Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Science.gov (United States)

Ricker, G. R.; Clampin, M.; Latham, D. W.; Seager, S.; Vanderspek, R. K.; Villasenor, J. S.; Winn, J. N.

2012-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey, TESS will monitor more than 500,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat. A large fraction of TESS target stars will be 30-100 times brighter than those observed by Kepler satellite, and therefore TESS . planets will be far easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS will make it possible to study the masses, sizes, densities, orbits, and atmospheres of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample of rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars. TESS will provide prime targets for observation with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future. TESS data will be released with minimal delay (no proprietary period), inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the very nearest and brightest main-sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, thus providing future observers with the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.

REFLECTED LIGHT CURVES, SPHERICAL AND BOND ALBEDOS OF JUPITER- AND SATURN-LIKE EXOPLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dyudina, Ulyana; Kopparla, Pushkar; Ingersoll, Andrew P.; Yung, Yuk L. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, 150-21 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Zhang, Xi [University of California Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Li, Liming [Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204 (United States); Dones, Luke [Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder CO 80302 (United States); Verbiscer, Anne, E-mail: ulyana@gps.caltech.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States)

2016-05-10

Reflected light curves observed for exoplanets indicate that a few of them host bright clouds. We estimate how the light curve and total stellar heating of a planet depends on forward and backward scattering in the clouds based on Pioneer and Cassini spacecraft images of Jupiter and Saturn. We fit analytical functions to the local reflected brightnesses of Jupiter and Saturn depending on the planet’s phase. These observations cover broadbands at 0.59–0.72 and 0.39–0.5 μ m, and narrowbands at 0.938 (atmospheric window), 0.889 (CH4 absorption band), and 0.24–0.28 μ m. We simulate the images of the planets with a ray-tracing model, and disk-integrate them to produce the full-orbit light curves. For Jupiter, we also fit the modeled light curves to the observed full-disk brightness. We derive spherical albedos for Jupiter and Saturn, and for planets with Lambertian and Rayleigh-scattering atmospheres. Jupiter-like atmospheres can produce light curves that are a factor of two fainter at half-phase than the Lambertian planet, given the same geometric albedo at transit. The spherical albedo is typically lower than for a Lambertian planet by up to a factor of ∼1.5. The Lambertian assumption will underestimate the absorption of the stellar light and the equilibrium temperature of the planetary atmosphere. We also compare our light curves with the light curves of solid bodies: the moons Enceladus and Callisto. Their strong backscattering peak within a few degrees of opposition (secondary eclipse) can lead to an even stronger underestimate of the stellar heating.

Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project (TEMP). II. Refined System Parameters and Transit Timing Analysis of HAT-P-33b

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yong-Hao; Wang, Songhu; Liu, Hui-Gen; Hinse, Tobias C.; Laughlin, Gregory; Wu, Dong-Hong; Zhang, Xiaojia; Zhou, Xu; Wu, Zhenyu; Zhou, Ji-Lin; Wittenmyer, R. A.; Eastman, Jason; Zhang, Hui; Hori, Yasunori; Narita, Norio; Chen, Yuanyuan; Ma, Jun; Peng, Xiyan; Zhang, Tian-Meng; Zou, Hu; Nie, Jun-Dan; Zhou, Zhi-Min

2017-08-01

We present 10 R-band photometric observations of eight different transits of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-33b, which has been targeted by our Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project. The data were obtained by two telescopes at the Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) from 2013 December through 2016 January, and exhibit photometric scatter of 1.6{--}3.0 {mmag}. After jointly analyzing the previously published photometric data, radial-velocity (RV) measurements, and our new light curves, we revisit the system parameters and orbital ephemeris for the HAT-P-33b system. Our results are consistent with the published values except for the planet to star radius ratio ({R}{{P}}/{R}* ), the ingress/egress duration (τ) and the total duration (T 14), which together indicate a slightly shallower and shorter transit shape. Our results are based on more complete light curves, whereas the previously published work had only one complete transit light curve. No significant anomalies in Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) are found, and we place upper mass limits on potential perturbers, largely supplanting the loose constraints provided by the extant RV data. The TTV limits are stronger near mean-motion resonances, especially for the low-order commensurabilities. We can exclude the existence of a perturber with mass larger than 0.6, 0.3, 0.5, 0.5, and 0.3 {M}\\oplus near the 1:3, 1:2, 2:3, 3:2, and 2:1 resonances, respectively.

K2-139 b: a low-mass warm Jupiter on a 29-d orbit transiting an active K0 V star

Science.gov (United States)

Barragán, O.; Gandolfi, D.; Smith, A. M. S.; Deeg, H. J.; Fridlund, M. C. V.; Persson, C. M.; Donati, P.; Endl, M.; Csizmadia, Sz; Grziwa, S.; Nespral, D.; Hatzes, A. P.; Cochran, W. D.; Fossati, L.; Brems, S. S.; Cabrera, J.; Cusano, F.; Eigmüller, Ph; Eiroa, C.; Erikson, A.; Guenther, E.; Korth, J.; Lorenzo-Oliveira, D.; Mancini, L.; Pätzold, M.; Prieto-Arranz, J.; Rauer, H.; Rebollido, I.; Saario, J.; Zakhozhay, O. V.

2018-04-01

We announce the discovery of K2-139 b (EPIC 218916923 b), a transiting warm-Jupiter (Teq = 547 ± 25 K) on a 29-d orbit around an active (log R^' _HK = -4.46 ± 0.06) K0 V star in K2 Campaign 7. We derive the system's parameters by combining the K2 photometry with ground-based follow-up observations. With a mass of 0.387 _{ - 0.075 } ^ {+ 0.083 }MJ and radius of 0.808 _{ - 0.033 } ^ {+ 0.034 }RJ, K2-139 b is one of the transiting warm Jupiters with the lowest mass known to date. The planetary mean density of 0.91 _{ - 0.20} ^ { + 0.24 } g cm-3can be explained with a core of ˜50 M⊕. Given the brightness of the host star (V = 11.653 mag), the relatively short transit duration (˜5 h), and the expected amplitude of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (˜25m s-1), K2-139 is an ideal target to measure the spin-orbit angle of a planetary system hosting a warm Jupiter.

System Geometries and Transit/Eclipse Probabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Howard A.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Transiting exoplanets provide access to data to study the mass-radius relation and internal structure of extrasolar planets. Long-period transiting planets allow insight into planetary environments similar to the Solar System where, in contrast to hot Jupiters, planets are not constantly exposed to the intense radiation of their parent stars. Observations of secondary eclipses additionally permit studies of exoplanet temperatures and large-scale exo-atmospheric properties. We show how transit and eclipse probabilities are related to planet-star system geometries, particularly for long-period, eccentric orbits. The resulting target selection and observational strategies represent the principal ingredients of our photometric survey of known radial-velocity planets with the aim of detecting transit signatures (TERMS.

KEPLER OBSERVATIONS OF THREE PRE-LAUNCH EXOPLANET CANDIDATES: DISCOVERY OF TWO ECLIPSING BINARIES AND A NEW EXOPLANET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, Steve B.; Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Sherry, William; Von Braun, Kaspar; Ciardi, David R.; Feldmeier, John J.; Horch, Elliott; Van Belle, Gerard T.

2010-01-01

Three transiting exoplanet candidate stars were discovered in a ground-based photometric survey prior to the launch of NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler observations of them were obtained during Quarter 1 of the Kepler mission. All three stars are faint by radial velocity follow-up standards, so we have examined these candidates with regard to eliminating false positives and providing high confidence exoplanet selection. We present a first attempt to exclude false positives for this set of faint stars without high-resolution radial velocity analysis. This method of exoplanet confirmation will form a large part of the Kepler mission follow-up for Jupiter-sized exoplanet candidates orbiting faint stars. Using the Kepler light curves and pixel data, as well as medium-resolution reconnaissance spectroscopy and speckle imaging, we find that two of our candidates are binary stars. One consists of a late-F star with an early M companion, while the other is a K0 star plus a late M-dwarf/brown dwarf in a 19 day elliptical orbit. The third candidate (BOKS-1) is an r = 15 G8V star hosting a newly discovered exoplanet with a radius of 1.12 R Jupiter in a 3.9 day orbit.

CHARACTERIZING TRANSITING EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES WITH JWST

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greene, Thomas P. [NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science and Astrobiology Division, M.S. 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Line, Michael R.; Montero, Cezar; Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Lustig-Yaeger, Jacob [Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Luther, Kyle, E-mail: tom.greene@nasa.gov [Department of Physics, University of California, 366 LeConte Hall MC 7300, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

2016-01-20

We explore how well spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will likely constrain bulk atmospheric properties of transiting exoplanets. We start by modeling the atmospheres of archetypal hot Jupiter, warm Neptune, warm sub-Neptune, and cool super-Earth planets with atmospheres that are clear, cloudy, or of high mean molecular weight (HMMW). Next we simulate the λ = 1–11 μm transmission and emission spectra of these systems for several JWST instrument modes for single-transit or single-eclipse events. We then perform retrievals to determine how well temperatures and molecular mixing ratios (CH{sub 4}, CO, CO{sub 2}, H{sub 2}O, NH{sub 3}) can be constrained. We find that λ = 1–2.5 μm transmission spectra will often constrain the major molecular constituents of clear solar-composition atmospheres well. Cloudy or HMMW atmospheres will often require full 1–11 μm spectra for good constraints, and emission data may be more useful in cases of sufficiently high F{sub p} and high F{sub p}/F{sub *}. Strong temperature inversions in the solar-composition hot-Jupiter atmosphere should be detectable with 1–2.5+ μm emission spectra, and 1–5+ μm emission spectra will constrain the temperature–pressure profiles of warm planets. Transmission spectra over 1–5+ μm will constrain [Fe/H] values to better than 0.5 dex for the clear atmospheres of the hot and warm planets studied. Carbon-to-oxygen ratios can be constrained to better than a factor of 2 in some systems. We expect that these results will provide useful predictions of the scientific value of single-event JWST spectra until its on-orbit performance is known.

The WASP-South search for transiting exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Queloz D.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Since 2006 WASP-South has been scanning the Southern sky for transiting exoplanets. Combined with Geneva Observatory radial velocities we have so far found over 30 transiting exoplanets around relatively bright stars of magnitude 9–13. We present a status report for this ongoing survey.

PHOTOMETRIC AND SPECTRAL SIGNATURES OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS OF TRANSITING GIANT EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burrows, A.; Spiegel, D. S.; Rauscher, E.; Menou, K.

2010-01-01

Using a three-dimensional general circulation model, we create dynamical model atmospheres of a representative transiting giant exoplanet, HD 209458b. We post-process these atmospheres with an opacity code to obtain transit radius spectra during the primary transit. Using a spectral atmosphere code, we integrate over the face of the planet seen by an observer at various orbital phases and calculate light curves as a function of wavelength and for different photometric bands. The products of this study are generic predictions for the phase variations of a zero-eccentricity giant planet's transit spectrum and of its light curves. We find that for these models the temporal variations in all quantities and the ingress/egress contrasts in the transit radii are small (<1.0%). Moreover, we determine that the day/night contrasts and phase shifts of the brightness peaks relative to the ephemeris are functions of photometric band. The J, H, and K bands are shifted most, while the IRAC bands are shifted least. Therefore, we verify that the magnitude of the downwind shift in the planetary 'hot spot' due to equatorial winds is strongly wavelength dependent. The phase and wavelength dependence of light curves, as well as the associated day/night contrasts, can be used to constrain the circulation regime of irradiated giant planets and to probe different pressure levels of a hot Jupiter atmosphere. We posit that though our calculations focus on models of HD 209458b, similar calculations for other transiting hot Jupiters in low-eccentricity orbits should yield transit spectra and light curves of a similar character.

Tidally distorted exoplanets: Density corrections for short-period hot-Jupiters based solely on observable parameters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burton, J. R.; Watson, C. A.; Fitzsimmons, A.; Moulds, V. [Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen' s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom); Pollacco, D.; Wheatley, P. J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL (United Kingdom); Littlefair, S. P., E-mail: jburton04@qub.ac.uk [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH (United Kingdom)

2014-07-10

The close proximity of short-period hot-Jupiters to their parent star means they are subject to extreme tidal forces. This has a profound effect on their structure and, as a result, density measurements that assume that the planet is spherical can be incorrect. We have simulated the tidally distorted surface for 34 known short-period hot-Jupiters, assuming surfaces of constant gravitational equipotential for the planet, and the resulting densities have been calculated based only on observed parameters of the exoplanet systems. Comparing these results to the density values, assuming the planets are spherical, shows that there is an appreciable change in the measured density for planets with very short periods (typically less than two days). For one of the shortest-period systems, WASP-19b, we determine a decrease in bulk density of 12% from the spherical case and, for the majority of systems in this study, this value is in the range of 1%-5%. On the other hand, we also find cases where the distortion is negligible (relative to the measurement errors on the planetary parameters) even in the cases of some very short period systems, depending on the mass ratio and planetary radius. For high-density gas planets requiring apparently anomalously large core masses, density corrections due to tidal deformation could become important for the shortest-period systems.

MASSIVE SATELLITES OF CLOSE-IN GAS GIANT EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cassidy, Timothy A.; Johnson, Robert E.; Mendez, Rolando; Arras, Phil; Skrutskie, Michael F.

2009-01-01

We study the orbits, tidal heating and mass loss from satellites around close-in gas giant exoplanets. The focus is on large satellites which are potentially observable by their transit signature. We argue that even Earth-size satellites around hot Jupiters can be immune to destruction by orbital decay; detection of such a massive satellite would strongly constrain theories of tidal dissipation in gas giants, in a manner complementary to orbital circularization. The star's gravity induces significant periodic eccentricity in the satellite's orbit. The resulting tidal heating rates, per unit mass, are far in excess of Io's and dominate radioactive heating out to planet orbital periods of months for reasonable satellite tidal Q. Inside planet orbital periods of about a week, tidal heating can completely melt the satellite. Lastly, we compute an upper limit to the satellite mass loss rate due to thermal evaporation from the surface, valid if the satellite's atmosphere is thin and vapor pressure is negligible. Using this upper limit, we find that although rocky satellites around hot Jupiters with orbital periods less than a few days can be significantly evaporated in their lifetimes, detectable satellites suffer negligible mass loss at longer orbital periods.

First Temperate Exoplanet Sized Up

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-01

Combining observations from the CoRoT satellite and the ESO HARPS instrument, astronomers have discovered the first "normal" exoplanet that can be studied in great detail. Designated Corot-9b, the planet regularly passes in front of a star similar to the Sun located 1500 light-years away from Earth towards the constellation of Serpens (the Snake). "This is a normal, temperate exoplanet just like dozens we already know, but this is the first whose properties we can study in depth," says Claire Moutou, who is part of the international team of 60 astronomers that made the discovery. "It is bound to become a Rosetta stone in exoplanet research." "Corot-9b is the first exoplanet that really does resemble planets in our solar system," adds lead author Hans Deeg. "It has the size of Jupiter and an orbit similar to that of Mercury." "Like our own giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, the planet is mostly made of hydrogen and helium," says team member Tristan Guillot, "and it may contain up to 20 Earth masses of other elements, including water and rock at high temperatures and pressures." Corot-9b passes in front of its host star every 95 days, as seen from Earth [1]. This "transit" lasts for about 8 hours, and provides astronomers with much additional information on the planet. This is fortunate as the gas giant shares many features with the majority of exoplanets discovered so far [2]. "Our analysis has provided more information on Corot-9b than for other exoplanets of the same type," says co-author Didier Queloz. "It may open up a new field of research to understand the atmospheres of moderate- and low-temperature planets, and in particular a completely new window in our understanding of low-temperature chemistry." More than 400 exoplanets have been discovered so far, 70 of them through the transit method. Corot-9b is special in that its distance from its host star is about ten times larger than that of any planet previously discovered by this method. And unlike all such

Exoplanet Searches by Future Deep Space Missions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maccone C.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The search for exoplanets could benefit from gravitational lensing if we could get to 550 AU from the Sun and beyond. This is because the gravitational lens of the Sun would highly intensify there any weak electromagnetic wave reaching the solar system from distant planets in the Galaxy (see Maccone 2009. The gravitational lens of the Sun, however, has a drawback: the solar Corona. Electrons in the Corona make electromagnetic waves diverge and this pushes the focus out to distances higher than 550 AU. Jupiter is the second larger mass in the solar system after the Sun, but in this focal game not only the mass matters: rather, what really matters is the ratio between the radius of the body squared and the mass of the body. In this regard, Jupiter qualifies as the second best choice for a space mission, requiring the spacecraft to reach 6,077 AU. In this paper, we study the benefit of exoplanet searches by deep space missions.

Exoplanet Transits of Stellar Active Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Giampapa, Mark S.; Andretta, Vincenzo; Covino, Elvira; Reiners, Ansgar; Esposito, Massimiliano

2018-01-01

We report preliminary results of a program to obtain high spectral- and temporal-resolution observations of the neutral helium triplet line at 1083.0 nm in transiting exoplanet systems. The principal objective of our program is to gain insight on the properties of active regions, analogous to solar plages, on late-type dwarfs by essentially using exoplanet transits as high spatial resolution probes of the stellar surface within the transit chord. The 1083 nm helium line is a particularly appropriate diagnostic of magnetized areas since it is weak in the quiet photosphere of solar-type stars but appears strongly in absorption in active regions. Therefore, during an exoplanet transit over the stellar surface, variations in its absorption equivalent width can arise that are functions of the intrinsic strength of the feature in the active region and the known relative size of the exoplanet. We utilized the Galileo Telescope and the GIANO-B near-IR echelle spectrograph to obtain 1083 nm spectra during transits in bright, well-known systems that include HD 189733, HD 209458, and HD 147506 (HAT-P-2). We also obtained simultaneous auxiliary data on the same telescope with the HARPS-N UV-Visible echelle spectrograph. We will present preliminary results from our analysis of the observed variability of the strength of the He I 1083 nm line during transits.Acknowledgements: Based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The NSO is operated by AURA under a cooperative agreement with the NSF.

COMPARATIVE HABITABILITY OF TRANSITING EXOPLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barnes, Rory; Meadows, Victoria S.; Evans, Nicole, E-mail: rory@astro.washington.edu [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Box 951580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

2015-12-01

Exoplanet habitability is traditionally assessed by comparing a planet’s semimajor axis to the location of its host star’s “habitable zone,” the shell around a star for which Earth-like planets can possess liquid surface water. The Kepler space telescope has discovered numerous planet candidates near the habitable zone, and many more are expected from missions such as K2, TESS, and PLATO. These candidates often require significant follow-up observations for validation, so prioritizing planets for habitability from transit data has become an important aspect of the search for life in the universe. We propose a method to compare transiting planets for their potential to support life based on transit data, stellar properties and previously reported limits on planetary emitted flux. For a planet in radiative equilibrium, the emitted flux increases with eccentricity, but decreases with albedo. As these parameters are often unconstrained, there is an “eccentricity-albedo degeneracy” for the habitability of transiting exoplanets. Our method mitigates this degeneracy, includes a penalty for large-radius planets, uses terrestrial mass–radius relationships, and, when available, constraints on eccentricity to compute a number we call the “habitability index for transiting exoplanets” that represents the relative probability that an exoplanet could support liquid surface water. We calculate it for Kepler objects of interest and find that planets that receive between 60% and 90% of the Earth’s incident radiation, assuming circular orbits, are most likely to be habitable. Finally, we make predictions for the upcoming TESS and James Webb Space Telescope missions.

COMPARATIVE HABITABILITY OF TRANSITING EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, Rory; Meadows, Victoria S.; Evans, Nicole

2015-01-01

Exoplanet habitability is traditionally assessed by comparing a planet’s semimajor axis to the location of its host star’s “habitable zone,” the shell around a star for which Earth-like planets can possess liquid surface water. The Kepler space telescope has discovered numerous planet candidates near the habitable zone, and many more are expected from missions such as K2, TESS, and PLATO. These candidates often require significant follow-up observations for validation, so prioritizing planets for habitability from transit data has become an important aspect of the search for life in the universe. We propose a method to compare transiting planets for their potential to support life based on transit data, stellar properties and previously reported limits on planetary emitted flux. For a planet in radiative equilibrium, the emitted flux increases with eccentricity, but decreases with albedo. As these parameters are often unconstrained, there is an “eccentricity-albedo degeneracy” for the habitability of transiting exoplanets. Our method mitigates this degeneracy, includes a penalty for large-radius planets, uses terrestrial mass–radius relationships, and, when available, constraints on eccentricity to compute a number we call the “habitability index for transiting exoplanets” that represents the relative probability that an exoplanet could support liquid surface water. We calculate it for Kepler objects of interest and find that planets that receive between 60% and 90% of the Earth’s incident radiation, assuming circular orbits, are most likely to be habitable. Finally, we make predictions for the upcoming TESS and James Webb Space Telescope missions

Characterizing Gaint Exoplanets through Multiwavelength Transit Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Kasper, David; Cole, Jackson L.; Gardner, Cristilyn N.; Garver, Bethany R.; Jarka, Kyla L.; Kar, Aman; McGough, Aylin M.; PeQueen, David J.; Rivera, Daniel Ivan; Jang-Condell, Hannah; Kobulnicky, Henry A.; Dale, Daniel A.

2018-01-01

Observing the characteristics of giant exoplanets is possible with ground-based telescopes and modern observational methods. We are performing characterizations of multiple giant exoplanets based on 85 allotted nights of transit observations with the 2.3 m Wyoming Infrared Observatory using Sloan filters. In particular, constraints can be made on the atmospheres of our targets from the wavelength (in)dependence in the depth of the transit observations. We present early multiwavelength photometric results on the exoplanet HD 189733 b with comparison to literature sources to exemplify the methodology employed. In total, 15 exoplanets were observed across multiple wavelengths. The majority of the observing allotted to the project was completed as part of the 2017 Summer REU at the University of Wyoming. This work will significantly contribute to the growing number of observed atmospheres and influence interpretation of future WFIRST, JWST, and TESS targets. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under REU grant AST 1560461.

FINESSE & CASE: Two Proposed Transiting Exoplanet Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Zellem, Robert Thomas; FINESSE and CASE Science Team

2018-01-01

The FINESSE mission concept and the proposed CASE Mission of Opportunity, both recently selected by NASA’s Explorer program to proceed to Step 2, would conduct the first characterizations of exoplanet atmospheres for a statistically significant population. FINESSE would determine whether our Solar System is typical or exceptional, the key characteristics of the planet formation mechanism, and what establishes global planetary climate by spectroscopically surveying 500 exoplanets, ranging from terrestrials with extended atmospheres to sub-Neptunes to gas giants. FINESSE’s broad, instantaneous spectral coverage from 0.5-5 microns and capability to survey hundreds of exoplanets would enable follow-up exploration of TESS discoveries and provide a broader context for interpreting detailed JWST observations. Similarly, CASE, a NASA Mission of Opportunity contribution to ESA’s dedicated transiting exoplanet spectroscopy mission ARIEL, would observe 1000 warm transiting gas giants, Neptunes, and super-Earths, using visible to near-IR photometry and spectroscopy. CASE would quantify the occurrence rate of atmospheric aerosols (clouds and hazes) and measure the geometric albedos of the targets in the ARIEL survey. Thus, with the selection of either of these two missions, NASA would ensure access to critical data for the U.S. exoplanet science community.

Long-Period Exoplanets from Photometric Transit Surveys

Science.gov (United States)

Osborn, Hugh

2017-10-01

Photometric transit surveys on the ground & in space have detected thousands of transiting exoplanets, typically by analytically combining the signals from multiple transits. This technique of exoplanet detection was exploited in K2 to detect nearly 200 candidate planets, and extensive follow-up was able to confirm the planet K2-110b as a 2.6±0.1R⊕, 16.7±3.2M⊙ planet on a 14d orbit around a K-dwarf. The ability to push beyond the time limit set by transit surveys to detect long-period transiting objects from a single eclipse was also studied. This was performed by developing a search technique to search for planets around bright stars in WASP and NGTS photometry, finding NGTS to be marginally better than WASP at detecting such planets with 4.14±0.16 per year compared to 1.43±0.15, and detecting many planet candidates for which follow-up is on-going. This search was then adapted to search for deep, long-duration eclipses in all WASP targets. The results of this survey are described in this thesis, as well as detailed results for the candidate PDS-110, a young T-Tauri star which exhibited ∼20d-long, 30%-deep eclipses in 2008 and 2011. Space-based photometers such as Kepler have the precision to identify small exoplanets and eclipsing binary candidates from only a single eclipse. K2, with its 75d campaign duration and high-precision photometry, is not only ideally suited to detect significant numbers of single-eclipsing objects, but also to characterise them from a single event. The Bayesian transit-fitting tool ("Namaste: An MCMC Analysis of Single Transit Exoplanets") was developed to extract planetary and orbital information from single transits, and was applied to 71 candidate events detected in K2 photometry. The techniques developed in this thesis are highly applicable to future transit surveys such as TESS & PLATO, which will be able to discover & characterise large numbers of long period planets in this way

A hot Jupiter orbiting a 2-million-year-old solar-mass T Tauri star.

Science.gov (United States)

Donati, J F; Moutou, C; Malo, L; Baruteau, C; Yu, L; Hébrard, E; Hussain, G; Alencar, S; Ménard, F; Bouvier, J; Petit, P; Takami, M; Doyon, R; Collier Cameron, A

2016-06-30

Hot Jupiters are giant Jupiter-like exoplanets that orbit their host stars 100 times more closely than Jupiter orbits the Sun. These planets presumably form in the outer part of the primordial disk from which both the central star and surrounding planets are born, then migrate inwards and yet avoid falling into their host star. It is, however, unclear whether this occurs early in the lives of hot Jupiters, when they are still embedded within protoplanetary disks, or later, once multiple planets are formed and interact. Although numerous hot Jupiters have been detected around mature Sun-like stars, their existence has not yet been firmly demonstrated for young stars, whose magnetic activity is so intense that it overshadows the radial velocity signal that close-in giant planets can induce. Here we report that the radial velocities of the young star V830 Tau exhibit a sine wave of period 4.93 days and semi-amplitude 75 metres per second, detected with a false-alarm probability of less than 0.03 per cent, after filtering out the magnetic activity plaguing the spectra. We find that this signal is unrelated to the 2.741-day rotation period of V830 Tau and we attribute it to the presence of a planet of mass 0.77 times that of Jupiter, orbiting at a distance of 0.057 astronomical units from the host star. Our result demonstrates that hot Jupiters can migrate inwards in less than two million years, probably as a result of planet–disk interactions.

Five Kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steffen, Jason H.; /Fermilab; Batalha, Natalie M.; /San Jose State U.; Borucki, William J.; /NASA, Ames; Buchhave, Lars A.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys. /Bohr Inst.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; /NASA, Ames /SETI Inst., Mtn. View; Cochran, William D.; /Texas U.; Endl, Michael; /Texas U.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Fressin, Francois; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Ford, Eric B.; /Florida U.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; /UC, Santa Cruz, Phys. Dept. /NASA, Ames

2010-06-01

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets and provide new insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. We discuss the methods used to identify multiple transiting objects from the Kepler photometry as well as the false-positive rejection methods that have been applied to these data. One system shows transits from three distinct objects while the remaining four systems show transits from two objects. Three systems have planet candidates that are near mean motion commensurabilities - two near 2:1 and one just outside 5:2. We discuss the implications that multitransiting systems have on the distribution of orbital inclinations in planetary systems, and hence their dynamical histories; as well as their likely masses and chemical compositions. A Monte Carlo study indicates that, with additional data, most of these systems should exhibit detectable transit timing variations (TTV) due to gravitational interactions - though none are apparent in these data. We also discuss new challenges that arise in TTV analyses due to the presence of more than two planets in a system.

The Effect of Stellar Contamination on Transmission Spectra of Low-mass Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Rackham, Benjamin V.; Apai, Daniel; Giampapa, Mark S.

2017-10-01

Transmission spectroscopy offers the exciting possibility of studying terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres in the near-term future. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), scheduled for launch next year, is expected to discover thousands of transiting exoplanets around bright host stars, including an estimated twenty habitable zone super-Earths. The brightness of the TESS host stars, combined with refined observational strategies and near-future facilities, will enable searches for atmospheric signatures from smaller and cooler exoplanets. These observations, however, will be increasingly subject to noise introduced by heterogeneities in the host star photospheres, such as star spots and faculae. In short, the transmission spectroscopy method relies on the assumption that the spectrum of the transit chord does not differ from that of the integrated stellar disk or, if it does, the contribution of photospheric heterogeneities to the transmission spectrum can be constrained by variability monitoring. However, any axisymmetric populations of spots and faculae will strongly affect transmission spectra, and their presence cannot be deduced from monitoring efforts. A clear need exists for a more robust understanding of stellar contamination on transmission spectra. Here we summarize our work on the impact of heterogeneous stellar photospheres on transmission spectra and detail implications for atmospheric characterization efforts. By modeling spot and faculae distributions in stellar photospheres, we find that spot-covering fractions extrapolated from observed variability amplitudes are significantly underestimated. Likewise, corrections based on variability monitoring likely fall short of the actual stellar spectral contamination. We provide examples of contamination spectra for typical levels of stellar activity across a range of spectral types. For M dwarfs, molecular absorption features in spots and faculae can imprint apparent features in transmission spectra

Qatar Exoplanet Survey

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alsubai, Khalid; Mislis, Dimitris; Tsvetanov, Zlatan I.

2017-01-01

We report the discovery of Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b, three new transiting planets identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey. The three planets belong to the hot Jupiter family, with orbital periods of PQ3b=2.50792 days, PQ4b=1.80539 days, and PQ5b=2.87923 days. Follow-up spectroscopic......3= 1.145±0.064 Ṁ, MQ4=0.896±0.048Ṁ, MQ5=1.128±0.056 Ṁ and RQ3=1.272±0.14 RṀ, RQ4=0.849±0.063 R , and RQ5=1.076±0.051 Ṙ for Qatar-3, 4, and 5 respectively. The V magnitudes of the three host stars are VQ3=12.88, VQ4=13.60, and VQ5=12.82. All three new planets can be classified as heavy hot Jupiters...

