Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission

Abstract

<i>Context. <i/>The space telescope CoRoT searches for transiting extrasolar planets by continuously monitoring the optical flux of thousands of stars in several fields of view.<i>Aims. <i/>We report the discovery of CoRoT-10b, a giant planet on a highly eccentric orbit (<i>e<i/> = 0.53 <i>±<i/> 0.04) revolving in 13.24 days around a faint (<i>V<i/> = 15.22) metal-rich K1V star.<i>Methods. <i/>We used CoRoT photometry, radial velocity observations taken with the <i>HARPS<i/> spectrograph, and <i>UVES<i/> spectra of the parent star to derive the orbital, stellar, and planetary parameters.<i>Results. <i/>We derive a radius of the planet of 0.97 <i>±<i/> 0.07 <i>R<i/><sub>Jup<sub/> and a mass of 2.75 <i>±<i/> 0.16 <i>M<i/><sub>Jup<sub/>. The bulk density, <i>ρ<i/><sub>p<sub/> = 3.70 <i>±<i/> 0.83 g cm<sup>-3<sup/>, is ~2.8 that of Jupiter. The core of CoRoT-10b could contain up to 240 of heavy elements. Moving along its eccentric orbit, the planet experiences a 10.6-fold variation in insolation. Owing to the long circularisation time, <i>τ<i/><sub>circ<sub/> > 7 Gyr, a resonant perturber is not required to excite and maintain the high eccentricity of CoRoT-10b.