HATS-2b: A transiting extrasolar planet orbiting a K -type star showing starspot activity a

Abstract

We report the discovery of HATS-2b, the second transiting extrasolar planet detected by the HATSouth survey. HATS-2b is moving on a circular orbit around a V = 13.6 mag, K-type dwarf star (GSC 6665-00236), at a separation of 0.0230 ± 0.0003 AU and with a period of 1.3541 days. The planetary parameters have been robustly determined using a simultaneous fit of the HATSouth, MPG/ESO 2.2 m/GROND, Faulkes Telescope South/Spectral transit photometry, and MPG/ESO 2.2 m/FEROS, Euler 1.2 m/CORALIE, AAT 3.9 m/CYCLOPS radial-velocity measurements. HATS-2b has a mass of 1.37 ± 0.16 MJ, a radius of 1.14 ± 0.03 RJ, and an equilibrium temperature of 1567 ± 30 K. The host star has a mass of 0.88 ± 0.04 M ⊙ and a radius of 0.89 ± 0.02 R ⊙, and it shows starspot activity. We characterized the stellar activity by analyzing two photometric follow-up transit light curves taken with the GROND instrument, both obtained simultaneously in four optical bands (covering the wavelength range of 3860-9520 Å). The two light curves contain anomalies compatible with starspots on the photosphere of the host star along the same transit chord. © ESO, 2013.