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Improved characterization of the TOI-2141 system: A dense sub-Neptune with non-transiting inner and outer companions

  • R. Luque
  • , K. W.F. Lam
  • , J. Cabrera
  • , A. Bonfanti
  • , Y. Eschen
  • , G. Olofsson
  • , W. Benz
  • , N. Billot
  • , A. Brandeker
  • , A. C.M. Correia
  • , L. Fossati
  • , D. Gandolfi
  • , H. P. Osborn
  • , C. Pezzotti
  • , S. G. Sousa
  • , T. G. Wilson
  • , S. Wolf
  • , Y. Alibert
  • , R. Alonso
  • , J. Asquier
  • T. Bárczy, D. Barrado, S. C.C. Barros, W. Baumjohann, F. Biondi, L. Borsato, C. Broeg, A. Collier Cameron, Sz Csizmadia, P. E. Cubillos, M. B. Davies, M. Deleuil, A. Deline, O. D.S. Demangeon, B. O. Demory, A. Derekas, B. Edwards, J. A. Egger, D. Ehrenreich, A. Erikson, A. Fortier, M. Fridlund, K. Gazeas, M. Gillon, M. Güdel, M. N. Günther, A. Heitzmann, Ch Helling, K. G. Isaak, T. Keller, L. L. Kiss, J. Korth, J. Laskar, A. Lecavelier Des Etangs, A. Leleu, M. Lendl, D. Magrin, G. Mantovan, P. F.L. Maxted, B. Merín, C. Mordasini, V. Nascimbeni, R. Ottensamer, I. Pagano, E. Pallé, G. Peter, D. Piazza, G. Piotto, D. Pollacco, D. Queloz, R. Ragazzoni, N. Rando, H. Rauer, I. Ribas, N. C. Santos, G. Scandariato, D. Ségransan, A. E. Simon, A. M.S. Smith, M. Stalport, S. Sulis, Gy M. Szabó, S. Udry, B. Ulmer, S. Ulmer-Moll, V. Van Grootel, J. Venturini, E. Villaver, N. A. Walton, D. Wolter

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

Aims. We aim to refine the fundamental parameters of the TOI-2141 planetary system, which includes a transiting sub-Neptune orbiting a Sun-like star on a relatively long orbit of 18.26 days, by combining new photometric and spectroscopic observations. Methods. We analyzed new space-based photometry from TESS and CHEOPS, as well as 61 radial velocity measurements from HARPS-N. We performed individual and joint photometric and RV analyses using several modeling tools within a Bayesian model comparison framework. Results. We refined the radius and mass of the transiting planet TOI-2141 b to 3.15 ± 0.04 R and 20.1 ± 1.6 M to levels that are five and two times more precise, respectively, than the previously reported values. Our radial velocity analysis reveals two additional non-transiting companions with orbital periods of 5.46 and 60.45 days. Despite the innermost planet’s high geometric transit probability, we found no evidence of transits in the photometric data. Conclusions. The bulk properties of TOI-2141 b suggest a significant volatile envelope atop an Earth-like core. The modeling indicates a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that could have experienced mild photoevaporation over the system’s history. Planets b and c are believed to exhibit a modest mutual inclination of at least ~2.4°.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA174
Number of pages16
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume704
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Dec 2025

