TOI-257b (HD 19916b): a warm sub-saturn orbiting an evolved F-type star

We report the discovery of a warm sub-Saturn, TOI-257b (HD 19916b), based on data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The transit signal was detected by TESS and confirmed to be of planetary origin based on radial velocity observations. An analysis of the TESS photometry, the MINERVA-Australis, FEROS, and HARPS radial velocities, and the asteroseismic data of the stellar oscillations reveals that TOI-257b has a mass of M-P = 0.138 +/- 0.023M(J) (43.9 +/- 7.3 M-circle plus), a radius of R-P = 0.639 +/- 0.013 R-J (7.16 +/- 0.15 R-circle plus), bulk density of 0.65(-0.11)(+0.12) (cgs), and period 18.38818(-0.00084)(+0.00085) days. TOI-257b orbits a bright (V = 7.612 mag) somewhat evolved late F-type star with M-* = 1.390 +/- 0.046(Msun), R-* = 1.888 +/- 0.033 R-sun, T-eff = 6075 +/- 90 K, and vsin i = 11.3 +/- 0.5 kms(-1). Additionally, we find hints for a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet on a similar to 71 day orbit using the radial velocity data. This system joins the ranks of a small number of exoplanet host stars (similar to 100) that have been characterized with asteroseismology. Warm sub-Saturns are rare in the known sample of exoplanets, and thus the discovery of TOI-257b is important in the context of future work studying the formation and migration history of similar planetary systems.

Automated summary

TOI-257b is a warm sub-Saturn discovered orbiting a slightly evolved F-type star, with characteristics of a planet mass of 0.138M(J) and a radius of 0.639R-J. Stellar asteroseismology data suggests the presence of a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet in the system.