Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2021

Published In

The Astronomical Journal

Abstract

We present the discovery of TOI-1518b—an ultra-hot Jupiter orbiting a bright star (V = 8.95). The transiting planet is confirmed using high-resolution optical transmission spectra from EXPRES. It is inflated, with Rp = 1.875 ± 0.053 RJ, and exhibits several interesting properties, including a misaligned orbit (240.34 (+0.93)/(-0.98) degrees) and nearly grazing transit (b = 0.9036 (+0.0061)/(-0.0053)). The planet orbits a fast-rotating F0 host star (Teff ≃ 7300 K) in 1.9 days and experiences intense irradiation. Notably, the TESS data show a clear secondary eclipse with a depth of 364 ± 28 ppm and a significant phase-curve signal, from which we obtain a relative day–night planetary flux difference of roughly 320 ppm and a 5.2σ detection of ellipsoidal distortion on the host star. Prompted by recent detections of atomic and ionized species in ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres, we conduct an atmospheric cross-correlation analysis. We detect neutral iron (5.2σ), at Kp = 157 (+68)/(-44) km s⁻¹ and Vsys = -16 (+2)/(-4), adding another object to the small sample of highly irradiated gas-giant planets with Fe detections in transmission. Detections so far favor particularly inflated gas giants with radii ≳1.78 RJ, which may be due to observational bias. With an equilibrium temperature of Teq = 2492 ± 38 K and a measured dayside brightness temperature of 3237 ± 59 K (assuming zero geometric albedo), TOI-1518b is a promising candidate for future emission spectroscopy to probe for a thermal inversion.

Comments

This work is a preprint that is freely available courtesy of IOP Publishing and the American Astronomical Society. The final published version is available online.

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