Red Giant Star TYC 1422-614-1 has a Multi Exoplanetary System

Tracking Advanced Planetary Systems with HARPS-N (TAPAS). I. A multiple planetary system around the red giant star TYC 1422-614-1

Authors:

Niedzielski et al

Abstract:

Context.

Stars that have evolved-off the Main Sequence are crucial in expanding the frontiers of knowledge on exoplanets toward higher stellar masses, and to constrain star-planet interaction mechanisms. These stars, however suffer from intrinsic activity that complicates the interpretation of precise radial velocity measurement and are often avoided in planet searches. We have, over the last 10 years, monitored about 1000 evolved stars for radial velocity variations in search for low-mass companions under the Penn State - Toru\'n Centre for Astronomy Planet Search with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Selected prospective candidates that required higher RV precision meassurements have been followed with HARPS-N at the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo.

Aims.

To detect planetary systems around evolved stars, to be able to build sound statistics on the frequency and intrinsic nature of these systems, and to deliver in-depth studies of selected planetary systems with evidences of star-planet interaction processes.

Methods.

We have obtained for TYC 1422-614-1 69 epochs of precise radial velocity measurements collected over 3651 days with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and 17 epochs of ultra precise HARPS-N data collected over 408 days. We have complemented these RV data with photometric time-series from the All Sky Automatic Survey archive.

Results.

We report the discovery of a multiple planetary system around the evolved K2 giant star TYC 1422-614-1. The system orbiting the 1.15 M⊙ star is composed of a planet with mass msini=2.5 MJ in a 0.69 AU orbit, and a planet/brown dwarf with msini=10 MJ in a 1.37 AU orbit. The multiple planetary system orbiting TYC 1422-614-1 is the first finding of the TAPAS project, a HARPS-N monitoring of evolved planetary systems identified with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.