Browsing by Author "Millholland, Sarah C."

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    A 2:1 Mean-motion Resonance Super-Jovian Pair Revealed by TESS, FEROS, and HARPS
    (2023) Bozhilov, Vladimir; Antonova, Desislava; Hobson, Melissa J.; Brahm, Rafael; Jordan, Andres; Henning, Thomas; Eberhardt, Jan; Rojas, Felipe I.; Batygin, Konstantin; Torres-Miranda, Pascal; Stassun, Keivan G.; Millholland, Sarah C.; Stoeva, Denitza; Minev, Milen; Espinoza, Nestor; Ricker, George R.; Latham, David W.; Dragomir, Diana; Kunimoto, Michelle; Jenkins, Jon M.; Ting, Eric B.; Seager, Sara; Winn, Joshua N.; Villasenor, Jesus Noel; Bouma, Luke G.; Medina, Jennifer; Trifonov, Trifon
    We report the discovery of a super-Jovian 2:1 mean-motion resonance (MMR) pair around the G-type star TIC 279401253, whose dynamical architecture is a prospective benchmark for planet formation and orbital evolution analysis. The system was discovered thanks to a single-transit event recorded by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission, which pointed to a Jupiter-sized companion with poorly constrained orbital parameters. We began ground-based precise radial velocity (RV) monitoring with HARPS and FEROS within the Warm gIaNts with tEss survey to constrain the transiting body's period, mass, and eccentricity. The RV measurements revealed not one but two massive planets with periods of 76.80(-0.06)(+0.06) and 155.3(-0.7)(+0.7) days, respectively. A combined analysis of transit and RV data yields an inner transiting planet with a mass of 6.14(-0.42)(+0.39) M-Jup and a radius of 1.00(-0.04)(+0.04) R-Jup, and an outer planet with a minimum mass of 8.02(-0.18)(+0.18) M-Jup, indicating a massive giant pair. A detailed dynamical analysis of the system reveals that the planets are locked in a strong firstorder, eccentricity-type 2:1 MMR, which makes TIC 279401253 one of the rare examples of truly resonant architectures supporting disk-induced planet migration. The bright host star, V approximate to 11.9 mag, the relatively short orbital period (P-b = 76.80(-0.06)(+0.06) days), and pronounced eccentricity (e = 0.448(-0.029)(+0.029)) make the transiting planet a valuable target for atmospheric investigation with the James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based extremely large telescopes.
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    The Warm Neptune GJ 3470b Has a Polar Orbit
    (2022) Stefansson, Gudmundur; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Petrovich, Cristobal; Winn, Joshua N.; Kanodia, Shubham; Millholland, Sarah C.; Maney, Marissa; Canas, Caleb, I; Wisniewski, John; Robertson, Paul; Ninan, Joe P.; Ford, Eric B.; Bender, Chad F.; Blake, Cullen H.; Cegla, Heather; Cochran, William D.; Diddams, Scott A.; Dong, Jiayin; Endl, Michael; Fredrick, Connor; Halverson, Samuel; Hearty, Fred; Hebb, Leslie; Hirano, Teruyuki; Lin, Andrea S. J.; Logsdon, Sarah E.; Lubar, Emily; McElwain, Michael W.; Metcalf, Andrew J.; Monson, Andrew; Rajagopal, Jayadev; Ramsey, Lawrence W.; Roy, Arpita; Schwab, Christian; Schweiker, Heidi; Terrien, Ryan C.; Wright, Jason T.
    The warm Neptune GJ 3470b transits a nearby (d = 29 pc) bright slowly rotating M1.5-dwarf star. Using spectroscopic observations during two transits with the newly commissioned NEID spectrometer on the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory, we model the classical Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, yielding a sky-projected obliquity of lambda = 98(-12)(+15)degrees and a v sin i = 0.85(-033)(+0.27) km s(-1). Leveraging information about the rotation period and size of the host star, our analysis yields a true obliquity of psi = 95(-8)(+9)degrees, revealing that GJ 3470b is on a polar orbit. Using radial velocities from HIRES, HARPS, and the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, we show that the data are compatible with a long-term radial velocity (RV) slope of gamma = -0.0022 +/- 0.0011 m s(-1) day(-1) over a baseline of 12.9 yr. If the RV slope is due to acceleration from another companion in the system, we show that such a companion is capable of explaining the polar and mildly eccentric orbit of GJ 3470b using two different secular excitation models. The existence of an outer companion can be further constrained with additional RV observations, Gaia astrometry, and future high-contrast imaging observations. Lastly, we show that tidal heating from GJ 3470b's mild eccentricity has most likely inflated the radius of GJ 3470b by a factor of similar to 1.5-1.7, which could help account for its evaporating atmosphere.