A Search for Stellar Siblings of the ∼200 Myr TOI-251 b Planetary System

Abstract

Young planets (<1 Gyr) are helpful for studying the physical processes occurring at the early stage of planet evolution. TOI-251 b is a recently discovered sub-Neptune orbiting a young G dwarf, which has an imprecise age estimation of 40–320 Myr. We select TOI-251 sibling candidates based on kinematics and spatial proximity to TOI-251 and further use the color–magnitude diagram to refine the list and to compare to multiple open clusters. We report the stellar rotational period for 321 sibling candidates in a 50 pc radius around TOI-251 by analyzing their stellar light curves and find a color–rotational period sequence that lies in between the Group X (300 Myr) and Pleiades (120 Myr) members, suggesting an age ∼ 200 Myr. A quantitative age analysis using gyrochronology relations gives 204 ± 45 Myr, consistent with the average Li age of selected siblings (238 ± 38 Myr) and the Gaia variability age (193 − 54 102 Myr). The detection fraction of comoving candidates that have a short rotational period is 68.1%, much higher than the typical value in the field (14%–16% from Kepler). The overdensity of young stars and consistency in age of stellar siblings suggest a potential young association candidate in the Phoenix–Grus constellation. Though TOI-251 b has a radius larger than most of its field-age counterparts, we are uncertain whether TOI-251 is inflated, due to a lack of knowledge on the planet’s mass.