Not-so-fast Kepler-1513: a perturbing planetary interloper in the exomoon corridor

Abstract

Transit timing variations (TTVs) can be induced by a range of physical phenomena, including planet-planet interactions, planet-moon interactions, and stellar activity. Recent work has shown that roughly half of moons would induce fast TTVs with a short period in the range of 2-4 orbits of its host planet around the star. An investigation of the Kepler TTV data in this period range identified one primary target of interest, Kepler-1513 b. Kepler-1513 b is a $8.05^{+0.58}_{-0.40}$ R_⊕ planet orbiting a late G-type dwarf at $0.53^{+0.04}_{-0.03}$ au. Using Kepler photometry, this initial analysis showed that Kepler-1513 b's TTVs were consistent with a moon. Here, we report photometric observations of two additional transits nearly a decade after the last Kepler transit using both ground-based observations and space-based photometry with TESS. These new transit observations introduce a previously undetected long period TTV, in addition to the original short period TTV signal. Using the complete transit data set, we investigate whether a non-transiting planet, a moon, or stellar activity could induce the observed TTVs. We find that only a non-transiting perturbing planet can reproduce the observed TTVs. We additionally perform transit origami on the Kepler photometry, which independently applies pressure against a moon hypothesis. Specifically, we find that Kepler-1513 b's TTVs are consistent with an exterior non-transiting ~Saturn mass planet, Kepler-1513 c, on a wide orbit, $\sim 5~{{\ \rm per \, cent}}$ outside a 5:1 period ratio with Kepler-1513 b. This example introduces a previously unidentified cause for planetary interlopers in the exomoon corridor, namely an insufficient baseline of observations.