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XXIII. CoRoT-21b: a doomed large Jupiter around a faint subgiant star

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pätzold, M.; Endl, M.; Csizmadia, Sz.

2012-01-01

-up observations, however, were performed mainly by the 10-m Keck telescope in January 2010. The companion CoRoT-21b is a Jupiter-like planet of 2.26 ± 0.33 Jupiter masses and 1.30 ± 0.14 Jupiter radii in an circular orbit of semi-major axis 0.0417 ± 0.0011 AU and an orbital period of 2.72474 ± 0.00014 days....... The planetary bulk density is (1.36   ±   0.48) × 103 kg m-3, very similar to the bulk density of Jupiter, and follows an M1/3 − R relation like Jupiter. The F8IV star is a sub-giant star of 1.29 ± 0.09 solar masses and 1.95 ± 0.2 solar radii. The star and the planet exchange extremetidal forces that will lead...

Exploring the Diversity of Exoplanet Atmospheres Using Ground-Based Transit Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, Jacob

This is a proposal to fund an observational study of the atmospheres of exoplanets in order to improve our understanding of the nature and origins of these mysterious worlds. The observations will be performed using our new approach for ground-based transit spectroscopy measurements that yields space-telescope quality data. We will also carry out supporting theoretical calculations with new abundance retrieval codes to interpret the measurements. Our project includes a survey of giant exoplanets, and intensive study of especially compelling exoplanets. For the survey, optical and near-infrared transmission spectra, and near-infrared emission spectra will be measured for giant exoplanets with a wide range of estimated temperatures, heavy element abundance, and mass. This comprehensive characterization of a large sample of these planets is now crucial to investigate such issues for their atmospheres as the carbon-to-oxygen ratios and overall metallicities, cause of thermal inversions, and prevalence and nature of high-altitude hazes. The intensive study of compelling individual planets will focus on low-mass (M spectroscopy, and leveraging its particular sensitivity to the atmospheric scale height. Observations for the project will be carried out with Magellan, Keck, Gemini, and VLT. The team has institutional access to Magellan and Keck, and a demonstrated record of obtaining time on Gemini and VLT for these observations through public channels. This proposal is highly relevant for current and future NASA projects. We are seeking to understand the diversity of exoplanets revealed by planet searches like Kepler and the Eta-Earth survey. Our observations will complement, extend, and provide context for similar observations with HST and Spitzer. We will investigate the fundamental nature of the closest kin to Earth-size exoplanets, and this is an important foundation that must be laid down before studying habitable planets with JWST and a future TPF-like mission.

First Solid Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet - Mass and density of smallest exoplanet finally measured

Science.gov (United States)

2009-09-01

"starspots" (just like sunspots on our Sun), which are cooler regions on the surface of the star. Therefore, the main signal is linked to the rotation of the star, with makes one complete revolution in about 23 days. To get an answer, astronomers had to call upon the best exoplanet-hunting device in the world, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph attached to the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. "Even though HARPS is certainly unbeaten when it comes to detecting small exoplanets, the measurements of CoRoT-7b proved to be so demanding that we had to gather 70 hours of observations on the star," says co-author François Bouchy. HARPS delivered, allowing the astronomers to tease out the 20.4-hour signal in the data. This figure led them to infer that CoRoT-7b has a mass of about five Earth masses, placing it in rare company as one of the lightest exoplanets yet found. "Since the planet's orbit is aligned so that we see it crossing the face of its parent star - it is said to be transiting - we can actually measure, and not simply infer, the mass of the exoplanet, which is the smallest that has been precisely measured for an exoplanet [3]," says team member Claire Moutou. "Moreover, as we have both the radius and the mass, we can determine the density and get a better idea of the internal structure of this planet." With a mass much closer to that of Earth than, for example, ice giant Neptune's 17 Earth masses, CoRoT-7b belongs to the category of "super-Earth" exoplanets. About a dozen of these bodies have been detected, though in the case of CoRoT-7b, this is the first time that the density has been measured for such a small exoplanet. The calculated density is close to Earth's, suggesting that the planet's composition is similarly rocky. "CoRoT-7b resulted in a 'tour de force' of astronomical measurements. The superb light curves of the space telescope CoRoT gave us the best radius measurement, and HARPS the best mass

Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Seager, S.

2010-12-01

planets and those further from the star. All in all, technology enables slow but sure progress, and this fuels ongoing discovery. Theory, like observations, also takes time to unfold and mature. We can anticipate an "ultimate" planet formation model similar to the "millenimum simulation" for galaxy formation and evolution. In time, incorporating detailed physics as well as being able to reproduce the generic outcome of planet populations (mass, radius, and orbital characteristics, including period) will enable a deeper understanding of planet formation and migration. Similarly, the ideal exoplanet atmosphere code of the future could be a three-dimensional Monte Carlo code that includes radiative transfer with inhomogeneous cloud coverage and surface features, a code that also solves for the temperature structure and combines with a hydrodynamical simulation to calculate the three-dimensional temperature and wind structure. Classical orbital mechanics, already reinvigorated by interesting exoplanet systems (e.g., planets in resonant orbits, hot Jupiter exoplanets that orbit in the direction opposite to the stellar rotation), also has a role to play in explaining fundamental mechanisms of how planetary system configurations came to be. Orbital dynamics modeling is driving the search for moons and other unseen planet companions by their perturbations on transiting planet signatures. Exoplanets is a unique science because it involves so many disciplines within and beyond planetary science and astrophysics. The other disciplines include geophysics, high-pressure mineral physics, quantum mechanics, chemistry, and even microbiology. While exoplanet observations clearly belong under the branch of astronomy, for many years the whole discipline of exoplanets lacked a true home. Physics departments have said "Exoplanets: It's interesting, but is it physics?" Planetary and Earth science departments used to collecting real data in their hands from Earth and in situ measurements from

Jupiter Analogs Orbit Stars with an Average Metallicity Close to That of the Sun

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buchhave, Lars A.; Bitsch, Bertram; Johansen, Anders

2018-01-01

Jupiter played an important role in determining the structure and configuration of the Solar System. Whereas hot-Jupiter type exoplanets preferentially form around metal-rich stars, the conditions required for the formation of planets with masses, orbits, and eccentricities comparable to Jupiter...... (Jupiter analogs) are unknown. Using spectroscopic metallicities, we show that stars hosting Jupiter analogs have an average metallicity close to solar, in contrast to their hot-Jupiter and eccentric cool-Jupiter counterparts, which orbit stars with super-solar metallicities. Furthermore......, the eccentricities of Jupiter analogs increase with host-star metallicity, suggesting that planet-planet scatterings producing highly eccentric cool Jupiters could be more common in metal-rich environments. To investigate a possible explanation for these metallicity trends, we compare the observations to numerical...

Model-independent Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Aronson, Erik; Piskunov, Nikolai

2018-05-01

We propose a new data analysis method for obtaining transmission spectra of exoplanet atmospheres and brightness variation across the stellar disk from transit observations. The new method is capable of recovering exoplanet atmosphere absorption spectra and stellar specific intensities without relying on theoretical models of stars and planets. We simultaneously fit both stellar specific intensity and planetary radius directly to transit light curves. This allows stellar models to be removed from the data analysis. Furthermore, we use a data quality weighted filtering technique to achieve an optimal trade-off between spectral resolution and reconstruction fidelity homogenizing the signal-to-noise ratio across the wavelength range. Such an approach is more efficient than conventional data binning onto a low-resolution wavelength grid. We demonstrate that our analysis is capable of reproducing results achieved by using an explicit quadratic limb-darkening equation and that the filtering technique helps eliminate spurious spectral features in regions with strong telluric absorption. The method is applied to the VLT FORS2 observations of the exoplanets GJ 1214 b and WASP-49 b, and our results are in agreement with previous studies. Comparisons between obtained stellar specific intensity and numerical models indicates that the method is capable of accurately reconstructing the specific intensity. The proposed method enables more robust characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres by separating derivation of planetary transmission and stellar specific intensity spectra (that is model-independent) from chemical and physical interpretation.

NGTS-1b: a hot Jupiter transiting an M-dwarf

Science.gov (United States)

Bayliss, Daniel; Gillen, Edward; Eigmüller, Philipp; McCormac, James; Alexander, Richard D.; Armstrong, David J.; Booth, Rachel S.; Bouchy, François; Burleigh, Matthew R.; Cabrera, Juan; Casewell, Sarah L.; Chaushev, Alexander; Chazelas, Bruno; Csizmadia, Szilard; Erikson, Anders; Faedi, Francesca; Foxell, Emma; Gänsicke, Boris T.; Goad, Michael R.; Grange, Andrew; Günther, Maximilian N.; Hodgkin, Simon T.; Jackman, James; Jenkins, James S.; Lambert, Gregory; Louden, Tom; Metrailler, Lionel; Moyano, Maximiliano; Pollacco, Don; Poppenhaeger, Katja; Queloz, Didier; Raddi, Roberto; Rauer, Heike; Raynard, Liam; Smith, Alexis M. S.; Soto, Maritza; Thompson, Andrew P. G.; Titz-Weider, Ruth; Udry, Stéphane; Walker, Simon R.; Watson, Christopher A.; West, Richard G.; Wheatley, Peter J.

2018-04-01

We present the discovery of NGTS-1b, a hot Jupiter transiting an early M-dwarf host (Teff,* = 3916 ^{+71}_{-63} K) in a P = 2.647 d orbit discovered as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The planet has a mass of 0.812 ^{+0.066}_{-0.075} MJ, making it the most massive planet ever discovered transiting an M-dwarf. The radius of the planet is 1.33 ^{+0.61}_{-0.33} RJ. Since the transit is grazing, we determine this radius by modelling the data and placing a prior on the density from the population of known gas giant planets. NGTS-1b is the third transiting giant planet found around an M-dwarf, reinforcing the notion that close-in gas giants can form and migrate similar to the known population of hot Jupiters around solar-type stars. The host star shows no signs of activity, and the kinematics hint at the star being from the thick disc population. With a deep (2.5 per cent) transit around a K = 11.9 host, NGTS-1b will be a strong candidate to probe giant planet composition around M-dwarfs via James Webb Space Telescope transmission spectroscopy.

THE FREQUENCY OF LOW-MASS EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Toole, S. J.; Jones, H. R. A.; Tinney, C. G.; Bailey, J.; Wittenmyer, R. A.; Butler, R. P.; Marcy, G. W.; Carter, B.

2009-01-01

We report first results from the Anglo-Australian Telescope Rocky Planet Search-an intensive, high-precision Doppler planet search targeting low-mass exoplanets in contiguous 48 night observing blocks. On this run, we targeted 24 bright, nearby and intrinsically stable Sun-like stars selected from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search's main sample. These observations have already detected one low-mass planet reported elsewhere (HD 16417b), and here we reconfirm the detection of HD 4308b. Further, we have Monte Carlo simulated data from this run on a star-by-star basis to produce robust detection constraints. These simulations demonstrate clear differences in the exoplanet detectability functions from star to star due to differences in sampling, data quality and intrinsic stellar stability. They reinforce the importance of star-by-star simulation when interpreting the data from Doppler planet searches. These simulations indicate that for some of our target stars we are sensitive to close-orbiting planets as small as a few Earth masses. The two low-mass planets present in our 24-star sample indicate that the exoplanet minimum mass function at low masses is likely to be a flat α ∼ -1 (for dN/dM ∝ M α ) and that between 15% ± 10% (at α = -0.3) and 48% ± 34% (at α = -1.3) of stars host planets with orbital periods of less than 16 days and minimum masses greater than 3 M + .

The Frequency of Low-Mass Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

O'Toole, S. J.; Jones, H. R. A.; Tinney, C. G.; Butler, R. P.; Marcy, G. W.; Carter, B.; Bailey, J.; Wittenmyer, R. A.

2009-08-01

We report first results from the Anglo-Australian Telescope Rocky Planet Search—an intensive, high-precision Doppler planet search targeting low-mass exoplanets in contiguous 48 night observing blocks. On this run, we targeted 24 bright, nearby and intrinsically stable Sun-like stars selected from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search's main sample. These observations have already detected one low-mass planet reported elsewhere (HD 16417b), and here we reconfirm the detection of HD 4308b. Further, we have Monte Carlo simulated data from this run on a star-by-star basis to produce robust detection constraints. These simulations demonstrate clear differences in the exoplanet detectability functions from star to star due to differences in sampling, data quality and intrinsic stellar stability. They reinforce the importance of star-by-star simulation when interpreting the data from Doppler planet searches. These simulations indicate that for some of our target stars we are sensitive to close-orbiting planets as small as a few Earth masses. The two low-mass planets present in our 24-star sample indicate that the exoplanet minimum mass function at low masses is likely to be a flat α ~ -1 (for dN/dM vprop M α) and that between 15% ± 10% (at α = -0.3) and 48% ± 34% (at α = -1.3) of stars host planets with orbital periods of less than 16 days and minimum masses greater than 3 M ⊕.

Preparing for TESS: Precision Ground-based Light-curves of Newly Discovered Transiting Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yiting; Stefansson, Gudmundur; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Monson, Andy; Hebb, Leslie; Wisniewski, John; Huehnerhoff, Joseph

2018-01-01

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), to be launched in early 2018, is expected to catalog a myriad of transiting exoplanet candidates ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a diverse range of stellar types in the solar neighborhood. In particular, TESS will find small planets orbiting the closest and brightest stars, and will enable detailed atmospheric characterizations of planets with current and future telescopes. In the TESS era, ground-based follow-up resources will play a critical role in validating and confirming the planetary nature of the candidates TESS will discover. Along with confirming the planetary nature of exoplanet transits, high precision ground-based transit observations allow us to put further constraints on exoplanet orbital parameters and transit timing variations. In this talk, we present new observations of transiting exoplanets recently discovered by the K2 mission, using the optical diffuser on the 3.5m ARC Telescope at Apache Point Observatory. These include observations of the mini-Neptunes K2-28b and K2-104b orbiting early-to-mid M-dwarfs. In addition, other recent transit observations performed using the robotic 30cm telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile will be presented.

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission . XIX. CoRoT-23b: a dense hot Jupiter on an eccentric orbit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rouan, D.; Parviainen, H.; Moutou, C.

2012-01-01

We report the detection of CoRoT-23b, a hot Jupiter transiting in front of its host star with a period of 3.6314 ± 0.0001 days. This planet was discovered thanks to photometric data secured with the CoRoT satellite, combined with spectroscopic radial velocity (RV) measurements. A photometric search...... to be 7 Gyr, not far from the transition to subgiant, in agreement with the rather large stellar radius. The two features of a significant eccentricity of the orbit and of a fairly high density are fairly uncommon for a hot Jupiter. The high density is, however, consistent with a model of contraction...... is more than a few 105, a value that is the lower bound of the usually expected range. Even if CoRoT-23b  features a density and an eccentricity that are atypical of a hot Jupiter, it is thus not an enigmatic object....

Why Are Hot Jupiters So Lonely?

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-10-01

Spalding and Konstantin Batygin, propose an alternative picture in which both types of planets form through identical pathways. Instead, they argue, a hot Jupiters apparent loneliness arises over time through interactions with its host star.Stellar Interactions Impact CompanionsSemimajor axis for the outer companion (a2) vs that of the close-in giant planet (a1) at three different system ages. Outer companions within the shaded region will not encounter the resonance investigated by the authors, instead remaining coplanar with the inner giant. For this reason, warm Jupiters will have evident companions whereas hot Jupiters will not. [Spalding Batygin 2017]Whether giant planets form in situ near their hosts or migrate inward, they can still have close-in, co-transiting companions outside of their orbit shortly after their birth, Spalding and Batygin argue. But after the disk in which they were born dissipates, the orbits of their companions may be altered.The authors demonstrate that because hot Jupiters are so close to their hosts, these giants eventually encounter a resonance with their stellar hosts quadrupole moment, which arises because rotating stars arent perfectly spherical. This resonance tilts the orbits of the hot Jupiters outer, lower-mass companions, rendering the companions undetectable in transit surveys.Warm Jupiters, on the other hand, are located just far enough away from their hosts to avoid feeling the effects of this resonance which allows them to keep their outer companions in the same plane.Based on their model, Spalding and Batygin make direct predictions for the systems they expect to be observed in large upcoming surveys like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) which means we should soon have a sense of whether their picture is correct. If it is, it will confirm that the non-sphericity of stars can have significant impact on the dynamics and architecture of exoplanetary systems.CitationChristopher Spalding and Konstantin Batygin 2017

Reigniting the Debate: First Spectroscopic Evidence for Stratospheres In Hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Mandell, Avi M.; Haynes, Korey; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Deming, Drake; Knutson, Heather

2015-12-01

Hot Jupiters represent an extreme end of the exoplanet distribution: they orbit very close to their host stars, which subjects them to an intense heating from stellar radiation. An inverted temperature structure (i.e. a stratosphere) was an early observable prediction from atmospheric models of these planets, which demonstrated that high-temperature absorbers such as TiO and VO could reprocess incident UV/visible irradiation to heat the upper layers of the atmosphere.Evidence for such thermal inversions began with the first secondary eclipse measurements of transiting hot Jupiters taken with the IRAC camera on Spitzer, offering the chance to physical processe at work in the atmospheres of hot exoplanets. However, these efforts have been stymied by recent revelations of significant systematic biases and uncertainties buried within older Spitzer results, calling into question whether or not temperature inversions are actually present in hot Jupiters.We have recently published spectroscopy of secondary eclipses of the extrasolar planet WASP-33b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope, which allow us to constrain the temperature structure and composition of its dayside atmosphere. WASP-33b is one of the most highly irradiated hot Jupiters discovered to date and orbits a relatively inactive A star, making it an excellent candidate for eclipse spectroscopy at NIR wavelengths (1.1 - 1.7 µm). We find that a fit to combined data from HST, Spitzer and ground-based photometry can rule out models without a temperature inversion; additionally, we find that our measured spectrum displays excess in the measured flux toward short wavelengths that is best explained as emission from TiO.This discovery re-opens the debate on the presence and origin of stratospheres in hot Jupiters, but it also confirms that the combination of HST spectroscopy and a robust analysis of Spitzer and ground-based photometry can conclusively detect thermally inverted atmospheres

Five kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Steffen..[], Jason H.; Batalha, N. M.; Broucki, W J.

2010-01-01

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets a...

A Catalog of Cool Dwarf Targets for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Muirhead, Philip S.; Dressing, Courtney D.; Mann, Andrew W.; Rojas-Ayala, Bárbara; Lépine, Sébastien; Paegert, Martin; De Lee, Nathan; Oelkers, Ryan

2018-04-01

We present a catalog of cool dwarf targets (V-J> 2.7, T eff ≲ 4000 K) and their stellar properties for the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), for the purpose of determining which cool dwarfs should be observed using two minute observations. TESS has the opportunity to search tens of thousands of nearby, cool, late K- and M-type dwarfs for transiting exoplanets, an order of magnitude more than current or previous transiting exoplanet surveys, such as Kepler, K2, and ground-based programs. This necessitates a new approach to choosing cool dwarf targets. Cool dwarfs are chosen by collating parallax and proper motion catalogs from the literature and subjecting them to a variety of selection criteria. We calculate stellar parameters and TESS magnitudes using the best possible relations from the literature while maintaining uniformity of methods for the sake of reproducibility. We estimate the expected planet yield from TESS observations using statistical results from the Kepler mission, and use these results to choose the best targets for two minute observations, optimizing for small planets for which masses can conceivably be measured using follow-up Doppler spectroscopy by current and future Doppler spectrometers. The catalog is available in machine readable format and is incorporated into the TESS Input Catalog and TESS Candidate Target List until a more complete and accurate cool dwarf catalog identified by ESA’s Gaia mission can be incorporated.

FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS OF THE EXOPLANET HOST K GIANT STAR {iota} DRACONIS FROM THE CHARA ARRAY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baines, Ellyn K. [Remote Sensing Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20375 (United States); McAlister, Harold A.; Ten Brummelaar, Theo A.; Turner, Nils H.; Sturmann, Judit; Sturmann, Laszlo; Goldfinger, P. J.; Farrington, Christopher D. [Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3969, Atlanta, GA 30302-3969 (United States); Ridgway, Stephen T., E-mail: ellyn.baines@nrl.navy.mil [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726-6732 (United States)

2011-12-20

We measured the angular diameter of the exoplanet host star {iota} Dra with Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy Array interferometer and, using the star's parallax and photometry from the literature, calculated its physical radius and effective temperature. We then combined our results with stellar oscillation frequencies from Zechmeister et al. and orbital elements from Kane et al. to determine the masses for the star and exoplanet. Our value for the central star's mass is 1.82 {+-} 0.23 M{sub Sun }, which means the exoplanet's minimum mass is 12.6 {+-} 1.1 M{sub Jupiter}. Using our new effective temperature, we recalculated the habitable zone for the system, though it is well outside the star-planet separation.

Exoplanets Detection, Formation, Properties, Habitability

CERN Document Server

Mason, John W

2008-01-01

This edited, multi-author volume will be an invaluable introduction and reference to all key aspects in the field of exoplanet research. The reviews cover: Detection methods and properties of known exoplanets, Detection of extrasolar planets by gravitational microlensing. The formation and evolution of terrestrial planets in protoplanetary and debris disks. The brown dwarf-exoplanet connection. Formation, migration mechanisms and properties of hot Jupiters. Dynamics of multiple exoplanet systems. Doppler exoplanet surveys. Searching for exoplanets in the stellar graveyard. Formation and habitability of extra solar planets in multiple star systems. Exoplanet habitats and the possibilities for life. Moons of exoplanets: habitats for life. Contributing authors: •Rory Barnes •David P. Bennett •Jian Ge •Nader Haghighipour •Patrick Irwin •Hugh Jones •Victoria Meadows •Stanimir Metchev •I. Neill Reid •George Rieke •Caleb Scharf •Steinn Sigurdsson

THE MASS OF KOI-94d AND A RELATION FOR PLANET RADIUS, MASS, AND INCIDENT FLUX

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weiss, Lauren M.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard; Kolbl, Rea; Rowe, Jason F.; Howell, Steve B.; Howard, Andrew W.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Miller, Neil; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Seager, Sara; Fischer, Debra A.; Adams, Elisabeth R.; Dupree, Andrea K.; Johnson, John Asher; Horch, Elliott P.; Everett, Mark E.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.

2013-01-01

We measure the mass of a modestly irradiated giant planet, KOI-94d. We wish to determine whether this planet, which is in a 22 day orbit and receives 2700 times as much incident flux as Jupiter, is as dense as Jupiter or rarefied like inflated hot Jupiters. KOI-94 also hosts at least three smaller transiting planets, all of which were detected by the Kepler mission. With 26 radial velocities of KOI-94 from the W. M. Keck Observatory and a simultaneous fit to the Kepler light curve, we measure the mass of the giant planet and determine that it is not inflated. Support for the planetary interpretation of the other three candidates comes from gravitational interactions through transit timing variations, the statistical robustness of multi-planet systems against false positives, and several lines of evidence that no other star resides within the photometric aperture. We report the properties of KOI-94b (M P = 10.5 ± 4.6 M ⊕ , R P = 1.71 ± 0.16 R ⊕ , P = 3.74 days), KOI-94c (M P = 15.6 +5.7 -15.6 M ⊕ , R P = 4.32 ± 0.41 R ⊕ , P = 10.4 days), KOI-94d (M P = 106 ± 11 M ⊕ , R P = 11.27 ± 1.06 R ⊕ , P = 22.3 days), and KOI-94e (M P = 35 +18 -28 M ⊕ , R P = 6.56 ± 0.62 R ⊕ , P = 54.3 days). The radial velocity analyses of KOI-94b and KOI-94e offer marginal (>2σ) mass detections, whereas the observations of KOI-94c offer only an upper limit to its mass. Using the KOI-94 system and other planets with published values for both mass and radius (138 exoplanets total, including 35 with M P ⊕ ), we establish two fundamental planes for exoplanets that relate their mass, incident flux, and radius from a few Earth masses up to 13 Jupiter masses: (R P /R ⊕ ) = 1.78(M P /M ⊕ ) 0.53 (F/erg s –1 cm –2 ) –0.03 for M P ⊕ , and R P /R ⊕ = 2.45(M P /M ⊕ ) –0.039 (F/erg s –1 cm –2 ) 0.094 for M P > 150 M ⊕ . These equations can be used to predict the radius or mass of a planet.

HATS-50b through HATS-53b: Four Transiting Hot Jupiters Orbiting G-type Stars Discovered by the HATSouth Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Henning, Th.; Mancini, L.; Sarkis, P.; Bakos, G. Á.; Hartman, J. D.; Bayliss, D.; Bento, J.; Bhatti, W.; Brahm, R.; Ciceri, S.; Csubry, Z.; de Val-Borro, M.; Espinoza, N.; Fulton, B. J.; Howard, A. W.; Isaacson, H. T.; Jordán, A.; Marcy, G. W.; Penev, K.; Rabus, M.; Suc, V.; Tan, T. G.; Tinney, C. G.; Wright, D. J.; Zhou, G.; Durkan, S.; Lazar, J.; Papp, I.; Sari, P.

2018-02-01

We report the discovery of four close-in transiting exoplanets (HATS-50b through HATS-53b), discovered using the HATSouth three-continent network of homogeneous and automated telescopes. These new exoplanets belong to the class of hot Jupiters and orbit G-type dwarf stars, with brightness in the range V = 12.5–14.0 mag. While HATS-53 has many physical characteristics similar to the Sun, the other three stars appear to be metal-rich ([{Fe}/{{H}}]=0.2{--}0.3), larger, and more massive. Three of the new exoplanets, namely HATS-50b, HATS-51b, and HATS-53b, have low density (HATS-50b: 0.39+/- 0.10 {M}{{J}}, 1.130+/- 0.075 {R}{{J}}; HATS-51b: 0.768+/- 0.045 {M}{{J}}, 1.41+/- 0.19 {R}{{J}}; HATS-53b: 0.595+/- 0.089 {M}{{J}}, 1.340+/- 0.056 {R}{{J}}) and similar orbital periods (3.8297 days, 3.3489 days, 3.8538 days, respectively). Instead, HATS-52b is more dense (mass 2.24+/- 0.15 {M}{{J}} and radius 1.382+/- 0.086 {R}{{J}}) and has a shorter orbital period (1.3667 days). It also receives an intensive radiation from its parent star and, consequently, presents a high equilibrium temperature ({T}{eq}=1834+/- 73 K). HATS-50 shows a marginal additional transit feature consistent with an ultra-short-period hot super Neptune (upper mass limit 0.16 {M}{{J}}), which will be able to be confirmed with TESS photometry. The HATSouth network is operated by a collaboration consisting of Princeton University (PU), the Max Planck Institute für Astronomie (MPIA), the Australian National University (ANU), and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). The station at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) of the Carnegie Institute is operated by PU in conjunction with PUC, the station at the High Energy Spectroscopic Survey (H.E.S.S.) site is operated in conjunction with MPIA, and the station at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) is operated jointly with ANU. Based in part on observations made with the ESO 3.6 m, the NTT, the MPG 2.2 m and Euler 1.2 m Telescopes at the ESO Observatory in

CHEOPS: a space telescope for ultra-high precision photometry of exoplanet transits

Science.gov (United States)

Cessa, V.; Beck, T.; Benz, W.; Broeg, C.; Ehrenreich, D.; Fortier, A.; Peter, G.; Magrin, D.; Pagano, I.; Plesseria, J.-Y.; Steller, M.; Szoke, J.; Thomas, N.; Ragazzoni, R.; Wildi, F.

2017-11-01

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a joint ESA-Switzerland space mission dedicated to search for exoplanet transits by means of ultra-high precision photometry whose launch readiness is expected end 2017. The CHEOPS instrument will be the first space telescope dedicated to search for transits on bright stars already known to host planets. By being able to point at nearly any location on the sky, it will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys. CHEOPS will also provide precision radii for new planets discovered by the next generation ground-based transits surveys (Neptune-size and smaller). The main science goals of the CHEOPS mission will be to study the structure of exoplanets with radii typically ranging from 1 to 6 Earth radii orbiting bright stars. With an accurate knowledge of masses and radii for an unprecedented sample of planets, CHEOPS will set new constraints on the structure and hence on the formation and evolution of planets in this mass range. To reach its goals CHEOPS will measure photometric signals with a precision of 20 ppm in 6 hours of integration time for a 9th magnitude star. This corresponds to a signal to noise of 5 for a transit of an Earth-sized planet orbiting a solar-sized star (0.9 solar radii). This precision will be achieved by using a single frame-transfer backside illuminated CCD detector cool down at 233K and stabilized within {10 mK . The CHEOPS optical design is based on a Ritchey-Chretien style telescope with 300 mm effective aperture diameter, which provides a defocussed image of the target star while minimizing straylight using a dedicated field stop and baffle system. As CHEOPS will be in a LEO orbit, straylight suppression is a key point to allow the observation of faint stars. The telescope will be the only payload on a spacecraft platform providing pointing stability of

EXOPLANET ALBEDO SPECTRA AND COLORS AS A FUNCTION OF PLANET PHASE, SEPARATION, AND METALLICITY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cahoy, Kerri L.; Marley, Mark S.; Fortney, Jonathan J.

