Title: Planet-Planet Eclipse and the Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect of a Multiple Transiting System: Joint Analysis of the Subaru Spectroscopy and the Kepler Photometry Authors: Teruyuki Hirano, Norio Narita, Bun'ei Sato, Yasuhiro H. Takahashi, Kento Masuda, Yoichi Takeda, Wako Aoki, Motohide Tamura, Yasushi Suto
We report a joint analysis of the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect with Subaru and the Kepler photometry for Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) 94 system. The system comprises four transiting planet candidates with orbital periods of 22.3 (KOI-94.01), 10.4 (KOI-94.02), 54.3 (KOI-94.03), and 3.7 (KOI-94.04) days from the Kepler photometry. We performed the radial velocity (RV) measurement of the system with the Subaru 8.2 m telescope on August 10, 2012 (UT), covering a complete transit of KOI-94.01 for ~6.7 hours. The resulting RV variation due to the RM effect spectroscopically confirms that KOI-94.01 is indeed the transiting planet, and implies that its orbital axis is well aligned with the stellar spin axis; the projected spin-orbit angle \lambda is estimated as -7_{-11}^{+12} deg. This is the first measurement of the RM effect for a multiple transiting system. Remarkably, the archived Kepler lightcurve around BJD=2455211.5 (date in UT January 14/15, 2010) indicates a "double transit" event of KOI-94.01 and KOI-94.03, in which the two planets transit the stellar disk simultaneously. Moreover, the two planets partially overlap each other, and exhibit a "planet-planet eclipse" around the transit center. This provides a rare opportunity to put tight constraints on the configuration of the two transiting planets by joint analysis with our Subaru RM measurement. Indeed, we find that the projected mutual inclination of KOI-94.01 and KOI-94.03 is estimated to be \delta = -1.15° ± 0.55°. Implications for the migration model of multiple planet systems are also discussed.
Exoplanets form never-seen-before celestial alignment
The heavens have aligned in a way never seen before, with two exoplanets overlapping as they cross their star. The phenomenon is so new it doesn't yet have a name. Teruyuki Hirano of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues used data from the Kepler space telescope to probe KOI-94, a star seemingly orbited by four planets. A planet passing in front of a star, or transiting, causes the star's light to momentarily dim: that's how Kepler spots exoplanets. Two planets transiting at the same time dim the star even more, but if they also overlap there is a momentary increase in brightness as the planets cover less of the star. Read more