The Polar Orbit of TOI-2374 b, a Planet in the Neptunian Ridge

The “Neptunian ridge” is a recently identified peak in the frequency of planets with sizes between that of Neptune and Saturn orbiting their host stars with periods between 3 and 6 days. These planets may have formed similarly to their larger, hot Jupiter counterparts in the “3 day pileup,” through a dynamically excited migration pathway. The distribution of stellar obliquities in hot Neptune systems may therefore provide a vital clue as to their origin. We report a new stellar obliquity measurement for TOI-2374b, a planet in the Neptunian ridge (P = 4.31 days, R_p = 7.5 R_⊕). We observed a spectroscopic transit of TOI-2374b with the Keck Planet Finder, detecting the Rossiter–McLaughlin (RM) anomaly with an amplitude of 3 m s⁻¹, and measured a sky-projected obliquity of λ = 81°_−22∘^+23∘, indicating an orbit significantly misaligned with the spin axis of its host star. A reloaded RM analysis of the cross-correlation functions confirms this misalignment, measuring λ = 65°_−24∘^+32∘. Additionally, we measured a stellar rotation period of P_rot = 26.4_−0.8^+0.9 days with photometry from the Tierras observatory, allowing us to deduce the three-dimensional stellar obliquity of ψ = 85.°9_−9.°2^+8.°6. TOI-2374b joins a growing number of hot Neptunes on polar orbits. The high frequency of misaligned orbits for Neptunian ridge and desert planets, compared with their longer period counterparts, is reminiscent of patterns seen for the giant planets and may suggest a similar formation mechanism.