2010-01-01

First generation space-based optical coronagraphic telescopes will obtain images of cool gas- and ice-giant exoplanets around nearby stars. Exoplanets lying at planet-star separations larger than about 1 AU-where an exoplanet can be resolved from its parent star-have spectra that are dominated by reflected light to beyond 1 μm and punctuated by molecular absorption features. Here, we consider how exoplanet albedo spectra and colors vary as a function of planet-star separation, metallicity, mass, and observed phase for Jupiter and Neptune analogs from 0.35 to 1 μm. We model Jupiter analogs with 1x and 3x the solar abundance of heavy elements, and Neptune analogs with 10x and 30x the solar abundance of heavy elements. Our model planets orbit a solar analog parent star at separations of 0.8 AU, 2 AU, 5 AU, and 10 AU. We use a radiative-convective model to compute temperature-pressure profiles. The giant exoplanets are found to be cloud-free at 0.8 AU, possess H 2 O clouds at 2 AU, and have both NH 3 and H 2 O clouds at 5 AU and 10 AU. For each model planet we compute moderate resolution (R = λ/Δλ ∼ 800) albedo spectra as a function of phase. We also consider low-resolution spectra and colors that are more consistent with the capabilities of early direct imaging capabilities. As expected, the presence and vertical structure of clouds strongly influence the albedo spectra since cloud particles not only affect optical depth but also have highly directional scattering properties. Observations at different phases also probe different volumes of atmosphere as the source-observer geometry changes. Because the images of the planets themselves will be unresolved, their phase will not necessarily be immediately obvious, and multiple observations will be needed to discriminate between the effects of planet-star separation, metallicity, and phase on the observed albedo spectra. We consider the range of these combined effects on spectra and colors. For example, we find that

TRANSITING PLANETS WITH LSST. II. PERIOD DETECTION OF PLANETS ORBITING 1 M{sub ⊙} HOSTS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jacklin, Savannah [Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085 (United States); Lund, Michael B.; Stassun, Keivan G. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States); Pepper, Joshua [Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015 (United States)

2015-07-15

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will photometrically monitor ∼10{sup 9} stars for 10 years. The resulting light curves can be used to detect transiting exoplanets. In particular, as demonstrated by Lund et al., LSST will probe stellar populations currently undersampled in most exoplanet transit surveys, including out to extragalactic distances. In this paper we test the efficiency of the box-fitting least-squares (BLS) algorithm for accurately recovering the periods of transiting exoplanets using simulated LSST data. We model planets with a range of radii orbiting a solar-mass star at a distance of 7 kpc, with orbital periods ranging from 0.5 to 20 days. We find that standard-cadence LSST observations will be able to reliably recover the periods of Hot Jupiters with periods shorter than ∼3 days; however, it will remain a challenge to confidently distinguish these transiting planets from false positives. At the same time, we find that the LSST deep-drilling cadence is extremely powerful: the BLS algorithm successfully recovers at least 30% of sub-Saturn-size exoplanets with orbital periods as long as 20 days, and a simple BLS power criterion robustly distinguishes ∼98% of these from photometric (i.e., statistical) false positives.

K2-140b - an eccentric 6.57 d transiting hot Jupiter in Virgo

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, H. A. C.; Bayliss, D.; Espinoza, N.; Brahm, R.; Blanco-Cuaresma, S.; Shporer, A.; Armstrong, D.; Lovis, C.; Udry, S.; Bouchy, F.; Marmier, M.; Jordán, A.; Bento, J.; Cameron, A. Collier; Sefako, R.; Cochran, W. D.; Rojas, F.; Rabus, M.; Jenkins, J. S.; Jones, M.; Pantoja, B.; Soto, M.; Jensen-Clem, R.; Duev, D. A.; Salama, M.; Riddle, R.; Baranec, C.; Law, N. M.

2018-04-01

We present the discovery of K2-140b, a P = 6.57 d Jupiter-mass (MP = 1.019 ± 0.070MJup) planet transiting a V = 12.5 (G5-spectral type) star in an eccentric orbit (e = 0.120^{+0.056}_{-0.046}) detected using a combination of K2 photometry and ground-based observations. With a radius of 1.095 ± 0.018 RJup, the planet has a bulk density of 0.726 ± 0.062 ρJup. The host star has a [Fe/H] of 0.12 ± 0.045, and from the K2 light curve, we find a rotation period for the star of 16.3 ± 0.1 d. This discovery is the 9th hot Jupiter from K2 and highlights K2's ability to detect transiting giant planets at periods slightly longer than traditional, ground-based surveys. This planet is slightly inflated, but much less than others with similar incident fluxes. These are of interest for investigating the inflation mechanism of hot Jupiters.

VLT Detects First Superstorm on Exoplanet

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-01

Astronomers have measured a superstorm for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, the well-studied "hot Jupiter" HD209458b. The very high-precision observations of carbon monoxide gas show that it is streaming at enormous speed from the extremely hot day side to the cooler night side of the planet. The observations also allow another exciting "first" - measuring the orbital speed of the exoplanet itself, providing a direct determination of its mass. The results appear this week in the journal Nature. "HD209458b is definitely not a place for the faint-hearted. By studying the poisonous carbon monoxide gas with great accuracy we found evidence for a super wind, blowing at a speed of 5000 to 10 000 km per hour" says Ignas Snellen, who led the team of astronomers. HD209458b is an exoplanet of about 60% the mass of Jupiter orbiting a solar-like star located 150 light-years from Earth towards the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse). Circling at a distance of only one twentieth the Sun-Earth distance, the planet is heated intensely by its parent star, and has a surface temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius on the hot side. But as the planet always has the same side to its star, one side is very hot, while the other is much cooler. "On Earth, big temperature differences inevitably lead to fierce winds, and as our new measurements reveal, the situation is no different on HD209458b," says team member Simon Albrecht. HD209458b was the first exoplanet to be found transiting: every 3.5 days the planet moves in front of its host star, blocking a small portion of the starlight during a three-hour period. During such an event a tiny fraction of the starlight filters through the planet's atmosphere, leaving an imprint. A team of astronomers from the Leiden University, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), and MIT in the United States, have used ESO's Very Large Telescope and its powerful CRIRES spectrograph to detect and analyse these faint

A CLOUDINESS INDEX FOR TRANSITING EXOPLANETS BASED ON THE SODIUM AND POTASSIUM LINES: TENTATIVE EVIDENCE FOR HOTTER ATMOSPHERES BEING LESS CLOUDY AT VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heng, Kevin, E-mail: kevin.heng@csh.unibe.ch [University of Bern, Center for Space and Habitability, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012, Bern (Switzerland)

2016-07-20

We present a dimensionless index that quantifies the degree of cloudiness of the atmosphere of a transiting exoplanet. Our cloudiness index is based on measuring the transit radii associated with the line center and wing of the sodium or potassium line. In deriving this index, we revisited the algebraic formulae for inferring the isothermal pressure scale height from transit measurements. We demonstrate that the formulae of Lecavelier et al. and Benneke and Seager are identical: the former is inferring the temperature while assuming a value for the mean molecular mass and the latter is inferring the mean molecular mass while assuming a value for the temperature. More importantly, these formulae cannot be used to distinguish between cloudy and cloud-free atmospheres. We derive values of our cloudiness index for a small sample of seven hot Saturns/Jupiters taken from Sing et al. We show that WASP-17b, WASP-31b, and HAT-P-1b are nearly cloud-free at visible wavelengths. We find the tentative trend that more irradiated atmospheres tend to have fewer clouds consisting of sub-micron-sized particles. We also derive absolute sodium and/or potassium abundances ∼10{sup 2} cm{sup −3} for WASP-17b, WASP-31b, and HAT-P-1b (and upper limits for the other objects). Higher-resolution measurements of both the sodium and potassium lines, for a larger sample of exoplanetary atmospheres, are needed to confirm or refute this trend.

Transit detections of extrasolar planets around main-sequence stars. I. Sky maps for hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Heller, R.; Mislis, D.; Antoniadis, J.

2009-12-01

Context: The findings of more than 350 extrasolar planets, most of them nontransiting Hot Jupiters, have revealed correlations between the metallicity of the main-sequence (MS) host stars and planetary incidence. This connection can be used to calculate the planet formation probability around other stars, not yet known to have planetary companions. Numerous wide-field surveys have recently been initiated, aiming at the transit detection of extrasolar planets in front of their host stars. Depending on instrumental properties and the planetary distribution probability, the promising transit locations on the celestial plane will differ among these surveys. Aims: We want to locate the promising spots for transit surveys on the celestial plane and strive for absolute values of the expected number of transits in general. Our study will also clarify the impact of instrumental properties such as pixel size, field of view (FOV), and magnitude range on the detection probability. Methods: We used data of the Tycho catalog for ≈1 million objects to locate all the stars with 0^m~≲~m_V~≲~11.5m on the celestial plane. We took several empirical relations between the parameters listed in the Tycho catalog, such as distance to Earth, m_V, and (B-V), and those parameters needed to account for the probability of a star to host an observable, transiting exoplanet. The empirical relations between stellar metallicity and planet occurrence combined with geometrical considerations were used to yield transit probabilities for the MS stars in the Tycho catalog. Magnitude variations in the FOV were simulated to test whether this fluctuations would be detected by BEST, XO, SuperWASP and HATNet. Results: We present a sky map of the expected number of Hot Jupiter transit events on the basis of the Tycho catalog. Conditioned by the accumulation of stars towards the galactic plane, the zone of the highest number of transits follows the same trace, interrupted by spots of very low and high

Cassini ISS Observations of Jupiter: An Exoplanet Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

West, Robert A.; Knowles, Benjamin

2017-10-01

Understanding the optical and physical properties of planets in our solar system can guide our approach to the interpretation of observations of exoplanets. Although some work has already been done along these lines, there remain low-hanging fruit. During the Cassini Jupiter encounter, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) obtained an extensive set of images over a large range of phase angles (near-zero to 140 degrees) and in filters from near-UV to near-IR, including three methane bands and nearby continuum. The ISS also obtained images using polarizers. Much later in the mission we also obtained distant images while in orbit around Saturn. Some of these data have already been studied to reveal phase behavior (Dyudina et al., Astrophys. J.822, DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/822/2/76; Mayorga et al., 2016, Astron. J. 152, DOI: 10.3847/0004-6256/152/6/209). Here we examine rotational modulation to determine wavelength and phase angle dependence, and how these may depend on cloud and haze vertical structure and optical properties. The existence of an optically thin forward-scattering and longitudinally-homogeneous haze overlying photometrically-variable cloud fields tends to suppress rotational modulation as phase angle increases, although in the strong 890-nm methane band cloud vertical structure is important. Cloud particles (non-spherical ammonia ice, mostly) have very small polarization signatures at intermediate phase angles and rotational modulation is not apparent above the noise level of our instrument. Part of this work was performed by the Jet Propulsion Lab, Cal. Inst. Of Technology.

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission . XIII. CoRoT-13b: a dense hot Jupiter in transit around a star with solar metallicity and super-solar lithium content

Science.gov (United States)

Cabrera, J.; Bruntt, H.; Ollivier, M.; Díaz, R. F.; Csizmadia, Sz.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, R.; Almenara, J.-M.; Auvergne, M.; Baglin, A.; Barge, P.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bordé, P.; Bouchy, F.; Carone, L.; Carpano, S.; Deleuil, M.; Deeg, H. J.; Dvorak, R.; Erikson, A.; Ferraz-Mello, S.; Fridlund, M.; Gandolfi, D.; Gazzano, J.-C.; Gillon, M.; Guenther, E. W.; Guillot, T.; Hatzes, A.; Havel, M.; Hébrard, G.; Jorda, L.; Léger, A.; Llebaria, A.; Lammer, H.; Lovis, C.; Mazeh, T.; Moutou, C.; Ofir, A.; von Paris, P.; Pätzold, M.; Queloz, D.; Rauer, H.; Rouan, D.; Santerne, A.; Schneider, J.; Tingley, B.; Titz-Weider, R.; Wuchterl, G.

2010-11-01

We announce the discovery of the transiting planet CoRoT-13b. Ground-based follow-up in CFHT and IAC80 confirmed CoRoT's observations. The mass of the planet was measured with the HARPS spectrograph and the properties of the host star were obtained analyzing HIRES spectra from the Keck telescope. It is a hot Jupiter-like planet with an orbital period of 4.04 days, 1.3 Jupiter masses, 0.9 Jupiter radii, and a density of 2.34 g cm-3. It orbits a G0V star with T_eff = 5 945 K, M* = 1.09 M⊙, R_* = 1.01 R⊙, solar metallicity, a lithium content of + 1.45 dex, and an estimated age of between 0.12 and 3.15 Gyr. The lithium abundance of the star is consistent with its effective temperature, activity level, and age range derived from the stellar analysis. The density of the planet is extreme for its mass, implies that heavy elements are present with a mass of between about 140 and 300 {M}⊕. The CoRoT space mission, launched on December 27th 2006, has been developed and is operated by CNES, with the contribution of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, ESA (RSSD and Science Programme), Germany and Spain. Part of the observations were obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, and the University of Hawaii. Based on observations made with HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-m European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere telescope at La Silla Observatory, Chile (ESO program 184.C-0639). Based on observations made with the IAC80 telescope operated on the island of Tenerife by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. Part of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics

NO TIMING VARIATIONS OBSERVED IN THIRD TRANSIT OF SNOW-LINE EXOPLANET KEPLER-421b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalba, Paul A.; Muirhead, Philip S.

2016-01-01

We observed Kepler-421 during the anticipated third transit of the snow-line exoplanet Kepler-421b in order to constrain the existence and extent of transit timing variations (TTVs). Previously, the Kepler spacecraft only observed two transits of Kepler-421b, leaving the planet’s transit ephemeris unconstrained. Our visible light, time-series observations from the 4.3 m Discovery Channel Telescope were designed to capture pre-transit baseline and the partial transit of Kepler-421b, barring significant TTVs. We use the light curves to assess the probabilities of various transit models using both the posterior odds ratio and the Bayesian Information Criterion, and find that a transit model with no TTVs is favored to 3.6 σ confidence. These observations suggest that Kepler-421b is either alone in its system or is only experiencing minor dynamic interactions with an unseen companion. With the Kepler-421b ephemeris constrained, we calculate future transit times and discuss the opportunity to characterize the atmosphere of this cold, long-period exoplanet via transmission spectroscopy. Our investigation emphasizes the difficulties associated with observing long-period exoplanet transits and the consequences that arise from failing to refine transit ephemerides.

Challenges to Constraining Exoplanet Masses via Transmission Spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Batalha, Natasha E. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802 (United States); Kempton, Eliza M.-R. [Department of Physics, Grinnell College, 1116 8th Avenue, Grinnell, IA 50112 (United States); Mbarek, Rostom, E-mail: neb149@psu.edu [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)

2017-02-10

MassSpec , a method for determining the mass of a transiting exoplanet from its transmission spectrum alone, was proposed by de Wit and Seager. The premise of this method relies on the planet’s surface gravity being extracted from the transmission spectrum via its effect on the atmospheric scale height, which in turn determines the strength of absorption features. Here, we further explore the applicability of MassSpec to low-mass exoplanets—specifically those in the super-Earth size range for which radial velocity determinations of the planetary mass can be extremely challenging and resource intensive. Determining the masses of these planets is of the utmost importance because their nature is otherwise highly unconstrained. Without knowledge of the mass, these planets could be rocky, icy, or gas-dominated. To investigate the effects of planetary mass on transmission spectra, we present simulated observations of super-Earths with atmospheres made up of mixtures of H{sub 2}O and H{sub 2}, both with and without clouds. We model their transmission spectra and run simulations of each planet as it would be observed with James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI instruments. We find that significant degeneracies exist between transmission spectra of planets with different masses and compositions, making it impossible to unambiguously determine the planet’s mass in many cases.

Challenges to Constraining Exoplanet Masses via Transmission Spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batalha, Natasha E.; Kempton, Eliza M.-R.; Mbarek, Rostom

2017-01-01

MassSpec , a method for determining the mass of a transiting exoplanet from its transmission spectrum alone, was proposed by de Wit and Seager. The premise of this method relies on the planet’s surface gravity being extracted from the transmission spectrum via its effect on the atmospheric scale height, which in turn determines the strength of absorption features. Here, we further explore the applicability of MassSpec to low-mass exoplanets—specifically those in the super-Earth size range for which radial velocity determinations of the planetary mass can be extremely challenging and resource intensive. Determining the masses of these planets is of the utmost importance because their nature is otherwise highly unconstrained. Without knowledge of the mass, these planets could be rocky, icy, or gas-dominated. To investigate the effects of planetary mass on transmission spectra, we present simulated observations of super-Earths with atmospheres made up of mixtures of H 2 O and H 2 , both with and without clouds. We model their transmission spectra and run simulations of each planet as it would be observed with James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI instruments. We find that significant degeneracies exist between transmission spectra of planets with different masses and compositions, making it impossible to unambiguously determine the planet’s mass in many cases.

Orbital misalignment of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b with the spin of its cool star

Science.gov (United States)

Bourrier, Vincent; Lovis, Christophe; Beust, Hervé; Ehrenreich, David; Henry, Gregory W.; Astudillo-Defru, Nicola; Allart, Romain; Bonfils, Xavier; Ségransan, Damien; Delfosse, Xavier; Cegla, Heather M.; Wyttenbach, Aurélien; Heng, Kevin; Lavie, Baptiste; Pepe, Francesco

2018-01-01

The angle between the spin of a star and the orbital planes of its planets traces the history of the planetary system. Exoplanets orbiting close to cool stars are expected to be on circular, aligned orbits because of strong tidal interactions with the stellar convective envelope. Spin–orbit alignment can be measured when the planet transits its star, but such ground-based spectroscopic measurements are challenging for cool, slowly rotating stars. Here we report the three-dimensional characterization of the trajectory of an exoplanet around an M dwarf star, derived by mapping the spectrum of the stellar photosphere along the chord transited by the planet. We find that the eccentric orbit of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b is nearly perpendicular to the stellar equator. Both eccentricity and misalignment, surprising around a cool star, can result from dynamical interactions (via Kozai migration) with a yet-undetected outer companion. This inward migration of GJ 436b could have triggered the atmospheric escape that now sustains its giant exosphere.

Discovery of a Transiting Adolescent Sub-Neptune Exoplanet in the Cas-Tau Association With K2

Science.gov (United States)

Mamajek, Eric; David, Trevor; Bieryla, Allyson; Bristow, Makennah; Ciardi, David; Cody, Ann Marie; Crossfield, Ian; Fulton, Benjamin; Jasmine Gonzales, Erica; Hillenbrand, Lynne; Hirsch, Lea; Howard, Andrew; Isaacson, Howard; Latham, David W.; Petigura, Erik; Rebull, Luisa; Schlieder, Joshua; Stauffer, John; Vanderburg, Andrew; Vasisht, Gautam

2018-01-01

The role of stellar age in the measured properties and occurrence rates of exoplanets is not well understood. This is in part due to a paucity of young planets and the uncertainties in age-dating for most exoplanet host stars. Exoplanets belonging to coeval stellar populations, young or old, are particularly useful as benchmarks for studies aiming to constrain the evolutionary timescales relevant for planets. Such timescales may concern orbital migration, gravitational contraction, or photo-evaporation, among other mechanisms. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of a transiting sub-Neptune from K2 photometry of a K-type star that is a new candidate member of the nearby young Cas-Tau association. The size of the planet (3.0 +/- 0.5 Earth radii) and its age (~50-90 Myr) make it an intriguing test case for photo-evaporation models, which predict enhanced atmospheric mass loss during early evolutionary stages.

The detectability of radio emission from exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, C. R.; Murphy, Tara; Lenc, E.; Kaplan, D. L.

2018-05-01

Like the magnetised planets in our Solar System, magnetised exoplanets should emit strongly at radio wavelengths. Radio emission directly traces the planetary magnetic fields and radio detections can place constraints on the physical parameters of these features. Large comparative studies of predicted radio emission characteristics for the known population of exoplanets help to identify what physical parameters could be key for producing bright, observable radio emission. Since the last comparative study, many thousands of exoplanets have been discovered. We report new estimates for the radio flux densities and maximum emission frequencies for the current population of known exoplanets orbiting pre-main sequence and main-sequence stars with spectral types F-M. The set of exoplanets predicted to produce observable radio emission are Hot Jupiters orbiting young stars. The youth of these system predicts strong stellar magnetic fields and/or dense winds, which are key for producing bright, observable radio emission. We use a new all-sky circular polarisation Murchison Widefield Array survey to place sensitive limits on 200 MHz emission from exoplanets, with 3σ values ranging from 4.0 - 45.0 mJy. Using a targeted Giant Metre Wave Radio Telescope observing campaign, we also report a 3σ upper limit of 4.5 mJy on the radio emission from V830 Tau b, the first Hot Jupiter to be discovered orbiting a pre-main sequence star. Our limit is the first to be reported for the low-frequency radio emission from this source.

Stellar by Day, Planetary by Night: Atmospheres of Ultra-Hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Hensley, Kerry

2018-06-01

.For reasonable eastward wind speeds, Bell and Cowan found that the recombination of atomic hydrogen shifts the peak of the phase curve in the eastward direction, with the shift becoming more pronounced with increasing eastward wind speed. Additionally, because heat is distributed more evenly across the planet, including this process decreases the amplitude of the phase variations.A Bright Future for Ultra-hot JupitersTheoretical phase curves for three wind speeds. Transits and eclipses have been neglected. [Bell Cowan 2018]While this simple model doesnt include potentially important effects such as the changing atmospheric opacity as a function of longitude or formation of clouds on the planets nightside, this result indicates that caution is required when interpreting phase curves of ultra-hot Jupiters. For example, neglecting recombination means assuming a lower heat transport efficiency, which will require artifically high wind speeds to match observed phase curves.Only a few ultra-hot Jupiters are currently known, but that will soon change. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which is set to begin its first science observations on June 17, 2018, will search for exoplanets around bright stars, including nearby cool stars and more distant hot stars. The hot stars may play host to these exotic exoplanets, and upcoming observations of ultra-hot Jupiters like KELT-9b will put this theory of heat redistribution to the test.CitationTaylor J. Bell Nicolas B. Cowan 2018 ApJL 857 L20. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aabcc8

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XVII. The hot Jupiter CoRoT-17b: a very old planet

Science.gov (United States)

Csizmadia, Sz.; Moutou, C.; Deleuil, M.; Cabrera, J.; Fridlund, M.; Gandolfi, D.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, R.; Almenara, J.-M.; Auvergne, M.; Baglin, A.; Barge, P.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bordé, P.; Bouchy, F.; Bruntt, H.; Carone, L.; Carpano, S.; Cavarroc, C.; Cochran, W.; Deeg, H. J.; Díaz, R. F.; Dvorak, R.; Endl, M.; Erikson, A.; Ferraz-Mello, S.; Fruth, Th.; Gazzano, J.-C.; Gillon, M.; Guenther, E. W.; Guillot, T.; Hatzes, A.; Havel, M.; Hébrard, G.; Jehin, E.; Jorda, L.; Léger, A.; Llebaria, A.; Lammer, H.; Lovis, C.; MacQueen, P. J.; Mazeh, T.; Ollivier, M.; Pätzold, M.; Queloz, D.; Rauer, H.; Rouan, D.; Santerne, A.; Schneider, J.; Tingley, B.; Titz-Weider, R.; Wuchterl, G.

2011-07-01

We report on the discovery of a hot Jupiter-type exoplanet, CoRoT-17b, detected by the CoRoT satellite. It has a mass of 2.43 ± 0.30 MJup and a radius of 1.02 ± 0.07 RJup, while its mean density is 2.82 ± 0.38 g/cm3. CoRoT-17b is in a circular orbit with a period of 3.7681 ± 0.0003 days. The host star is an old (10.7 ± 1.0 Gyr) main-sequence star, which makes it an intriguing object for planetary evolution studies. The planet's internal composition is not well constrained and can range from pure H/He to one that can contain ~380 earth masses of heavier elements. The CoRoT space mission, launched on December 27th 2006, has been developed and is operated by CNES, with the contribution of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, ESA (RSSD and Science Programme), Germany and Spain. Part of the observations were obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, and the University of Hawaii. Based on observations made with HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-m European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere telescope at La Silla Observatory, Chile (ESO program 184.C-0639). Based on observations made with the IAC80 telescope operated on the island of Tenerife by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. Part of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Characterizing Exoplanet Habitability with Emission Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Tyler

2018-01-01

Results from NASA’s Kepler mission and other recent exoplanet surveys have demonstrated that potentially habitable exoplanets are relatively common, especially in the case of low-mass stellar hosts. The next key question that must be addressed for such planets is whether or not these worlds are actually habitable, implying they could sustain surface liquid water. Only through investigations of the potential habitability of exoplanets and through searches for biosignatures from these planets will we be able to understand if the emergence of life is a common phenomenon in our galaxy. Emission spectroscopy for transiting exoplanets (sometimes called secondary eclipse spectroscopy) is a powerful technique that future missions will use to study the atmospheres and surfaces of worlds orbiting in the habitable zones of nearby, low-mass stars. Emission observations that span the mid-infrared wavelength range for potentially habitable exoplanets provide opportunities to detect key habitability and life signatures, and also allow observers to probe atmospheric and surface temperatures. This presentation will outline the case for using emission spectroscopy to understand if an exoplanet can sustain surface liquid water, which is believed to be a critical precursor to the origin of life.

Laboratory Studies of Planetary Hazes: composition of cool exoplanet atmospheric aerosols with very high resolution mass spectrometry

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Sarah E.; Horst, Sarah; He, Chao; Flandinet, Laurene; Moses, Julianne I.; Orthous-Daunay, Francois-Regis; Vuitton, Veronique; Wolters, Cedric; Lewis, Nikole

2017-10-01

We present first results of the composition of laboratory-produced exoplanet haze analogues. With the Planetary HAZE Research (PHAZER) Laboratory, we simulated nine exoplanet atmospheres of varying initial gas phase compositions representing increasing metallicities (100x, 1000x, and 10000x solar) and exposed them to three different temperature regimes (600, 400, and 300 K) with two different “instellation” sources (a plasma source and a UV lamp). The PHAZER exoplanet experiments simulate a temperature and atmospheric composition phase space relevant to the expected planetary yield of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission as well as recently discovered potentially habitable zone exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1, LHS-1140, and Proxima Centauri systems. Upon exposure to the energy sources, all of these experiments produced aerosol particles, which were collected in a dry nitrogen glove box and then analyzed with an LTQ Orbitrap XL™ Hybrid Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer utilizing m/z ranging from 50 to 1000. The collected aerosol samples were found to contain complex organics. Constraining the composition of these aerosols allows us to better understand the photochemical and dynamical processes ongoing in exoplanet atmospheres. Moreover, these data can inform our telescope observations of exoplanets, which is of critical importance as we enter a new era of exoplanet atmosphere observation science with the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. The molecular makeup of these haze particles provides key information for understanding exoplanet atmospheric spectra, and constraining the structure and behavior of clouds, hazes, and other aerosols is at the forefront of exoplanet atmosphere science.

1st Advanced School on Exoplanetary Science : Methods of Detecting Exoplanets

CERN Document Server

Mancini, Luigi; Sozzetti, Alessandro

2016-01-01

In this book, renowned scientists describe the various techniques used to detect and characterize extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, with a view to unveiling the “tricks of the trade” of planet detection to a wider community. The radial velocity method, transit method, microlensing method, and direct imaging method are all clearly explained, drawing attention to their advantages and limitations and highlighting the complementary roles that they can play in improving the characterization of exoplanets’ physical and orbital properties. By probing the planetary frequency at different distances and in different conditions, these techniques are helping astrophysicists to reconstruct the scenarios of planetary formation and to give robust scientific answers to questions regarding the frequency of potentially habitable worlds. Twenty years have passed since the discovery of a Jupiter-mass companion to a main sequence star other than the Sun, heralding the birth of extrasolar planetary research; this book fully...

A map of the large day-night temperature gradient of a super-Earth exoplanet.

Science.gov (United States)

Demory, Brice-Olivier; Gillon, Michael; de Wit, Julien; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Bolmont, Emeline; Heng, Kevin; Kataria, Tiffany; Lewis, Nikole; Hu, Renyu; Krick, Jessica; Stamenković, Vlada; Benneke, Björn; Kane, Stephen; Queloz, Didier

2016-04-14

Over the past decade, observations of giant exoplanets (Jupiter-size) have provided key insights into their atmospheres, but the properties of lower-mass exoplanets (sub-Neptune) remain largely unconstrained because of the challenges of observing small planets. Numerous efforts to observe the spectra of super-Earths--exoplanets with masses of one to ten times that of Earth--have so far revealed only featureless spectra. Here we report a longitudinal thermal brightness map of the nearby transiting super-Earth 55 Cancri e (refs 4, 5) revealing highly asymmetric dayside thermal emission and a strong day-night temperature contrast. Dedicated space-based monitoring of the planet in the infrared revealed a modulation of the thermal flux as 55 Cancri e revolves around its star in a tidally locked configuration. These observations reveal a hot spot that is located 41 ± 12 degrees east of the substellar point (the point at which incident light from the star is perpendicular to the surface of the planet). From the orbital phase curve, we also constrain the nightside brightness temperature of the planet to 1,380 ± 400 kelvin and the temperature of the warmest hemisphere (centred on the hot spot) to be about 1,300 kelvin hotter (2,700 ± 270 kelvin) at a wavelength of 4.5 micrometres, which indicates inefficient heat redistribution from the dayside to the nightside. Our observations are consistent with either an optically thick atmosphere with heat recirculation confined to the planetary dayside, or a planet devoid of atmosphere with low-viscosity magma flows at the surface.

