High-precision multi-band time-series photometry of exoplanets Qatar-1b and TrES-5b

TL;DR

This study provides high-precision, multi-band transit photometry for exoplanets Qatar-1b and TrES-5b, refining their orbital and physical parameters and investigating stellar activity and starspot effects.

Contribution

It offers new high-precision, multi-band transit observations and refined system parameters for Qatar-1b and TrES-5b, including analysis of stellar activity and starspot crossing events.

Findings

Achieved millimagnitude photometric precision in transit data.

Detected starspot activity on Qatar-1 with a 23.7-day period.

Found low orbital obliquity consistent with starspot activity patterns.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the Qatar-1 and TrES-5 transiting exoplanetary systems, which contain Jupiter-like planets on short-period orbits around K-dwarf stars. Our data comprise a total of 20 transit light curves obtained using five medium-class telescopes, operated using the defocussing technique. The average precision we reach in all our data is $RMS_{Q} = 1.1$ mmag for Qatar-1 ($V = 12.8$) and $RMS_{T} = 1.0$ mmag for TrES-5 ($V = 13.7$). We use these data to refine the orbital ephemeris, photometric parameters, and measured physical properties of the two systems. One transit event for each object was observed simultaneously in three passbands ($gri$) using the BUSCA imager. The QES survey light curve of Qatar-1 has a clear sinusoidal variation on a period of $P_{\star} = 23.697 \pm 0.123$\,d, implying significant starspot activity. We searched for starspot crossing events in our light curves, but did not find clear evidence in any of the new datasets. The planet in the Qatar-1 system did not transit the active latitudes on the surfaces of its host star. Under the assumption that $P_{\star}$ corresponds to the rotation period of Qatar-1\,A, the rotational velocity of this star is very close to the $v \sin i_\star$ value found from observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The low projected orbital obliquity found in this system thus implies a low absolute orbital obliquity, which is also a necessary condition for the transit chord of the planet to avoid active latitudes on the stellar surface.