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arXiv · 2608.11328

A Pair of Warm Saturn-mass Planets near the 2:1 Mean Motion Resonance around TOI-3850

Abstract

Warm Jupiters, with orbital periods of $10$--$200~\rm{days}$ and radii exceeding $8~R_{\oplus}$, are a relatively understudied class of exoplanets occupying the parameter space between hot Jupiters and more widely separated, colder Jupiter analogs. In this work, we report the detection of a multi-planet warm Jupiter system around TOI-3850 (TIC-143008050), a moderately active, near-solar metallicity G0 dwarf star observed by TESS in Sectors 15, 21, 41, 48 and 75. Initially, a single candidate planet was discovered by TESS, displaying transit timing variations (TTVs) with an amplitude of $\sim 1~\rm hr$ and a super-period of $513~\rm days$. Through a combination of transit photometry, radial velocity observations with MAROON-X, and TTV modeling, we identify two planets: TOI-3850 b $(P_b=14.484\pm0.002~\mathrm{days},~ M_b =112\pm20~M_{\oplus},~e_b = 0.018\pm0.008, R_b = 12.07\pm0.09~R_{\oplus}, ~T_{\rm{eq}}=841\pm10~\rm{K})$, a transiting warm Jupiter, and TOI-3850 c $(P_c=29.85\pm0.01~\mathrm{days},~ M_c =90\pm15~M_{\oplus},~e_c < 0.015, ~T_{\rm{eq}}=661\pm7~\rm{K})$, a non-transiting, Saturn-mass companion. The two planets lie wide of the 2:1 mean motion resonance $(P_c/P_b \approx 2.06)$, consistent with a formation history involving disk-driven migration. $N$-body integrations indicate that TOI-3850 c may begin to transit on decadal timescales, while TOI-3850 b remains a promising target for follow-up atmospheric characterization.

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Sean Collins, Michelle Kunimoto, Nicolas B. Cowan, Keivan G. Stassun, Jack J. Lissauer, Ze'ev Vladimir, Teo Močnik, Ernesto Elenter, David W. Latham, Karen A. Collins, Jacob Bean, Stephanie Striegel, Khalid Barkaoui, Ritvik Basant, Tanya Das, Raquel Forés-Toribio, Akihiko Fukui, Jose A. Muñoz, Felipe Murgas, Enric Palle, Ivan A. Strakhov, Richard P. Schwarz, Avi Shporer, Gregor Srdoc, Chris Stockdale, Neil B. Thomas, Francis P. Wilkin. 2026-08-11. A Pair of Warm Saturn-mass Planets near the 2:1 Mean Motion Resonance around TOI-3850. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11328

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