Exoplanetology: Exoplanets & Exomoons

TOI-3493 b: A Planet With A Neptune-like Density Transiting A Bright G0-type Star

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
April 18, 2025
Filed under , , , , ,
TOI-3493 b: A Planet With A Neptune-like Density Transiting A Bright G0-type Star
Target pixel files of TOI-3493 in TESS sectors 37 (left) and 64 (right). The electron counts are color-coded. The red-bordered pixels are used in the simple aperture photometry. TOI-3493 is represented with a circle marked with #1. The other stars are represented with red circles and the size of the circle related to the magnitude difference. The other stars in the field are relatively faint, and hence appear as tiny dots. — astro-ph.EP

We report the discovery of TOI-3493 b, a sub-Neptune-sized planet on an 8.15-d orbit transiting the bright (V=9.3) G0 star HD 119355 (aka TIC 203377303) initially identified by NASA’s TESS space mission.

With the aim of confirming the planetary nature of the transit signal detected by TESS and determining the mass of the planet, we performed an intensive Doppler campaign with the HARPS spectrograph, collecting radialvelocity measurements.

We found that TOI-3493 b lies in a nearly circular orbit and has a mass of 9.0 ± 1.2 M⊕ and a radius of 3.22 ± 0.08 R⊕,implying a bulk density of 1.47+0.23−0.22 g cm−3, consistent with a composition comprising a small solid core surrounded by a thick H/He-dominated atmosphere.

P. Chaturvedi, E. Goffo, D. Gandolfi, C.M. Persson, A.P. Hatzes, G. Nowak, A. Bonfanti, A. Bieryla, W.D.Cochran, K. A. Collins, S.B. Fajardo-Acosta, S.B. Howell, J.M. Jenkins, J. Korth, J. Livingston, E. Palle, S.N. Quinn, R. P. Schwarz, S. Seager, A. Shporer, K.G. Stassun, S. Striegel, V. Van Eylen, C.N. Watkins, J.N. Winn, C. Ziegler

Comments: 17 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2504.12884 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2504.12884v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2504.12884
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Submission history
From: Priyanka Chaturvedi Dr
[v1] Thu, 17 Apr 2025 12:20:27 UTC (9,051 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12884
Astrobiology,

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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