Wasp-South hot Jupiters: WASP-178b, WASP-184b, WASP-185b, and WASP-192b

Abstract

We report on four new transiting hot Jupiters discovered by the WASP-South survey. WASP-178b transits a V = 9.9, A1V star with Teff = 9350 ± 150 K, the second-hottest transit host known. It has a highly bloated radius of 1.81 ± 0.09 RJup, in line with the known correlation between high irradiation and large size. With an estimated temperature of 2470 ± 60 K, the planet is one of the best targets for studying ultrahot Jupiters that is visible from the Southern hemisphere. The three host stars WASP-184, WASP-185, and WASP-192 are all post-main-sequence G0 stars of ages 4–8 Gyr. The larger stellar radii (1.3–1.7 M) mean that the transits are relatively shallow (0.7–0.9 per cent) even though the planets have moderately inflated radii of 1.2–1.3 RJup. WASP-185b has an eccentric orbit (e = 0.24) and a relatively long orbital period of 9.4 d. A star that is 4.6 arcsec from WASP-185 and 4.4 mag fainter might be physically associated.