Searching for orbital decay in southern stars with giant transiting planets: the case of WASP-46

R. PETRUCCI, E. JOFRÉ, L. V. FERRERO, V. CÚNEO, L. SAKER, F. LOVOS, M. GOMEZ, P. MAUAS

Córdoba

Conferencia; Terceras Jornadas de Astrofísica Estelar; 2016

Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba

In this contribution we present preliminary results of the photometric follow-up of the star WASP-46, which has a short-period giant-transiting planet (1.43 days). We observed 10 new transits of this exoplanet between July 2012 and September 2015 with the 1.54-m telescope at Estación Astrofísica de Bosque Alegre (EABA, Argentina) and the 0.40-m Horacio Ghielmetti telescope at Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito (CASLEO, Argentina). Furthermore, we collect other 31 transits from the literature and re-determine the photometric parameters of the system from the complete, most precise light curves of the sample. On the other hand, we also fit the 25 transits with uncertainties in their midtransit times lower than 1 minute, with a linear and a quadratic model to assess the possibility of a systematic decreasing in the orbital period. This analysis reveals that a linear ephemeris is the best representation of the data, and shows no hint of orbital decay in the system, at least during 4 years of observations.