Tentative Evidence for Transit Timing Variations of WASP-161b

TL;DR

This paper presents evidence of transit timing variations in WASP-161b using TESS, archival, and CHEOPS data, suggesting a possible changing orbital period or precession, with implications for understanding the planet's dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first detection of TTVs in WASP-161b and models potential causes, including a quadratic period change and precession, using combined observational data.

Findings

Detected significant TTVs in WASP-161b with up to 203-minute offsets.

Modeled TTVs with a quadratic function indicating a period change.

Predicted a 5-minute timing variation in upcoming CHEOPS observations.

Abstract

We report on the detection of transit timing variations (TTV) of WASP-161b by using the combination of TESS data and archival data. The midpoint of the transits in TESS data are offset by $\sim$67 minutes in Jan. 2019, and $\sim$203 minutes in Jan. 2021, based on the ephemeris published in previous work. We are able to reproduce the transit timings from the archival light curve (SSO-Europa; Jan. 2018) and find SSO-Europa timing is consistent with the published ephemeris under a constant period assumption. Conversely, we find that the SSO-Europa transit midpoint indicates a 6.62-minute variation at 4.40 $\sigma$ compared to the prediction obtained from TESS timings, and a constant orbit period assumption. The TTVs could be modeled with a quadratic function, yielding a constant period change. The period derivative $\dot{P}$ is -1.16$\times$10$^{-7}\pm$2.25$\times$10$^{-8}$ days per day (or $-3.65$ s/year), derived from SSO-Europa and TESS timing. Different scenarios, including a decaying period and apsidal precession can potentially explain these TTVs but they both introduce certain inconsistencies. We have obtained CHEOPS observations for two transits in Jan. 2022 to distinguish between different TTV scenarios. We expect the timing to vary by 5 minutes, compared to the timing predicted from SSO-Europa and TESS with a constant period assumption.