Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission^*

IX. CoRoT-6b: a transiting “hot Jupiter” planet in an 8.9d orbit around a low-metallicity star

¹ Research and Scientific Support Department, European Space Agency, Keplerlaan1, 2200AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands e-mail: malcolm.fridlund@esa.int
² Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
³ LAM, UMR 6110, CNRS/Univ. de Provence, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille, France
⁴ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁵ Thüringer Landessternwarte, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
⁶ IAG Université du Liège, Allée du 6 aôut 17, Liège 1, Belgium
⁷ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
⁸ School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK
⁹ Institute of Planetary Research, DLR, 12489 Berlin, Germany
¹⁰ Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice, France
¹¹ Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Science, Schmiedlstr. 6, 8042 Graz, Austria
¹² Oxford Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
¹³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias , 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁴ Dept. de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁵ Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France
¹⁶ Observatoire de Haute-Provence, CNRS/OAMP, 04870 St Michel l'Observatoire, France
¹⁷ Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Aachener Strasse 209, 50931 Köln, Germany
¹⁸ Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
¹⁹ Institute for Astronomy, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
²⁰ IAG Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brasil
²¹ Netherlands Institute for Space Research, SRON, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA, Utrecht, The Netherlands
²² Wise Observatory, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
²³ TU Berlin, Zentrum für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany
²⁴ LUTH, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France

Received: 28 November 2009
Accepted: 4 January 2010

Abstract

The CoRoT satellite exoplanetary team announces its sixth transiting planet in this paper. We describe and discuss the satellite observations as well as the complementary ground-based observations – photometric and spectroscopic – carried out to assess the planetary nature of the object and determine its specific physical parameters. The discovery reported here is a “hot Jupiter” planet in an 8.9d orbit, 18 stellar radii, or 0.08 AU, away from its primary star, which is a solar-type star (F9V) with an estimated age of 3.0 Gyr. The planet mass is close to 3 times that of Jupiter. The star has a metallicity of 0.2 dex lower than the Sun, and a relatively high ⁷Li abundance. While the light curve indicates a much higher level of activity than, e.g., the Sun, there is no sign of activity spectroscopically in e.g., the [Ca ii] H&K lines.