We present the discovery of HD 221416 b, the first transiting planet identified by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) for which asteroseismology of the host star is possible. HD 221416 b (HIP 116158, TOI-197) is a bright (V = 8.2 mag), spectroscopically classified subgiant that oscillates with an average frequency of about 430 μHz and displays a clear signature of mixed modes. The oscillation amplitude confirms that the redder TESS bandpass compared to Kepler has a small effect on the oscillations, supporting the expected yield of thousands of solar-like oscillators with TESS 2 minute cadence observations. Asteroseismic modeling yields a robust determination of the host star radius (R _⋆ = 2.943 ± 0.064 R _⊙), mass (M _⋆ = 1.212 ± 0.074 M _⊙), and age (4.9 ± 1.1 Gyr), and demonstrates that it has just started ascending the red-giant branch. Combining asteroseismology with transit modeling and radial-velocity observations, we show that the planet is a “hot Saturn” (R _p = 9.17 ± 0.33 R _⊕) with an orbital period of ∼14.3 days, irradiance of F = 343 ± 24 F _⊕, and moderate mass (M _p = 60.5 ± 5.7 M _⊕) and density (ρ _p = 0.431 ± 0.062 g cm⁻³). The properties of HD 221416 b show that the host-star metallicity–planet mass correlation found in sub-Saturns (4–8 R _⊕) does not extend to larger radii, indicating that planets in the transition between sub-Saturns and Jupiters follow a relatively narrow range of densities. With a density measured to ∼15%, HD 221416 b is one of the best characterized Saturn-size planets to date, augmenting the small number of known transiting planets around evolved stars and demonstrating the power of TESS to characterize exoplanets and their host stars using asteroseismology.

We present an analysis of the first 20 second cadence light curves obtained by the TESS space telescope during its extended mission. We find improved precision of 20 second data compared to 2 minute data for bright stars when binned to the same cadence (≈10%–25% better for T ≲ 8 mag, reaching equal precision at T ≈ 13 mag), consistent with pre-flight expectations based on differences in cosmic-ray mitigation algorithms. We present two results enabled by this improvement. First, we use 20 second data to detect oscillations in three solar analogs (γ Pav, ζ Tuc, and π Men) and use asteroseismology to measure their radii, masses, densities, and ages to ≈1%, ≈3%, ≈1%, and ≈20% respectively, including systematic errors. Combining our asteroseismic ages with chromospheric activity measurements, we find evidence that the spread in the activity–age relation is linked to stellar mass and thus the depth of the convection zone. Second, we combine 20 second data and published radial velocities to recharacterize π Men c, which is now the closest transiting exoplanet for which detailed asteroseismology of the host star is possible. We show that π Men c is located at the upper edge of the planet radius valley for its orbital period, confirming that it has likely retained a volatile atmosphere and that the “asteroseismic radius valley” remains devoid of planets. Our analysis favors a low eccentricity for π Men c (<0.1 at 68% confidence), suggesting efficient tidal dissipation (Q/k _2,1 ≲ 2400) if it formed via high-eccentricity migration. Combined, these early results demonstrate the strong potential of TESS 20 second cadence data for stellar astrophysics and exoplanet science.

Context. The effect of metallicity on the granulation activity in stars, and hence on the convective motions in general, is still poorly understood. Available spectroscopic parameters from the updated APOGEE-Kepler catalog, coupled with high-precision photometric observations from NASA’s Kepler mission spanning more than four years of observation, make oscillating red giant stars in open clusters crucial testbeds. Aims. We aim to determine the role of metallicity on the stellar granulation activity by discriminating its effect from that of different stellar properties such as surface gravity, mass, and temperature. We analyze 60 known red giant stars belonging to the open clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6819, and NGC 6811, spanning a metallicity range from [Fe/H] ≃ − 0.09 to 0.32. The parameters describing the granulation activity of these stars and their frequency of maximum oscillation power, ν_max, are studied while taking into account different masses, metallicities, and stellar evolutionary stages. We derive new scaling relations for the granulation activity, re-calibrate existing ones, and identify the best scaling relations from the available set of observations. Methods. We adopted the Bayesian code Diamonds for the analysis of the background signal in the Fourier spectra of the stars. We performed a Bayesian parameter estimation and model comparison to test the different model hypotheses proposed in this work and in the literature. Results. Metallicity causes a statistically significant change in the amplitude of the granulation activity, with a dependency stronger than that induced by both stellar mass and surface gravity. We also find that the metallicity has a significant impact on the corresponding time scales of the phenomenon. The effect of metallicity on the time scale is stronger than that of mass. Conclusions. A higher metallicity increases the amplitude of granulation and meso-granulation signals and slows down their characteristic time scales toward longer periods. The trend in amplitude is in qualitative agreement with predictions from existing 3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar atmospheres from main sequence to red giant stars. We confirm that the granulation activity is not sensitive to changes in the stellar core and that it only depends on the atmospheric parameters of stars.

Since the onset of the “space revolution” of high-precision high-cadence photometry, asteroseismology has been demonstrated as a powerful tool for informing Galactic archeology investigations. The launch of the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has enabled seismic-based inferences to go full sky—providing a clear advantage for large ensemble studies of the different Milky Way components. Here we demonstrate its potential for investigating the Galaxy by carrying out the first asteroseismic ensemble study of red giant stars observed by TESS. We use a sample of 25 stars for which we measure their global asteroseimic observables and estimate their fundamental stellar properties, such as radius, mass, and age. Significant improvements are seen in the uncertainties of our estimates when combining seismic observables from TESS with astrometric measurements from the Gaia mission compared to when the seismology and astrometry are applied separately. Specifically, when combined we show that stellar radii can be determined to a precision of a few percent, masses to 5%–10%, and ages to the 20% level. This is comparable to the precision typically obtained using end-of-mission Kepler data.