K2, Spitzer, and TESS Transits of Four Sub-Neptune Exoplanets

TL;DR

This study combines K2, Spitzer, and TESS data to refine the orbital and physical parameters of four sub-Neptune exoplanets, improving period precision and confirming radii despite challenges in validation.

Contribution

The paper presents a joint analysis methodology that enhances orbital period accuracy and confirms planetary radii by combining multi-mission photometry, despite limitations in transit validation.

Findings

Improved orbital period precision by over an order of magnitude.

Confirmed planetary radii through joint K2 and Spitzer analysis.

Reduced transit time uncertainties to 8-23 minutes, aiding future JWST observations.

Abstract

We present new Spitzer transit observations of four K2 transiting sub-Neptunes: K2-36c, K2-79b, K2-167b, and K2-212b. We derive updated orbital ephemerides and radii for these planets based on a joint analysis of the Spitzer, TESS, and K2 photometry. We use the EVEREST pipeline to provide improved K2 photometry, by detrending instrumental noise and K2's pointing jitter. We used a pixel level decorrelation method on the Spitzer observations to reduce instrumental systematic effects. We modeled the effect of possible blended eclipsing binaries, seeking to validate these planets via the achromaticity of the transits (K2 versus Spitzer). However, we find that Spitzer's signal-to-noise ratio for these small planets is insufficient to validate them via achromaticity. Nevertheless, by jointly fitting radii between K2 and Spitzer observations, we were able to independently confirm the K2 radius measurements. Due to the long time baseline between the K2 and Spitzer observations, we were also able to increase the precision of the orbital periods compared to K2 observations alone. The improvement is a factor of 3 for K2-36c, and more than an order of magnitude for the remaining planets. Considering possible JWST observations in 1/2023, previous 1 sigma uncertainties in transit times for these planets range from 74 to 434 minutes, but we have reduced them to the range of 8 to 23 minutes.