Research Article

Updated Orbital Decay Rate of WASP-12 with New Data from TESS and Ground-based Observations

Volume: 4 Number: 2 December 31, 2023
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Updated Orbital Decay Rate of WASP-12 with New Data from TESS and Ground-based Observations

Abstract

We investigate the orbital decay behavior of the well-studied hot Jupiter WASP-12\,b orbiting its late-F host star on a 1.09-day orbit by analyzing its transit timings. Thanks to precise photometric data covering nearly 15 years of observations from the space and the ground since the discovery of the planet, including a transit light curve of our own, it became possible to study this behaviour in its details. This work updates the orbital period to a new value of $P = 1.0914202527 \pm 0.000000039\,\text{days}$ and agrees with the previous finding that the planetary orbit has been shrinking with an updated rate of $-31.03 \pm 0.94\,\text{ms yr}^{-1}$. This corresponds to an orbital decay timescale of $\tau =P/|\dot{P}| = 3.04 \pm 0.09\,\text{Myr}$ that we attribute to the strong tidal interactions between the host-star and the planet. We also update the reduced stellar tidal quality factor as $Q_{*}^{\prime} = (1.72 \pm 0.39) \times$ $10^{5}$, which corresponds to the lower bound of the previously reported values of the parameter.

Keywords

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Astronomical Sciences (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

December 18, 2023

Publication Date

December 31, 2023

Submission Date

May 31, 2023

Acceptance Date

September 6, 2023

Published in Issue

Year 2023 Volume: 4 Number: 2

Cited By

TJAA is a publication of Turkish Astronomical Society (TAD).