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Exoplanet discoveries have revealed a dramatic diversity of planet sizes across a vast array of orbital architectures. Sub-Neptunes are of particular interest; due to their absence in our own solar system, we rely on demographics of exoplanets to better understand their bulk composition and formation scenarios. Here, we present the discovery and characterization of TOI-1437 b, a sub-Neptune with a 18.84 day orbit around a near-solar analog ( M _⋆ = 1.10 ± 0.10 M _☉ , R _⋆ =1.17 ± 0.12 R _☉ ). The planet was detected using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and radial velocity (RV) follow-up observations were carried out as a part of the TESS-Keck Survey using both the HIRES instrument at Keck Observatory and the Levy Spectrograph on the Automated Planet Finder telescope. A combined analysis of these data reveal a planet radius of R _p = 2.24 ± 0.23 R _⊕ and a mass measurement of M _p = 9.6 ± 3.9 M _⊕ ). TOI-1437 b is one of few (∼50) known transiting sub-Neptunes orbiting a solar-mass star that has a RV mass measurement. As the formation pathway of these worlds remains an unanswered question, the precise mass characterization of TOI-1437 b may provide further insight into this class of planet.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered hundreds of new worlds, with TESS planet candidates now outnumbering the total number of confirmed planets from Kepler. Owing to differences in survey design, TESS continues to provide planets that are better suited for subsequent follow-up studies, including mass measurement through radial velocity (RV) observations, compared to Kepler targets. In this work, we present the TESS-Keck Survey’s (TKS) Mass Catalog: a uniform analysis of all TKS RV survey data that has resulted in mass constraints for 126 planets and candidate signals. This includes 58 mass measurements that have reached ≥5 σ precision. We confirm or validate 32 new planets from the TESS mission either by significant mass measurement (15) or statistical validation (17), and we find no evidence of likely false positives among our entire sample. This work also serves as a data release for all previously unpublished TKS survey data, including 9,204 RV measurements and associated activity indicators over our three-year survey. We took the opportunity to assess the performance of our survey and found that we achieved many of our goals, including measuring the mass of 38 small (

JWST has ushered in an era of unprecedented ability to characterize exoplanetary atmospheres. While there are over 5000 confirmed planets, more than 4000 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) planet candidates are still unconfirmed and many of the best planets for atmospheric characterization may remain to be identified. We present a sample of TESS planets and planet candidates that we identify as “best-in-class” for transmission and emission spectroscopy with JWST. These targets are sorted into bins across equilibrium temperature T _eq and planetary radius R _p and are ranked by a transmission and an emission spectroscopy metric (TSM and ESM, respectively) within each bin. We perform cuts for expected signal size and stellar brightness to remove suboptimal targets for JWST. Of the 194 targets in the resulting sample, 103 are unconfirmed TESS planet candidates, also known as TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs). We perform vetting and statistical validation analyses on these 103 targets to determine which are likely planets and which are likely false positives, incorporating ground-based follow-up from the TESS Follow-up Observation Program to aid the vetting and validation process. We statistically validate 18 TOIs, marginally validate 31 TOIs to varying levels of confidence, deem 29 TOIs likely false positives, and leave the dispositions for four TOIs as inconclusive. Twenty-one of the 103 TOIs were confirmed independently over the course of our analysis. We intend for this work to serve as a community resource and motivate formal confirmation and mass measurements of each validated planet. We encourage more detailed analysis of individual targets by the community.

