KELT-8b: A HIGHLY INFLATED TRANSITING HOT JUPITER AND A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR EXTRACTING HIGH-PRECISION RADIAL VELOCITIES FROM NOISY SPECTRA

We announce the discovery of a highly inflated transiting hot Jupiter by the KELT-North survey. A global analysis including constraints from isochrones indicates that the V = 10.8 host star (HD 343246) is a mildly evolved, G dwarf with K, , , an inferred mass , and radius . The planetary companion has a mass M J , radius R J , surface gravity , and density g cm −3 . The planet is on a roughly circular orbit with semimajor axis AU and eccentricity . The best-fit linear ephemeris is and days. This planet is one of the most inflated of all known transiting exoplanets, making it one of the few members of a class of extremely low density, highly irradiated gas giants. The low stellar and large implied radius are supported by stellar density constraints from follow-up light curves, as well as an evolutionary and space motion analysis. We also develop a new technique to extract high-precision radial velocities from noisy spectra that reduces the observing time needed to confirm transiting planet candidates. This planet boasts deep transits of a bright star, a large inferred atmospheric scale height, and a high equilibrium temperature of K, assuming zero albedo and perfect heat redistribution, making it one of the best targets for future atmospheric characterization studies.