The Kepler-19 system: a thick-envelope super-Earth with two Neptune-mass companions characterized using Radial Velocities and Transit Timing Variations

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the Kepler-19 system, revealing a super-Earth with a thick envelope and two Neptune-mass companions using combined transit timing variations and radial velocity data, highlighting the importance of considering planetary interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first combined analysis of TTVs and radial velocities for Kepler-19, accurately measuring planetary masses and demonstrating the impact of planetary interactions on orbital parameter estimation.

Findings

Kepler-19b has a mass of 8.4 ± 1.6 M⊕ and a density of 4.32 ± 0.87 g/cm³.

Kepler-19c has a mass of 13.1 ± 2.7 M⊕ on a 28.7-day orbit.

A Neptune-like planet with 20.3 ± 3.4 M⊕ was discovered on a 63-day orbit.

Abstract

We report a detailed characterization of the Kepler-19 system. This star was previously known to host a transiting planet with a period of 9.29 days, a radius of 2.2 R$_\oplus$ and an upper limit on the mass of 20 M$_\oplus$. The presence of a second, non-transiting planet was inferred from the transit time variations (TTVs) of Kepler-19b, over 8 quarters of Kepler photometry, although neither mass nor period could be determined. By combining new TTVs measurements from all the Kepler quarters and 91 high-precision radial velocities obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph, we measured through dynamical simulations a mass of $8.4 \pm 1.6$ M$_\oplus$ for Kepler-19b. From the same data, assuming system coplanarity, we determined an orbital period of 28.7 days and a mass of $13.1 \pm 2.7$ M$_\oplus$ for Kepler-19c and discovered a Neptune-like planet with a mass of $20.3 \pm 3.4$ M$_\oplus$ on a 63 days orbit. By comparing dynamical simulations with non-interacting Keplerian orbits, we concluded that neglecting interactions between planets may lead to systematic errors that could hamper the precision in the orbital parameters when the dataset spans several years. With a density of $4.32 \pm 0.87$ g cm$^{-3}$ ($0.78 \pm 0.16$ $\rho_\oplus$) Kepler-19b belongs to the group of planets with a rocky core and a significant fraction of volatiles, in opposition to low-density planets characterized by transit-time variations only and the increasing number of rocky planets with Earth-like density. Kepler-19 joins the small number of systems that reconcile transit timing variation and radial velocity measurements.