We confirm a massive sub-Neptune-sized planet on a P = 22.8 days orbit around the star TOI-1824 (Teff = 5200 K, V = 9.7 mag). TESS first identified TOI-1824 b (formerly TOI-1824.01) as an object of interest in 2020 April after two transits in Sector 22 were matched with a single transit in Sector 21. TOI-1824 was subsequently targeted for ground-based Doppler monitoring with Keck-HIRES and APF-Levy. Using a joint model of the TESS photometry, radial velocities, and Ca ii H and K emission measurements as an activity indicator, we find that TOI-1824 b is an unusually dense sub-Neptune. The planet has a radius Rp = 2.63 ± 0.15 R⊕ and mass Mp = 18.5 ± 3.2 M⊕, implying a bulk density of 5.6 ± 1.4 g cm−3. TOI-1824 b's mass and radius situate it near a small group of "superdense sub-Neptunes" (Rp ≲ 3 R⊕ and Mp ≳ 20 M⊕). While the formation mechanism of superdense sub-Neptunes is a mystery, one possible explanation is the constructive collision of primordial icy cores; such giant impacts would drive atmospheric escape and could help explain these planets' apparent lack of massive envelopes. We discuss TOI-1824 b in the context of these overdense planets, whose unique location in the exoplanet mass–radius plane make them a potentially valuable tracer of planet formation.
The TESS-Keck Survey. VII. A Superdense Sub-Neptune Orbiting TOI-1824
- Creators
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Lange, Sarah
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Murphy, Joseph M. Akana
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Batalha, Natalie M.
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Crossfield, Ian J. M.
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Dressing, Courtney D.
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Fulton, Benjamin
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Howard, Andrew W.1
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Huber, Daniel
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Isaacson, Howard
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Kane, Stephen R.
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Petigura, Erik A.
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Robertson, Paul
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Weiss, Lauren M.
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Behmard, Aida
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Beard, Corey
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Blunt, Sarah
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Brinkman, Casey L.
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Chontos, Ashley
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Dai, Fei
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Dalba, Paul A.
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Fetherolf, Tara
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Giacalone, Steven
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Hill, Michelle L.
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Holcomb, Rae
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Lubin, Jack
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MacDougall, Mason G.
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Mayo, Andrew W.
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Močnik, Teo
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Pidhorodetska, Daria
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Polanski, Alex S.
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Rice, Malena
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Rosenthal, Lee J.
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Rubenzahl, Ryan A.
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Scarsdale, Nicholas
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Turtelboom, Emma V.
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Van Zandt, Judah
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Ciardi, David R.
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Boyle, Andrew W.
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this sacred mountain, which is now colonized land.
S.L. and J.M.A.M. acknowledge Artem Aguichine and Rafael Luque for insightful conversations. J.M.A.M. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant No. DGE-1842400. J.M.A.M. acknowledges the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, which is funded by LSSTC, NSF Cybertraining grant No. 1829740, the Brinson Foundation, and the Moore Foundation; his participation in the program has benefited this work. N.M.B. and J.M.A.M. acknowledge support from the NASA Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (NNH19ZDA001N-ICAR) under award No. 19-ICAR19_2-0041. E.A.P. acknowledges the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. I.J.M.C. acknowledges support from the NSF through grant AST-1824644. C.D.D. acknowledges the support of the Hellman Family Faculty Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration via the TESS Guest Investigator Program (80NSSC18K1583). D.H. acknowledges support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC21K0652), and the Australian Research Council (FT200100871). R.A.R. is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, grant No. DGE 1745301. M.R. acknowledges support from Heising-Simons Foundation Grant No. 2023-4478. M.L.H. would like to acknowledge NASA support via the FINESST Planetary Science Division, NASA award No. 80NSSC21K1536. J.V.Z. acknowledges support from the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant 80NSSC22K1606.
Facilities
APF - , Hale (PHARO) - Palomar Observatory's 5.1m Hale Telescope, Keck:I (HIRES) - , NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -
Software References
astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018), celerite2 (Foreman-Mackey 2018), exoplanet (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2020), isoclassify (Huber et al. 2017; Berger et al. 2020), matplotlib (Hunter 2007), numpy (Harris et al. 2020), pandas (pandas development team 2020), pymc3 (Salvatier et al. 2016a), RadVel (Fulton et al. 2018), scipy (Virtanen et al. 2020), SpecMatch-Emp (Yee et al. 2017), SpecMatch-Syn (Petigura et al. 2017), starry (Luger et al. 2019), tessla (Akana Murphy 2023), TESS-SIP (Hedges et al. 2020), theano (Theano Development Team 2016)
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Additional details
- ISSN
- 1538-3881
- National Science Foundation
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE-1842400
- Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation
- National Science Foundation
- OAC-1829740
- Brinson Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NNH19ZDA001N-ICAR
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 19-ICAR19_2-0041
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- AST-1824644
- Hellman Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC18K1583
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC21K0652
- Australian Research Council
- FT200100871
- National Science Foundation
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE-1745301
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- 2023-4478
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Fellowship 80NSSC21K1536
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Fellowship 80NSSC22K1606
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Thirty Meter Telescope