A Third Exoplanetary System with Misaligned Orbital and Stellar Spin Axes1
Open Access
- 1 October 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Vol. 121 (884) , 1104-1111
- https://doi.org/10.1086/644604
Abstract
We present evidence that the WASP-14 exoplanetary system has misaligned orbital and stellar-rotational axes, with an angle λ = -33.1° ± 7.4° between their sky projections. The evidence is based on spectroscopic observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect as well as new photometric observations. WASP-14 is now the third system known to have a significant spin-orbit misalignment, and all three systems have "super-Jupiter" planets (MP > 3 MJup) and eccentric orbits. This finding suggests that the migration and subsequent orbital evolution of massive, eccentric exoplanets is somehow different from that of less massive close-in Jupiters, the majority of which have well-aligned orbits.Keywords
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