Hidden worlds: a non-transiting candidate planet in the Neptunian desert around the solar-type pulsator KIC 9139163
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Breton, Sylvain N. Dyrek, Achrène Prieto, Carlos Allende Bonfanti, Andrea Deeg, Hans J. García, Rafael A. Pallé, Enric Hernández, Francisco Pérez Benomar, Othman Borg, Lina Carleo, Ilaria Gourvès, Clémence Lanza, Antonino F. Masuda, Kento Mathis, Stéphane Mathur, Savita Palakkatharappil, Dinil B. Santos, Angela R. G. Selsis, Franck |
| author_facet | Breton, Sylvain N. Dyrek, Achrène Prieto, Carlos Allende Bonfanti, Andrea Deeg, Hans J. García, Rafael A. Pallé, Enric Hernández, Francisco Pérez Benomar, Othman Borg, Lina Carleo, Ilaria Gourvès, Clémence Lanza, Antonino F. Masuda, Kento Mathis, Stéphane Mathur, Savita Palakkatharappil, Dinil B. Santos, Angela R. G. Selsis, Franck |
| contents | Close-in substellar companions experience strong tidal and magnetic interactions with their host stars and are therefore subject to fast orbital evolution. The solar-type pulsator KIC 9139163 exhibits in its light curve a stable 0.6-day modulation for which the best explanation is the presence of a close-in non-transiting companion that we therefore attempt to characterise. We combine Kepler and TESS photometric data with spectroscopic observations obtained with HARPS-N. The analysis of the radial velocities obtained with HARPS-N provides a companion mass $M_p \sin i = 7.3 \pm 1.4 \, \mathrm{M}_{\oplus}$. We infer a planetary radius of $2.43 \pm 0.14 \, \mathrm{R}_\oplus$, which, combined with the measured mass and retrieved inclination, implies a bulk density consistent with a hot water-rich world. This places the non-transiting companion candidate of KIC 9139163 within the Neptunian desert, a regime where planets are expected either to have lost their primordial hydrogen/helium envelopes or to harbour metal-enriched atmospheres. We further detect significant variations in amplitude between the Kepler and TESS phase curves, obtained six years apart, as well as a secular increase in amplitude over the Kepler baseline. Our fit favours a model with two distinct longitudinal cloud offsets over a single-offset scenario. Both datasets indicate a moderate-to-high geometric albedo and low-to-moderate heat redistribution. The opposite phase offsets observed in the Kepler and TESS datasets suggest a time-variable longitudinal brightness distribution. While making KIC 9139163 an interesting candidate for future ground follow-ups, it also suggests that searching for other non-transiting planets around fast stellar rotators in space-borne photometric surveys might provide new insights into the physics of the Neptunian planets located in the desert. [shortened] |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_28755 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Hidden worlds: a non-transiting candidate planet in the Neptunian desert around the solar-type pulsator KIC 9139163 Breton, Sylvain N. Dyrek, Achrène Prieto, Carlos Allende Bonfanti, Andrea Deeg, Hans J. García, Rafael A. Pallé, Enric Hernández, Francisco Pérez Benomar, Othman Borg, Lina Carleo, Ilaria Gourvès, Clémence Lanza, Antonino F. Masuda, Kento Mathis, Stéphane Mathur, Savita Palakkatharappil, Dinil B. Santos, Angela R. G. Selsis, Franck Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Close-in substellar companions experience strong tidal and magnetic interactions with their host stars and are therefore subject to fast orbital evolution. The solar-type pulsator KIC 9139163 exhibits in its light curve a stable 0.6-day modulation for which the best explanation is the presence of a close-in non-transiting companion that we therefore attempt to characterise. We combine Kepler and TESS photometric data with spectroscopic observations obtained with HARPS-N. The analysis of the radial velocities obtained with HARPS-N provides a companion mass $M_p \sin i = 7.3 \pm 1.4 \, \mathrm{M}_{\oplus}$. We infer a planetary radius of $2.43 \pm 0.14 \, \mathrm{R}_\oplus$, which, combined with the measured mass and retrieved inclination, implies a bulk density consistent with a hot water-rich world. This places the non-transiting companion candidate of KIC 9139163 within the Neptunian desert, a regime where planets are expected either to have lost their primordial hydrogen/helium envelopes or to harbour metal-enriched atmospheres. We further detect significant variations in amplitude between the Kepler and TESS phase curves, obtained six years apart, as well as a secular increase in amplitude over the Kepler baseline. Our fit favours a model with two distinct longitudinal cloud offsets over a single-offset scenario. Both datasets indicate a moderate-to-high geometric albedo and low-to-moderate heat redistribution. The opposite phase offsets observed in the Kepler and TESS datasets suggest a time-variable longitudinal brightness distribution. While making KIC 9139163 an interesting candidate for future ground follow-ups, it also suggests that searching for other non-transiting planets around fast stellar rotators in space-borne photometric surveys might provide new insights into the physics of the Neptunian planets located in the desert. [shortened] |
| title | Hidden worlds: a non-transiting candidate planet in the Neptunian desert around the solar-type pulsator KIC 9139163 |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28755 |