Resolves six speculative companions into one giant planet, one eccentric brown dwarf, two low-mass stars, and two stars with no detectable companions.
TOI-216b and TOI-216c: Two warm, large exoplanets in or slightly wide of the 2:1 orbital resonance
1 Pith paper cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
Warm, large exoplanets with 10-100 day orbital periods pose a major challenge to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve. Although high eccentricity tidal migration has been invoked to explain their proximity to their host stars, a handful reside in or near orbital resonance with nearby planets, suggesting a gentler history of in situ formation or disk migration. Here we confirm and characterize a pair of warm, large exoplanets discovered by the TESS Mission orbiting K-dwarf TOI-216. Our analysis includes additional transits and transit exclusion windows observed via ground-based follow-up. We find two families of solutions, one corresponding to a sub-Saturn-mass planet accompanied by a Neptune-mass planet and the other to a Jupiter in resonance with a sub-Saturn-mass planet. We prefer the second solution based on the orbital period ratio, the planet radii, the lower free eccentricities, and libration of the 2:1 resonant argument, but cannot rule out the first. The free eccentricities and mutual inclination are compatible with stirring by other, undetected planets in the system, particularly for the second solution. We discuss prospects for better constraints on the planets' properties and orbits through follow-up, including transits observed from the ground.
fields
astro-ph.EP 1years
2026 1verdicts
UNVERDICTED 1representative citing papers
citing papers explorer
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The Pan-Pacific Planet Search -- IX. A menagerie of companions orbiting evolved stars
Resolves six speculative companions into one giant planet, one eccentric brown dwarf, two low-mass stars, and two stars with no detectable companions.