Kepler-9 revisited 60% the mass with six times more data
read the original abstract
Kepler-9 was the first case where transit timing variations have been used to confirm the planets in this system. Following predictions of dramatic TTVs - larger than a week - we re-analyse the system based on the full Kepler data set. We re-processed all available data for Kepler-9 removing short and long term trends, measured the times of mid-transit and used those for dynamical analysis of the system. The newly determined masses and radii of Kepler-9b and -9c change the nature of these planets relative to the one described in Holman et al. 2010 (hereafter H10) with very low, but relatively well charcterised (to better than 7%), bulk densities of 0.18 and 0.14 g cm$^3$ (about 1/3 of the H10 value). We constrain the masses (45.1 and 31.0 M$_\oplus$, for Kepler-9b and -9c respectively) from photometry alone, allowing us to see possible indications for an outer non-transiting planet in the radial velocity data. At $2R_\oplus$ Kepler-9d is determined to be larger than suggested before - suggesting that it is a low-mass low-density planet. The comparison between the H10 analysis and our new analysis suggests that small formal error in the TTV inversion may be misleading if the data does not cover a significant fraction of the interaction time scale.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet.
Forward citations
Cited by 1 Pith paper
-
The Illusory Precision of TTV Masses: Hidden Solutions Behind Kepler-9's Tight Mass Ratio
Kepler-9 TTV data permits broad ranges of planetary masses (b: 31.6-47.1 M⊕; c: 21.8-32.3 M⊕) linked by a tight mass ratio, showing that previous single-mode mass determinations were illusory.
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.