Transit depth variability with TESS

In this work we conduct a blind search for transit depth variations among 330 known planets observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite within its first four years of operation. Through an automated periodogram analysis, we identify four targets (KELT-8b, HAT-P-7b, HIP 65 Ab, and TrES-3b) that appear to show significant transit depth variability.

We find that KELT-8b's transit depth variability likely comes from contaminating flux from a nearby star, while the apparent variabilities of HIP65Ab and TrES-3b are probable artifacts due to their grazing orbits. HAT-P-7b indicates signs of variability that possibly originate from the planet or its host star. A population-level analysis does not reveal any significant correlation between transit depth variability and the effective temperature and mass of the host star; such correlation could arise if stellar activity was the cause of depth variations via the transit light source effect.