James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Harvard ADS: The K2-24 planetary system revisited by CHEOPS

Paper abstract: K2-24 is a planetary system composed of two transiting low-density Neptunians locked in an almost perfect 2:1 resonance and showing large TTVs, i.e., an excellent laboratory to search for signatures of planetary migration. Previous studies performed with K2, Spitzer and RV data tentatively claimed a significant non-zero eccentricity for one or both planets, possibly high enough to challenge the scenario of pure disk migration through resonant capture. With 13 new CHEOPS light curves (seven of planet -b, six of planet -c), we carried out a global photometric and dynamical (RV+TTV) re-analysis by including all the available literature data as well. We got the most accurate set of planetary parameters to date for the K2-24 system, including radii and masses at 1% and 5% precision (now essentially limited by the uncertainty on stellar parameters) and non-zero eccentricities e_b=0.0498_{-0.0018}^{+0.0011}, e_c=0.0282_{-0.0007}^{+0.0003} detected at very high significance for both planets. Such relatively large values imply the need for an additional physical mechanism of eccentricity excitation during or after the migration stage. Also, while the accuracy of the previous TTV model had drifted by up to 0.5 days at the current time, we constrained the orbital solution firmly enough to predict the forthcoming transits for the next ~15 years, thus enabling an efficient follow-up with top-level facilities such as JWST or ESPRESSO.