2025/09/23 by Angeli Sandoval, Sandoval, Angeli, Caleb I. Cañas +55 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.19492
openalex publication_date 2025/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report the confirmation and analysis of TOI-5349b, a transiting, warm, Saturn-like planet orbiting an early M-dwarf with a period of ∼3.3 days, which we confirmed as part of the Searching for GEMS (Giant Exoplanets around M-dwarf Stars) survey. TOI-5349b was initially identified in photometry from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and subsequently confirmed using high-precision radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) and MAROON-X spectrographs, and from ground-based transit observations obtained using the 0.6-m telescope at Red Buttes Observatory (RBO) and the 1.0-m telescope at the Table Mountain Facility of Pomona College. From a joint fit of the RV and photometric data, we determine the planet's mass and radius to be 0.40± 0.02~MJ (127.4-5.7+5.9~M_⊕) and 0.91± 0.02~RJ (10.2± 0.3~R_⊕), respectively, resulting in a bulk density of ρp=0.66 ±0.06~\mathrmg~cm-3 (∼0.96 the density of Saturn). We determine that the host star is a metal-rich M1-type dwarf with a mass and radius of 0.61 ± 0.02~M_\odot and 0.58± 0.01~R_\odot, and an effective temperature of Teff = 3751 ± 59 K. Our analysis highlights an emerging pattern, exemplified by TOI-5349, in which transiting GEMS often have Saturn-like masses and densities and orbit metal-rich stars. With the growing sample of GEMS planets, comparative studies of short-period gas giants orbiting M-dwarfs and Sun-like stars are needed to investigate how metallicity and disk conditions shape the formation and properties of these planets.