TOI-712: a system of adolescent mini-Neptunes extending to the habitable zone

Kavli Affiliate: Roland K. Vanderspek

| First 5 Authors: Sydney Vach, Samuel N. Quinn, Andrew Vanderburg, Stephen R. Kane, Karen A. Collins

| Summary:

As an all-sky survey, NASA’s $TESS$ mission is able to detect the brightest
and rarest types of transiting planetary systems, including young planets that
enable study of the evolutionary processes that occur within the first billion
years. Here, we report the discovery of a young, multi-planet system orbiting
the bright K4.5V star, TOI-712 ($V = 10.838$, $M_star =
0.733_{-0.025}^{+0.026} M_odot$, $R_star = 0.674pm0.016 R_odot$, $T_{rm
eff} = 4622_{-60}^{+61}$ K). From the $TESS$ light curve, we measure a rotation
period of 12.48 days, and derive an age between about $500$ Myr and 1.1 Gyr.
The photometric observations reveal three transiting mini-Neptunes ($R_b =
2.049^{+0.12}_{-0.080} R_oplus$, $R_c = 2.701^{+0.092}_{-0.082} R_oplus$,
$R_d = 2.474^{+0.090}_{-0.082} R_oplus $), with orbital periods of $P_b =
9.531$ days, $P_c = 51.699$ days, and $P_d = 84.839$ days. After modeling the
three-planet system, an additional Earth-sized candidate is identified,
TOI-712.05 ($P = 4.32$ days, $R_P = 0.81 pm 0.11 R_oplus$). We calculate that
the habitable zone falls between 0.339 and 0.844 au (82.7 and 325.3 days),
placing TOI-712 d near its inner edge. Among planetary systems harboring
temperate planets, TOI-712 ($T = 9.9$) stands out as a relatively young star
bright enough to motivate further characterization.

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