UC Santa Cruz

Context: WASP-10b, a non-inflated hot Jupiter, was discovered around a K-dwarf in a near circular orbit (∼0.06). Since its discovery in 2009, different published parameters for this system have led to a discussion about the size, density, and eccentricity of this exoplanet. Aims: In order to test the hypothesis of a circular orbit for WASP-10b, we observed its secondary eclipse in the Ks-band, where the contribution of planetary light is high enough to be detected from the ground. Methods: Observations were performed with the OMEGA2000 instrument at the 3.5 m telescope at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), in staring mode during 5.4 continuous hours, with the telescope defocused, monitoring the target during the expected secondary eclipse. A relative light curve was generated and corrected from systematic effects, using the principal component analysis (PCA) technique. The final light curve was fitted using a transit model to find the eclipse depth and a possible phase shift. Results: The best model obtained from the Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis resulted in an eclipse depth of ΔF of 0.137%+0.0113%-0.019% and a phase offset of Δφ of -0.0028+0.0005-0.0004. The eclipse phase offset derived from our modeling has systematic errors that were not taken into account and should not be considered as evidence of an eccentric orbit. The offset in phase obtained leads to a value for |e cos ω| of 0.0044. The derived eccentricity is too small to be of any significance.