TESS Observations of Kepler systems with Transit Timing Variations

TL;DR

This study utilizes TESS data to analyze transit timing variations in Kepler systems, identifying potential nontransiting planets and refining planetary parameters despite lower signal-to-noise ratios.

Contribution

First application of TESS observations to Kepler systems with TTVs, detecting nontransiting perturbers and updating planetary ephemerides and mass constraints.

Findings

Recovered 48 transits from 13 systems in TESS sectors.

Identified strong evidence of a nontransiting perturber in Kepler-396.

Updated planetary parameters for multiple Kepler systems.

Abstract

We identify targets in the Kepler field that may be characterized by transit timing variations (TTVs) and are detectable by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Despite the reduced signal-to-noise ratio of TESS transits compared to Kepler, we recover 48 transits from 13 systems in Sectors 14, 15, 26, 40 and 41. We find strong evidence of a nontransiting perturber orbiting Kepler-396 (KOI-2672) and explore two possible cases of a third planet in that system that could explain the measured transit times. We update the ephemerides and mass constraints where possible at KOI-70 (Kepler-20), KOI-82 (Kepler-102), KOI-94 (Kepler-89), KOI-137 (Kepler-18), KOI-244 (Kepler-25), KOI-245 (Kepler-37), KOI-282 (Kepler-130), KOI-377 (Kepler-9), KOI-620 (Kepler-51), KOI-806 (Kepler-30), KOI-1353 (Kepler-289) and KOI-1783 (Kepler-1662).