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On the behaviour of spin–orbit connection of exoplanets

Nature Astronomy volume 7, pages 900–904 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Star–planet interactions play, among other things, a crucial role in planetary orbital configurations by circularizing orbits, aligning the star and planet spin and synchronizing stellar rotation with orbital motions. This is especially true for innermost giant planets, which can be schematized as binary systems with a very large mass ratio. Despite a few examples where spin–orbit synchronization has been obtained, there is no demographic study on synchronous regimes in those systems yet. Here we use a sample of 1,055 stars with innermost planet companions to show the existence of three observational loci of star–planet synchronization regimes. Two of them have dominant fractions of subsynchronous and supersynchronous star–planet systems, and a third less populated regime of potentially synchronized systems. No synchronous star–planet system with a period higher than 40 days has been detected yet. This landscape is different from eclipsing binary systems, most of which are synchronized. We suggest that planets in a stable asynchronous spin state belonging to star–planet systems in a supersynchronized regime offer the most favourable conditions for habitability.

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Fig. 1: The distribution of the period ratio Porb/Prot versus the orbital period Porb.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary Information). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

Research activities of the board of observational astronomy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte are supported by continuous grants from the Brazilian funding agencies CNPq and FAPERN. The present project was supported by grants from the CNPq (Universal/409345/2021-0) and CAPES (PRINT/88881.310208/2018-01). This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior–Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. Y.S.M., M.I.A.G., R.L.G., L.F.B. and D.O.F. acknowledge CAPES graduate fellowships. CNPq research fellowships are acknowledged by B.L.C.M., I.C.L. and J.R.D.M. This work includes data collected by the TESS and Kepler missions. This research made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física Teórica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil

    Bruno L. Canto Martins, Yuri S. Messias, Maria I. Arruda Gonçalves, Izan C. Leão, Roseane L. Gomes, Lorenza F. Barraza, Dasaev O. Fontinele & José R. De Medeiros

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Contributions

B.L.C.M. and J.R.D.M. led the project and wrote the manuscript. Y.S.M. and I.C.L. led the data analysis and artwork preparation. I.C.L., R.L.G., L.F.B. and D.O.F. led software preparation and data reduction. M.I.S.G. revised the manuscript. All authors discussed and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to José R. De Medeiros.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–6 and references therein.

Supplementary Table 1

The list of 1,055 selected TOI and KOI main sequence stars. The following information is listed: the TIC and KIC ID, TOI and KOI ID, status of planet detection, rotation period (Prot), planetary orbital period (Porb), planet radius, semi-major axis and stellar mass.

Supplementary Data Fig. 1

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Canto Martins, B.L., Messias, Y.S., Arruda Gonçalves, M.I. et al. On the behaviour of spin–orbit connection of exoplanets. Nat Astron 7, 900–904 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01976-0

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