The extreme environments of ultra-short-period planets (USPs) make excellent laboratories to study how exoplanets obtain, lose, retain, and/or regain gaseous atmospheres. We present the confirmation and characterization of the USP TOI-1347 b, a 1.8 ± 0.1 R _⊕ planet on a 0.85 day orbit that was detected with photometry from the TESS mission. We measured radial velocities of the TOI-1347 system using Keck/HIRES and HARPS-N and found the USP to be unusually massive at 11.1 ± 1.2 M _⊕ . The measured mass and radius of TOI-1347 b imply an Earth-like bulk composition. A thin H/He envelope (>0.01% by mass) can be ruled out at high confidence. The system is between 1 and 1.8 Gyr old; therefore, intensive photoevaporation should have concluded. We detected a tentative phase-curve variation (3 σ ) and a secondary eclipse (2 σ ) in TESS photometry, which, if confirmed, could indicate the presence of a high-mean-molecular-weight atmosphere. We recommend additional optical and infrared observations to confirm the presence of an atmosphere and investigate its composition.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) continues to increase dramatically the number of known transiting exoplanets, and is optimal for monitoring bright stars amenable to radial velocity (RV) and atmospheric follow-up observations. TOI-1386 is a solar-type (G5V) star that was detected via TESS photometry to exhibit transit signatures in three sectors with a period of 25.84 days. We conducted follow-up RV observations using Keck/High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) as part of the TESS–Keck Survey, collecting 64 RV measurements of TOI-1386 with the HIRES spectrograph over 2.5 yr. Our combined fit of the TOI-1386 photometry and RV data confirm the planetary nature of the detected TESS signal, and provide a mass and radius for planet b of 0.148 ± 0.019 M _J and 0.540 ± 0.017 R _J , respectively, marking TOI-1386 b as a warm sub-Saturn planet. Our RV data further reveal an additional outer companion, TOI-1386 c, with an estimated orbital period of 227.6 days and a minimum mass of 0.309 ± 0.038 M _J . The dynamical modeling of the system shows that the measured system architecture is long-term stable, although there may be substantial eccentricity oscillations of the inner planet due to the dynamical influence of the outer planet.

We present a radial velocity (RV) analysis of TOI-1136, a bright Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) system with six confirmed transiting planets, and a seventh single-transiting planet candidate. All planets in the system are amenable to transmission spectroscopy, making TOI-1136 one of the best targets for intra-system comparison of exoplanet atmospheres. TOI-1136 is young (∼700 Myr), and the system exhibits transit timing variations (TTVs). The youth of the system contributes to high stellar variability on the order of 50 m s ^−1 , much larger than the likely RV amplitude of any of the transiting exoplanets. Utilizing 359 High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer and Automated Planet Finder RVs collected as part of the TESS-Keck Survey, and 51 High-Accuracy Radial velocity Planetary Searcher North RVs, we experiment with a joint TTV-RV fit. With seven possible transiting planets, TTVs, more than 400 RVs, and a stellar activity model, we posit that we may be presenting the most complex mass recovery of an exoplanet system in the literature to date. By combining TTVs and RVs, we minimized Gaussian process overfitting and retrieved new masses for this system: ( m _b−g = ${3.50}_{-0.7}^{+0.8}$ , ${6.32}_{-1.3}^{+1.1}$ , ${8.35}_{-1.6}^{+1.8}$ , ${6.07}_{-1.01}^{+1.09}$ , ${9.7}_{-3.7}^{+3.9}$ , ${5.6}_{-3.2}^{+4.1}$ M _⊕ ). We are unable to significantly detect the mass of the seventh planet candidate in the RVs, but we are able to loosely constrain a possible orbital period near 80 days. Future TESS observations might confirm the existence of a seventh planet in the system, better constrain the masses and orbital properties of the known exoplanets, and generally shine light on this scientifically interesting system.

We report the discovery and Doppler mass measurement of a 7.4 days 2.3 R _⊕ mini-Neptune around a metal-poor K dwarf BD+29 2654 (TOI-2018). Based on a high-resolution Keck/HIRES spectrum, the Gaia parallax, and multiwavelength photometry from the UV to the mid-infrared, we found that the host star has ${T}_{\mathrm{eff}}={4174}_{-42}^{+34}$ K, $\mathrm{log}g={4.62}_{-0.03}^{+0.02}$ , [Fe/H] = − 0.58 ± 0.18, M _* = 0.57 ± 0.02 M _⊙ , and R _* = 0.62 ± 0.01 R _⊙ . Precise Doppler measurements with Keck/HIRES revealed a planetary mass of M _p = 9.2 ± 2.1 M _⊕ for TOI-2018 b. TOI-2018 b has a mass and radius that are consistent with an Earthlike core, with a ∼1%-by-mass hydrogen/helium envelope or an ice–rock mixture. The mass of TOI-2018 b is close to the threshold for runaway accretion and hence giant planet formation. Such a threshold is predicted to be around 10 M _⊕ or lower for a low-metallicity (low-opacity) environment. If TOI-2018 b is a planetary core that failed to undergo runaway accretion, it may underline the reason why giant planets are rare around low-metallicity host stars (one possibility is their shorter disk lifetimes). With a K -band magnitude of 7.1, TOI-2018 b may be a suitable target for transmission spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope. The system is also amenable to metastable Helium observation; the detection of a Helium exosphere would help distinguish between a H/He-enveloped planet and a water world.