Funding

R.L. is funded by the European Union (ERC, THIRSTEE, 101164189). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. R.L. is supported by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51559.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. R.L. acknowledges financial support from the Severo Ochoa grant CEX2021- 001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Data for this paper has been obtained under the International Time Programme of the CCI (International Scientific Committee of the Observatorios de Canarias of the IAC) with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundacion Galileo Galilei – INAF, Fundacion Canaria in the Observatorio Roque de los Muchachos. CHEOPS is an ESA mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The CHEOPS Consortium would like to gratefully acknowledge the support received by all the agencies, offices, universities, and industries involved. Their flexibility and willingness to explore new approaches were essential to the success of this mission. CHEOPS data analysed in this article will be made available in the CHEOPS mission archive (https://cheops.unige.ch/archive_browser/). K.W.F.L. was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grants RA714/14-1 within the DFG Schwerpunkt SPP 1992, Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets. ABr was supported by the SNSA. ACMC acknowledges support from the FCT, Portugal, through the CFisUC projects UIDB/04564/2020 and UIDP/04564/2020, with DOI identifiers 10.54499/UIDB/04564/2020 and 10.54499/UIDP/04564/2020, respectively. A.C., A.D., B.E., K.G., and J.K. acknowledge their role as ESAappointed CHEOPS Science Team Members. DG gratefully acknowledges financial support from the CRT foundation under Grant No. 2018.2323 “Gaseousor rocky? Unveiling the nature of small worlds”. This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grants 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606. S.G.S. acknowledge support from FCT through FCT contract nr. CEECIND/00826/2018 and POPH/FSE (EC). The Portuguese team thanks the Portuguese Space Agency for the provision of financial support in the framework of the PRODEX Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) under contract number 4000142255. TWi acknowledges support from the UKSA and the University of Warwick. YAl acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant 200020_192038. RAl, DBa, EPa, IRi, and EVi acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the ERDF “A way of making Europe” through projects PID2021-125627OBC31, PID2021-125627OB-C32, PID2021-127289NB-I00, PID2023-150468NBI00 and PID2023-149439NB-C41. SCCB acknowledges the support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) in the form of work contract through the Scientific Employment Incentive program with reference 2023.06687.CEECIND and DOI 10.54499/2023.06687.CEECIND/CP2839/CT0002. LBo, VNa, IPa, GPi, RRa, and GSc acknowledge support from CHEOPS ASI-INAF agreement n. 2019-29-HH.0. CBr and ASi acknowledge support from the Swiss Space Office through the ESA PRODEX program. ACC acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/X002217/1. P.E.C. is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Erwin Schroedinger Fellowship, program J4595-N. This project was supported by the CNES. A.De. This work was supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 through the research grants UIDB/04434/2020, UIDP/04434/2020, 2022.06962.PTDC. O.D.S.D. is supported in the form of work contract (DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0004) funded by national funds through FCT. B.-O.D. acknowledges support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number MB22.00046. ADe, BEd, KGa, and JKo acknowledge their role as ESA-appointed CHEOPS Science Team Members. This project has received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation for project 200021_200726. It has also been carried out within the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant 51NF40_205606. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the SNSF. M.F. and C.M.P. gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 65/19, 174/18). M.G. is an F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associate. M.N.G. is the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist and Mission Representative. BMM is the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist. KGI was the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist until the end of December 2022 and Mission Representative until the end of January 2023. All of them are/were responsible for the Guest Observers (GO) Programme. None of them relay/relayed proprietary information between the GO and Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) Programmes, nor do/did they decide on the definition and target selection of the GTO Programme. CHe acknowledges financial support from the Österreichische Akademie 1158 der Wissenschaften and from the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 1159 under Grant Agreement no. 860470 (CHAMELEON). Calculations were performed using supercomputer resources provided by the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC). This work was granted access to the HPC resources of MesoPSL financed by the Region Ile de France and the project Equip@Meso (reference ANR-10-EQPX-29-01) of the programme Investissements d’Avenir supervised by the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche. This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grants 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606. AL and JK acknowledge support of the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number TMSGI2_211697. ML acknowledges support of the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number PCEFP2_194576. PM acknowledges support from STFC research grant number ST/R000638/1. This work was also partially supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (PI Queloz, grant number 327127). NCSa acknowledges funding by the European Union (ERC, FIERCE, 101052347). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. GyMSz acknowledges the support of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) grant K-125015, a a PRODEX Experiment Agreement No. 4000137122, the Lendület LP2018-7/2021 grant of the Hungarian Academy of Science and the support of the city of Szombathely. V.V.G. is an F.R.S-FNRS Research Associate. J.V. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant PZ00P2_208945. N.A.W. acknowledges UKSA grant ST/R004838/1. The Belgian participation to CHEOPS has been supported by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in the framework of the PRODEX Program, and by the University of Liège through an ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 103003 Astronomy
  • 103004 Astrophysics

Keywords

  • planets and satellites: detection
  • planets and satellites: individual: TOI-2141b
  • stars: solar-type
  • techniques: photometric
  • techniques: radial velocities

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