The architecture and formation of the Kepler-30 planetary system

Abstract

We study the orbital architecture, physical characteristics of planets, formation and long-term evolution of the Kepler-30 planetary system, detected and announced in 2012 by the KEPLER team. We show that the Kepler-30 system belongs to a particular class of very compact and quasi-resonant, yet long-term stable planetary systems. We re-analyse the light curves of the host star spanning Q1-Q17 quarters of the KEPLER mission. A huge variability of the Transit Timing Variations (TTV) exceeding 2 days is induced by a massive Jovian planet located between two Neptune-like companions. The innermost pair is near to the 2:1 mean motion resonance (MMR), and the outermost pair is close to higher order MMRs, such as 17:7 and 7:3. Our re-analysis of photometric data allows us to constrain, better than before, the orbital elements, planets' radii and masses, which are $9.2 \pm 0.1$, $536 \pm 5$, and $23.7 \pm 1.3$ Earth masses for Kepler-30b, Kepler-30c and Kepler-30d, respectively. The masses of the inner planets are determined within $\sim 1\%$ uncertainty. We infer the internal structures of the Kepler-30 planets and their bulk densities in a wide range from $ (0.19 \pm 0.01)$ g$\cdot$cm$^{-3}$ for Kepler-30d, $(0.96\pm0.15)$ g$\cdot$cm$^{-3}$ for Kepler-30b, to $(1.71 \pm 0.13)$ g$\cdot$cm$^{-3}$ for the Jovian planet Kepler-30c. We attempt to explain the origin of this unique planetary system and a deviation of the orbits from exact MMRs through the planetary migration scenario. We anticipate that the Jupiter-like planet plays an important role in determining the present dynamical state of this system.