The Oblique orbit of the Super-Neptune HAT-P-11b
Abstract
We find the orbit of the Neptune-sized exoplanet HAT-P-11b to be highly inclined relative to the equatorial plane of its host star. This conclusion is based on spectroscopic observations of two transits, which allowed the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect to be detected with an amplitude of 1.5m s^(−1). The sky-projected obliquity is 103^(+26) _(−10) deg. This is the smallest exoplanet for which spin–orbit alignment has been measured. The result favors a migration scenario involving few-body interactions followed by tidal dissipation. This finding also conforms with the pattern that the systems with the weakest tidal interactions have the widest spread in obliquities.We predict that the high obliquity of HAT-P-11 will be manifest in transit light curves from the Kepler spacecraft: starspot-crossing anomalies will recur at most once per stellar rotation period, rather than once per orbital period as they would for a well-aligned system.
Additional Information
© 2010 American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 September 7; accepted 2010 September 27; published 2010 October 20. We thank Norio Narita and Teruyuki Hirano for sharing their results prior to publication, and Dan Fabrycky and Scott Gaudi for helpful discussions. We acknowledge the support from the MIT Class of 1942, NASA grants NNX09AD36G (to J.N.W.) and NNX08AF23G (G.B.), and NSF grant AST- 0702843 (G.B.). The data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We extend special thanks to those of Hawaiian ancestry on whose sacred mountain of Mauna Kea we are privileged to be guests. Without their generous hospitality, the Keck observations presented herein would not have been possible.Attached Files
Published - Winn2010p12077Astrophys_J_Lett.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 21635
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110106-144941893
- MIT Class of 1942
- NASA
- NNX09AD36G
- NASA
- NNX08AF23G
- NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship
- AST-0702843
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- Created
-
2011-01-06Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)