Mancini, L, Southworth, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3807-3198, Naponiello, L, Baştürk, Ö, Barbato, D, Biagiotti, F, Bruni, I, Cabona, L, D’Ago, G, Damasso, M, Erdem, A, Evans, D, Henning, T, Öztürk, O, Ricci, D, Sozzetti, A, Tregloan-Reed, J and Yalçınkaya, S (2021) The ultra-hot-Jupiter KELT-16 b: Dynamical Evolution and Atmospheric Properties. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We present broad-band photometry of 30 planetary transits of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-16 b, using five medium-class telescopes. The transits were monitored through standard B, V, R, I filters and four were simultaneously observed from different places, for a total of 36 new light curves. We used these new photometric data and those from the TESS space telescope to review the main physical properties of the KELT-16 planetary system. Our results agree with previous measurements but are more precise. We estimated the mid-transit times for each of these transits and combined them with others from the literature to obtain 69 epochs, with a time baseline extending over more than four years, and searched for transit time variations. We found no evidence for a period change, suggesting a lower limit for orbital decay at 8 Myr, with a lower limit on the reduced tidal quality factor of $Q^{\prime }_{\star }&amp;gt;(1.9 \pm 0.8) \times 10^5$ with $95\%$ confidence. We built up an observational, low-resolution transmission spectrum of the planet, finding evidence of the presence of optical absorbers, although with a low significance. Using TESS data, we reconstructed the phase curve finding that KELT-16 b has a phase offset of 25.25 ± 14.03 ○E, a day- and night-side brightness temperature of 3190 ± 61 K and 2668 ± 56 K, respectively. Finally, we compared the flux ratio of the planet over its star at the TESS and Spitzer wavelengths with theoretical emission spectra, finding evidence of a temperature inversion in the planet’s atmosphere, the chemical composition of which is preferably oxygen-rich rather than carbon-rich.</jats:p>