Radial velocity confirmation of a hot super-Neptune discovered by TESS with a warm Saturn-mass companion

TL;DR

This study confirms a hot super-Neptune and a warm Saturn-mass planet orbiting TOI-1288 using combined TESS and ground-based data, revealing their masses, radii, and orbital characteristics.

Contribution

First combined TESS and high-precision Doppler measurements to characterize both planets in the TOI-1288 system, including the confirmation of a super-Neptune in the Neptunian desert.

Findings

TOI-1288 b is a super-Neptune in the Neptunian desert.

A Saturn-mass planet orbits TOI-1288 with a 443-day period.

No transit detected for the second planet in TESS data.

Abstract

We report the discovery and confirmation of the planetary system TOI-1288. This late G dwarf harbours two planets: TOI-1288 b and TOI-1288 c. We combine TESS space-borne and ground-based transit photometry with HARPS-N and HIRES high-precision Doppler measurements, which we use to constrain the masses of both planets in the system and the radius of planet b. TOI-1288~b has a period of $2.699835^{+0.000004}_{-0.000003}$ d, a radius of $5.24 \pm 0.09$ R$_\oplus$, and a mass of $42 \pm 3$ M$_\oplus$, making this planet a hot transiting super-Neptune situated right in the Neptunian desert. This desert refers to a paucity of Neptune-sized planets on short period orbits. Our 2.4-year-long Doppler monitoring of TOI-1288 revealed the presence of a Saturn-mass planet on a moderately eccentric orbit ($0.13^{+0.07}_{-0.09}$) with a minimum mass of $84 \pm 7$ M$_\oplus$ and a period of $443^{+11}_{-13}$ d. The 5 sectors worth of TESS data do not cover our expected mid-transit time for TOI-1288 c, and we do not detect a transit for this planet in these sectors.