|
Description
We report the discovery of WASP-6b, an inflated sub-Jupiter mass planet transiting every 3.3610060^+0.0000022^_-0.0000035_days a mildly metal-poor solar-type star of magnitude V=11.9. A combined analysis of the WASP photometry, high-precision followup transit photometry and radial velocities yield a planetary mass M_p_=0.503^+0.019^_-0.038_ and radius R_p_=1.224^+0.051^_0.052_, resulting in a density {rho}_p_=0.27{+/-}0.05{rho}_J_. The mass and radius for the host star are M_*_=0.88^+0.05^-0.08_M_{sun}_ and R_*_=0.870^0.025^_-0.036_R_{sun}_. The non-zero orbital eccentricity e=0.054^+0.018^_-0.015_ that we measure suggests that the planet underwent a massive tidal heating ~1Gyr ago that could have contributed to its inflated radius. High-precision radial velocities obtained during a transit allow us to measure a sky-projected angle between the stellar spin and orbital axis {beta}=11^+14^_-18_{deg}. In addition to similar published measurements, this result favors a dominant migration mechanism based on tidal interactions with a protoplanetary disk.
|
