Discovery of the secondary eclipse of HAT-P-11 b

Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: khuber@hs.uni-hamburg.de

Received: 12 September 2016
Accepted: 27 October 2016

Abstract

We report the detection of the secondary eclipse of HAT-P-11 b, a Neptune-sized planet orbiting an active K4 dwarf. Using all available short-cadence data of the Kepler mission, we derive refined planetary ephemeris increasing their precision by more than an order of magnitude. Our simultaneous primary and secondary transit modeling results in improved transit and orbital parameters. In particular, the precise timing of the secondary eclipse allows to pin down the orbital eccentricity to 0.26459_-0.00048^+0.00069. The secondary eclipse depth of 6.09_-1.11^+1.12 ppm corresponds to a 5.5σ detection and results in a geometric albedo of 0.39 ± 0.07 for HAT-P-11 b, close to Neptune’s value, which may indicate further resemblances between these two bodies. Due to the substantial orbital eccentricity, the planetary equilibrium temperature is expected to change significantly with orbital position and ought to vary between 630 K and 950 K, depending on the details of heat redistribution in the atmosphere of HAT-P-11 b.