We present the stellar and planetary properties for 85 TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) hosting 108 planet candidates that compose the TESS-Keck Survey (TKS) sample. We combine photometry, high-resolution spectroscopy, and Gaia parallaxes to measure precise and accurate stellar properties. We then use these parameters as inputs to a light-curve processing pipeline to recover planetary signals and homogeneously fit their transit properties. Among these transit fits, we detect significant transit-timing variations among at least three multiplanet systems (TOI-1136, TOI-1246, TOI-1339) and at least one single-planet system (TOI-1279). We also reduce the uncertainties on planet-to-star radius ratios R _p / R _⋆ across our sample, from a median fractional uncertainty of 8.8% among the original TOI Catalog values to 3.0% among our updated results. With this improvement, we are able to recover the Radius Gap among small TKS planets and find that the topology of the Radius Gap among our sample is broadly consistent with that measured among Kepler planets. The stellar and planetary properties presented here will facilitate follow-up investigations of both individual TOIs and broader trends in planet properties, system dynamics, and the evolution of planetary systems.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an all-sky survey mission designed to find transiting exoplanets orbiting nearby bright stars. It has identified more than 329 transiting exoplanets, and almost 6000 candidates remain unvalidated. In this manuscript, we discuss the findings from the ongoing Validation of Transiting Exoplanets using Statistical Tools (VaTEST) project, which aims to validate new exoplanets for further characterization. We validated 11 new exoplanets by examining the light curves of 24 candidates using the LATTE and TESS-Plot tools and computing the false-positive probabilities using the statistical validation tool TRICERATOPS . These include planets suitable for atmospheric characterization using transmission spectroscopy (TOI-2194b), emission spectroscopy (TOI-3082b and TOI-5704b) and for both transmission and emission spectroscopy (TOI-672b, TOI-1694b, and TOI-2443b). Our validated planets have one super-Earth (TOI-2194b) orbiting a bright ( V = 8.42 mag), metal-poor ([Fe/H] = −0.3720 ± 0.1) star, and one short-period Neptune-like planet (TOI-5704) in the hot-Neptune desert. In total, we validated one super-Earth, seven sub-Neptunes, one Neptune-like, and two sub-Saturn or super-Neptune-like exoplanets. Additionally, we identify five likely planet candidates (TOI-323, TOI-1180, TOI-2200, TOI-2408, and TOI-3913), which can be further studied to establish their planetary nature.

We present the Distant Giants Survey, a three-year radial velocity campaign to measure P(DG∣CS), the conditional occurrence of distant giant planets (DG; M _p ∼ 0.3–13 M _J , P > 1 yr) in systems hosting a close-in small planet (CS; R _p < 10 R _⊕ ). For the past two years, we have monitored 47 Sun-like stars hosting small transiting planets detected by TESS. We present the selection criteria used to assemble our sample and report the discovery of two distant giant planets, TOI-1669 b and TOI-1694 c. For TOI-1669 b we find that $M\sin i=0.573\pm 0.074\,\,{M}_{{\rm{J}}}$ , P = 502 ± 16 days, and e < 0.27, while for TOI-1694 c, $M\sin i=1.05\pm 0.05\,\,{M}_{{\rm{J}}}$ , P = 389.2 ± 3.9 days, and e = 0.18 ± 0.05. We also confirmed the 3.8 days transiting planet TOI-1694 b by measuring a true mass of M = 26.1 ± 2.2 M _⊕ . At the end of the Distant Giants Survey, we will incorporate TOI-1669 b and TOI-1694 c into our calculation of P(DG∣CS), a crucial statistic for understanding the relationship between outer giants and small inner companions.