Qatar Exoplanet Survey : Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b

Science.gov (United States)

Alsubai, Khalid; Mislis, Dimitris; Tsvetanov, Zlatan I.; Latham, David W.; Bieryla, Allyson; Buchhave, Lars A.; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.; Bramich, D. M.; Pyrzas, Stylianos; Vilchez, Nicolas P. E.; Mancini, Luigi; Southworth, John; Evans, Daniel F.; Henning, Thomas; Ciceri, Simona

2017-04-01

We report the discovery of Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b, three new transiting planets identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey. The three planets belong to the hot Jupiter family, with orbital periods of {P}{{Q}3{{b}}} = 2.50792 days, {P}{{Q}4{{b}}} = 1.80539 days, and {P}{{Q}5{{b}}} = 2.87923 days. Follow-up spectroscopic observations reveal the masses of the planets to be {M}{{Q}3{{b}}} = 4.31 ± 0.47 {M}{{J}}, {M}{{Q}4{{b}}} = 6.10 ± 0.54 {M}{{J}}, and {M}{{Q}5{{b}}} = 4.32 ± 0.18 {M}{{J}}, while model fits to the transit light curves yield radii of {R}{{Q}3{{b}}} = 1.096 ± 0.14 {R}{{J}}, {R}{{Q}4{{b}}} = 1.135 ± 0.11 {R}{{J}}, and {R}{{Q}5{{b}}} = 1.107 ± 0.064 {R}{{J}}. The host stars are low-mass main sequence stars with masses and radii M Q3 = 1.145 ± 0.064 M ⊙, M Q4 = 0.896 ± 0.048 M ⊙, M Q5 = 1.128 ± 0.056 M ⊙ and R Q3 = 1.272 ± 0.14 R ⊙, R Q4 = 0.849 ± 0.063 R ⊙, and R Q5 = 1.076 ± 0.051 R ⊙ for Qatar-3, 4, and 5 respectively. The V magnitudes of the three host stars are V Q3 = 12.88, V Q4 = 13.60, and V Q5 = 12.82. All three new planets can be classified as heavy hot Jupiters (M > 4 M J).

THE LEECH EXOPLANET IMAGING SURVEY: CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COLDEST DIRECTLY IMAGED EXOPLANET, GJ 504 b, AND EVIDENCE FOR SUPERSTELLAR METALLICITY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skemer, Andrew J.; Leisenring, Jarron; Bailey, Vanessa; Hinz, Philip; Defrére, Denis; Apai, Dániel; Close, Laird; Eisner, Josh [Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Ave. Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Morley, Caroline V.; Fortney, Jonathan [University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Zimmerman, Neil T.; Buenzli, Esther; Bonnefoy, Mickael; Biller, Beth; Brandner, Wolfgang [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Skrutskie, Michael F. [University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States); Esposito, Simone [Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125, Florence (Italy); Crepp, Justin R. [Notre Dame University, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); De Rosa, Robert J. [Arizona State University, 781 South Terrace Rd, Tempe, AZ 85281 (United States); Desidera, Silvano [Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Padova Astronomical Observatory, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova (Italy); and others

2016-02-01

As gas giant planets and brown dwarfs radiate away the residual heat from their formation, they cool through a spectral type transition from L to T, which encompasses the dissipation of cloud opacity and the appearance of strong methane absorption. While there are hundreds of known T-type brown dwarfs, the first generation of directly imaged exoplanets were all L type. Recently, Kuzuhara et al. announced the discovery of GJ 504 b, the first T dwarf exoplanet. GJ 504 b provides a unique opportunity to study the atmosphere of a new type of exoplanet with a ∼500 K temperature that bridges the gap between the first directly imaged planets (∼1000 K) and our own solar system's Jupiter (∼130 K). We observed GJ 504 b in three narrow L-band filters (3.71, 3.88, and 4.00 μm), spanning the red end of the broad methane fundamental absorption feature (3.3 μm) as part of the LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt (LEECH) exoplanet imaging survey. By comparing our new photometry and literature photometry with a grid of custom model atmospheres, we were able to fit GJ 504 b's unusual spectral energy distribution for the first time. We find that GJ 504 b is well fit by models with the following parameters: T{sub eff} = 544 ± 10 K, g < 600 m s{sup −2}, [M/H] = 0.60 ± 0.12, cloud opacity parameter of f{sub sed} = 2–5, R = 0.96 ± 0.07 R{sub Jup}, and log(L) = −6.13 ± 0.03 L{sub ⊙}, implying a hot start mass of 3–30 M{sub jup} for a conservative age range of 0.1–6.5 Gyr. Of particular interest, our model fits suggest that GJ 504 b has a superstellar metallicity. Since planet formation can create objects with nonstellar metallicities, while binary star formation cannot, this result suggests that GJ 504 b formed like a planet, not like a binary companion.

Modeling Multi-wavelength Stellar Astrometry. III. Determination of the Absolute Masses of Exoplanets and Their Host Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlin, J. L.; López-Morales, Mercedes

2012-05-01

Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground- and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 μas precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric orbits of exoplanetary systems via both analytical formulae and numerical modeling. Exoplanets have a combination of reflected and thermally emitted light that causes the photocenter of the system to shift increasingly farther away from the host star with increasing wavelength. We find that, if observed at long enough wavelengths, the planet can dominate the astrometric motion of the system, and thus it is possible to directly measure the orbits of both the planet and star, and thus directly determine the physical masses of the star and planet, using multi-wavelength astrometry. In general, this technique works best for, though is certainly not limited to, systems that have large, high-mass stars and large, low-mass planets, which is a unique parameter space not covered by other exoplanet characterization techniques. Exoplanets that happen to transit their host star present unique cases where the physical radii of the planet and star can be directly determined via astrometry alone. Planetary albedos and day-night contrast ratios may also be probed via this technique due to the unique signature they impart on the observed astrometric orbits. We develop a tool to examine the prospects for near-term detection of this effect, and give examples of some exoplanets that appear to be good targets for detection in the K to N infrared observing bands, if the required precision can be achieved.

MODELING MULTI-WAVELENGTH STELLAR ASTROMETRY. III. DETERMINATION OF THE ABSOLUTE MASSES OF EXOPLANETS AND THEIR HOST STARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coughlin, J. L.; López-Morales, Mercedes

2012-01-01

Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground- and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 μas precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric orbits of exoplanetary systems via both analytical formulae and numerical modeling. Exoplanets have a combination of reflected and thermally emitted light that causes the photocenter of the system to shift increasingly farther away from the host star with increasing wavelength. We find that, if observed at long enough wavelengths, the planet can dominate the astrometric motion of the system, and thus it is possible to directly measure the orbits of both the planet and star, and thus directly determine the physical masses of the star and planet, using multi-wavelength astrometry. In general, this technique works best for, though is certainly not limited to, systems that have large, high-mass stars and large, low-mass planets, which is a unique parameter space not covered by other exoplanet characterization techniques. Exoplanets that happen to transit their host star present unique cases where the physical radii of the planet and star can be directly determined via astrometry alone. Planetary albedos and day-night contrast ratios may also be probed via this technique due to the unique signature they impart on the observed astrometric orbits. We develop a tool to examine the prospects for near-term detection of this effect, and give examples of some exoplanets that appear to be good targets for detection in the K to N infrared observing bands, if the required precision can be achieved.

Direct Imaging of a Cold Jovian Exoplanet in Orbit around the Sun-Like Star GJ 504

Science.gov (United States)

Kuzuhara, M.; Tamura, M.; Kudo, T.; Janson, M; Kandori, R.; Brandt, T. D.; Thalmann, C.; Spiegel, D.; Biller, B.; Carson, J.;

EPOXI EXOPLANET TRANSIT OBS - HRIV CALIBRATED IMAGES V1.0

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set set contains calibrated images of eight known transiting extrasolar planetary systems (hot Jupiters) acquired by the Deep Impact High Resolution...

MODEL-INDEPENDENT STELLAR AND PLANETARY MASSES FROM MULTI-TRANSITING EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montet, Benjamin T.; Johnson, John Asher

2013-01-01

Precise exoplanet characterization requires precise classification of exoplanet host stars. The masses of host stars are commonly estimated by comparing their spectra to those predicted by stellar evolution models. However, spectroscopically determined properties are difficult to measure accurately for stars that are substantially different from the Sun, such as M-dwarfs and evolved stars. Here, we propose a new method to dynamically measure the masses of transiting planets near mean-motion resonances and their host stars by combining observations of transit timing variations with radial velocity (RV) measurements. We derive expressions to analytically determine the mass of each member of the system and demonstrate the technique on the Kepler-18 system. We compare these analytic results to numerical simulations and find that the two are consistent. We identify eight systems for which our technique could be applied if follow-up RV measurements are collected. We conclude that this analysis would be optimal for systems discovered by next-generation missions similar to TESS or PLATO, which will target bright stars that are amenable to efficient RV follow-up.

Planetary populations in the mass-period diagram: A statistical treatment of exoplanet formation and the role of planet traps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasegawa, Yasuhiro; Pudritz, Ralph E.

2013-01-01

The rapid growth of observed exoplanets has revealed the existence of several distinct planetary populations in the mass-period diagram. Two of the most surprising are (1) the concentration of gas giants around 1 AU and (2) the accumulation of a large number of low-mass planets with tight orbits, also known as super-Earths and hot Neptunes. We have recently shown that protoplanetary disks have multiple planet traps that are characterized by orbital radii in the disks and halt rapid type I planetary migration. By coupling planet traps with the standard core accretion scenario, we showed that one can account for the positions of planets in the mass-period diagram. In this paper, we demonstrate quantitatively that most gas giants formed at planet traps tend to end up around 1 AU, with most of these being contributed by dead zones and ice lines. We also show that a large fraction of super-Earths and hot Neptunes are formed as 'failed' cores of gas giants—this population being constituted by comparable contributions from dead zone and heat transition traps. Our results are based on the evolution of forming planets in an ensemble of disks where we vary only the lifetimes of disks and their mass accretion rates onto the host star. We show that a statistical treatment of the evolution of a large population of planetary cores caught in planet traps accounts for the existence of three distinct exoplanetary populations—the hot Jupiters, the more massive planets around r = 1 AU, and the short-period super-Earths and hot Neptunes. There are very few populations that feed into the large orbital radii characteristic of the imaged Jovian planet, which agrees with recent surveys. Finally, we find that low-mass planets in tight orbits become the dominant planetary population for low-mass stars (M * ≤ 0.7 M ☉ ).

SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates. IV. KOI-196b: a non-inflated hot Jupiter with a high albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Santerne, A.; Bonomo, A. S.; Hébrard, G.; Deleuil, M.; Moutou, C.; Almenara, J.-M.; Bouchy, F.; Díaz, R. F.

2011-12-01

We report the discovery of a new hot-Jupiter, KOI-196b, transiting a solar-type star with an orbital period of 1.855558 days ± 0.6 s thanks to public photometric data from the Kepler space mission and new radial velocity observations obtained by the SOPHIE spectrograph mounted on the 1.93-m telescope at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France. The planet KOI-196b, with a radius of 0.89 ± 0.05 RJup and a mass of 0.55 ± 0.09 MJup, orbits a G6V star with R⋆ = 1.02 ± 0.03 R⊙, M⋆ = 1.12 ± 0.07 M⊙, [Fe/H] = 0.29 ± 0.16 dex, Teff = 5620 ± 140 K, and an age of 650 +2500-300} Myr. KOI-196b is one of the rare close-in hot Jupiters with a radius smaller than Jupiter suggesting that it is a non-inflated planet. The high precision of the Kepler photometry permits us to detect the secondary transit with a depth of 64 +10-12} ppm as well as the optical phase variation. We find a geometric albedo of Ag = 0.30 ± 0.08, which is higher than most of the transiting hot Jupiters with a measured Ag. Assuming no heat recirculation, we find a day-side temperature of Tday = 1730 ± 400 K. The planet KOI-196b seems to be one of the rare hot Jupiters located in the short-period hot-Jupiter desert. Based on observations made with SOPHIE on the 1.93-m telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence (CNRS), France.

Direct Detection of Polarized, Scattered Light from Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Laughlin, Gregory

We propose to radically advance the state of exoplanet characterization, which lags dramatically behind exoplanet discovery. We propose to directly detect scattered light from the atmospheres of close-in, highly eccentric, and extended/non-spherical exoplanets and thereby determine the following: orbital inclination (and therefore masses free of the M sin i mass ambiguity), geometric albedo, presence or lack of hazes and cloud layers, and scattering particle size and composition. Such measurements are crucial to the understanding of exoplanet atmospheres, because observations with NASA s Hubble, Spitzer, and Kepler space telescopes present the following questions: 1) Do exoplanets have highly reflective haze layers? 2) How does the upper atmospheric composition differ between exoplanets with and without thermal inversions? 3) What are the optical manifestations of the extreme heating of highly eccentric exoplanets? 4) Are the atmospheres of certain exoplanets truly escaping their Roche lobes? Using the POLISH2 polarimeter developed by the Postdoctoral Associate (Wiktorowicz) for the Lick 3-m telescope, we propose to monitor the linear polarization state of exoplanet host stars at the part per million level. POLISH2 consistently delivers nearly photon shot noise limited measurements with this precision. In addition, the simultaneous full-Stokes measurements of POLISH2 and the equatorial mount of the Lick 3-m telescope ensure that systematic effects are mitigated to the part per million level. Indeed, we find the accuracy of the POLISH2 polarimeter to be 0.1 parts per million. This instrument and telescope represent the highest precision polarimeter in the world for exoplanet research. We present potential detection of polarized, scattered light from the HD 189733b, Tau Boo b, and WASP-12b exoplanets. We propose to observe hot Jupiters on circular orbits, highly eccentric exoplanets, exoplanets with extended or non-spherical scattering surfaces, and 55 Cnc e, the

Occultations of Astrophysical Radio Sources as Probes of Planetary Environments: A Case Study of Jupiter and Possible Applications to Exoplanets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Withers, Paul [Astronomy Department, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); Vogt, Marissa F. [Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)

2017-02-10

Properties of planetary atmospheres, ionospheres, and magnetospheres are difficult to measure from Earth. Radio occultations are a common method for measuring these properties, but they traditionally rely on radio transmissions from a spacecraft near the planet. Here, we explore whether occultations of radio emissions from a distant astrophysical radio source can be used to measure magnetic field strength, plasma density, and neutral density around planets. In a theoretical case study of Jupiter, we find that significant changes in polarization angle due to Faraday rotation occur for radio signals that pass within 10 Jupiter radii of the planet and that significant changes in frequency and power occur from radio signals that pass through the neutral atmosphere. There are sufficient candidate radio sources, such as pulsars, active galactic nuclei, and masers, that occultations are likely to occur at least once per year. For pulsars, time delays in the arrival of their emitted pulses can be used to measure plasma density. Exoplanets, whose physical properties are very challenging to observe, may also occult distant astrophysical radio sources, such as their parent stars.

An Observational Diagnostic for Distinguishing Between Clouds and Haze in Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres

Science.gov (United States)

Kempton, Eliza; Bean, Jacob; Parmentier, Vivien

2018-01-01

The nature of aerosols in hot exoplanet atmospheres is one of the primary vexing questions facing the exoplanet field. The complex chemistry, multiple formation pathways, and lack of easily identifiable spectral features associated with aerosols make it especially challenging to constrain their key properties. We present a transmission spectroscopy technique to identify the primary aerosol formation mechanism for the most highly irradiated hot Jupiters (HIHJs). The technique is based on the idea that the two key types of aerosols -- photochemically generated hazes and equilibrium condensate clouds -- are expected to form and persist in different regions of a highly irradiated planet's atmosphere. Haze can only be produced on the permanent daysides of tidally-locked hot Jupiters, and will be carried downwind by atmospheric dynamics to the evening terminator (seen as the trailing limb during transit). Clouds can only form in cooler regions on the night side and morning terminator of HIHJs (seen as the leading limb during transit). Because opposite limbs are expected to be impacted by different types of aerosols, ingress and egress spectra, which primarily probe opposing sides of the planet, will reveal the dominant aerosol formation mechanism. We show that the benchmark HIHJ, WASP-121b, has a transmission spectrum consistent with partial aerosol coverage and that ingress-egress spectroscopy would constrain the location and formation mechanism of those aerosols. In general, we find that observations with JWST and potentially with HST should be able to distinguish between clouds and haze for currently known HIHJs.

QATAR-2: A K DWARF ORBITED BY A TRANSITING HOT JUPITER AND A MORE MASSIVE COMPANION IN AN OUTER ORBIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bryan, Marta L.; Alsubai, Khalid A.; Latham, David W.; Quinn, Samuel N.; Carter, Joshua A.; Berlind, Perry; Brown, Warren R.; Calkins, Michael L.; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.; Fűrész, Gábor; Stefanik, Robert P.; Torres, Guillermo; Parley, Neil R.; Collier Cameron, Andrew; Horne, Keith D.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Street, Rachel A.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Jørgensen, Uffe Gråe; West, Richard G.

2012-01-01

We report the discovery and initial characterization of Qatar-2b, a hot Jupiter transiting a V = 13.3 mag K dwarf in a circular orbit with a short period, P b = 1.34 days. The mass and radius of Qatar-2b are M P = 2.49 M J and R P = 1.14 R J , respectively. Radial-velocity monitoring of Qatar-2 over a span of 153 days revealed the presence of a second companion in an outer orbit. The Systemic Console yielded plausible orbits for the outer companion, with periods on the order of a year and a companion mass of at least several M J . Thus, Qatar-2 joins the short but growing list of systems with a transiting hot Jupiter and an outer companion with a much longer period. This system architecture is in sharp contrast to that found by Kepler for multi-transiting systems, which are dominated by objects smaller than Neptune, usually with tightly spaced orbits that must be nearly coplanar.

Making the Most of Kepler Photometry: Characterizing Exoplanets through Phase Curve Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esteves Lisa J.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Kepler mission’s long-term monitoring of stars through high-precision photometry has not only revealed a plethora of exoplanet transits but also provided valuable data for characterizing a subset of these planets. Using over four years of Kepler observations, we have derived phase curves for over a dozen planets, and use these measurements to constrain their mass, brightness/temperature and energy redistribution between the day and the night sides. In our new study, we also investigate possible offsets of the peak brightness of the phase curve, which could be indicative of inhomogeneous clouds and/or substantial winds in the planet’s atmosphere. We find significant offsets for over a half-dozen planets. With this growing sample of measured phase curves, we are able to better examine the trends of hot Jupiter energy budgets and albedos, and for the first time relate these properties to the presence of clouds or winds on a planet.

Exoplanets: The Hunt Continues!

Science.gov (United States)

2001-04-01

Swiss Telescope at La Silla Very Successful Summary The intensive and exciting hunt for planets around other stars ( "exoplanets" ) is continuing with great success in both hemispheres. Today, an international team of astronomers from the Geneva Observatory and other research institutes [1] is announcing the discovery of no less than eleven new, planetary companions to solar-type stars, HD 8574, HD 28185, HD 50554, HD 74156, HD 80606, HD 82943, HD 106252, HD 141937, HD 178911B, HD 141937, among which two new multi-planet systems . The masses of these new objects range from slightly less than to about 10 times the mass of the planet Jupiter [2]. The new detections are based on measured velocity changes of the stars [3], performed with the CORALIE spectrometer on the Swiss 1.2-m Leonard Euler telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory , as well as with instruments on telescopes at the Haute-Provence Observatory and on the Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea (Hawaii, USA). Some of the new planets are unusual: * a two-planet system (around the star HD 82943) in which one orbital period is nearly exactly twice as long as the other - cases like this (refered to as "orbital resonance") are well known in our own solar system; * another two-planet system (HD 74156), with a Jupiter-like planet and a more massive planet further out; * a planet with the most elongated orbit detected so far (HD 80606), moving between 5 and 127 million kilometers from the central star; * a giant planet moving in an orbit around its Sun-like central star that is very similar to the one of the Earth and whose potential satellites (in theory, at least) might be "habitable". At this moment, there are 63 know exoplanet candidates with minimum masses below 10 Jupiter masses, and 67 known objects with minimum masses below 17 Jupiter masses. The present team of astronomers has detected about half of these. PR Photo 13a/01 : Radial-velocity measurements of HD 82943, a two-planet system . PR Photo 13b/01 : Radial

DIRECT IMAGING OF A COLD JOVIAN EXOPLANET IN ORBIT AROUND THE SUN-LIKE STAR GJ 504

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuzuhara, M. [Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Tamura, M.; Kandori, R.; Hori, Y.; Suzuki, R.; Suenaga, T.; Takahashi, Y. H.; Kwon, J. [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan); Kudo, T. [Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A' ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Janson, M.; Brandt, T. D.; Spiegel, D.; Burrows, A.; Turner, E. L.; Moro-Martin, A. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Thalmann, C. [Astronomical Institute ' ' Anton Pannekoek' ' , University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94249, 1090 GE, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Biller, B.; Henning, T. [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Carson, J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston, 58 Coming Street, Charleston, SC 29424 (United States); McElwain, M. W., E-mail: m.kuzuhara@nao.ac.jp [Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); and others

2013-09-01

Several exoplanets have recently been imaged at wide separations of >10 AU from their parent stars. These span a limited range of ages (<50 Myr) and atmospheric properties, with temperatures of 800-1800 K and very red colors (J - H > 0.5 mag), implying thick cloud covers. Furthermore, substantial model uncertainties exist at these young ages due to the unknown initial conditions at formation, which can lead to an order of magnitude of uncertainty in the modeled planet mass. Here, we report the direct-imaging discovery of a Jovian exoplanet around the Sun-like star GJ 504, detected as part of the SEEDS survey. The system is older than all other known directly imaged planets; as a result, its estimated mass remains in the planetary regime independent of uncertainties related to choices of initial conditions in the exoplanet modeling. Using the most common exoplanet cooling model, and given the system age of 160{sup +350}{sub -60} Myr, GJ 504b has an estimated mass of 4{sup +4.5}{sub -1.0} Jupiter masses, among the lowest of directly imaged planets. Its projected separation of 43.5 AU exceeds the typical outer boundary of {approx}30 AU predicted for the core accretion mechanism. GJ 504b is also significantly cooler (510{sup +30}{sub -20} K) and has a bluer color (J - H = -0.23 mag) than previously imaged exoplanets, suggesting a largely cloud-free atmosphere accessible to spectroscopic characterization. Thus, it has the potential of providing novel insights into the origins of giant planets as well as their atmospheric properties.

HAT-P-68b: A Transiting Hot Jupiter Around a K5 Dwarf Star

Science.gov (United States)

Lindor, Bethlee; Hartman, Joel D.

2018-01-01

One of the main goals of the astrophysical society has been to detect sources of life outside of Earth. To aid this search, astronomers have spent the last 2 decades focused on the discovery and characterization of exoplanets. The most effective method for doing so has been transit photometry, wherein we measure the brightness of stars over periods of time. These measurements, or light curves, are later analyzed for dips in brightness caused by objects passing in front of the star. However, variations in these time series can also occur due to non-planetary systems and a meticulous process is needed to distinguish the planets from the various false positives that are detected. HATNet is one of many surveys involved in this endeavor, and in this work I analyze HAT-P-68. First, I model the system as a single star with a transiting planet and derive estimates of the stellar and planetary physical parameters. I also model HAT-P-68 as a number of a false positives such as a pair of stars in an eclipsing binary blended with a background star, and a planet-sized star orbiting a Sun-like star. In order to rule out the possibility that HAT-P-68 is a blend, I carried out a statistical blend analysis of the photometric data and find that all blend models tested can be ruled out. Thus, I conclude that HAT-P-68 is a system with a transiting hot jupiter and consider what future observations would be most promising to further characterize the system.

Discovery of a Probable 4-5 Jupiter-mass Exoplanet to HD 95086 by Direct Imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Rameau, J.; Chauvin, G.; Lagrange, A.-M.; Boccaletti, A.; Quanz, S. P.; Bonnefoy, M.; Girard, J. H.; Delorme, P.; Desidera, S.; Klahr, H.; Mordasini, C.; Dumas, C.; Bonavita, M.

2013-08-01

Direct imaging has only begun to inventory the population of gas giant planets on wide orbits around young stars in the solar neighborhood. Following this approach, we carried out a deep imaging survey in the near-infrared using VLT/NaCo to search for substellar companions. Here we report the discovery of a probable companion orbiting the young (10-17 Myr), dusty, early-type (A8) star HD 95086 at 56 AU in L' (3.8 μm) images. This discovery is based on observations with more than a year time lapse. Our first epoch clearly revealed the source at ~= 10σ, while our second epoch lacks good observing conditions, yielding a ~= 3σ detection. Various tests were thus made to rule out possible artifacts. This recovery is consistent with the signal at the first epoch but requires cleaner confirmation. Nevertheless, our astrometric precision suggests that the companion is comoving with the star with a 3σ confidence level. The planetary nature of the source is reinforced by a non-detection in the Ks-band (2.18 μm) images according to its possible extremely red Ks-L' color. Conversely, background contamination is rejected with good confidence level. The luminosity yields a predicted mass of about 4-5 M Jup (at 10-17 Myr) using "hot-start" evolutionary models, making HD 95086 b the exoplanet with the lowest mass ever imaged around a star. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile, under program Nos. 087.C-0292, 088.C.0085, 090.C-0538, 090.C-0698, and 090.C-0728.

PROBABILITY OF CME IMPACT ON EXOPLANETS ORBITING M DWARFS AND SOLAR-LIKE STARS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kay, C. [Solar Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Opher, M.; Kornbleuth, M., E-mail: ckay@bu.edu [Astronomy Department, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)

2016-08-01

Solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produce adverse space weather effects at Earth. Planets in the close habitable zone of magnetically active M dwarfs may experience more extreme space weather than at Earth, including frequent CME impacts leading to atmospheric erosion and leaving the surface exposed to extreme flare activity. Similar erosion may occur for hot Jupiters with close orbits around solar-like stars. We have developed a model, Forecasting a CME's Altered Trajectory (ForeCAT), which predicts a CME's deflection. We adapt ForeCAT to simulate CME deflections for the mid-type M dwarf V374 Peg and hot Jupiters with solar-type hosts. V374 Peg's strong magnetic fields can trap CMEs at the M dwarfs's Astrospheric Current Sheet, that is, the location of the minimum in the background magnetic field. Solar-type CMEs behave similarly, but have much smaller deflections and do not become trapped at the Astrospheric Current Sheet. The probability of planetary impact decreases with increasing inclination of the planetary orbit with respect to the Astrospheric Current Sheet: 0.5–5 CME impacts per day for M dwarf exoplanets, 0.05–0.5 CME impacts per day for solar-type hot Jupiters. We determine the minimum planetary magnetic field necessary to shield a planet's atmosphere from CME impacts. M dwarf exoplanets require values between tens and hundreds of Gauss. Hot Jupiters around a solar-type star, however, require a more reasonable <30 G. These values exceed the magnitude required to shield a planet from the stellar wind, suggesting that CMEs may be the key driver of atmospheric losses.

PROBABILITY OF CME IMPACT ON EXOPLANETS ORBITING M DWARFS AND SOLAR-LIKE STARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kay, C.; Opher, M.; Kornbleuth, M.

2016-01-01

Solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produce adverse space weather effects at Earth. Planets in the close habitable zone of magnetically active M dwarfs may experience more extreme space weather than at Earth, including frequent CME impacts leading to atmospheric erosion and leaving the surface exposed to extreme flare activity. Similar erosion may occur for hot Jupiters with close orbits around solar-like stars. We have developed a model, Forecasting a CME's Altered Trajectory (ForeCAT), which predicts a CME's deflection. We adapt ForeCAT to simulate CME deflections for the mid-type M dwarf V374 Peg and hot Jupiters with solar-type hosts. V374 Peg's strong magnetic fields can trap CMEs at the M dwarfs's Astrospheric Current Sheet, that is, the location of the minimum in the background magnetic field. Solar-type CMEs behave similarly, but have much smaller deflections and do not become trapped at the Astrospheric Current Sheet. The probability of planetary impact decreases with increasing inclination of the planetary orbit with respect to the Astrospheric Current Sheet: 0.5–5 CME impacts per day for M dwarf exoplanets, 0.05–0.5 CME impacts per day for solar-type hot Jupiters. We determine the minimum planetary magnetic field necessary to shield a planet's atmosphere from CME impacts. M dwarf exoplanets require values between tens and hundreds of Gauss. Hot Jupiters around a solar-type star, however, require a more reasonable <30 G. These values exceed the magnitude required to shield a planet from the stellar wind, suggesting that CMEs may be the key driver of atmospheric losses.

The LEECH Exoplanet Imaging Survey: Characterization of the Coldest Directly Imaged Exoplanet, GJ 504 b, and Evidence for Superstellar Metallicity

Science.gov (United States)

Skemer, Andrew J.; Morley, Caroline V.; Zimmerman, Neil T.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Leisenring, Jarron; Buenzli, Esther; Bonnefoy, Mickael; Bailey, Vanessa; Hinz, Philip; Defrére, Denis; Esposito, Simone; Apai, Dániel; Biller, Beth; Brandner, Wolfgang; Close, Laird; Crepp, Justin R.; De Rosa, Robert J.; Desidera, Silvano; Eisner, Josh; Fortney, Jonathan; Freedman, Richard; Henning, Thomas; Hofmann, Karl-Heinz; Kopytova, Taisiya; Lupu, Roxana; Maire, Anne-Lise; Males, Jared R.; Marley, Mark; Morzinski, Katie; Oza, Apurva; Patience, Jenny; Rajan, Abhijith; Rieke, George; Schertl, Dieter; Schlieder, Joshua; Stone, Jordan; Su, Kate; Vaz, Amali; Visscher, Channon; Ward-Duong, Kimberly; Weigelt, Gerd; Woodward, Charles E.

2016-02-01

As gas giant planets and brown dwarfs radiate away the residual heat from their formation, they cool through a spectral type transition from L to T, which encompasses the dissipation of cloud opacity and the appearance of strong methane absorption. While there are hundreds of known T-type brown dwarfs, the first generation of directly imaged exoplanets were all L type. Recently, Kuzuhara et al. announced the discovery of GJ 504 b, the first T dwarf exoplanet. GJ 504 b provides a unique opportunity to study the atmosphere of a new type of exoplanet with a ˜500 K temperature that bridges the gap between the first directly imaged planets (˜1000 K) and our own solar system's Jupiter (˜130 K). We observed GJ 504 b in three narrow L-band filters (3.71, 3.88, and 4.00 μm), spanning the red end of the broad methane fundamental absorption feature (3.3 μm) as part of the LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt (LEECH) exoplanet imaging survey. By comparing our new photometry and literature photometry with a grid of custom model atmospheres, we were able to fit GJ 504 b's unusual spectral energy distribution for the first time. We find that GJ 504 b is well fit by models with the following parameters: Teff = 544 ± 10 K, g Germany. LBT Corporation partners are the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona university system; Istituto Nazionale di Astrophisica, Italy; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max-Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University, and the Research Corporation, on behalf of the University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of Virginia.

