The Search for the Inbetweeners: How packed are TESS planetary systems?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Horner, Jonathan, Wittenmyer, Robert A., Kane, Stephen R., Holt, Timothy R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Horner, Jonathan
Wittenmyer, Robert A.
Kane, Stephen R.
Holt, Timothy R.
author_facet Horner, Jonathan
Wittenmyer, Robert A.
Kane, Stephen R.
Holt, Timothy R.
contents In this work, we examine seven systems discovered by TESS, to see whether there is any room in those systems for an additional planet (or several) to lurk unseen between the two planets already confirmed therein. In five of those systems (namely HD 15337; HD 21749; HD 63433; HD 73583 and LTT 3780) we find that there is ample room for an undiscovered planet to move between those that have already been discovered. In other words, as they currently stand, those systems are not tightly packed. In stark contrast, the perturbative influence of the two known TOI-1670 planets is such that additional planets in between are ruled out. The final system, TOI 421, is more challenging. In the vast majority of cases, adding an Earth-mass planet to that system between the orbits of the known planets caused catastrophic instability. Just ~1.1% of our simulations of the modified system proved dynamically stable on a timescale of one million years. As a result, it seems that there is very little room between the two known planets in the TOI 421 system for an addition unseen world to exist, but the existence of such a planet can not be definitely ruled out on dynamical grounds alone.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_00245
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Search for the Inbetweeners: How packed are TESS planetary systems?
Horner, Jonathan
Wittenmyer, Robert A.
Kane, Stephen R.
Holt, Timothy R.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
In this work, we examine seven systems discovered by TESS, to see whether there is any room in those systems for an additional planet (or several) to lurk unseen between the two planets already confirmed therein. In five of those systems (namely HD 15337; HD 21749; HD 63433; HD 73583 and LTT 3780) we find that there is ample room for an undiscovered planet to move between those that have already been discovered. In other words, as they currently stand, those systems are not tightly packed. In stark contrast, the perturbative influence of the two known TOI-1670 planets is such that additional planets in between are ruled out. The final system, TOI 421, is more challenging. In the vast majority of cases, adding an Earth-mass planet to that system between the orbits of the known planets caused catastrophic instability. Just ~1.1% of our simulations of the modified system proved dynamically stable on a timescale of one million years. As a result, it seems that there is very little room between the two known planets in the TOI 421 system for an addition unseen world to exist, but the existence of such a planet can not be definitely ruled out on dynamical grounds alone.
title The Search for the Inbetweeners: How packed are TESS planetary systems?
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00245