WASP-3b: a strongly irradiated transiting gas-giant planet |
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| Institution: | Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics &Physics, Queen's University, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN;Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Apartado de Correos 321, E-38700 Santa Cruz de la Palma, Tenerife, Spain;School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS;Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France;Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS (UMR 7095) –UniversitéPierre &Marie Curie, 98bis; bvd. Arago, 75014 Paris, France Observatoire de Haute-Provence, 04870 St Michel l'Observatoire, France;Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG;Las Cumbres Observatory, 6740 Cortona Dr Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA;Observatoire de Genéve, Universitéde Genéve, 51 Ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland;Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH;Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL;Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA;Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA;STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA;Centre for Astrophysics, Science &Technology Research Institute, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB;Astronomical Institute, Charles University Prague, V Holesovickach 2, CZ-180 00 Praha, Czech Republic;Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611-2055, USA |
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| Abstract: | We report the discovery of WASP-3b, the third transiting exoplanet to be discovered by the WASP and SOPHIE collaboration. WASP-3b transits its host star USNO-B1.0 1256?0285133 every 1.846 834 ± 0.000 002 d. Our high-precision radial velocity measurements present a variation with amplitude characteristic of a planetary-mass companion and in phase with the light curve. Adaptive optics imaging shows no evidence for nearby stellar companions, and line-bisector analysis excludes faint, unresolved binarity and stellar activity as the cause of the radial velocity variations. We make a preliminary spectroscopic analysis of the host star and find it to have T eff= 6400 ± 100 K and log g = 4.25 ± 0.05 which suggests it is most likely an unevolved main-sequence star of spectral type F7-8V. Our simultaneous modelling of the transit photometry and reflex motion of the host leads us to derive a mass of 1.76+0.08?0.14 M J and radius 1.31+0.07?0.14 R J for WASP-3b. The proximity and relative temperature of the host star suggests that WASP-3b is one of the hottest exoplanets known, and thus has the potential to place stringent constraints on exoplanet atmospheric models. |
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| Keywords: | methods: data analysis techniques: photometric techniques: radial velocities planetary systems |
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