TOI-954 b and K2-329 b: Short-period Saturn-mass Planets that Test whether Irradiation Leads to Inflation

Abstract

© 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We report the discovery of two short-period Saturn-mass planets, one transiting the G subgiant TOI-954 (TIC 44792534, V = 10.343, T = 9.78) observed in TESS sectors 4 and 5 and one transiting the G dwarf K2-329 (EPIC 246193072, V = 12.70, K = 10.67) observed in K2 campaigns 12 and 19. We confirm and characterize these two planets with a variety of ground-based archival and follow-up observations, including photometry, reconnaissance spectroscopy, precise radial velocity, and high-resolution imaging. Combining all available data, we find that TOI-954 b has a radius of 0.852+0.053-0.062 RJ and a mass of 0.174+0.018-0.017 MJ and is in a 3.68 day orbit, while K2-329 b has a radius of 0.774+0.026-0.024 RJ and a mass of 0.260+0.020-0.022 MJ and is in a 12.46 day orbit. As TOI-954 b is 30 times more irradiated than K2-329 b but more or less the same size, these two planets provide an opportunity to test whether irradiation leads to inflation of Saturn-mass planets and contribute to future comparative studies that explore Saturn-mass planets at contrasting points in their lifetimes.