HAT-P-30b: A TRANSITING HOT JUPITER ON A HIGHLY OBLIQUE ORBIT

Abstract

We report the discovery of HAT-P-30b, a transiting exoplanet orbiting the V = 10.419 dwarf star GSC 0208-00722. The planet has a period P = 2.810595 [plus-minus] 0.000005 days, transit epoch T[subscript c] = 2455456.46561 [plus-minus] 0.00037 (BJD), and transit duration 0.0887 [plus-minus] 0.0015 days. The host star has a mass of 1.24 ± 0.04 M ⊙, radius of 1.21 [plus-minus] 0.05 R ⊙, effective temperature of 6304 [plus-minus] 88 K, and metallicity [Fe/H] = +0.13 [plus-minus] 0.08. The planetary companion has a mass of 0.711 [plus-minus] 0.028 M[subscript J] and radius of 1.340 [plus-minus] 0.065 R[subscript J] yielding a mean density of 0.37 [plus-minus] 0.05 g cm[superscript –3]. We also present radial velocity measurements that were obtained throughout a transit that exhibit the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. By modeling this effect, we measure an angle of λ = 73fdg5 [plus-minus] 9fdg0 between the sky projections of the planet's orbit normal and the star's spin axis. HAT-P-30b represents another example of a close-in planet on a highly tilted orbit, and conforms to the previously noted pattern that tilted orbits are more common around stars with T[subscript eff*] gsim 6250 K.