Kepler-91b is NOT a False Positive, Really Giant Exoplanet Around Giant Star

RADIAL VELOCITY OBSERVATIONS AND LIGHT CURVE NOISE MODELING CONFIRM THAT KEPLER-91b IS A GIANT PLANET ORBITING A GIANT STAR

Authors:

Barclay et al

Abstract:

Kepler-91b is a rare example of a transiting hot Jupiter around a red giant star, providing the possibility to study the formation and composition of hot Jupiters under different conditions compared to main-sequence stars. However, the planetary nature of Kepler-91b, which was confirmed using phase-curve variations by Lillo-Box et al., was recently called into question based on a re-analysis of Kepler data. We have obtained ground-based radial velocity observations from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and unambiguously confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-91b by simultaneously modeling the Kepler and radial velocity data. The star exhibits temporally correlated noise due to stellar granulation which we model as a Gaussian Process. We hypothesize that it is this noise component that led previous studies to suspect Kepler-91b to be a false positive. Our work confirms the conclusions presented by Lillo-Box et al. that Kepler-91b is a 0.73 ± 0.13 M Jup planet orbiting a red giant star.