SPIN–ORBIT ALIGNMENT FOR THREE TRANSITING HOT JUPITERS: WASP-103b, WASP-87b, and WASP-66b†

2016/03/31 by B. C. Addison, C. G. Tinney, D. J. Wright +1 · 23 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Exoplanet #Hot Jupiter #Orbit (dynamics) #Planet #Planetary system #Polar #RADIUS #Spectrograph #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP

paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/0004-637x/823/1/29

published in The Astrophysical Journal 823(1), 29 (IOP Publishing) · Published in the Astrophysical Journal. 18 pages, 8 figures, and 9 tables

openalex publication_date 2016/05/18 · arxiv created 2016/05/23 · arxiv updated 2016/05/25 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have measured the sky-projected spin–orbit alignments for three transiting hot Jupiters, WASP-103b, WASP-87b, and WASP-66b, using spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, with the CYCLOPS2 optical fiber bundle system feeding the UCLES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The resulting sky-projected spin–orbit angles of λ = 3° ± 33°, λ = −8° ± 11°, and λ = −4° ± 22° for WASP-103b, WASP-87b, and WASP-66b, respectively, suggest that these three planets are likely on nearly aligned orbits with respect to their host star’s spin axis. WASP-103 is a particularly interesting system as its orbital distance is only 20% larger than its host star’s Roche radius and the planet likely experiences strong tidal effects. WASP-87 and WASP-66 are hot ( T eff = 6450 ± 120 K and T eff = 6600 ± 150 K, respectively) mid-F stars, making them similar to the majority of stars hosting planets on high-obliquity orbits. Moderate spin–orbit misalignments for WASP-103b and WASP-66b are consistent with our data, but polar and retrograde orbits are not favored for these systems.

Citations

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