HIDING IN THE SHADOWS. II. COLLISIONAL DUST AS EXOPLANET MARKERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dobinson, Jack; Leinhardt, Zoë M.; Lines, Stefan; Carter, Philip J.; Dodson-Robinson, Sarah E.; Teanby, Nick A.

2016-01-01

Observations of the youngest planets (∼1–10 Myr for a transitional disk) will increase the accuracy of our planet formation models. Unfortunately, observations of such planets are challenging and time-consuming to undertake, even in ideal circumstances. Therefore, we propose the determination of a set of markers that can preselect promising exoplanet-hosting candidate disks. To this end, N-body simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of an embedded Jupiter-mass planet on the dynamics of the surrounding planetesimal disk and the resulting creation of second-generation collisional dust. We use a new collision model that allows fragmentation and erosion of planetesimals, and dust-sized fragments are simulated in a post-process step including non-gravitational forces due to stellar radiation and a gaseous protoplanetary disk. Synthetic images from our numerical simulations show a bright double ring at 850 μm for a low-eccentricity planet, whereas a high-eccentricity planet would produce a characteristic inner ring with asymmetries in the disk. In the presence of first-generation primordial dust these markers would be difficult to detect far from the orbit of the embedded planet, but would be detectable inside a gap of planetary origin in a transitional disk

An Observational Diagnostic for Distinguishing between Clouds and Haze in Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kempton, Eliza M.-R.; Bean, Jacob L.; Parmentier, Vivien

2017-01-01

The nature of aerosols in hot exoplanet atmospheres is one of the primary vexing questions facing the exoplanet field. The complex chemistry, multiple formation pathways, and lack of easily identifiable spectral features associated with aerosols make it especially challenging to constrain their key properties. We propose a transmission spectroscopy technique to identify the primary aerosol formation mechanism for the most highly irradiated hot Jupiters (HIHJs). The technique is based on the expectation that the two key types of aerosols—photochemically generated hazes and equilibrium condensate clouds—are expected to form and persist in different regions of a highly irradiated planet’s atmosphere. Haze can only be produced on the permanent daysides of tidally locked hot Jupiters, and will be carried downwind by atmospheric dynamics to the evening terminator (seen as the trailing limb during transit). Clouds can only form in cooler regions on the nightside and morning terminator of HIHJs (seen as the leading limb during transit). Because opposite limbs are expected to be impacted by different types of aerosols, ingress and egress spectra, which primarily probe opposing sides of the planet, will reveal the dominant aerosol formation mechanism. We show that the benchmark HIHJ, WASP-121b, has a transmission spectrum consistent with partial aerosol coverage and that ingress–egress spectroscopy would constrain the location and formation mechanism of those aerosols. In general, using this diagnostic we find that observations with the James Webb Space Telescope and potentially with the Hubble Space Telescope should be able to distinguish between clouds and haze for currently known HIHJs.

An Observational Diagnostic for Distinguishing between Clouds and Haze in Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kempton, Eliza M.-R. [Department of Physics, Grinnell College, 1116 8th Avenue, Grinnell, IA 50112 (United States); Bean, Jacob L. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Parmentier, Vivien, E-mail: kemptone@grinnell.edu [Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2017-08-20

The nature of aerosols in hot exoplanet atmospheres is one of the primary vexing questions facing the exoplanet field. The complex chemistry, multiple formation pathways, and lack of easily identifiable spectral features associated with aerosols make it especially challenging to constrain their key properties. We propose a transmission spectroscopy technique to identify the primary aerosol formation mechanism for the most highly irradiated hot Jupiters (HIHJs). The technique is based on the expectation that the two key types of aerosols—photochemically generated hazes and equilibrium condensate clouds—are expected to form and persist in different regions of a highly irradiated planet’s atmosphere. Haze can only be produced on the permanent daysides of tidally locked hot Jupiters, and will be carried downwind by atmospheric dynamics to the evening terminator (seen as the trailing limb during transit). Clouds can only form in cooler regions on the nightside and morning terminator of HIHJs (seen as the leading limb during transit). Because opposite limbs are expected to be impacted by different types of aerosols, ingress and egress spectra, which primarily probe opposing sides of the planet, will reveal the dominant aerosol formation mechanism. We show that the benchmark HIHJ, WASP-121b, has a transmission spectrum consistent with partial aerosol coverage and that ingress–egress spectroscopy would constrain the location and formation mechanism of those aerosols. In general, using this diagnostic we find that observations with the James Webb Space Telescope and potentially with the Hubble Space Telescope should be able to distinguish between clouds and haze for currently known HIHJs.

MODELS OF NEPTUNE-MASS EXOPLANETS: EMERGENT FLUXES AND ALBEDOS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spiegel, David S.; Burrows, Adam; Ibgui, Laurent; Hubeny, Ivan; Milsom, John A.

2010-01-01

There are now many known exoplanets with Msin i within a factor of 2 of Neptune's, including the transiting planets GJ 436b and HAT-P-11b. Planets in this mass range are different from their more massive cousins in several ways that are relevant to their radiative properties and thermal structures. By analogy with Neptune and Uranus, they are likely to have metal abundances that are an order of magnitude or more greater than those of larger, more massive planets. This increases their opacity, decreases Rayleigh scattering, and changes their equation of state. Furthermore, their smaller radii mean that fluxes from these planets are roughly an order of magnitude lower than those of otherwise identical gas giant planets. Here, we compute a range of plausible radiative equilibrium models of GJ 436b and HAT-P-11b. In addition, we explore the dependence of generic Neptune-mass planets on a range of physical properties, including their distance from their host stars, their metallicity, the spectral type of their stars, the redistribution of heat in their atmospheres, and the possible presence of additional optical opacity in their upper atmospheres.

Combining Photometry from Kepler and TESS to Improve Short-Period Exoplanet Characterization

Science.gov (United States)

Placek, Ben; Knuth, Kevin H.; Angerhausen, Daniel

2016-01-01

Planets emit thermal radiation and reflect incident light that they receive from their host stars. As a planet orbits its host star the photometric variations associated with these two effects produce very similar phase curves. If observed through only a single bandpass, this leads to a degeneracy between certain planetary parameters that hinder the precise characterization of such planets. However, observing the same planet through two different bandpasses gives much more information about the planet. Here we develop a Bayesian methodology for combining photometry from both Kepler and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. In addition, we demonstrate via simulations that one can disentangle the reflected and thermally emitted light from the atmosphere of a hot-Jupiter as well as more precisely constrain both the geometric albedo and day-side temperature of the planet. This methodology can further be employed using various combinations of photometry from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Characterizing ExOplanet Satellite, or the PLATO mission.

Updated Spitzer emission spectroscopy of bright transiting hot Jupiter HD 189733b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Todorov, Kamen O. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Grillmair, Carl J., E-mail: todorovk@phys.ethz.ch [Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 220-6, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2014-12-01

We analyze all existing secondary eclipse time series spectroscopy of hot Jupiter HD 189733b acquired with the now defunct Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) instrument. We describe the novel approaches we develop to remove the systematic effects and extract accurate secondary eclipse depths as a function of wavelength in order to construct the emission spectrum of the exoplanet. We compare our results with a previous study by Grillmair et al. that did not examine all data sets available to us. We are able to confirm the detection of a water feature near 6 μm claimed by Grillmair et al. We compare the planetary emission spectrum to three model families—based on isothermal atmosphere, gray atmosphere, and two realizations of the complex radiative transfer model by Burrows et al., adopted in Grillmair et al.'s study. While we are able to reject the simple isothermal and gray models based on the data at the 97% level just from the IRS data, these rejections hinge on eclipses measured within a relatively narrow wavelength range, between 5.5 and 7 μm. This underscores the need for observational studies with broad wavelength coverage and high spectral resolution, in order to obtain robust information on exoplanet atmospheres.

THE EFFECTS OF VIEWING ANGLE ON THE MASS DISTRIBUTION OF EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lopez, S.; Jenkins, J. S.

2012-01-01

We present a mathematical method to statistically decouple the effects of unknown inclination angles on the mass distribution of exoplanets that have been discovered using radial-velocity (RV) techniques. The method is based on the distribution of the product of two random variables. Thus, if one assumes a true mass distribution, the method makes it possible to recover the observed distribution. We compare our prediction with available RV data. Assuming that the true mass function is described by a power law, the minimum mass function that we recover proves a good fit to the observed distribution at both mass ends. In particular, it provides an alternative explanation for the observed low-mass decline, usually explained as sample incompleteness. In addition, the peak observed near the low-mass end arises naturally in the predicted distribution as a consequence of imposing a low-mass cutoff in the true distribution. If the low-mass bins below 0.02 M J are complete, then the mass distribution in this regime is heavily affected by the small fraction of lowly inclined interlopers that are actually more massive companions. Finally, we also present evidence that the exoplanet mass distribution changes form toward low mass, implying that a single power law may not adequately describe the sample population.

Planetary populations in the mass-period diagram: A statistical treatment of exoplanet formation and the role of planet traps

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasegawa, Yasuhiro [Currently EACOA Fellow at Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), Taipei 10641, Taiwan. (China); Pudritz, Ralph E., E-mail: yasu@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw, E-mail: pudritz@physics.mcmaster.ca [Also at Origins Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada. (Canada)

2013-11-20

The rapid growth of observed exoplanets has revealed the existence of several distinct planetary populations in the mass-period diagram. Two of the most surprising are (1) the concentration of gas giants around 1 AU and (2) the accumulation of a large number of low-mass planets with tight orbits, also known as super-Earths and hot Neptunes. We have recently shown that protoplanetary disks have multiple planet traps that are characterized by orbital radii in the disks and halt rapid type I planetary migration. By coupling planet traps with the standard core accretion scenario, we showed that one can account for the positions of planets in the mass-period diagram. In this paper, we demonstrate quantitatively that most gas giants formed at planet traps tend to end up around 1 AU, with most of these being contributed by dead zones and ice lines. We also show that a large fraction of super-Earths and hot Neptunes are formed as 'failed' cores of gas giants—this population being constituted by comparable contributions from dead zone and heat transition traps. Our results are based on the evolution of forming planets in an ensemble of disks where we vary only the lifetimes of disks and their mass accretion rates onto the host star. We show that a statistical treatment of the evolution of a large population of planetary cores caught in planet traps accounts for the existence of three distinct exoplanetary populations—the hot Jupiters, the more massive planets around r = 1 AU, and the short-period super-Earths and hot Neptunes. There are very few populations that feed into the large orbital radii characteristic of the imaged Jovian planet, which agrees with recent surveys. Finally, we find that low-mass planets in tight orbits become the dominant planetary population for low-mass stars (M {sub *} ≤ 0.7 M {sub ☉}).

Hot Jupiters around M dwarfs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murgas F.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS is a near-infrared transit survey running on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT. We conduct Monte Carlo transit injection and detection simulations for short period (<10 day Jupiter-sized planets to characterize the sensitivity of the survey. We investigate the recovery rate as a function of period and magnitude in 2 hypothetical star-planet cases: M0–2 + hot Jupiter, M2–4 + hot Jupiter. We find that the WTS lightcurves are very sensitive to the presence of Jupiter-sized short-period transiting planets around M dwarfs. The non-detection of a hot-Jupiter around an M dwarf by the WFCAM Transit Survey allows us to place a firm upper limit of 1.9 per cent (at 95 per cent confidence on the planet occurrence rate.

Advection of Potential Temperature in the Atmosphere of Irradiated Exoplanets: A Robust Mechanism to Explain Radius Inflation

Science.gov (United States)

Tremblin, P.; Chabrier, G.; Mayne, N. J.; Amundsen, D. S.; Baraffe, I.; Debras, F.; Drummond, B.; Manners, J.; Fromang, S.

2017-01-01

The anomalously large radii of strongly irradiated exoplanets have remained a major puzzle in astronomy. Based on a two-dimensional steady-state atmospheric circulation model, the validity of which is assessed by comparison to three-dimensional calculations, we reveal a new mechanism, namely the advection of the potential temperature due to mass and longitudinal momentum conservation, a process occurring in the Earth's atmosphere or oceans. In the deep atmosphere, the vanishing heating flux forces the atmospheric structure to converge to a hotter adiabat than the one obtained with 1D calculations, implying a larger radius for the planet. Not only do the calculations reproduce the observed radius of HD 209458b, but also reproduce the observed correlation between radius inflation and irradiation for transiting planets. Vertical advection of potential temperature induced by non-uniform atmospheric heating thus provides a robust mechanism to explain the inflated radii of irradiated hot Jupiters.

Advection of Potential Temperature in the Atmosphere of Irradiated Exoplanets: A Robust Mechanism to Explain Radius Inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tremblin, P.; Chabrier, G.; Mayne, N. J.; Baraffe, I.; Debras, F.; Drummond, B.; Manners, J.; Amundsen, D. S.; Fromang, S.

2017-01-01

The anomalously large radii of strongly irradiated exoplanets have remained a major puzzle in astronomy. Based on a two-dimensional steady-state atmospheric circulation model, the validity of which is assessed by comparison to three-dimensional calculations, we reveal a new mechanism, namely the advection of the potential temperature due to mass and longitudinal momentum conservation, a process occurring in the Earth’s atmosphere or oceans. In the deep atmosphere, the vanishing heating flux forces the atmospheric structure to converge to a hotter adiabat than the one obtained with 1D calculations, implying a larger radius for the planet. Not only do the calculations reproduce the observed radius of HD 209458b, but also reproduce the observed correlation between radius inflation and irradiation for transiting planets. Vertical advection of potential temperature induced by non-uniform atmospheric heating thus provides a robust mechanism to explain the inflated radii of irradiated hot Jupiters.

Advection of Potential Temperature in the Atmosphere of Irradiated Exoplanets: A Robust Mechanism to Explain Radius Inflation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tremblin, P. [Maison de la Simulation, CEA-CNRS-INRIA-UPS-UVSQ, USR 3441, CEA Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette (France); Chabrier, G.; Mayne, N. J.; Baraffe, I.; Debras, F.; Drummond, B.; Manners, J. [Astrophysics Group, University of Exeter, EX4 4QL Exeter (United Kingdom); Amundsen, D. S. [Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025 (United States); Fromang, S., E-mail: pascal.tremblin@cea.fr [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris 7, Irfu/Service d’Astrophysique, CEA Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

2017-05-20

The anomalously large radii of strongly irradiated exoplanets have remained a major puzzle in astronomy. Based on a two-dimensional steady-state atmospheric circulation model, the validity of which is assessed by comparison to three-dimensional calculations, we reveal a new mechanism, namely the advection of the potential temperature due to mass and longitudinal momentum conservation, a process occurring in the Earth’s atmosphere or oceans. In the deep atmosphere, the vanishing heating flux forces the atmospheric structure to converge to a hotter adiabat than the one obtained with 1D calculations, implying a larger radius for the planet. Not only do the calculations reproduce the observed radius of HD 209458b, but also reproduce the observed correlation between radius inflation and irradiation for transiting planets. Vertical advection of potential temperature induced by non-uniform atmospheric heating thus provides a robust mechanism to explain the inflated radii of irradiated hot Jupiters.

Exploring the diversity of Jupiter-class planets.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Leigh N; Irwin, Patrick G J; Barstow, Joanna K; de Kok, Remco J; Lee, Jae-Min; Aigrain, Suzanne

2014-04-28

Of the 900+ confirmed exoplanets discovered since 1995 for which we have constraints on their mass (i.e. not including Kepler candidates), 75% have masses larger than Saturn (0.3 MJ), 53% are more massive than Jupiter and 67% are within 1 AU of their host stars. When Kepler candidates are included, Neptune-sized giant planets could form the majority of the planetary population. And yet the term 'hot Jupiter' fails to account for the incredible diversity of this class of astrophysical object, which exists on a continuum of giant planets from the cool jovians of our own Solar System to the highly irradiated, tidally locked hot roasters. We review theoretical expectations for the temperatures, molecular composition and cloud properties of hydrogen-dominated Jupiter-class objects under a variety of different conditions. We discuss the classification schemes for these Jupiter-class planets proposed to date, including the implications for our own Solar System giant planets and the pitfalls associated with compositional classification at this early stage of exoplanetary spectroscopy. We discuss the range of planetary types described by previous authors, accounting for (i) thermochemical equilibrium expectations for cloud condensation and favoured chemical stability fields; (ii) the metallicity and formation mechanism for these giant planets; (iii) the importance of optical absorbers for energy partitioning and the generation of a temperature inversion; (iv) the favoured photochemical pathways and expectations for minor species (e.g. saturated hydrocarbons and nitriles); (v) the unexpected presence of molecules owing to vertical mixing of species above their quench levels; and (vi) methods for energy and material redistribution throughout the atmosphere (e.g. away from the highly irradiated daysides of close-in giants). Finally, we discuss the benefits and potential flaws of retrieval techniques for establishing a family of atmospheric solutions that reproduce the

WASP-36b: A NEW TRANSITING PLANET AROUND A METAL-POOR G-DWARF, AND AN INVESTIGATION INTO ANALYSES BASED ON A SINGLE TRANSIT LIGHT CURVE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, A. M. S.; Anderson, D. R.; Hellier, C.; Maxted, P. F. L.; Smalley, B.; Southworth, J. [Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG (United Kingdom); Collier Cameron, A. [SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, Fife, KY16 9SS (United Kingdom); Gillon, M.; Jehin, E. [Institut d' Astrophysique et de Geophysique, Universite de Liege, Allee du 6 Aout, 17 Bat. B5C, Liege 1 (Belgium); Lendl, M.; Queloz, D.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Pepe, F.; Segransan, D.; Udry, S. [Observatoire de Geneve, Universite de Geneve, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny (Switzerland); West, R. G. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH (United Kingdom); Barros, S. C. C.; Pollacco, D. [Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen' s University, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN (United Kingdom); Street, R. A., E-mail: amss@astro.keele.ac.uk [Las Cumbres Observatory, 6740 Cortona Drive Suite 102, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States)

2012-04-15

We report the discovery, from WASP and CORALIE, of a transiting exoplanet in a 1.54 day orbit. The host star, WASP-36, is a magnitude V = 12.7, metal-poor G2 dwarf (T{sub eff} = 5959 {+-} 134 K), with [Fe/H] =-0.26 {+-} 0.10. We determine the planet to have mass and radius, respectively, 2.30 {+-} 0.07 and 1.28 {+-} 0.03 times that of Jupiter. We have eight partial or complete transit light curves, from four different observatories, which allow us to investigate the potential effects on the fitted system parameters of using only a single light curve. We find that the solutions obtained by analyzing each of these light curves independently are consistent with our global fit to all the data, despite the apparent presence of correlated noise in at least two of the light curves.

POLARIMETRIC DETECTION OF EXOPLANETS TRANSITING T AND L BROWN DWARFS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sengupta, Sujan

2016-01-01

While scattering of light by atoms and molecules yields large amounts of polarization at the B-band of both T and L dwarfs, scattering by dust grains in the cloudy atmosphere of L dwarfs gives rise to significant polarization at the far-optical and infrared wavelengths where these objects are much brighter. However, the observable disk-averaged polarization should be zero if the clouds are uniformly distributed and the object is spherically symmetric. Therefore, in order to explain the observed large polarization of several L dwarfs, rotation-induced oblateness or horizontally inhomogeneous cloud distribution in the atmosphere is invoked. On the other hand, when an extra-solar planet of Earth-size or larger transits the brown dwarf along the line of sight, the asymmetry induced during the transit gives rise to a net non-zero, time-dependent polarization. Employing atmospheric models for a range of effective temperature and surface gravity appropriate for T and L dwarfs, I derive the time-dependent polarization profiles of these objects during the transit phase and estimate the peak amplitude of polarization that occurs during the inner contact points of the transit ingress/egress phase. It is found that peak polarization in the range of 0.2%–1.0% at I and J band may arise of cloudy L dwarfs occulted by Earth-size or larger exoplanets. Such an amount of polarization is higher than what can be produced by rotation-induced oblateness of even rapidly rotating L dwarfs. Hence, I suggest that time-resolved imaging polarization could be a potential technique for detecting transiting exoplanets around L dwarfs.

POLARIMETRIC DETECTION OF EXOPLANETS TRANSITING T AND L BROWN DWARFS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sengupta, Sujan, E-mail: sujan@iiap.res.in [Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala 2nd Block, Bangalore 560 034 (India)

2016-10-01

While scattering of light by atoms and molecules yields large amounts of polarization at the B-band of both T and L dwarfs, scattering by dust grains in the cloudy atmosphere of L dwarfs gives rise to significant polarization at the far-optical and infrared wavelengths where these objects are much brighter. However, the observable disk-averaged polarization should be zero if the clouds are uniformly distributed and the object is spherically symmetric. Therefore, in order to explain the observed large polarization of several L dwarfs, rotation-induced oblateness or horizontally inhomogeneous cloud distribution in the atmosphere is invoked. On the other hand, when an extra-solar planet of Earth-size or larger transits the brown dwarf along the line of sight, the asymmetry induced during the transit gives rise to a net non-zero, time-dependent polarization. Employing atmospheric models for a range of effective temperature and surface gravity appropriate for T and L dwarfs, I derive the time-dependent polarization profiles of these objects during the transit phase and estimate the peak amplitude of polarization that occurs during the inner contact points of the transit ingress/egress phase. It is found that peak polarization in the range of 0.2%–1.0% at I and J band may arise of cloudy L dwarfs occulted by Earth-size or larger exoplanets. Such an amount of polarization is higher than what can be produced by rotation-induced oblateness of even rapidly rotating L dwarfs. Hence, I suggest that time-resolved imaging polarization could be a potential technique for detecting transiting exoplanets around L dwarfs.

LONG-LIVED CHAOTIC ORBITAL EVOLUTION OF EXOPLANETS IN MEAN MOTION RESONANCES WITH MUTUAL INCLINATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barnes, Rory; Deitrick, Russell; Quinn, Thomas R. [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Box 951580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Greenberg, Richard [Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 E. University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 86716 (United States); Raymond, Sean N., E-mail: rory@astro.washington.edu [NASA Astrobiology Institute-Virtual Planetary Laboratory Lead Team (United States)

2015-03-10

We present N-body simulations of resonant planets with inclined orbits that show chaotically evolving eccentricities and inclinations that can persist for at least 10 Gyr. A wide range of behavior is possible, from fast, low amplitude variations to systems in which eccentricities reach 0.9999 and inclinations 179.°9. While the orbital elements evolve chaotically, at least one resonant argument always librates. We show that the HD 73526, HD 45364, and HD 60532 systems may be in chaotically evolving resonances. Chaotic evolution is apparent in the 2:1, 3:1, and 3:2 resonances, and for planetary masses from lunar- to Jupiter-mass. In some cases, orbital disruption occurs after several gigayears, implying the mechanism is not rigorously stable, just long-lived relative to the main sequence lifetimes of solar-type stars. Planet-planet scattering appears to yield planets in inclined resonances that evolve chaotically in about 0.5% of cases. These results suggest that (1) approximate methods for identifying unstable orbital architectures may have limited applicability, (2) the observed close-in exoplanets may be produced during epochs of high eccentricit induced by inclined resonances, (3) those exoplanets' orbital planes may be misaligned with the host star's spin axis, (4) systems with resonances may be systematically younger than those without, (5) the distribution of period ratios of adjacent planets detected via transit may be skewed due to inclined resonances, and (6) potentially habitable planets may have dramatically different climatic evolution than Earth. The Gaia spacecraft is capable of discovering giant planets in these types of orbits.

LONG-LIVED CHAOTIC ORBITAL EVOLUTION OF EXOPLANETS IN MEAN MOTION RESONANCES WITH MUTUAL INCLINATIONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, Rory; Deitrick, Russell; Quinn, Thomas R.; Greenberg, Richard; Raymond, Sean N.

2015-01-01

We present N-body simulations of resonant planets with inclined orbits that show chaotically evolving eccentricities and inclinations that can persist for at least 10 Gyr. A wide range of behavior is possible, from fast, low amplitude variations to systems in which eccentricities reach 0.9999 and inclinations 179.°9. While the orbital elements evolve chaotically, at least one resonant argument always librates. We show that the HD 73526, HD 45364, and HD 60532 systems may be in chaotically evolving resonances. Chaotic evolution is apparent in the 2:1, 3:1, and 3:2 resonances, and for planetary masses from lunar- to Jupiter-mass. In some cases, orbital disruption occurs after several gigayears, implying the mechanism is not rigorously stable, just long-lived relative to the main sequence lifetimes of solar-type stars. Planet-planet scattering appears to yield planets in inclined resonances that evolve chaotically in about 0.5% of cases. These results suggest that (1) approximate methods for identifying unstable orbital architectures may have limited applicability, (2) the observed close-in exoplanets may be produced during epochs of high eccentricit induced by inclined resonances, (3) those exoplanets' orbital planes may be misaligned with the host star's spin axis, (4) systems with resonances may be systematically younger than those without, (5) the distribution of period ratios of adjacent planets detected via transit may be skewed due to inclined resonances, and (6) potentially habitable planets may have dramatically different climatic evolution than Earth. The Gaia spacecraft is capable of discovering giant planets in these types of orbits

The Optical Transmission Spectrum of the Inflated Hot Jupiter WASP-94Ab

Science.gov (United States)

Berta-Thompson, Zachory; Diamond-Lowe, Hannah; Osip, David; McDonald, Michael; Triaud, Amaury; Hellier, Coel; Gillon, Michael; Delrez, Laetitia; Queloz, Didier; Neveu-VanMalle, Marion; Demory, Brice-Olivier

2018-01-01

Exoplaneteers study the color of sunset on other planets, by measuring the wavelength-dependence of the fraction of starlight transmitted through the planets' atmospheres during transit. These transmission spectroscopy observations can reveal the molecular composition and aerosol distribution along the planet's day-night terminator. Here, we present new observations of the transmission spectrum of WASP-94Ab, an inflated hot Jupiter in a 3.95 day orbit around a bright 6200K, V=10.1 dwarf star. The star is in a visual binary with a nearly identical star (6100K, V=10.5) located 15" away. We observed three transits of WASP-94Ab with the Magellan/LDSS3C multiobject spectrograph, taking advantage of the nearby companion to correct for temporal variations in Earth's telluric spectrum. Thanks to the Magellan Clay telescope's large 6.5m aperture and WASP-94Ab's low surface gravity, we achieve a spectrophotometric precision (in units of atmospheric scale heights) that rivals Hubble/STIS spectroscopy of the famous and much brighter hot Jupiter system HD209458b. We highlight the valuable role ground-based telescopes can play for exoplanetary characterization in the TESS era.

Photometric Exoplanet Characterization and Multimedia Astronomy Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Cartier, Kimberly M. S.

The transit method of detecting exoplanets has dominated the search for distant worlds since the success of the Kepler space telescope and will continue to lead the field after the launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in 2018. But detections are just the beginning. Transit light curves can only reveal a limited amount of information about a planet, and that information is almost entirely dependent on the properties of the host star or stars. This dissertation discusses follow-up techniques to more precisely characterize transiting planets using photometric observations. A high-resolution follow-up imaging program using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) searched for previously unknown stars nearby the hosts of small and cool Kepler exoplanets and observed a higher-than-expected occurrence rate of stellar multiplicity. The rate of previously unknown stellar multiples has strong implications for the size and habitability of the orbiting planets. Three systems with newly discovered stellar multiplicity, Kepler-296 (2 stars, 5 planets), KOI-2626 (3 stars, 1 planet), and KOI-3049 (2 stars, 1 planet), were characterized in more detail. In the cases of Kepler-296 and KOI-2626, some of the planets lost their previous habitable zone status because of host star ambiguity. Next, the ultra-short period, ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-103b was used as a casestudy to test for the presence of a stratospheric temperature inversion through dayside emission spectroscopy using HST. WASP-103b's near-infrared emission spectrum is consistent with an isothermal or thermally-inverted atmosphere and shows no significant broadband water absorption feature. Detection of an anomalously strong "super- Rayleigh" slope in its optical transmission spectrum prompted follow-up transmission spectroscopy of WASP-103b's atmosphere using the MINiature Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA), which tentatively verified the unexplained "super-Rayleigh" spectral slope. The final follow-up technique for

On advanced estimation techniques for exoplanet detection and characterization using ground-based coronagraphs

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Peter R.; Poyneer, Lisa; Barrett, Harrison; Frazin, Richard; Caucci, Luca; Devaney, Nicholas; Furenlid, Lars; Gładysz, Szymon; Guyon, Olivier; Krist, John; Maire, Jérôme; Marois, Christian; Mawet, Dimitri; Mouillet, David; Mugnier, Laurent; Pearson, Iain; Perrin, Marshall; Pueyo, Laurent; Savransky, Dmitry

2012-07-01

The direct imaging of planets around nearby stars is exceedingly difficult. Only about 14 exoplanets have been imaged to date that have masses less than 13 times that of Jupiter. The next generation of planet-finding coronagraphs, including VLT-SPHERE, the Gemini Planet Imager, Palomar P1640, and Subaru HiCIAO have predicted contrast performance of roughly a thousand times less than would be needed to detect Earth-like planets. In this paper we review the state of the art in exoplanet imaging, most notably the method of Locally Optimized Combination of Images (LOCI), and we investigate the potential of improving the detectability of faint exoplanets through the use of advanced statistical methods based on the concepts of the ideal observer and the Hotelling observer. We propose a formal comparison of techniques using a blind data challenge with an evaluation of performance using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Localization ROC (LROC) curves. We place particular emphasis on the understanding and modeling of realistic sources of measurement noise in ground-based AO-corrected coronagraphs. The work reported in this paper is the result of interactions between the co-authors during a week-long workshop on exoplanet imaging that was held in Squaw Valley, California, in March of 2012.

