Two Warm Super-Earths Transiting the Nearby M Dwarf TOI-2095

Abstract

We report the detection and validation of two planets orbiting TOI-2095 (TIC 235678745). The host star is a 3700 K M1V dwarf with a high proper motion. The star lies at a distance of 42 pc in a sparsely populated portion of the sky and is bright in the infrared (K = 9). With data from 24 sectors of observation during Cycles 2 and 4 of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TOI-2095 exhibits two sets of transits associated with super-Earth-sized planets. The planets have orbital periods of 17.7 days and 28.2 days and radii of 1.30 R ⊕ and 1.39 R ⊕, respectively. Archival data, preliminary follow-up observations, and vetting analyses support the planetary interpretation of the detected transit signals. The pair of planets have estimated equilibrium temperatures of approximately 400 K, with stellar insolations of 3.23 and 1.73 S ⊕, placing them in the Venus zone. The planets also lie in a radius regime signaling the transition between rock-dominated and volatile-rich compositions. They are thus prime targets for follow-up mass measurements to better understand the properties of warm, transition-radius planets. The relatively long orbital periods of these two planets provide crucial data that can help shed light on the processes that shape the composition of small planets orbiting M dwarfs.

Identification of the Top TESS Objects of Interest for Atmospheric Characterization of Transiting Exoplanets with JWST

“…DAVE is an automated vetting pipeline built upon many of the tools developed for vetting planets in Kepler data (e.g., RoboVetter; Coughlin et al 2014) and has been used extensively in vetting planets for TESS (e.g., Gilbert et al 2020;Hord et al 2021;Quintana et al 2023). DAVE performs two sets of vetting tests: (i) light-curve-based vetting tests searching for odd/even transit depth differences, secondary eclipses, and light-curve modulations; and (ii) image-based centroid tests to check the photometric motion on the TESS image during transit.…”