Convergent disk migration has long been suspected to be responsible for forming planetary systems with a chain of mean-motion resonances (MMRs). Dynamical evolution over time could disrupt the delicate resonant configuration. We present TOI-1136, a 700 ± 150 Myr old G star hosting at least six transiting planets between ∼2 and 5 R _⊕ . The orbital period ratios deviate from exact commensurability by only 10 ^−4 , smaller than the ∼10 ^−2 deviations seen in typical Kepler near-resonant systems. A transit-timing analysis measured the masses of the planets (3–8 M _⊕ ) and demonstrated that the planets in TOI-1136 are in true resonances with librating resonant angles. Based on a Rossiter–McLaughlin measurement of planet d, the star’s rotation appears to be aligned with the planetary orbital planes. The well-aligned planetary system and the lack of a detected binary companion together suggest that TOI-1136's resonant chain formed in an isolated, quiescent disk with no stellar flyby, disk warp, or significant axial asymmetry. With period ratios near 3:2, 2:1, 3:2, 7:5, and 3:2, TOI-1136 is the first known resonant chain involving a second-order MMR (7:5) between two first-order MMRs. The formation of the delicate 7:5 resonance places strong constraints on the system’s migration history. Short-scale (starting from ∼0.1 au) Type-I migration with an inner disk edge is most consistent with the formation of TOI-1136. A low disk surface density (Σ _1 au ≲ 10 ^3 g cm ^−2 ; lower than the minimum-mass solar nebula) and the resultant slower migration rate likely facilitated the formation of the 7:5 second-order MMR.

We validate the presence of a two-planet system orbiting the 0.15–1.4 Gyr K4 dwarf TOI 560 (HD 73583). The system consists of an inner moderately eccentric transiting mini-Neptune (TOI 560 b, $P={6.3980661}_{-0.0000097}^{+0.0000095}$ days, $e={0.294}_{-0.062}^{+0.13}$ , $M={0.94}_{-0.23}^{+0.31}{M}_{\mathrm{Nep}}$ ) initially discovered in the Sector 8 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission observations, and a transiting mini-Neptune (TOI 560 c, $P={18.8805}_{-0.0011}^{+0.0024}$ days, $M={1.32}_{-0.32}^{+0.29}{M}_{\mathrm{Nep}}$ ) discovered in the Sector 34 observations, in a rare near-1:3 orbital resonance. We utilize photometric data from TESS Spitzer, and ground-based follow-up observations to confirm the ephemerides and period of the transiting planets, vet false-positive scenarios, and detect the photoeccentric effect for TOI 560 b. We obtain follow-up spectroscopy and corresponding precise radial velocities (RVs) with the iSHELL spectrograph at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the HIRES Spectrograph at Keck Observatory to validate the planetary nature of these signals, which we combine with published Planet Finder Spectrograph RVs from the Magellan Observatory. We detect the masses of both planets at >3 σ significance. We apply a Gaussian process (GP) model to the TESS light curves to place priors on a chromatic RV GP model to constrain the stellar activity of the TOI 560 host star, and confirm a strong wavelength dependence for the stellar activity demonstrating the ability of near-IR RVs to mitigate stellar activity for young K dwarfs. TOI 560 is a nearby moderately young multiplanet system with two planets suitable for atmospheric characterization with the James Webb Space Telescope and other upcoming missions. In particular, it will undergo six transit pairs separated by

The recent detections of two transit events attributed to the super-Earth candidate K2-18b have provided the unprecedented prospect of spectroscopically studying a habitable-zone planet outside the solar system. Orbiting a nearby M2.5 dwarf and receiving virtually the same stellar insolation as Earth, K2-18b would be a prime candidate for the first detailed atmospheric characterization of a habitable-zone exoplanet using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Here, we report the detection of a third transit of K2-18b near the predicted transit time using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer detection demonstrates the periodic nature of the two transit events discovered by K2, confirming that K2-18 is indeed orbited by a super-Earth in a 33 day orbit, ruling out the alternative scenario of two similarly sized, long-period planets transiting only once within the 75 day Kepler Space Telescope (K2) observation. We also find, however, that the transit event detected by Spitzer occurred 1.85 hr () before the predicted transit time. Our joint analysis of the Spitzer and K2 photometry reveals that this early occurrence of the transit is not caused by transit timing variations, but the result of an inaccurate ephemeris due to a previously undetected data anomaly in the K2 photometry. We refit the ephemeris and find that K2-18b would have been lost for future atmospheric characterizations with HST and JWST if we had not secured its ephemeris shortly after the discovery. We caution that immediate follow-up observations as presented here will also be critical for confirming and securing future planets discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), in particular if only two transit events are covered by the relatively short 27-day TESS campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]