MULTIPLE-PLANET SCATTERING AND THE ORIGIN OF HOT JUPITERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beaugé, C.; Nesvorný, D.

2012-01-01

Doppler and transit observations of exoplanets show a pile-up of Jupiter-size planets in orbits with a 3 day period. A fraction of these hot Jupiters have retrograde orbits with respect to the parent star's rotation, as evidenced by the measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. To explain these observations we performed a series of numerical integrations of planet scattering followed by the tidal circularization and migration of planets that evolved into highly eccentric orbits. We considered planetary systems having three and four planets initially placed in successive mean-motion resonances, although the angles were taken randomly to ensure orbital instability in short timescales. The simulations included the tidal and relativistic effects, and precession due to stellar oblateness. Our results show the formation of two distinct populations of hot Jupiters. The inner population (Population I) is characterized by semimajor axis a 1 Gyr and fits nicely the observed 3 day pile-up. A comparison between our three-planet and four-planet runs shows that the formation of hot Jupiters is more likely in systems with more initial planets. Due to the large-scale chaoticity that dominates the evolution, high eccentricities and/or high inclinations are generated mainly by close encounters between the planets and not by secular perturbations (Kozai or otherwise). The relative proportion of retrograde planets seems of be dependent on the stellar age. Both the distribution of almost aligned systems and the simulated 3 day pile-up also fit observations better in our four-planet simulations. This may suggest that the planetary systems with observed hot Jupiters were originally rich in the number of planets, some of which were ejected. In a broad perspective, our work therefore hints on an unexpected link between the hot Jupiters and recently discovered free floating planets.

Estimating the Magnetic Field Strength in Hot Jupiters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yadav, Rakesh K. [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Thorngren, Daniel P., E-mail: rakesh_yadav@fas.harvard.edu [Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)

2017-11-01

A large fraction of known Jupiter-like exoplanets are inflated as compared to Jupiter. These “hot” Jupiters orbit close to their parent star and are bombarded with intense starlight. Many theories have been proposed to explain their radius inflation and several suggest that a small fraction of the incident starlight is injected into the planetary interior, which helps to puff up the planet. How will such energy injection affect the planetary dynamo? In this Letter, we estimate the surface magnetic field strength of hot Jupiters using scaling arguments that relate energy available in planetary interiors to the dynamo-generated magnetic fields. We find that if we take into account the energy injected in the planetary interior that is sufficient to inflate hot Jupiters to observed radii, then the resulting dynamo should be able generate magnetic fields that are more than an order of magnitude stronger than the Jovian values. Our analysis highlights the potential fundamental role of the stellar light in setting the field strength in hot Jupiters.

A Secular Resonant Origin for the Loneliness of Hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Spalding, Christopher; Batygin, Konstantin

2017-09-01

Despite decades of inquiry, the origin of giant planets residing within a few tenths of an astronomical unit from their host stars remains unclear. Traditionally, these objects are thought to have formed further out before subsequently migrating inwards. However, the necessity of migration has been recently called into question with the emergence of in situ formation models of close-in giant planets. Observational characterization of the transiting subsample of close-in giants has revealed that “warm” Jupiters, possessing orbital periods longer than roughly 10 days more often possess close-in, co-transiting planetary companions than shorter period “hot” Jupiters, that are usually lonely. This finding has previously been interpreted as evidence that smooth, early migration or in situ formation gave rise to warm Jupiter-hosting systems, whereas more violent, post-disk migration pathways sculpted hot Jupiter-hosting systems. In this work, we demonstrate that both classes of planet may arise via early migration or in situ conglomeration, but that the enhanced loneliness of hot Jupiters arises due to a secular resonant interaction with the stellar quadrupole moment. Such an interaction tilts the orbits of exterior, lower-mass planets, removing them from transit surveys where the hot Jupiter is detected. Warm Jupiter-hosting systems, in contrast, retain their coplanarity due to the weaker influence of the host star’s quadrupolar potential relative to planet-disk interactions. In this way, hot Jupiters and warm Jupiters are placed within a unified theoretical framework that may be readily validated or falsified using data from upcoming missions, such as TESS.

TWO EXOPLANETS DISCOVERED AT KECK OBSERVATORY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valenti, Jeff A.; Fischer, Debra; Giguere, Matt; Isaacson, Howard; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Howard, Andrew W.; Johnson, John A.; Henry, Gregory W.; Wright, Jason T.

2009-01-01

We present two exoplanets detected at Keck Observatory. HD 179079 is a G5 subgiant that hosts a hot Neptune planet with M sin i = 27.5 M + in a 14.48 days, low-eccentricity orbit. The stellar reflex velocity induced by this planet has a semiamplitude of K = 6.6 m s -1 . HD 73534 is a G5 subgiant with a Jupiter-like planet of M sin i = 1.1 M Jup and K = 16 m s -1 in a nearly circular 4.85 yr orbit. Both stars are chromospherically inactive and metal-rich. We discuss a known, classical bias in measuring eccentricities for orbits with velocity semiamplitudes, K, comparable to the radial velocity uncertainties. For exoplanets with periods longer than 10 days, the observed exoplanet eccentricity distribution is nearly flat for large amplitude systems (K > 80 m s -1 ), but rises linearly toward low eccentricity for lower amplitude systems (K > 20 m s -1 ).

Effects of Bulk Composition on the Atmospheric Dynamics on Close-in Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, X.; Showman, A. P.

2015-12-01

Depending on the metallicity of the protoplanetary disk, the details of gas accretion during planetary formation, and atmospheric loss during planetary evolution, the atmospheres of sub-Jupiter-sized planets could exhibit a variety of bulk compositions. Examples include hydrogen-dominated atmospheres like Jupiter, more metal-rich atmospheres like Neptune, evaporated atmospheres dominated by helium, or of course carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen, and other heavy molecules as exhibited by terrestrial planets in the solar system. Here we systematically investigate the effects of atmospheric bulk compositions on temperature and wind distributions for tidally locked sub-Jupiter-sized planets using an idealized three-dimensional general circulation model (GCM). Composition—in particular, the molecular mass and specific heat—affect the sound speed, gravity wave speeds, atmospheric scale height, and Rossby deformation radius, and therefore in principle can exert significant controls on the atmospheric circulation, including the day-night temperature difference and other observables. We performed numerous simulations exploring a wide range of molecular masses and molar specific heats. The effect of molecular weight dominates. We found that a higher-molecular-weight atmosphere tends to have a larger day-night temperature contrast, a smaller eastward phase shift in the thermal light curve, and a narrower equatorial super-rotating jet that occurs in a deeper atmosphere. The zonal-mean zonal wind is smaller and more prone to exhibit a latitudinally alternating pattern in a higher-molecular-weight atmosphere. If the vertical temperature profile is close to adiabatic, molar specific heat will play a significant role in controlling the transition from a divergent flow in the upper atmosphere to a jet-dominated flow in the lower atmosphere. We are also working on analytical theories to explain aspects of the simulations relevant for possible observables on tidally locked

32 New Exoplanets Found

Science.gov (United States)

2009-10-01

less favourable for the formation of planets, which form in the metal-rich disc around the young star. However, planets up to several Jupiter masses have been found orbiting metal-deficient stars, setting an important constraint for planet formation models. Although the first phase of the observing programme is now officially concluded, the team will pursue their effort with two ESO Large Programmes looking for super-Earths around solar-type stars and M dwarfs and some new announcements are already foreseen in the coming months, based on the last five years of measurements. There is no doubt that HARPS will continue to lead the field of exoplanet discoveries, especially pushing towards the detection of Earth-type planets. More information This discovery was announced today at the ESO/CAUP conference "Towards Other Earths: perspectives and limitations in the ELT era", taking place in Porto, Portugal, on 19-23 October 2009. This conference discusses the new generation of instruments and telescopes that is now being conceived and built by different teams around the world to allow the discovery of other Earths, especially for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The new planets are simultaneously presented by Michel Mayor at the international symposium "Heirs of Galileo: Frontiers of Astronomy" in Madrid, Spain. This research was presented in a series of eight papers submitted - or soon to be submitted - to the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal. The team is composed of * Geneva Observatory: M. Mayor, S. Udry, D. Queloz, F. Pepe, C. Lovis, D. Ségransan, X. Bonfils * LAOG Grenoble: X. Delfosse, T. Forveille, X. Bonfils, C. Perrier * CAUP Porto: N.C. Santos * ESO: G. Lo Curto, D. Naef * University of Bern: W. Benz, C. Mordasini * IAP Paris: F. Bouchy, G. Hébrard * LAM Marseille: C. Moutou * Service d'aéronomie, Paris: J.-L. Bertaux ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most

New tools and improvements in the Exoplanet Transit Database

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pejcha O.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Comprehensive collection of the available light curves, prediction possibilities and the online model fitting procedure, that are available via Exoplanet Transit Database became very popular in the community. In this paper we summarized the changes, that we made in the ETD during last year (including the Kepler candidates into the prediction section, modeling of an unknown planet in the model-fit section and some other small improvements. All this new tools cannot be found in the main ETD paper.

Observations and modeling of the transiting exoplanets XO-2b, HAT-P-18b, and WASP-80b

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kjurkchieva Diana P.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present photometric observations and transit solutions of the exoplanets XO-2b, HAT-P-18b and WASP 80b. Our solution of the XO-2b transit gave system parameters whose values are close to those of the previous studies. The solutions of the new transits of HAT-P-18b and WASP 80b differ from the previous ones by bigger stellar and planet radii. We obtained new values of the target initial epochs corresponding to slightly different periods. Our investigation reaffirmed that small telescopes can be used successfully for the study of exoplanets orbiting stars brighter than 13 mag.

The Hottest Hot Jupiters May Host Atmospheric Dynamos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogers, T. M. [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom); McElwaine, J. N. [Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2017-06-01

Hot Jupiters have proven themselves to be a rich class of exoplanets that test our theories of planetary evolution and atmospheric dynamics under extreme conditions. Here, we present three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations and analytic results that demonstrate that a dynamo can be maintained in the thin, stably stratified atmosphere of a hot Jupiter, independent of the presumed deep-seated dynamo. This dynamo is maintained by conductivity variations arising from strong asymmetric heating from the planets’ host star. The presence of a dynamo significantly increases the surface magnetic field strength and alters the overall planetary magnetic field geometry, possibly affecting star–planet magnetic interactions.

What asteroseismology can do for exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Van Eylen Vincent

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We describe three useful applications of asteroseismology in the context of exoplanet science: (1 the detailed characterisation of exoplanet host stars; (2 the measurement of stellar inclinations; and (3 the determination of orbital eccentricity from transit duration making use of asteroseismic stellar densities. We do so using the example system Kepler-410 [1]. This is one of the brightest (V = 9.4 Kepler exoplanet host stars, containing a small (2.8 R⊕ transiting planet in a long orbit (17.8 days, and one or more additional non-transiting planets as indicated by transit timing variations. The validation of Kepler-410 (KOI-42 was complicated due to the presence of a companion star, and the planetary nature of the system was confirmed after analyzing a Spitzer transit observation as well as ground-based follow-up observations.

Jupiter: as a planet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1975-01-01

The planet Jupiter, its planetary mass and atmosphere, radio waves emitted from Jupiter, thermal radiation, internal structure of Jupiter, and the possibility of life on Jupiter are discussed. Educational study projects are included

Searching for Exoplanets around X-Ray Binaries with Accreting White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes

Science.gov (United States)

Imara, Nia; Di Stefano, Rosanne

2018-05-01

We recommend that the search for exoplanets around binary stars be extended to include X-ray binaries (XRBs) in which the accretor is a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole. We present a novel idea for detecting planets bound to such mass transfer binaries, proposing that the X-ray light curves of these binaries be inspected for signatures of transiting planets. X-ray transits may be the only way to detect planets around some systems, while providing a complementary approach to optical and/or radio observations in others. Any planets associated with XRBs must be in stable orbits. We consider the range of allowable separations and find that orbital periods can be hours or longer, while transit durations extend upward from about a minute for Earth-radius planets, to hours for Jupiter-radius planets. The search for planets around XRBs could begin at once with existing X-ray observations of these systems. If and when a planet is detected around an X-ray binary, the size and mass of the planet may be readily measured, and it may also be possible to study the transmission and absorption of X-rays through its atmosphere. Finally, a noteworthy application of our proposal is that the same technique could be used to search for signals from extraterrestrial intelligence. If an advanced exocivilization placed a Dyson sphere or similar structure in orbit around the accretor of an XRB in order to capture energy, such an artificial structure might cause detectable transits in the X-ray light curve.

VUV-absorption cross section of CO2 at high temperatures and impact on exoplanet atmospheres

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Venot Olivia

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Ultraviolet (UV absorption cross sections are an essential ingredient of photochemical atmosphere models. Exoplanet searches have unveiled a large population of short-period objects with hot atmospheres, very different from what we find in our solar system. Transiting exoplanets whose atmospheres can now be studied by transit spectroscopy receive extremely strong UV fluxes and have typical temperatures ranging from 400 to 2500 K. At these temperatures, UV photolysis cross section data are severely lacking. Our goal is to provide high-temperature absorption cross sections and their temperature dependency for important atmospheric compounds. This study is dedicated to CO2, which is observed and photodissociated in exoplanet atmospheres. We performed these measurements for the 115 - 200 nm range at 300, 410, 480, and 550 K. In the 195 - 230 nm range, we worked at seven temperatures between 465 and 800 K. We found that the absorption cross section of CO2 is very sensitive to temperature, especially above 160 nm. Within the studied range of temperature, the CO2 cross section can vary by more than two orders of magnitude. This, in particular, makes the absorption of CO2 significant up to wavelengths as high as 230 nm, while it is negligible above 200 nm at 300 K. To investigate the influence of these new data on the photochemistry of exoplanets, we implemented the measured cross section into a 1D photochemical model. The model predicts that accounting for this temperature dependency of CO2 cross section can affect the computed abundances of NH3, CO2, and CO by one order of magnitude in the atmospheres of hot Jupiter and hot Neptune.

Exoplanets: A New Era of Comparative Planetology

Science.gov (United States)

Meadows, Victoria

2014-11-01

We now know of over 1700 planets orbiting other stars, and several thousand additional planetary candidates. These discoveries have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of planet formation and evolution, while providing targets for the search for life beyond the Solar System. Exoplanets display a larger diversity of planetary types than those seen in our Solar System - including low-density, low-mass objects. They are also found in planetary system architectures very different from our own, even for stars similar to our Sun. Over 20 potentially habitable planets are now known, and half of the M dwarfs stars in our Galaxy may harbor a habitable planet. M dwarfs are plentiful, and they are therefore the most likely habitable planet hosts, but their planets will have radiative and gravitational interactions with their star and sibling planets that are unlike those in our Solar System. Observations to characterize the atmospheres and surfaces of exoplanets are extremely challenging, and transit transmission spectroscopy has been used to measure atmospheric composition for a handful of candidates. Frustratingly, many of the smaller exoplanets have flat, featureless spectra indicative of planet-wide haze or clouds. The James Webb Space Telescope and future ground-based telescopes will improve transit transmission characterization, and enable the first search for signs of life in terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres. Beyond JWST, planned next-generation space telescopes will directly image terrestrial exoplanets, allowing surface and atmospheric characterization that is more robust to haze. Until these observations become available, there is a lot that we can do as planetary scientists to inform required measurements and future data interpretation. Solar System planets can be used as validation targets for extrasolar planet observations and models. The rich heritage of planetary science models can also be used to explore the potential diversity of exoplanet

TrES-5: A MASSIVE JUPITER-SIZED PLANET TRANSITING A COOL G DWARF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mandushev, Georgi; Dunham, Edward W.; Quinn, Samuel N.; Latham, David W.; Charbonneau, David; Buchhave, Lars A.; Rabus, Markus; Oetiker, Brian; Brown, Timothy M.; Belmonte, Juan A.; O'Donovan, Francis T.

2011-01-01

We report the discovery of TrES-5, a massive hot Jupiter that transits the star GSC 03949-00967 every 1.48 days. From spectroscopy of the star we estimate a stellar effective temperature of T eff = 5171 ± 36 K, and from high-precision B, R, and I photometry of the transit we constrain the ratio of the semimajor axis a and the stellar radius R * to be a/R * = 6.07 ± 0.14. We compare these values to model stellar isochrones to obtain a stellar mass of M * = 0.893 ± 0.024 M ☉ . Based on this estimate and the photometric time series, we constrain the stellar radius to be R * = 0.866 ± 0.013 R ☉ and the planet radius to be R p = 1.209 ± 0.021 R J . We model our radial-velocity data assuming a circular orbit and find a planetary mass of 1.778 ± 0.063 M J . Our radial-velocity observations rule out line-bisector variations that would indicate a specious detection resulting from a blend of an eclipsing binary system. TrES-5 orbits one of the faintest stars with transiting planets found to date from the ground and demonstrates that precise photometry and followup spectroscopy are possible, albeit challenging, even for such faint stars.

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Eric L.; Macintosh, Bruce; Graham, James R.; Barman, Travis S.; Doyon, Rene; Fabrycky, Daniel; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Kalas, Paul; Konopacky, Quinn M.; Marchis, Franck; Marley, Mark S.; Marois, Christian; Patience, Jenny; Perrin, Marshall D.; Oppenheimer, Rebecca; Song, Inseok; GPIES Team

2017-01-01

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) is one of the largest most sensitive direct imaging searches for exoplanets conducted to date, and having observed more than 300 stars the survey is halfway complete. We present highlights from the first half of the survey, including the discovery and characterization of the young exoplanet 51 Eri b and the brown dwarf HR 2562 B, new imaging of multiple disks, and resolving the young stellar binary V343 Nor for the first time. GPI has also provided new spectra and orbits of previous known planets and brown dwarfs and polarization measurements of a wide range of disks. Finally, we discuss the constraints placed by the first half of the GPIES campaign on the population of giant planets at orbital separations beyond that of Jupiter. Supported by NSF grants AST-0909188 and AST-1313718, AST-1411868, AST 141378, NNX11AF74G, and DGE-1232825, and by NASA grants NNX15AD95G/NEXSS and NNX11AD21G.

Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). V. A Uniform Search for Transiting Planets in Young Clusters Observed by K2

Science.gov (United States)

Rizzuto, Aaron C.; Mann, Andrew W.; Vanderburg, Andrew; Kraus, Adam L.; Covey, Kevin R.

2017-12-01

Detection of transiting exoplanets around young stars is more difficult than for older systems owing to increased stellar variability. Nine young open cluster planets have been found in the K2 data, but no single analysis pipeline identified all planets. We have developed a transit search pipeline for young stars that uses a transit-shaped notch and quadratic continuum in a 12 or 24 hr window to fit both the stellar variability and the presence of a transit. In addition, for the most rapid rotators ({P}{rot}Pleiades, Hyades, Praesepe) and conduct a uniform search of the members. We identify all known transiting exoplanets in the clusters, 17 eclipsing binaries, one transiting planet candidate orbiting a potential Pleiades member, and three orbiting unlikely members of the young clusters. Limited injection recovery testing on the known planet hosts indicates that for the older Praesepe systems we are sensitive to additional exoplanets as small as 1-2 R ⊕, and for the larger Upper Scorpius planet host (K2-33) our pipeline is sensitive to ˜4 R ⊕ transiting planets. The lack of detected multiple systems in the young clusters is consistent with the expected frequency from the original Kepler sample, within our detection limits. With a robust pipeline that detects all known planets in the young clusters, occurrence rate testing at young ages is now possible.

The Case of the Tail Wagging the Dog: HD 189733 - Evidence of Hot Jupiter Exoplanets Spinning-up Their Host Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Guinan, E. F.

2013-06-01

(Abstract only) HD 189733A is an eighth mag K1.5V star that has attracted much attention because it hosts a short period, transiting, hot-Jupiter planet. This planet, HD 189733b, has one of the shortest known orbital periods (P = 2.22 days) and is only 0.031 AU from its host star. Because the system undergoes eclipses and is bright, HD 189733 has been extensively studied. The planet's atmosphere has been found to contain water vapor, methane, CO2, and sodium and possible haze. Spitzer IR observations indicate planet temperature, varying ~970 K to ~1,200 K over its surface (Tinetti (2007). Based on measurements of the K-star's P(rot) from starspot modulations of ~11.95 d, strong coronal X-ray emission and chromospheric Ca II-HK emission indicate a young age of ~0.7 Gyr. But this apparent young age is discrepant with a much older age (> 4 Gyr) inferred from the star's very low Lithium abundance. However, the age of the HD 189733 system can be independently determined by the presence of a faint dM4 companion (HD 189733B) some 12" away. Our Age-Activity relations for this star (no detectable coronal X-ray emission and no H-alpha emission) indicate an age > 4 Gyr (and < 8 Gyr from kinematics and metallicity). This age should apply to its K star companion and its planet. The fast rotation and resultant high activity levels of the K star can best be explained from the increase in its (rotation) angular momentum (AM) from the orbital AM of the planet. This AM transfer occurs from tidal and magnetic interactions of the K star with its planet. Determining the possible decrease in the planet's orbital period is possible from studying the planet eclipse times (which can be done by AAVSO members with CCD photometry). We also discuss the properties of other related short-period exoplanet systems found by the Kepler Mission that show similar behavior - in that close-in hot Jupiter size planets appear to be physically interacting with their host stars. This work is supported by

ATMOSPHERIC HEAT REDISTRIBUTION ON HOT JUPITERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perez-Becker, Daniel; Showman, Adam P.

2013-01-01

Infrared light curves of transiting hot Jupiters present a trend in which the atmospheres of the hottest planets are less efficient at redistributing the stellar energy absorbed on their daysides—and thus have a larger day-night temperature contrast—than colder planets. To this day, no predictive atmospheric model has been published that identifies which dynamical mechanisms determine the atmospheric heat redistribution efficiency on tidally locked exoplanets. Here we present a shallow-water model of the atmospheric dynamics on synchronously rotating planets that explains why heat redistribution efficiency drops as stellar insolation rises. Our model shows that planets with weak friction and weak irradiation exhibit a banded zonal flow with minimal day-night temperature differences, while models with strong irradiation and/or strong friction exhibit a day-night flow pattern with order-unity fractional day-night temperature differences. To interpret the model, we develop a scaling theory which shows that the timescale for gravity waves to propagate horizontally over planetary scales, τ wave , plays a dominant role in controlling the transition from small to large temperature contrasts. This implies that heat redistribution is governed by a wave-like process, similar to the one responsible for the weak temperature gradients in the Earth's tropics. When atmospheric drag can be neglected, the transition from small to large day-night temperature contrasts occurs when τ wave ∼√(τ rad /Ω), where τ rad is the radiative relaxation time and Ω is the planetary rotation frequency. Alternatively, this transition criterion can be expressed as τ rad ∼ τ vert , where τ vert is the timescale for a fluid parcel to move vertically over the difference in day-night thickness. These results subsume the more widely used timescale comparison for estimating heat redistribution efficiency between τ rad and the horizontal day-night advection timescale, τ adv . Only

VLT FORS2 comparative transmission spectral survey of clear and cloudy exoplanet atmospheres

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolov, Nikolay; Sing, David; Gibson, Neale; Evans, Thomas; Barstow, Joanna Katy; Kataria, Tiffany; Wilson, Paul A.

2016-10-01

Transmission spectroscopy is a key to unlocking the secrets of close-in exoplanet atmospheres. Observations have started to unveil a vast diversity of irradiated giant planet atmospheres with clouds and hazes playing a definitive role across the entire mass and temperature regime. We have initiated a ground-based, multi-object transmission spectroscopy of a hand full of hot Jupiters, covering the wavelength range 360-850nm using the recently upgraded FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). These targets were selected for comparative follow-up as their transmission spectra showed evidence for alkali metal absorption, based on the results of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. This talk will discuss the first results from the programme, demonstrating excellent agreement between the transmission spectra measured from VLT and HST and further reinforce the findings of clear, cloudy and hazy atmospheres. More details will be discussed on the narrow alkali features obtained with FORS2 at higher resolution, revealing its high potential in securing optical transmission spectra. These FORS2 observations are the first ground-based detections of clear, cloudy and hazy hot-Jupiter atmosphere with a simultaneous detections of Na, K, and H2 Rayleigh scattering. Our program demonstrates the large potential of the instrument for optical transmission spectroscopy, capable of obtaining HST-quality light curves from the ground. Compared to HST, the larger aperture of VLT will allow for fainter targets to be observed and higher spectral resolution, which can greatly aid comparative exoplanet studies. This is important for further exploring the diversity of exoplanet atmospheres and is particularly complementary to the near- and mid-IR regime, to be covered by the upcoming James-Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and is readily applicable to less massive planets down to super-Earths.

Atmospheric Characterization of Five Hot Jupiters with the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Ranjan, Sukrit; Charbonneau, David; Desert, Jean-Michel; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Deming, Drake; Wilkins, Ashlee; Mandell, Avi M.

2014-01-01

We probe the structure and composition of the atmospheres of five hot Jupiter exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. We use the G141 grism (1.1-1.7 micrometers) to study TrES-2b, TrES-4b, and CoRoT-1b in transit; TrES-3b in secondary eclipse; and WASP-4b in both. This wavelength region includes a predicted absorption feature from water at 1.4 micrometers, which we expect to be nondegenerate with the other molecules that are likely to be abundant for hydrocarbon-poor (e.g., solar composition) hot Jupiter atmospheres. We divide our wavelength regions into 10 bins. For each bin we produce a spectrophotometric light curve spanning the time of transit or eclipse. We correct these light curves for instrumental systematics without reference to an instrument model. For our transmission spectra, our mean 1s precision per bin corresponds to variations of 2.1, 2.8, and 3.0 atmospheric scale heights for TrES-2b, TrES-4b, and CoRoT-1b, respectively. We find featureless spectra for these three planets. We are unable to extract a robust transmission spectrum for WASP-4b. For our dayside emission spectra, our mean 1 sigma precision per bin corresponds to a planet-to-star flux ratio of 1.5 x 10(exp -4) and 2.1 x 10(exp -4) for WASP-4b and TrES-3b, respectively. We combine these estimates with previous broadband measurements and conclude that for both planets isothermal atmospheres are disfavored. We find no signs of features due to water. We confirm that WFC3 is suitable for studies of transiting exoplanets, but in staring mode multivisit campaigns are necessary to place strong constraints on water abundance.

Atmospheric characterization of five hot Jupiters with the wide field Camera 3 on the Hubble space telescope

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ranjan, Sukrit; Charbonneau, David [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Désert, Jean-Michel [Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Deming, Drake; Wilkins, Ashlee [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Mandell, Avi M., E-mail: sranjan@cfa.harvard.edu [NASA' s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

2014-04-20

We probe the structure and composition of the atmospheres of five hot Jupiter exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. We use the G141 grism (1.1-1.7 μm) to study TrES-2b, TrES-4b, and CoRoT-1b in transit; TrES-3b in secondary eclipse; and WASP-4b in both. This wavelength region includes a predicted absorption feature from water at 1.4 μm, which we expect to be nondegenerate with the other molecules that are likely to be abundant for hydrocarbon-poor (e.g., solar composition) hot Jupiter atmospheres. We divide our wavelength regions into 10 bins. For each bin we produce a spectrophotometric light curve spanning the time of transit or eclipse. We correct these light curves for instrumental systematics without reference to an instrument model. For our transmission spectra, our mean 1σ precision per bin corresponds to variations of 2.1, 2.8, and 3.0 atmospheric scale heights for TrES-2b, TrES-4b, and CoRoT-1b, respectively. We find featureless spectra for these three planets. We are unable to extract a robust transmission spectrum for WASP-4b. For our dayside emission spectra, our mean 1σ precision per bin corresponds to a planet-to-star flux ratio of 1.5 × 10{sup –4} and 2.1 × 10{sup –4} for WASP-4b and TrES-3b, respectively. We combine these estimates with previous broadband measurements and conclude that for both planets isothermal atmospheres are disfavored. We find no signs of features due to water. We confirm that WFC3 is suitable for studies of transiting exoplanets, but in staring mode multivisit campaigns are necessary to place strong constraints on water abundance.

Connecting HL Tau to the observed exoplanet sample

Science.gov (United States)

Simbulan, Christopher; Tamayo, Daniel; Petrovich, Cristobal; Rein, Hanno; Murray, Norman

2017-08-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submilimeter Array (ALMA) recently revealed a set of nearly concentric gaps in the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HL Tauri (HL Tau). If these are carved by forming gas giants, this provides the first set of orbital initial conditions for planets as they emerge from their birth discs. Using N-body integrations, we have followed the evolution of the system for 5 Gyr to explore the possible outcomes. We find that HL Tau initial conditions scaled down to the size of typically observed exoplanet orbits naturally produce several populations in the observed exoplanet sample. First, for a plausible range of planetary masses, we can match the observed eccentricity distribution of dynamically excited radial velocity giant planets with eccentricities >0.2. Secondly, we roughly obtain the observed rate of hot Jupiters around FGK stars. Finally, we obtain a large efficiency of planetary ejections of ≈2 per HL Tau-like system, but the small fraction of stars observed to host giant planets makes it hard to match the rate of free-floating planets inferred from microlensing observations. In view of upcoming Gaia results, we also provide predictions for the expected mutual inclination distribution, which is significantly broader than the absolute inclination distributions typically considered by previous studies.

