A method for the direct determination of the surface gravities of transiting extrasolar planets

Abstract

We show that the surface gravity of a transiting extrasolar planet can be calculated from only the spectroscopic orbit of its parent star and the analysis of its transit light curve. This does not require additional constraints, such as are often inferred from theoretical stellar models or model atmospheres. The planet's surface gravity can therefore be measured precisely and from only directly observable quantities. We outline the method and apply it to the case of the first known transiting extrasolar planet, HD 209458b. We find a surface gravity of g_p = 9.28 +/- 0.15 m/s, which is an order of magnitude more precise than the best available measurements of its mass, radius and density. This confirms that the planet has a much lower surface gravity that that predicted by published theoretical models of gas giant planets. We apply our method to all fourteen known transiting extrasolar planets and find a significant correlation between surface gravity and orbital period, which is related to the known correlation between mass and period. This correlation may be the underlying effect as surface gravity is a fundamental parameter in the evaporation of planetary atmospheres.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters (original submission 2007 March 5). Contains 5 pages with 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• TrES-1: The Transiting Planet of a Bright K0V Star
• The Transit Light Curve Project. V. System Parameters and Stellar Rotation Period of HD 189733

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• HD147506b: A Super-Massive Planet in an Eccentric Orbit Transiting a Bright Star
• HAT-P-3b: A heavy-element rich planet transiting a K dwarf star
• The Transit Light Curve Project. VII. The Not-So-Bloated Exoplanet HAT-P-1b
• A new level of photometric precision: WIRE observations of eclipsing binary stars