| Issue |
A&A
Volume 488, Number 2, September III 2008
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | L43 - L46 | |
| Section | Letters | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200810246 | |
| Published online | 30 July 2008 | |
Letter to the Editor
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission*,**
IV. CoRoT-Exo-4b: a transiting planet in a 9.2 day synchronous orbit
1
School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK e-mail: suz@astro.ex.ac.uk
2
Sch. Physics & Astronomy, Univ. St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK
3
IAS, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France
4
LAM, Université de Provence, 13388 Marseille, France
5
IAC, E-38205 La Laguna, Spain
6
IAP, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 75014 Paris, France
7
ON/MCT, 20921-030, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8
IfA, University of Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria
9
Institute of Planetary Research, DLR, 12489 Berlin, Germany
10
RSSD, ESA/ESTEC, 2200 Noordwijk, The Netherlands
11
Observatoire de Genève, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
12
OCA, CNRS UMR 6202, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
13
Thüringer Landessternwarte, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
14
IWF, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 8042 Graz, Austria
15
INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
16
IAG, Université de Liège, Liège 1, Belgium
17
Sch. Physics & Astronomy, Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
18
RIU, Universität zu Köln, 50931 Köln, Germany
19
ZAA, TU Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany
20
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France
21
LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France
22
Dept. Geophysics & Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Received:
22
May
2008
Accepted:
18
July
2008
CoRoT, the first space-based transit search, provides
ultra-high-precision light curves with continuous time-sampling
over periods of up to 5 months. This allows the detection of
transiting planets with relatively long periods, and the
simultaneous study of the host star's photometric variability.
In this Letter, we report the discovery of the transiting giant
planet CoRoT-Exo-4b and use the CoRoT light curve to perform a
detailed analysis of the transit and determine the stellar
rotation period.
The CoRoT light curve was pre-processed to remove outliers and
correct for orbital residuals and artefacts due to hot pixels on
the detector. After removing stellar variability about each
transit, the transit light curve was analysed to determine the
transit parameters. A discrete autocorrelation function method
was used to derive the rotation period of the star from the
out-of-transit light curve.
We determine the periods of the planetary orbit and star's
rotation of 9.20205 ± 0.00037 and 8.87 ± 1.12 days
respectively, which is consistent with this being a synchronised
system. We also derive the inclination,
in degrees, the ratio of the orbital
distance to the stellar radius, 
, and the planet-to-star radius ratio
.
We discuss briefly the coincidence between the orbital period of
the planet and the stellar rotation period and its possible
implications for the system's migration and star-planet
interaction history.
Key words: techniques: photometric / stars: planetary systems / stars: rotation
The CoRoT space mission, launched on December 27th 2006, has been developed and is operated by CNES, with the contribution of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, ESA, Germany, and Spain. The first CoRoT data will be available to the public in February 2009 from the CoRoT archive: http://idoc-corot.ias.u-psud.fr/
© ESO, 2008
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