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Macintosh, Bruce

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a next-generation coronagraph constructed for the Gemini Observatory. GPI will see first light this fall. It will be the most advanced planet-imaging system in operation - an order of magnitude more sensitive than any current instrument, capable of detecting and spectroscopically characterizing young Jovian planets 107 times fainter than their parent star at separations of 0.2 arcseconds. GPI was built from the beginning as a facility-class survey instrument, and the observatory will employ it that way. Our team has been selected by Gemini Observatory to carry out an 890-hour program - the GPI Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) campaign from 2014-2017. We will observe 600 stars spanning spectral types A-M. We will use published young association catalogs and a proprietary list in preparation that adds several hundred new young (pc) and adolescent (pc) stars. The range of separations studied by GPI is completely inaccessible to Doppler and transit techniques (even with Kepler or TESS)— GPI offers a new window into planet formation. We will use GPI to produce the first-ever robust census of giant planet populations in the 5-50 AU range, allowing us to: 1) illuminate the formation pathways of Jovian planets; 2) reconstruct the early dynamical evolution of systems, including migration mechanisms and the interaction with disks and belts of debris; and 3) bridge the gap between Jupiter and the brown dwarfs with the first examples of cool low- gravity planetary atmospheres. Simulations predict this survey will discover approximately 50 exoplanets, increasing the number of exoplanet images by an order of magnitude, enough for statistical investigation. This Origins of Solar Systems proposal will support the execution of the GPI Exoplanet Survey campaign. We will develop tools needed to execute the survey efficiently. We will refine the existing GPI data pipeline to a final version that robustly removes residual speckle artifacts and provides

A search for radio emission from exoplanets around evolved stars

Science.gov (United States)

O'Gorman, E.; Coughlan, C. P.; Vlemmings, W.; Varenius, E.; Sirothia, S.; Ray, T. P.; Olofsson, H.

2018-04-01

The majority of searches for radio emission from exoplanets have to date focused on short period planets, i.e., the so-called hot Jupiter type planets. However, these planets are likely to be tidally locked to their host stars and may not generate sufficiently strong magnetic fields to emit electron cyclotron maser emission at the low frequencies used in observations (typically ≥150 MHz). In comparison, the large mass-loss rates of evolved stars could enable exoplanets at larger orbital distances to emit detectable radio emission. Here, we first show that the large ionized mass-loss rates of certain evolved stars relative to the solar value could make them detectable with the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) at 150 MHz (λ = 2 m), provided they have surface magnetic field strengths >50 G. We then report radio observations of three long period (>1 au) planets that orbit the evolved stars β Gem, ι Dra, and β UMi using LOFAR at 150 MHz. We do not detect radio emission from any system but place tight 3σ upper limits of 0.98, 0.87, and 0.57 mJy on the flux density at 150 MHz for β Gem, ι Dra, and β UMi, respectively. Despite our non-detections these stringent upper limits highlight the potential of LOFAR as a tool to search for exoplanetary radio emission at meter wavelengths.

The Influence of Coronal Mass Ejections on the Mass-loss Rates of Hot-Jupiters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cherenkov, A.; Bisikalo, D. [Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya St. 119017, Moscow (Russian Federation); Fossati, L.; Möstl, C., E-mail: bisikalo@inasan.ru [Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstrasse 6, A-8042 Graz (Austria)

2017-09-01

Hot-Jupiters are subject to extreme radiation and plasma flows coming from their host stars. Past ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope observations, supported by hydrodynamic models, confirmed that these factors lead to the formation of an extended envelope, part of which lies beyond the Roche lobe. We use gas-dynamic simulations to study the impact of time variations in the parameters of the stellar wind, namely that of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), on the envelope of the typical hot-Jupiter HD 209458b. We consider three CMEs characterized by different velocities and densities, taking their parameters from typical CMEs observed for the Sun. The perturbations in the ram-pressure of the stellar wind during the passage of each CME tear off most of the envelope that is located beyond the Roche lobe. This leads to a substantial increase of the mass-loss rates during the interaction with the CME. We find that the mass lost by the planet during the whole crossing of a CME is of ≈10{sup 15} g, regardless of the CME taken into consideration. We also find that over the course of 1 Gyr, the mass lost by the planet because of CME impacts is comparable to that lost because of high-energy stellar irradiation.

No large population of unbound or wide-orbit Jupiter-mass planets.

Science.gov (United States)

Mróz, Przemek; Udalski, Andrzej; Skowron, Jan; Poleski, Radosław; Kozłowski, Szymon; Szymański, Michał K; Soszyński, Igor; Wyrzykowski, Łukasz; Pietrukowicz, Paweł; Ulaczyk, Krzysztof; Skowron, Dorota; Pawlak, Michał

2017-08-10

Planet formation theories predict that some planets may be ejected from their parent systems as result of dynamical interactions and other processes. Unbound planets can also be formed through gravitational collapse, in a way similar to that in which stars form. A handful of free-floating planetary-mass objects have been discovered by infrared surveys of young stellar clusters and star-forming regions as well as wide-field surveys, but these studies are incomplete for objects below five Jupiter masses. Gravitational microlensing is the only method capable of exploring the entire population of free-floating planets down to Mars-mass objects, because the microlensing signal does not depend on the brightness of the lensing object. A characteristic timescale of microlensing events depends on the mass of the lens: the less massive the lens, the shorter the microlensing event. A previous analysis of 474 microlensing events found an excess of ten very short events (1-2 days)-more than known stellar populations would suggest-indicating the existence of a large population of unbound or wide-orbit Jupiter-mass planets (reported to be almost twice as common as main-sequence stars). These results, however, do not match predictions of planet-formation theories and surveys of young clusters. Here we analyse a sample of microlensing events six times larger than that of ref. 11 discovered during the years 2010-15. Although our survey has very high sensitivity (detection efficiency) to short-timescale (1-2 days) microlensing events, we found no excess of events with timescales in this range, with a 95 per cent upper limit on the frequency of Jupiter-mass free-floating or wide-orbit planets of 0.25 planets per main-sequence star. We detected a few possible ultrashort-timescale events (with timescales of less than half a day), which may indicate the existence of Earth-mass and super-Earth-mass free-floating planets, as predicted by planet-formation theories.

CHEOPS: A transit photometry mission for ESA's small mission programme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Queloz D.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Ground based radial velocity (RV searches continue to discover exoplanets below Neptune mass down to Earth mass. Furthermore, ground based transit searches now reach milli-mag photometric precision and can discover Neptune size planets around bright stars. These searches will find exoplanets around bright stars anywhere on the sky, their discoveries representing prime science targets for further study due to the proximity and brightness of their host stars. A mission for transit follow-up measurements of these prime targets is currently lacking. The first ESA S-class mission CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExoPlanet Satellite will fill this gap. It will perform ultra-high precision photometric monitoring of selected bright target stars almost anywhere on the sky with sufficient precision to detect Earth sized transits. It will be able to detect transits of RV-planets by photometric monitoring if the geometric configuration results in a transit. For Hot Neptunes discovered from the ground, CHEOPS will be able to improve the transit light curve so that the radius can be determined precisely. Because of the host stars' brightness, high precision RV measurements will be possible for all targets. All planets observed in transit by CHEOPS will be validated and their masses will be known. This will provide valuable data for constraining the mass-radius relation of exoplanets, especially in the Neptune-mass regime. During the planned 3.5 year mission, about 500 targets will be observed. There will be 20% of open time available for the community to develop new science programmes.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF HOT JUPITERS ON HIGHLY ECCENTRIC ORBITS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kataria, T.; Showman, A. P.; Lewis, N. K.; Fortney, J. J.; Marley, M. S.; Freedman, R. S.

2013-01-01

Of the over 800 exoplanets detected to date, over half are on non-circular orbits, with eccentricities as high as 0.93. Such orbits lead to time-variable stellar heating, which has major implications for the planet's atmospheric dynamical regime. However, little is known about the fundamental dynamical regime of such planetary atmospheres, and how it may influence the observations of these planets. Therefore, we present a systematic study of hot Jupiters on highly eccentric orbits using the SPARC/MITgcm, a model which couples a three-dimensional general circulation model (the MITgcm) with a plane-parallel, two-stream, non-gray radiative transfer model. In our study, we vary the eccentricity and orbit-average stellar flux over a wide range. We demonstrate that the eccentric hot Jupiter regime is qualitatively similar to that of planets on circular orbits; the planets possess a superrotating equatorial jet and exhibit large day-night temperature variations. As in Showman and Polvani, we show that the day-night heating variations induce momentum fluxes equatorward to maintain the superrotating jet throughout its orbit. We find that as the eccentricity and/or stellar flux is increased (corresponding to shorter orbital periods), the superrotating jet strengthens and narrows, due to a smaller Rossby deformation radius. For a select number of model integrations, we generate full-orbit light curves and find that the timing of transit and secondary eclipse viewed from Earth with respect to periapse and apoapse can greatly affect what we see in infrared (IR) light curves; the peak in IR flux can lead or lag secondary eclipse depending on the geometry. For those planets that have large temperature differences from dayside to nightside and rapid rotation rates, we find that the light curves can exhibit 'ringing' as the planet's hottest region rotates in and out of view from Earth. These results can be used to explain future observations of eccentric transiting exoplanets.

Kepler-423b: a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting a very old solar-like star

Science.gov (United States)

Gandolfi, D.; Parviainen, H.; Deeg, H. J.; Lanza, A. F.; Fridlund, M.; Prada Moroni, P. G.; Alonso, R.; Augusteijn, T.; Cabrera, J.; Evans, T.; Geier, S.; Hatzes, A. P.; Holczer, T.; Hoyer, S.; Kangas, T.; Mazeh, T.; Pagano, I.; Tal-Or, L.; Tingley, B.

2015-04-01

We report the spectroscopic confirmation of the Kepler object of interest KOI-183.01 (Kepler-423b), a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting an old solar-like star every 2.7 days. Our analysis is the first to combine the full Kepler photometry (quarters 1-17) with high-precision radial velocity measurements taken with the FIES spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope. We simultaneously modelled the photometric and spectroscopic data-sets using Bayesian approach coupled with Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. We found that the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curve of Kepler-423 exhibits quarter-to-quarter systematic variations of the transit depth, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of ~4.3% and seasonal trends reoccurring every four quarters. We attributed these systematics to an incorrect assessment of the quarterly variation of the crowding metric. The host star Kepler-423 is a G4 dwarf with M⋆ = 0.85 ± 0.04 M⊙, R⋆ = 0.95 ± 0.04 R⊙, Teff= 5560 ± 80 K, [M/H] = - 0.10 ± 0.05 dex, and with an age of 11 ± 2 Gyr. The planet Kepler-423b has a mass of Mp= 0.595 ± 0.081MJup and a radius of Rp= 1.192 ± 0.052RJup, yielding a planetary bulk density of ρp = 0.459 ± 0.083 g cm-3. The radius of Kepler-423b is consistent with both theoretical models for irradiated coreless giant planets and expectations based on empirical laws. The inclination of the stellar spin axis suggests that the system is aligned along the line of sight. We detected a tentative secondary eclipse of the planet at a 2σ confidence level (ΔFec = 14.2 ± 6.6 ppm) and found that the orbit might have asmall non-zero eccentricity of 0.019+0.028-0.014. With a Bond albedo of AB = 0.037 ± 0.019, Kepler-423b is one of the gas-giant planets with the lowest albedo known so far. Based on observations obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of

Colors of Alien Worlds from Direct Imaging Exoplanet Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Renyu

2016-01-01

Future direct-imaging exoplanet missions such as WFIRST will measure the reflectivity of exoplanets at visible wavelengths. Most of the exoplanets to be observed will be located further away from their parent stars than is Earth from the Sun. These "cold" exoplanets have atmospheric environments conducive for the formation of water and/or ammonia clouds, like Jupiter in the Solar System. I find the mixing ratio of methane and the pressure level of the uppermost cloud deck on these planets can be uniquely determined from their reflection spectra, with moderate spectral resolution, if the cloud deck is between 0.6 and 1.5 bars. The existence of this unique solution is useful for exoplanet direct imaging missions for several reasons. First, the weak bands and strong bands of methane enable the measurement of the methane mixing ratio and the cloud pressure, although an overlying haze layer can bias the estimate of the latter. Second, the cloud pressure, once derived, yields an important constraint on the internal heat flux from the planet, and thus indicating its thermal evolution. Third, water worlds having H2O-dominated atmospheres are likely to have water clouds located higher than the 10-3 bar pressure level, and muted spectral absorption features. These planets would occupy a confined phase space in the color-color diagrams, likely distinguishable from H2-rich giant exoplanets by broadband observations. Therefore, direct-imaging exoplanet missions may offer the capability to broadly distinguish H2-rich giant exoplanets versus H2O-rich super-Earth exoplanets, and to detect ammonia and/or water clouds and methane gas in their atmospheres.

HATS-36b and 24 Other Transiting/Eclipsing Systems from the HATSouth-K2 Campaign 7 Program

Science.gov (United States)

Bayliss, D.; Hartman, J. D.; Zhou, G.; Bakos, G. Á.; Vanderburg, A.; Bento, J.; Mancini, L.; Ciceri, S.; Brahm, R.; Jordán, A.; Espinoza, N.; Rabus, M.; Tan, T. G.; Penev, K.; Bhatti, W.; de Val-Borro, M.; Suc, V.; Csubry, Z.; Henning, Th.; Sarkis, P.; Lázár, J.; Papp, I.; Sári, P.

2018-03-01

We report on the result of a campaign to monitor 25 HATSouth candidates using the Kepler space telescope during Campaign 7 of the K2 mission. We discover HATS-36b (EPIC 215969174b, K2-145b), an eccentric (e=0.105+/- 0.028) hot Jupiter with a mass of 3.216+/- 0.062 {M}{{J}} and a radius of 1.235+/- 0.043 {R}{{J}}, which transits a solar-type G0V star (V = 14.386) in a 4.1752-day period. We also refine the properties of three previously discovered HATSouth transiting planets (HATS-9b, HATS-11b, and HATS-12b) and search the K2 data for TTVs and additional transiting planets in these systems. In addition, we also report on a further three systems that remain as Jupiter-radius transiting exoplanet candidates. These candidates do not have determined masses, however pass all of our other vetting observations. Finally, we report on the 18 candidates that we are now able to classify as eclipsing binary or blended eclipsing binary systems based on a combination of the HATSouth data, the K2 data, and follow-up ground-based photometry and spectroscopy. These range in periods from 0.7 day to 16.7 days, and down to 1.5 mmag in eclipse depths. Our results show the power of combining ground-based imaging and spectroscopy with higher precision space-based photometry, and serve as an illustration as to what will be possible when combining ground-based observations with TESS data.

The Automation and Exoplanet Orbital Characterization from the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Jinfei Wang, Jason; Graham, James; Perrin, Marshall; Pueyo, Laurent; Savransky, Dmitry; Kalas, Paul; arriaga, Pauline; Chilcote, Jeffrey K.; De Rosa, Robert J.; Ruffio, Jean-Baptiste; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey Collaboration

2018-01-01

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) is a multi-year 600-star survey to discover and characterize young Jovian exoplanets and their planet forming environments. For large surveys like GPIES, it is critical to have a uniform dataset processed with the latest techniques and calibrations. I will describe the GPI Data Cruncher, an automated data processing framework that is able to generate fully reduced data minutes after the data are taken and can also reprocess the entire campaign in a single day on a supercomputer. The Data Cruncher integrates into a larger automated data processing infrastructure which syncs, logs, and displays the data. I will discuss the benefits of the GPIES data infrastructure, including optimizing observing strategies, finding planets, characterizing instrument performance, and constraining giant planet occurrence. I will also discuss my work in characterizing the exoplanets we have imaged in GPIES through monitoring their orbits. Using advanced data processing algorithms and GPI's precise astrometric calibration, I will show that GPI can achieve one milliarcsecond astrometry on the extensively-studied planet Beta Pic b. With GPI, we can confidently rule out a possible transit of Beta Pic b, but have precise timings on a Hill sphere transit, and I will discuss efforts to search for transiting circumplanetary material this year. I will also discuss the orbital monitoring of other exoplanets as part of GPIES.

Toward the detection of exoplanet transits with polarimetry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiktorowicz, Sloane J. [NASA Sagan Fellow. (United States); Laughlin, Gregory P., E-mail: sloanew@ucolick.org [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)

2014-11-01

In contrast to photometric transits, whose peak signal occurs at mid-transit due to occultation of the brightest region of the disk, polarimetric transits provide a signal upon ingress and egress due to occultation of the polarized stellar limb. Limb polarization, the bright corollary to limb darkening, arises from the 90° scattering angle and low optical depth experienced by photons at the limb. In addition to the ratio R {sub p}/R {sub *}, the amplitude of a polarimetric transit is expected to be controlled by the strength and width of the stellar limb polarization profile, which depend on the scattering-to-total opacity ratio at the stellar limb. We present a short list of the systems providing the highest expected signal-to-noise ratio for detection of this effect, and we draw particular attention to HD 80606b. This planet is spin/orbit misaligned, has a three-hour ingress, and has a bright parent star, which make it an attractive target. We report on test observations of an HD 80606b ingress with the POLISH2 polarimeter at the Lick Observatory Shane 3 m telescope. We conclude that unmodeled telescope systematic effects prevented polarimetric detection of this event. We outline a roadmap for further refinements of exoplanet polarimetry, whose eventual success will require a further factor of ten reduction in systematic noise.

Synthesizing exoplanet demographics from radial velocity and microlensing surveys. I. Methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clanton, Christian; Gaudi, B. Scott

2014-01-01

Motivated by the order of magnitude difference in the frequency of giant planets orbiting M dwarfs inferred by microlensing and radial velocity (RV) surveys, we present a method for comparing the statistical constraints on exoplanet demographics inferred from these methods. We first derive the mapping from the observable parameters of a microlensing-detected planet to those of an analogous planet orbiting an RV-monitored star. Using this mapping, we predict the distribution of RV observables for the planet population inferred from microlensing surveys, taking care to adopt reasonable priors for, and properly marginalize over, the unknown physical parameters of microlensing-detected systems. Finally, we use simple estimates of the detection limits for a fiducial RV survey to predict the number and properties of analogs of the microlensing planet population such an RV survey should detect. We find that RV and microlensing surveys have some overlap, specifically for super-Jupiter mass planets (m p ≳ 1 M Jup ) with periods between ∼3-10 yr. However, the steeply falling planetary mass function inferred from microlensing implies that, in this region of overlap, RV surveys should infer a much smaller frequency than the overall giant planet frequency (m p ≳ 0.1 M Jup ) inferred by microlensing. Our analysis demonstrates that it is possible to statistically compare and synthesize data sets from multiple exoplanet detection techniques in order to infer exoplanet demographics over wider regions of parameter space than are accessible to individual methods. In a companion paper, we apply our methodology to several representative microlensing and RV surveys to derive the frequency of planets around M dwarfs with orbits of ≲ 30 yr.

HAT-P-26b: A Neptune-mass exoplanet with a well-constrained heavy element abundance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wakeford, Hannah R; Sing, David K; Kataria, Tiffany; Deming, Drake; Nikolov, Nikolay; Lopez, Eric D; Tremblin, Pascal; Amundsen, David S; Lewis, Nikole K; Mandell, Avi M; Fortney, Jonathan J; Knutson, Heather; Benneke, Björn; Evans, Thomas M

2017-05-12

A correlation between giant-planet mass and atmospheric heavy elemental abundance was first noted in the past century from observations of planets in our own Solar System and has served as a cornerstone of planet-formation theory. Using data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes from 0.5 to 5 micrometers, we conducted a detailed atmospheric study of the transiting Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-26b. We detected prominent H 2 O absorption bands with a maximum base-to-peak amplitude of 525 parts per million in the transmission spectrum. Using the water abundance as a proxy for metallicity, we measured HAT-P-26b's atmospheric heavy element content ([Formula: see text] times solar). This likely indicates that HAT-P-26b's atmosphere is primordial and obtained its gaseous envelope late in its disk lifetime, with little contamination from metal-rich planetesimals. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

TIDALLY DRIVEN ROCHE-LOBE OVERFLOW OF HOT JUPITERS WITH MESA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Valsecchi, Francesca; Rasio, Frederic A. [Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), and Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Rappaport, Saul [Department of Physics, and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Marchant, Pablo [Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hgel 71, D-53121 Bonn (Germany); Rogers, Leslie A., E-mail: francesca@u.northwestern.edu, E-mail: rasio@northwestern.edu, E-mail: sar@mit.edu, E-mail: pablo@astro.uni-bonn.de, E-mail: larogers@caltech.edu [Department of Astronomy and Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2015-11-10

Many exoplanets have now been detected in orbits with ultra-short periods very close to the Roche limit. Building upon our previous work, we study the possibility that mass loss through Roche lobe overflow (RLO) may affect the evolution of these planets, and could possibly transform a hot Jupiter into a lower-mass planet (hot Neptune or super-Earth). We focus here on systems in which the mass loss occurs slowly (“stable mass transfer” in the language of binary star evolution) and we compute their evolution in detail with the binary evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics. We include the effects of tides, RLO, irradiation, and photo-evaporation (PE) of the planet, as well as the stellar wind and magnetic braking. Our calculations all start with a hot Jupiter close to its Roche limit, in orbit around a Sun-like star. The initial orbital decay and onset of RLO are driven by tidal dissipation in the star. We confirm that such a system can indeed evolve to produce lower-mass planets in orbits of a few days. The RLO phase eventually ends and, depending on the details of the mass transfer and on the planetary core mass, the orbital period can remain around a few days for several Gyr. The remnant planets have rocky cores and some amount of envelope material, which is slowly removed via PE at a nearly constant orbital period; these have properties resembling many of the observed super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. For these remnant planets, we also predict an anti-correlation between mass and orbital period; very low-mass planets (M{sub pl} ≲ 5 M{sub ⊕}) in ultra-short periods (P{sub orb} < 1 day) cannot be produced through this type of evolution.

Characterization of extra-solar planets and their atmospheres (Spectroscopy of transits and atmospheric escape)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bourrier, Vincent

2014-01-01

Hot Jupiters are exo-planets so close to their star that their atmosphere can lose gas because of hydrodynamic escape. Transiting gaseous giants are an excellent way to understand this mechanism, but it is necessary to study other types of planets to determine its impact on the exo-planetary population. This thesis aims at using transit spectroscopy to observe the atmosphere of several exo-planets, to study their properties and to contribute to the characterization of hydrodynamic escape. UV lines observed with the Hubble telescope are analyzed with the numerical model of upper atmospheres we developed. Using the Ly-α line we identify energetic and dynamical interactions between the atmospheres of the hot Jupiters HD209458b and HD189733b and their stars. We study the dependence of the escape on the environment of a planet and on its physical properties, through the observation of a super-Earth and a warm Jupiter in the 55 Cnc system. Using observations of HD209458b, we show that magnesium lines are a window on the region of formation of hydrodynamic escape. We study the potential of transit spectroscopy in the near-UV to detect new cases of atmospheric escape. This mechanism is fostered by the proximity of a planet to its star, which makes it even more important to understand the formation and migration processes that can be traced in the alignment of a planetary system. Using measures from the spectrographs HARPS-N and SOPHIE we study the alignments of 55 Cnc e and the Kepler candidate KOI 12.01, whose planetary nature we also seek to validate. (author)

Results and lessons from the GMOS survey of transiting exoplanet atmospheres

Science.gov (United States)

Todorov, Kamen; Desert, Jean-Michel; Huitson, Catherine; Bean, Jacob; Fortney, Jonathan; Bergmann, Marcel; Stevenson, Kevin

2018-01-01

We present results from the first comprehensive survey program dedicated to probing transiting exoplanet atmospheres using transmission spectroscopy with a multi-object spectrograph (MOS). Our four-years survey focussed on ten close-in giant planets for which the wavelength dependent transit depths in the visible were measured with Gemini/GMOS. We present the complete analysis of all the targets observed (50 transits, 300 hours), and the challenges to overcome to achieve the best spectrophotometric precision (200-500 ppm / 10 nm). We also present the main results and conclusions from this survey. We show that the precision achieved by this survey permits to distinguish hazy atmospheres from cloud-free ones. We discuss the challenges faced by such an experiment, and the lessons learnt for future MOS survey. We lay out the challenges facing future ground based MOS transit surveys aiming for the atmospheric characterization of habitable worlds, and utilizing the next generation of multi-object spectrographs mounted on extremely large ground based telescopes (ELT, TMT).

Hierarchical Bayesian calibration of tidal orbit decay rates among hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Collier Cameron, Andrew; Jardine, Moira

2018-05-01

Transiting hot Jupiters occupy a wedge-shaped region in the mass ratio-orbital separation diagram. Its upper boundary is eroded by tidal spiral-in of massive, close-in planets and is sensitive to the stellar tidal dissipation parameter Q_s^'. We develop a simple generative model of the orbital separation distribution of the known population of transiting hot Jupiters, subject to tidal orbital decay, XUV-driven evaporation and observational selection bias. From the joint likelihood of the observed orbital separations of hot Jupiters discovered in ground-based wide-field transit surveys, measured with respect to the hyperparameters of the underlying population model, we recover narrow posterior probability distributions for Q_s^' in two different tidal forcing frequency regimes. We validate the method using mock samples of transiting planets with known tidal parameters. We find that Q_s^' and its temperature dependence are retrieved reliably over five orders of magnitude in Q_s^'. A large sample of hot Jupiters from small-aperture ground-based surveys yields log _{10} Q_s^' }=(8.26± 0.14) for 223 systems in the equilibrium-tide regime. We detect no significant dependence of Q_s^' on stellar effective temperature. A further 19 systems in the dynamical-tide regime yield log _{10} Q_s^' }=7.3± 0.4, indicating stronger coupling. Detection probabilities for transiting planets at a given orbital separation scale inversely with the increase in their tidal migration rates since birth. The resulting bias towards younger systems explains why the surface gravities of hot Jupiters correlate with their host stars' chromospheric emission fluxes. We predict departures from a linear transit-timing ephemeris of less than 4 s for WASP-18 over a 20-yr baseline.

THE PHOTOECCENTRIC EFFECT AND PROTO-HOT JUPITERS. II. KOI-1474.01, A CANDIDATE ECCENTRIC PLANET PERTURBED BY AN UNSEEN COMPANION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dawson, Rebekah I.; Murray-Clay, Ruth A. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St, MS-10, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Johnson, John Asher; Morton, Timothy D. [Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Crepp, Justin R. [Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064 (United States); Howard, Andrew W., E-mail: rdawson@cfa.harvard.edu [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822-1839 (United States)

2012-12-20

The exoplanets known as hot Jupiters-Jupiter-sized planets with periods of less than 10 days-likely are relics of dynamical processes that shape all planetary system architectures. Socrates et al. argued that high eccentricity migration (HEM) mechanisms proposed for situating these close-in planets should produce an observable population of highly eccentric proto-hot Jupiters that have not yet tidally circularized. HEM should also create failed-hot Jupiters, with periapses just beyond the influence of fast circularization. Using the technique we previously presented for measuring eccentricities from photometry (the ''photoeccentric effect''), we are distilling a collection of eccentric proto- and failed-hot Jupiters from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI). Here, we present the first, KOI-1474.01, which has a long orbital period (69.7340 days) and a large eccentricity e 0.81{sup +0.10}{sub -0.07}, skirting the proto-hot Jupiter boundary. Combining Kepler photometry, ground-based spectroscopy, and stellar evolution models, we characterize host KOI-1474 as a rapidly rotating F star. Statistical arguments reveal that the transiting candidate has a low false-positive probability of 3.1%. KOI-1474.01 also exhibits transit-timing variations of the order of an hour. We explore characteristics of the third-body perturber, which is possibly the ''smoking-gun'' cause of KOI-1474.01's large eccentricity. We use the host star's period, radius, and projected rotational velocity to measure the inclination of the stellar spin. Comparing KOI 1474.01's inclination, we find that its orbit is marginally consistent with being aligned with the stellar spin axis, although a reanalysis is warranted with future additional data. Finally, we discuss how the number and existence of proto-hot Jupiters will not only demonstrate that hot Jupiters migrate via HEM, but also shed light on the typical timescale for the mechanism.

Leveraging Ensemble Dynamical Properties to Prioritize Exoplanet Follow-Up Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Ballard, Sarah

2017-01-01

The number of transiting exoplanets now exceeds several thousand, enabling ensemble studies of the dynamical properties of exoplanetary systems. We require a mixture model of dynamical conditions (whether frozen in from formation or sculpted by planet-planet interactions) to recover Kepler's yield of transiting planets. Around M dwarfs, which will be predominate sites of exoplanet follow-up atmospheric study in the next decade, even a modest orbital eccentricity can sterilize a planet. I will describe efforts to link cheap observables, such as number of transiting planets and presence of transit timing variations, to eccentricity and mutual inclination in exoplanet systems. The addition of a second transiting planet, for example, halves the expected orbital eccentricity. For the vast majority of TESS targets, the light curve alone will furnish the sum total of data about the exoplanet. Extracting information about orbital properties from these light curves will help prioritize precious follow-up resources.

The effects of refraction on transit transmission spectroscopy: application to Earth-like exoplanets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Misra, Amit; Meadows, Victoria [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Crisp, Dave, E-mail: amit0@astro.washington.edu [NAI Virtual Planetary Laboratory, Seattle, WA (United States)

2014-09-01

We quantify the effects of refraction in transit transmission spectroscopy on spectral absorption features and on temporal variations that could be used to obtain altitude-dependent spectra for planets orbiting stars of different stellar types. We validate our model against altitude-dependent transmission spectra of the Earth from ATMOS and against lunar eclipse spectra from Pallé et al. We perform detectability studies to show the potential effects of refraction on hypothetical observations of Earth analogs with the James Webb Space Telescope NIRSPEC. Due to refraction, there will be a maximum tangent pressure level that can be probed during transit for each given planet-star system. We show that because of refraction, for an Earth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star only the top 0.3 bars of the atmosphere can be probed, leading to a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of absorption features by 60%, while for an Earth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of an M5V star it is possible to probe almost the entire atmosphere with minimal decreases in S/N. We also show that refraction can result in temporal variations in the transit transmission spectrum which may provide a way to obtain altitude-dependent spectra of exoplanet atmospheres. Additionally, the variations prior to ingress and subsequent to egress provide a way to probe pressures greater than the maximum tangent pressure that can be probed during transit. Therefore, probing the maximum range of atmospheric altitudes, and in particular the near-surface environment of an Earth-analog exoplanet, will require looking at out-of-transit refracted light in addition to the in-transit spectrum.

