* Astronomy

Title: HAT-P-14b: A 2.2 Jupiter-mass exoplanet transiting a bright F star
Authors: G. Torres (1), G. A. Bakos (1 and 2), J. Hartman (1), Geza Kovacs (3), R. W. Noyes (1), D. W. Latham (1), D. A. Fischer (4), J. A. Johnson (5), G. W. Marcy (6), A. W. Howard (6), D. D. Sasselov (1), D. Kipping (1 and 7), B. Sipocz (1 and 8), R. P. Stefanik (1), G. A. Esquerdo (1), M. E. Everett (9), J. Lazar (10), I. Papp (10), P. Sari (10) ((1) CfA, (2) NSF Fellow, (3) Konkoly Observatory, Hungary, (4) San Francisco State Univ., CA, (5) Institute for Astronomy, HI, (6) Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, (7) University College London, UK, (8) Centre for Astrophysics Research, Univ. of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, (9) Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, (10) Hungarian Astronomical Association, Budapest)
(Version v2)

We report the discovery of HAT-P-14b, a fairly massive transiting extrasolar planet orbiting the moderately bright star GSC 3086-00152 (V = 9.98), with a period of P = 4.627669 ±0.000005 days. The transit is close to grazing (impact parameter 0.891 +0.007/-0.008) and has a duration of 0.0912 ±0.0017 days, with a reference epoch of mid transit of Tc = 2454875.28938 ±0.00047 (BJD). The orbit is slightly eccentric (e = 0.107 ±0.013), and the orientation is such that occultations are unlikely to occur. The host star is a slightly evolved mid-F dwarf with a mass of 1.386 ±0.045 M(Sun), a radius of 1.468 ±0.054 R(Sun) effective temperature 6600 ±90 K, and a slightly metal-rich composition corresponding to [Fe/H] = +0.11 ±0.08. The planet has a mass of 2.232 ±0.059 M(Jup) and a radius of 1.150 ±0.052 R(Jup), implying a mean density of 1.82 ±0.24 g/cm3. Its radius is well reproduced by theoretical models for the 1.3 Gyr age of the system if the planet has a heavy-element fraction of about 50 M(Earth) (7% of its total mass). The brightness, near-grazing orientation, and other properties of HAT-P-14 make it a favourable transiting system to look for changes in the orbital elements or transit timing variations induced by a possible second planet, and also to place meaningful constraints on the presence of sub-Earth mass or Earth mass exomoons, by monitoring it for transit duration variations.

Read more (123kb, PDF)