In-depth characterization of the Kepler-10 three-planet system with HARPS-N radial velocities and

The old G3V star Kepler-10 is known to host two transiting planets, the ultra-short-period super-Earth Kepler-10 b (Pb = 0.837 d; Rb = 1.47 R⊕) and the long-period sub-Neptune Kepler-10 c (Pc = 45.294 d; Rc = 2.35 R⊕), and a non-transiting planet that causes variations in the Kepler-10 c transit times. Measurements of the mass of Kepler-10 c in the literature have shown disagreement, depending on the radial-velocity dataset and/or the modeling technique used. Here we report on the analysis of almost 300 high-precision radial velocities gathered with the HARPS-N spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo over ∼11 years, and extracted with the YARARA-v2 tool, which corrects for possible systematics and/or low-level activity variations at the spectrum level. To model these radial velocities, we used three different noise models and various numerical techniques, which all converged to the solution: Mb = 3.24 ± 0.32 M⊕ (10σ) and ρb = 5.54 ± 0.64 g cm−3 for planet b; Mc = 11.29 ± 1.24 M⊕ (9σ) and ρc = 4.75 ± 0.53 g cm−3 for planet c; and Md sin i = 12.00 ± 2.15 M⊕ (6 σ) and Pd = 151.06 ± 0.48 d for the non-transiting planet Kepler-10 d. This solution is further supported by the analysis of the Kepler-10 c transit timing variations and their simultaneous modeling with the HARPS-N radial velocities. While Kepler-10 b is consistent with a rocky composition and a small or no iron core, Kepler-10 c may be a water world that formed beyond the water snowline and subsequently migrated inward.