Title of programme: Characterization of the very young planet DS Tuc b with CHEOPS
Abstract: The planet DS Tuc b, proposed as candidate planet by the TESS team (TOI-200) and recently validated by our group (Benatti et al. 2019), is the only known transiting planet younger than 100 Myr orbiting a star brighter than V 10. With an age of just 40 Myr and a radius of 5.6 Rearth, it is expected to be highly inflated due to the still ongoing gravitational contraction and to have a mass of about 5-10 Mearth from available theoretical models. These characteristics will make it a benchmark for the study of the evolution of planetary structure and of evaporation of planetary atmospheres and for the understanding of the timescales of migration mechanisms of close-in planets. Unfortunately, interpreting TESS data is not straightforward due to an overlap of stellar activity, instrumental systematics and limited observing baseline. We propose to observe with CHEOPS five transits of DS Tuc b, aiming at a significant refinement of its orbital ephemeris and improving its planetary parameters, above all its radius. This will be helpful not only in better constraining our formation and evolutionary models, but also to plan a more effective multi-instrument follow-up, which will include mass measurement through radial velocities and atmospheric characterization through transmission spectroscopy.
Temporal Coverage
2021-08-20T13:07:55Z / 2021-08-20T20:13:00Z
Version
3.0
Mission Description
CHEOPS (Benz et al., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-020-09679-4) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The satellite has a single payload comprising an ultra-high precision photometer covering the 330 - 1100 nm wavelength range in a single photometric band. Observations are made as part of the Guaranteed Time Observing Programme that is formulated by the CHEOPS Science Team, and the Guest Observers Programme through which the Community at large can apply for CHEOPS time.
