with an orbital period of $P= 1.1\textrm{ day}$, making it one of the shortest-period giant planets known. Recent transit timing observations by Maciejewski et al. (2016) and Patra et al. (2017) find a decreasing period with $P/|\dot{P}| = 3.2\textrm{ Myr}$. This has been interpreted as evidence of either orbital decay due to tidal dissipation or a long term oscillation of the apparent period due to apsidal precession. Here we consider the possibility that it is orbital decay. We show that the parameters of the host star are consistent with either a $M_\ast \sim…
We report the results of new transit observations for the three hot Jupiter-like planets HATP-36b, HATP-56b and WASP-52b respectively. Transit timing variations (TTVs) are presented for these systems based on observations that span the period 2016 - 2020. The data were collected with the 0.6 m telescope at Adiyaman University (ADYU60, Turkey) and the 1.0 m telescope at TÜBİTAK National Observatory (TUG, Turkey). Global fits were performed to the combined light curves for each system along with the corresponding radial velocity (RV) data taken from the literature. The extracted parameters (for …
Transits in the planetary system WASP-4 were recently found to occur 80s earlier than expected in observations from the TESS satellite. We present 22 new times of mid-transit that confirm the existence of transit timing variations, and are well fitted by a quadratic ephemeris with period decay dP/dt = -9.2 +/- 1.1 ms/yr. We rule out instrumental issues, stellar activity and the Applegate mechanism as possible causes. The light-time effect is also not favoured due to the non-detection of changes in the systemic velocity. Orbital decay and apsidal precession are plausible but unproven. WASP-4b i…
