THE LOW DENSITY TRANSITING EXOPLANET WASP-15b

Journal Article · Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/137/6/4834; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21255735

West, R G ^[1]; Anderson, D R; Hellier, C; Maxted, P F. L.; Smalley, B; Wilson, D M; Bentley, S J ^[2]; Gillon, M; Queloz, D; Mayor, M; Pepe, F ^[3]; Hebb, L; Collier Cameron, A; Enoch, B; Horne, K; Parley, N ^[4]; Irwin, J ^[5]; Lister, T A ^[6]; Pollacco, D ^[7]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
2. Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG (United Kingdom)
3. Observatoire de Geneve, Universite de Geneve, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny (Switzerland)
4. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, Fife KY16 9SS (United Kingdom)
5. Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, MS 10, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
6. Las Cumbres Observatory, 6740 Cortona Dr. Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 (United States)
7. Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)

We report the discovery of a low-density exoplanet transiting an 11th magnitude star in the Southern hemisphere. WASP-15b, which orbits its host star with a period P = 3.7520656 {+-} 0.0000028 d, has a mass M {sub p} = 0.542 {+-} 0.050 M {sub J} and radius R {sub p} = 1.428 {+-} 0.077 R {sub J}, and is therefore one of the least dense transiting exoplanets so far discovered ({rho}{sub p} = 0.247 {+-} 0.035 g cm{sup -3}). An analysis of the spectrum of the host star shows it to be of spectral type around F5, with an effective temperature T {sub eff} = 6300 {+-} 100 K and [Fe/H] = -0.17 {+-} 0.11.

• OSTI ID: 21255735
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 137, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/137/6/4834; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
DENSITY
MASS
ORBITS
RADIAL VELOCITY
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
STARS