THREE WASP-SOUTH TRANSITING EXOPLANETS: WASP-74b, WASP-83b, AND WASP-89b

We report the discovery of three new transiting hot Jupiters by WASP-South together with the TRAPPIST photometer and the Euler/CORALIE spectrograph. WASP-74b orbits a star of V = 9.7, making it one of the brighter systems accessible to southern telescopes. It is a 0.95M(Jup) planet with a moderately bloated radius of 1.5 R-Jup in a 2 day orbit around a slightly evolved F9 star. WASP-83b is a Saturn-mass planet at 0.3 M-Jup with a radius of 1.0 R-Jup. It is in a 5 day orbit around a fainter (V = 12.9) G8 star. WASP-89b is a 6 M-Jup planet in a 3 day orbit with an eccentricity of e - 0.2. It is thus similar to massive, eccentric planets such as XO-3b and HAT-P-2b, except that those planets orbit F stars whereas WASP-89 is a K star. The V = 13.1 host star is magnetically active, showing a rotation period of 20.2 days, while star spots are visible in the transits. There are indications that the planet's orbit is aligned with the stellar spin. WASP-89 is a good target for an extensive study of transits of star spots.