KEPLER-14b: A MASSIVE HOT JUPITER TRANSITING AN F STAR IN A CLOSE VISUAL BINARY

We present the discovery of a hot Jupiter transiting an F star in a close visual (03 sky projected angular separation) binary system. The dilution of the host star's light by the nearly equal magnitude stellar companion (~0.5 mag fainter) significantly affects the derived planetary parameters, and if left uncorrected, leads to an underestimate of the radius and mass of the planet by 10% and 60%, respectively. Other published exoplanets, which have not been observed with high-resolution imaging, could similarly have unresolved stellar companions and thus have incorrectly derived planetary parameters. Kepler-14b (KOI-98) has a period of P = 6.790 days and, correcting for the dilution, has a mass of Mp = 8.40+0.35 – 0.34 M J and a radius of Rp = 1.136+0.073 – 0.054 R J, yielding a mean density of ρ p = 7.1 ± 1.1 g cm–3.