Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission^⋆

XIII. CoRoT-13b: a dense hot Jupiter in transit around a star with solar metallicity and super-solar lithium content

¹ Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany
e-mail: juan.cabrera@dlr.de
² LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, UMR 8102 CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
³ LESIA, UMR 8109 CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, Université Paris-Diderot, 5 place J. Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
⁴ Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France
⁵ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
⁶ Department of Physics, Denys Wilkinson Building Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK
⁷ Observatoire de l’Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁹ Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille Cedex 13, France
¹⁰ Observatoire de Haute Provence, 04670 Saint Michel l’Observatoire, France
¹¹ Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Aachener Strasse 209, 50931, Germany
¹² Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC/ESA, PO Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹³ University of Vienna, Institute of Astronomy, Türkenschanzstr. 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
¹⁴ IAG-Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brasil
¹⁵ Thüringer Landessternwarte, Sternwarte 5, Tautenburg 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
¹⁶ Université de Nice-SophiaAntipolis, CNRS UMR 6202, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
¹⁷ University of Liège, Allée du 6 août 17, Sart Tilman, Liège 1, Belgium
¹⁸ Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Science, Schmiedlstr. 6, 8042 Graz, Austria
¹⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
²⁰ Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, TU Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Received: 4 June 2010
Accepted: 28 July 2010

Abstract

We announce the discovery of the transiting planet CoRoT-13b. Ground-based follow-up in CFHT and IAC80 confirmed CoRoT’s observations. The mass of the planet was measured with the HARPS spectrograph and the properties of the host star were obtained analyzing HIRES spectra from the Keck telescope. It is a hot Jupiter-like planet with an orbital period of 4.04 days, 1.3 Jupiter masses, 0.9 Jupiter radii, and a density of 2.34 g cm^-3. It orbits a G0V star with T_eff = 5945 K, M_∗ = 1.09 M_⊙, R_∗ = 1.01 R_⊙, solar metallicity, a lithium content of  + 1.45 dex, and an estimated age of between 0.12 and 3.15 Gyr. The lithium abundance of the star is consistent with its effective temperature, activity level, and age range derived from the stellar analysis. The density of the planet is extreme for its mass, implies that heavy elements are present with a mass of between about 140 and 300 M_⊕.