The effects of refraction on transit transmission spectroscopy: application to Earth-like exoplanets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Misra, Amit; Meadows, Victoria; Crisp, Dave

2014-01-01

We quantify the effects of refraction in transit transmission spectroscopy on spectral absorption features and on temporal variations that could be used to obtain altitude-dependent spectra for planets orbiting stars of different stellar types. We validate our model against altitude-dependent transmission spectra of the Earth from ATMOS and against lunar eclipse spectra from Pallé et al. We perform detectability studies to show the potential effects of refraction on hypothetical observations of Earth analogs with the James Webb Space Telescope NIRSPEC. Due to refraction, there will be a maximum tangent pressure level that can be probed during transit for each given planet-star system. We show that because of refraction, for an Earth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star only the top 0.3 bars of the atmosphere can be probed, leading to a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of absorption features by 60%, while for an Earth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of an M5V star it is possible to probe almost the entire atmosphere with minimal decreases in S/N. We also show that refraction can result in temporal variations in the transit transmission spectrum which may provide a way to obtain altitude-dependent spectra of exoplanet atmospheres. Additionally, the variations prior to ingress and subsequent to egress provide a way to probe pressures greater than the maximum tangent pressure that can be probed during transit. Therefore, probing the maximum range of atmospheric altitudes, and in particular the near-surface environment of an Earth-analog exoplanet, will require looking at out-of-transit refracted light in addition to the in-transit spectrum.

Searching for exoplanets using artificial intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Kyle A.; Palafox, Leon; Griffith, Caitlin A.

2018-02-01

In the last decade, over a million stars were monitored to detect transiting planets. Manual interpretation of potential exoplanet candidates is labor intensive and subject to human error, the results of which are difficult to quantify. Here we present a new method of detecting exoplanet candidates in large planetary search projects which, unlike current methods uses a neural network. Neural networks, also called "deep learning" or "deep nets" are designed to give a computer perception into a specific problem by training it to recognize patterns. Unlike past transit detection algorithms deep nets learn to recognize planet features instead of relying on hand-coded metrics that humans perceive as the most representative. Our convolutional neural network is capable of detecting Earth-like exoplanets in noisy time-series data with a greater accuracy than a least-squares method. Deep nets are highly generalizable allowing data to be evaluated from different time series after interpolation without compromising performance. As validated by our deep net analysis of Kepler light curves, we detect periodic transits consistent with the true period without any model fitting. Our study indicates that machine learning will facilitate the characterization of exoplanets in future analysis of large astronomy data sets.

Emergent Exoplanet Flux: Review of the Spitzer Results

OpenAIRE

Deming, Drake

2008-01-01

Observations using the Spitzer Space Telescope provided the first detections of photons from extrasolar planets. Spitzer observations are allowing us to infer the temperature structure, composition, and dynamics of exoplanet atmospheres. The Spitzer studies extend from many hot Jupiters, to the hot Neptune orbiting GJ436. Here I review the current status of Spitzer secondary eclipse observations, and summarize the results from the viewpoint of what is robust, what needs more work, and what th...

The EBLM Project. IV. Spectroscopic orbits of over 100 eclipsing M dwarfs masquerading as transiting hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.; Martin, David V.; Ségransan, Damien; Smalley, Barry; Maxted, Pierre F. L.; Anderson, David R.; Bouchy, François; Collier Cameron, Andrew; Faedi, Francesca; Gómez Maqueo Chew, Yilen; Hebb, Leslie; Hellier, Coel; Marmier, Maxime; Pepe, Francesco; Pollacco, Don; Queloz, Didier; Udry, Stéphane; West, Richard

2017-12-01

We present 2271 radial velocity measurements taken on 118 single-line binary stars, taken over eight years with the CORALIE spectrograph. The binaries consist of F/G/K primaries and M dwarf secondaries. They were initially discovered photometrically by the WASP planet survey, as their shallow eclipses mimic a hot Jupiter transit. The observations we present permit a precise characterisation of the binary orbital elements and mass function. With modelling of the primary star, this mass function is converted to a mass of the secondary star. In the future, this spectroscopic work will be combined with precise photometric eclipses to draw an empirical mass/radius relation for the bottom of the mass sequence. This has applications in both stellar astrophysics and the growing number of exoplanet surveys around M dwarfs. In particular, we have discovered 34 systems with a secondary mass below 0.2 M⊙, and so we will ultimately double the number of known very low-mass stars with well-characterised masses and radii. The quality of our data combined with the amplitude of the Doppler variations mean that we are able to detect eccentricities as small as 0.001 and orbital periods to sub-second precision. Our sample can revisit some earlier work on the tidal evolution of close binaries, extending it to low mass ratios. We find some exceptional binary systems that are eccentric at orbital periods below three days, while our longest circular orbit has a period of 10.4 days. Amongst our systems, we note one remarkable architecture in J1146-42 that boasts three stars within one astronomical unit. By collating the EBLM binaries with published WASP planets and brown dwarfs, we derive a mass spectrum with twice the resolution of previous work. We compare the WASP/EBLM sample of tightly bound orbits with work in the literature on more distant companions up to 10 AU. We note that the brown dwarf desert appears wider, as it carves into the planetary domain for our short-period orbits

THE TRANSIT TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM OF A COLD GAS GIANT PLANET

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dalba, Paul A.; Muirhead, Philip S.; Veyette, Mark J. [Department of Astronomy, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Hedman, Matthew M. [Department of Physics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843 (United States); Nicholson, Philip D., E-mail: pdalba@bu.edu [Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)

2015-12-01

We use solar occultations observed by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer on board the Cassini Spacecraft to extract the 1–5 μm transmission spectrum of Saturn, as if it were a transiting exoplanet. We detect absorption from methane, ethane, acetylene, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and possibly carbon monoxide, with peak-to-peak features of up to 90 parts-per-million despite the presence of ammonia clouds. We also find that atmospheric refraction, as opposed to clouds or haze, determines the minimum altitude that could be probed during mid-transit. Self-consistent exoplanet atmosphere models show good agreement with Saturn’s transmission spectrum but fail to reproduce a large absorption feature near 3.4 μm, likely caused by gaseous ethane and a C–H stretching mode of an unknown aliphatic hydrocarbon. This large feature is located in one of the Spitzer Space Telescope bandpasses and could alter interpretations of transmission spectra if not properly modeled. The large signal in Saturn’s transmission spectrum suggests that transmission spectroscopy of cold, long-period gaseous exoplanets should be possible with current and future observatories. Motivated by these results, we briefly consider the feasibility of  using a survey to search for and characterize cold exoplanets that are analogous to Jupiter and Saturn utilizing a target-of-opportunity approach.

HOT STARS WITH HOT JUPITERS HAVE HIGH OBLIQUITIES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winn, Joshua N.; Albrecht, Simon; Fabrycky, Daniel; Johnson, John Asher

2010-01-01

We show that stars with transiting planets for which the stellar obliquity is large are preferentially hot (T eff > 6250 K). This could explain why small obliquities were observed in the earliest measurements, which focused on relatively cool stars drawn from Doppler surveys, as opposed to hotter stars that emerged more recently from transit surveys. The observed trend could be due to differences in planet formation and migration around stars of varying mass. Alternatively, we speculate that hot-Jupiter systems begin with a wide range of obliquities, but the photospheres of cool stars realign with the orbits due to tidal dissipation in their convective zones, while hot stars cannot realign because of their thinner convective zones. This in turn would suggest that hot Jupiters originate from few-body gravitational dynamics and that disk migration plays at most a supporting role.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE WASP-2 SYSTEM BY THE APOSTLE PROGRAM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Becker, Andrew C.; Kundurthy, Praveen; Agol, Eric; Barnes, Rory; Williams, Benjamin F.; Rose, Amy E. [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

2013-02-10

We present transit observations of the WASP-2 exoplanet system by the Apache Point Survey of Transit Lightcurves of Exoplanets (APOSTLE) program. Model fitting to these data allows us to improve measurements of the hot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-2b and its orbital parameters by a factor of {approx}2 over prior studies; we do not find evidence for transit depth variations. We do find reduced {chi}{sup 2} values greater than 1.0 in the observed minus computed transit times. A sinusoidal fit to the residuals yields a timing semi-amplitude of 32 s and a period of 389 days. However, random rearrangements of the data provide similar quality fits, and we cannot with certainty ascribe the timing variations to mutual exoplanet interactions. This inconclusive result is consistent with the lack of incontrovertible transit timing variations (TTVs) observed in other hot-Jupiter systems. This outcome emphasizes that unique recognition of TTVs requires dense sampling of the libration cycle (e.g., continuous observations from space-based platforms). However, even in systems observed with the Kepler spacecraft, there is a noted lack of transiting companions and TTVs in hot-Jupiter systems. This result is more meaningful, and indicates that hot-Jupiter systems, while they are easily observable from the ground, do not appear to be currently configured in a manner favorable to the detection of TTVs. The future of ground-based TTV studies may reside in resolving secular trends, and/or implementation at extreme quality observing sites to minimize atmospheric red noise.

Jupiter's evolution with primordial composition gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Vazan, Allona; Helled, Ravit; Guillot, Tristan

2018-02-01

Recent formation and structure models of Jupiter suggest that the planet can have composition gradients and not be fully convective (adiabatic). This possibility directly affects our understanding of Jupiter's bulk composition and origin. In this Letter we present Jupiter's evolution with a primordial structure consisting of a relatively steep heavy-element gradient of 40 M⊕. We show that for a primordial structure with composition gradients, most of the mixing occurs in the outer part of the gradient during the early evolution (several 107 yr), leading to an adiabatic outer envelope (60% of Jupiter's mass). We find that the composition gradient in the deep interior persists, suggesting that 40% of Jupiter's mass can be non-adiabatic with a higher temperature than the one derived from Jupiter's atmospheric properties. The region that can potentially develop layered convection in Jupiter today is estimated to be limited to 10% of the mass. Movies associated to Figs. 1-3 are available at http://https://www.aanda.org

THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF THE HOT JUPITER WASP-43b: COMPARING THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS TO SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DATA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kataria, Tiffany; Showman, Adam P. [Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J.; Line, Michael R. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Stevenson, Kevin B.; Kreidberg, Laura; Bean, Jacob L. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Désert, Jean-Michel, E-mail: tkataria@astro.ex.ac.uk [CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)

2015-03-10

The hot Jupiter WASP-43b (2 M{sub J}, 1 R{sub J}, T {sub orb} = 19.5 hr) has now joined the ranks of transiting hot Jupiters HD 189733b and HD 209458b as an exoplanet with a large array of observational constraints. Because WASP-43b receives a similar stellar flux as HD 209458b but has a rotation rate four times faster and a higher gravity, studying WASP-43b probes the effect of rotation rate and gravity on the circulation when stellar irradiation is held approximately constant. Here we present three-dimensional (3D) atmospheric circulation models of WASP-43b, exploring the effects of composition, metallicity, and frictional drag. We find that the circulation regime of WASP-43b is not unlike other hot Jupiters, with equatorial superrotation that yields an eastward-shifted hotspot and large day-night temperature variations (∼600 K at photospheric pressures). We then compare our model results to Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/WFC3 spectrophotometric phase curve measurements of WASP-43b from 1.12 to 1.65 μm. Our results show the 5× solar model light curve provides a good match to the data, with a peak flux phase offset and planet/star flux ratio that is similar to observations; however, the model nightside appears to be brighter. Nevertheless, our 5× solar model provides an excellent match to the WFC3 dayside emission spectrum. This is a major success, as the result is a natural outcome of the 3D dynamics with no model tuning. These results demonstrate that 3D circulation models can help interpret exoplanet atmospheric observations, even at high resolution, and highlight the potential for future observations with HST, James Webb Space Telescope, and other next-generation telescopes.

A Low Mass for Mars from Jupiter's Early Gas-Driven Migration

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Kevin J.; Morbidelli, Alessandro; Raymond, Sean N.; O'Brien, David P.; Mandell, Avi M.

2011-01-01

Jupiter and Saturn formed in a few million years from a gas-dominated protoplanetary disk, and were susceptible to gas-driven migration of their orbits on timescales of only approximately 100,000 years. Hydrodynamic simulations show that these giant planets can undergo a two-stage, inward-then-outward, migration. The terrestrial planets finished accreting much later and their characteristics, including Mars' small mass, are best reproduced by starting from a planetesimal disk with an outer edge at about one astronomical unit from the Sun (1 AU is the Earth-Sun distance). Here we report simulations of the early Solar System that show how the inward migration of Jupiter to 1.5 AU, and its subsequent outward migration, lead to a planetesimal disk truncated at 1 AU; the terrestrial planets then form from this disk over the next 30-50 million years, with an Earth/Mars mass ratio consistent with observations. Scattering by Jupiter initially empties but then repopulates the asteroid belt, with inner-belt bodies originating between 1 and 3 AU and outer-belt bodies originating between and beyond the giant planets. This explains the significant compositional differences across the asteroid belt. The key aspect missing from previous models of terrestrial planet formation is the substantial radial migration of the giant planets, which suggests that their behaviour is more similar to that inferred for extrasolar planets than previously thought.

NO THERMAL INVERSION AND A SOLAR WATER ABUNDANCE FOR THE HOT JUPITER HD 209458B FROM HST /WFC3 SPECTROSCOPY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Line, Michael R. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035 (United States); Stevenson, Kevin B.; Bean, Jacob; Kreidberg, Laura [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Desert, Jean-Michel [University of Amsterdam (Netherlands); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Showman, Adam P. [Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Diamond-Lowe, Hannah [Department of Astronomy, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-10, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

2016-12-01

The nature of the thermal structure of hot Jupiter atmospheres is one of the key questions raised by the characterization of transiting exoplanets over the past decade. There have been claims that many hot Jupiters exhibit atmospheric thermal inversions. However, these claims have been based on broadband photometry rather than the unambiguous identification of emission features with spectroscopy, and the chemical species that could cause the thermal inversions by absorbing stellar irradiation at high altitudes have not been identified despite extensive theoretical and observational effort. Here we present high-precision Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 observations of the dayside thermal emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b, which was the first exoplanet suggested to have a thermal inversion. In contrast to previous results for this planet, our observations detect water in absorption at 6.2 σ confidence. When combined with Spitzer photometry, the data are indicative of a monotonically decreasing temperature with pressure over the range of 1–0.001 bars at 7.7 σ confidence. We test the robustness of our results by exploring a variety of model assumptions, including the temperature profile parameterization, presence of a cloud, and choice of Spitzer data reduction. We also introduce a new analysis method to determine the elemental abundances from the spectrally retrieved mixing ratios with thermochemical self-consistency and find plausible abundances consistent with solar metallicity (0.06–10 × solar) and carbon-to-oxygen ratios less than unity. This work suggests that high-precision spectrophotometric results are required to robustly infer thermal structures and compositions of extrasolar planet atmospheres and to perform comparative exoplanetology.

Discovery of KPS-1b, a Transiting Hot-Jupiter, with an Amateur Telescope Setup (Abstract)

Science.gov (United States)

Benni, P.; Burdanov, A.; Krushinsky, V.; Sokov, E.

2018-06-01

(Abstract only) Using readily available amateur equipment, a wide-field telescope (Celestron RASA, 279 mm f/2.2) coupled with a SBIG ST-8300M camera was set up at a private residence in a fairly light polluted suburban town thirty miles outside of Boston, Massachusetts. This telescope participated in the Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) prototype survey, along with a MASTER-II Ural wide field telescope near Yekaterinburg, Russia. One goal was to determine if higher resolution imaging ( 2 arcsec/pixel) with much lower sky coverage can practically detect exoplanet transits compared to the successful very wide-field exoplanet surveys (KELT, XO, WASP, HATnet, TrES, Qatar, etc.) which used an array of small aperture telescopes coupled to CCDs.

AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SHOULDER OF GIANTS: JOVIAN PLANETS AROUND LATE K DWARF STARS AND THE TREND WITH STELLAR MASS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gaidos, Eric [Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawai' i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Fischer, Debra A. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (United States); Mann, Andrew W.; Howard, Andrew W., E-mail: gaidos@hawaii.edu [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai' i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)

2013-07-01

Analyses of exoplanet statistics suggest a trend of giant planet occurrence with host star mass, a clue to how planets like Jupiter form. One missing piece of the puzzle is the occurrence around late K dwarf stars (masses of 0.5-0.75 M{sub Sun} and effective temperatures of 3900-4800 K). We analyzed four years of Doppler radial velocity (RVs) data for 110 late K dwarfs, one of which hosts two previously reported giant planets. We estimate that 4.0% {+-} 2.3% of these stars have Saturn-mass or larger planets with orbital periods <245 days, depending on the planet mass distribution and RV variability of stars without giant planets. We also estimate that 0.7% {+-} 0.5% of similar stars observed by Kepler have giant planets. This Kepler rate is significantly (99% confidence) lower than that derived from our Doppler survey, but the difference vanishes if only the single Doppler system (HIP 57274) with completely resolved orbits is considered. The difference could also be explained by the exclusion of close binaries (without giant planets) from the Doppler but not Kepler surveys, the effect of long-period companions and stellar noise on the Doppler data, or an intrinsic difference between the two populations. Our estimates for late K dwarfs bridge those for solar-type stars and M dwarfs, and support a positive trend with stellar mass. Small sample size precludes statements about finer structure, e.g., a ''shoulder'' in the distribution of giant planets with stellar mass. Future surveys such as the Next Generation Transit Survey and the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey will ameliorate this deficiency.

AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SHOULDER OF GIANTS: JOVIAN PLANETS AROUND LATE K DWARF STARS AND THE TREND WITH STELLAR MASS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaidos, Eric; Fischer, Debra A.; Mann, Andrew W.; Howard, Andrew W.

2013-01-01

Analyses of exoplanet statistics suggest a trend of giant planet occurrence with host star mass, a clue to how planets like Jupiter form. One missing piece of the puzzle is the occurrence around late K dwarf stars (masses of 0.5-0.75 M ☉ and effective temperatures of 3900-4800 K). We analyzed four years of Doppler radial velocity (RVs) data for 110 late K dwarfs, one of which hosts two previously reported giant planets. We estimate that 4.0% ± 2.3% of these stars have Saturn-mass or larger planets with orbital periods <245 days, depending on the planet mass distribution and RV variability of stars without giant planets. We also estimate that 0.7% ± 0.5% of similar stars observed by Kepler have giant planets. This Kepler rate is significantly (99% confidence) lower than that derived from our Doppler survey, but the difference vanishes if only the single Doppler system (HIP 57274) with completely resolved orbits is considered. The difference could also be explained by the exclusion of close binaries (without giant planets) from the Doppler but not Kepler surveys, the effect of long-period companions and stellar noise on the Doppler data, or an intrinsic difference between the two populations. Our estimates for late K dwarfs bridge those for solar-type stars and M dwarfs, and support a positive trend with stellar mass. Small sample size precludes statements about finer structure, e.g., a ''shoulder'' in the distribution of giant planets with stellar mass. Future surveys such as the Next Generation Transit Survey and the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey will ameliorate this deficiency.

EQUATORIAL SUPERROTATION ON TIDALLY LOCKED EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Showman, Adam P.; Polvani, Lorenzo M.

2011-01-01

The increasing richness of exoplanet observations has motivated a variety of three-dimensional (3D) atmospheric circulation models of these planets. Under strongly irradiated conditions, models of tidally locked, short-period planets (both hot Jupiters and terrestrial planets) tend to exhibit a circulation dominated by a fast eastward, or 'superrotating', jet stream at the equator. When the radiative and advection timescales are comparable, this phenomenon can cause the hottest regions to be displaced eastward from the substellar point by tens of degrees longitude. Such an offset has been subsequently observed on HD 189733b, supporting the possibility of equatorial jets on short-period exoplanets. Despite its relevance, however, the dynamical mechanisms responsible for generating the equatorial superrotation in such models have not been identified. Here, we show that the equatorial jet results from the interaction of the mean flow with standing Rossby waves induced by the day-night thermal forcing. The strong longitudinal variations in radiative heating-namely intense dayside heating and nightside cooling-trigger the formation of standing, planetary-scale equatorial Rossby and Kelvin waves. The Rossby waves develop phase tilts that pump eastward momentum from high latitudes to the equator, thereby inducing equatorial superrotation. We present an analytic theory demonstrating this mechanism and explore its properties in a hierarchy of one-layer (shallow-water) calculations and fully 3D models. The wave-mean-flow interaction produces an equatorial jet whose latitudinal width is comparable to that of the Rossby waves, namely the equatorial Rossby deformation radius modified by radiative and frictional effects. For conditions typical of synchronously rotating hot Jupiters, this length is comparable to a planetary radius, explaining the broad scale of the equatorial jet obtained in most hot-Jupiter models. Our theory illuminates the dependence of the equatorial jet

HEAVY-ELEMENT ENRICHMENT OF A JUPITER-MASS PROTOPLANET AS A FUNCTION OF ORBITAL LOCATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helled, R.; Schubert, G.

2009-01-01

One possible mechanism for giant planet formation is disk instability in which the planet is formed as a result of gravitational instability in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star. The final composition and core mass of the planet will depend on the planet's mass, environment, and the planetesimal accretion efficiency. We calculate heavy-element enrichment in a Jupiter-mass protoplanet formed by disk instability at various radial distances from the star, considering different disk masses and surface density distributions. Although the available mass for accretion increases with radial distance (a) for disk solid surface density (σ) functions σ = σ 0 a -α with α 5 years of planetary evolution, when the planet is extended and before gap opening and type II migration take place. The accreted mass is calculated for disk masses of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 M sun with α = 1/2, 1, and 3/2. We show that a Jupiter-mass protoplanet can accrete 1-110 M + of heavy elements, depending on the disk properties. Due to the limitation on the accretion timescale, our results provide lower bounds on heavy-element enrichment. Our results can explain the large variation in heavy-element enrichment found in extrasolar giant planets. Since higher disk surface density is found to lead to larger heavy-element enrichment, our model results are consistent with the correlation between heavy-element enrichment and stellar metallicity. Our calculations also suggest that Jupiter could have formed at a larger radial distance than its current location while still accreting the mass of heavy elements predicted by interior models. We conclude that in the disk instability model the final composition of a giant planet is strongly determined by its formation environment. The heavy-element abundance of a giant planet does not discriminate between its origin by either disk instability or core accretion.

Illusion and reality in the atmospheres of exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Deming, L. Drake; Seager, Sara

2017-01-01

The atmospheres of exoplanets reveal all their properties beyond mass, radius, and orbit. Based on bulk densities, we know that exoplanets larger than 1.5 Earth radii must have gaseous envelopes and, hence, atmospheres. We discuss contemporary techniques for characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres. The measurements are difficult, because—even in current favorable cases—the signals can be as small as 0.001% of the host star's flux. Consequently, some early results have been illusory and not confirmed by subsequent investigations. Prominent illusions to date include polarized scattered light, temperature inversions, and the existence of carbon planets. The field moves from the first tentative and often incorrect conclusions, converging to the reality of exoplanetary atmospheres. That reality is revealed using transits for close-in exoplanets and direct imaging for young or massive exoplanets in distant orbits. Several atomic and molecular constituents have now been robustly detected in exoplanets as small as Neptune. In our current observations, the effects of clouds and haze appear ubiquitous. Topics at the current frontier include the measurement of heavy element abundances in giant planets, detection of carbon-based molecules, measurement of atmospheric temperature profiles, definition of heat circulation efficiencies for tidally locked planets, and the push to detect and characterize the atmospheres of super-Earths. Future observatories for this quest include the James Webb Space Telescope and the new generation of extremely large telescopes on the ground. On a more distant horizon, NASA's study concepts for the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) and the Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) missions could extend the study of exoplanetary atmospheres to true twins of Earth.

Using multi-disciplinary optimization and numerical simulation on the transiting exoplanet survey satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Stoeckel, Gerhard P.; Doyle, Keith B.

2017-08-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an instrument consisting of four, wide fieldof- view CCD cameras dedicated to the discovery of exoplanets around the brightest stars, and understanding the diversity of planets and planetary systems in our galaxy. Each camera utilizes a seven-element lens assembly with low-power and low-noise CCD electronics. Advanced multivariable optimization and numerical simulation capabilities accommodating arbitrarily complex objective functions have been added to the internally developed Lincoln Laboratory Integrated Modeling and Analysis Software (LLIMAS) and used to assess system performance. Various optical phenomena are accounted for in these analyses including full dn/dT spatial distributions in lenses and charge diffusion in the CCD electronics. These capabilities are utilized to design CCD shims for thermal vacuum chamber testing and flight, and verify comparable performance in both environments across a range of wavelengths, field points and temperature distributions. Additionally, optimizations and simulations are used for model correlation and robustness optimizations.

XO-2b: A HOT JUPITER WITH A VARIABLE HOST STAR THAT POTENTIALLY AFFECTS ITS MEASURED TRANSIT DEPTH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zellem, Robert T.; Griffith, Caitlin A.; Pearson, Kyle A.; Fitzpatrick, M. Ryleigh; Teske, Johanna K.; Biddle, Lauren I.; Turner, Jake D.; Henry, Gregory W.; Williamson, Michael H.

2015-01-01

The transiting hot Jupiter XO-2b is an ideal target for multi-object photometry and spectroscopy as it has a relatively bright (V-mag = 11.25) K0V host star (XO-2N) and a large planet-to-star contrast ratio (R p /R s ≈ 0.015). It also has a nearby (31.″21) binary stellar companion (XO-2S) of nearly the same brightness (V-mag = 11.20) and spectral type (G9V), allowing for the characterization and removal of shared systematic errors (e.g., airmass brightness variations). We have therefore conducted a multiyear (2012–2015) study of XO-2b with the University of Arizona’s 61″ (1.55 m) Kuiper Telescope and Mont4k CCD in the Bessel U and Harris B photometric passbands to measure its Rayleigh scattering slope to place upper limits on the pressure-dependent radius at, e.g., 10 bar. Such measurements are needed to constrain its derived molecular abundances from primary transit observations. We have also been monitoring XO-2N since the 2013–2014 winter season with Tennessee State University’s Celestron-14 (0.36 m) automated imaging telescope to investigate stellar variability, which could affect XO-2b’s transit depth. Our observations indicate that XO-2N is variable, potentially due to cool star spots, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.0049 ± 0.0007 R-mag and a period of 29.89 ± 0.16 days for the 2013–2014 observing season and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.0035 ± 0.0007 R-mag and 27.34 ± 0.21 day period for the 2014–2015 observing season. Because of the likely influence of XO-2N’s variability on the derivation of XO-2b’s transit depth, we cannot bin multiple nights of data to decrease our uncertainties, preventing us from constraining its gas abundances. This study demonstrates that long-term monitoring programs of exoplanet host stars are crucial for understanding host star variability

Exoplanet Peer-Learning Exercises for Introductory Astronomy Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Wisniewski, John P.; Larson, A.

2010-01-01

While exoplanet research has witnessed explosive growth over the past decade with over 350 exoplanets identified to date (http://exoplanet.eu), few education and public outreach tools capable of bringing the techniques and results of exoplanet science into the classroom have been developed. To help reduce this shortcoming, we have been developing and implementing a series of exoplanet-related active-learning exercises to be used in non-astronomy major introductory settings, including think-pair-share questions and peer-learning activities. We discuss some of these activities which we have field tested in undergraduate classes at the University of Washington. We also discuss our efforts to engage students in these classes in obtaining and analyzing astronomical observations of exoplanet host stars to identify and characterize exoplanet transit events. JPW acknowledges support from NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship AST 08-02230.

Geometric effects on the flux and polarization signals of Jupiter-sized exoplanets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Palmer (student TUDelft), Chris; Rossi, L.C.G.; Stam, D.M.

2017-01-01

The direct detection of reflected starlight from exoplanets marks the beginning of a new era in the characterization of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. The flux and in particular the linear polarization signals from such planets are sensitive to atmospheric structure and composition, but other

Transitional Disks Associated with Intermediate-Mass Stars: Results of the SEEDS YSO Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Grady, C.; Fukagawa, M.; Maruta, Y.; Ohta, Y.; Wisniewski, J.; Hashimoto, J.; Okamoto, Y.; Momose, M.; Currie, T.; McElwain, M.;

Observations of Hot-Jupiter occultations combining Spitzer and Kepler photometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Knutson H.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We present the status of an ongoing program which aim at measuring occultations by their parent stars of transiting hot giant exoplanets discovered recently by Kepler. The observations are obtained in the near infrared with WarmSpitzer Space Telescope and at optical wavelengths by combining more than a year of Kepler photometry. The investigation consists of measuring the mid-occultation times and the relative occultation depths in each band-passes. Our measurements of occultations depths in the Kepler bandpass is turned into the determination of the optical geometric albedo Ag in this wavelength domain. The brightness temperatures of these planets are deduced from the infrared observations. We combine the optical and near infrared planetary emergent fluxes to obtain broad band emergent spectra of individual planet. We finally compare these spectra to hot Jupiter atmospheric models in order broadly distinguishing these atmospheres between different classes of models.

A search for transit timing variation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kramm U.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Photometric follow-ups of transiting exoplanets (TEPs may lead to discoveries of additional, less massive bodies in extrasolar systems. This is possible by detecting and then analysing variations in transit timing of transiting exoplanets. In 2009 we launched an international observing campaign, the aim of which is to detect and characterise signals of transit timing variation (TTV in selected TEPs. The programme is realised by collecting data from 0.6-2.2-m telescopes spread worldwide at different longitudes. We present our observing strategy and summarise first results for WASP-3b with evidence for a 15 Earth-mass perturber in an outer 2:1 orbital resonance.

Exploring a Nearby Habitable World...Orbiting an M-Dwarf Star

Science.gov (United States)

Deming, Drake

2010-01-01

Topics include: the landscape of extrasolar planets and detection techniques, direct and indirect detection methods, summary of the known exoplanets, exploiting transits to characterize super earth atmospheres, how to characterize exoplanet atmospheres, and emitted or reflected spectra of hot Jupiters.

The Search for Hot Jupiters using Red Buttes Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Sorber, Rebecca L.; Kar, Aman; Hancock, Daniel A.; Leuquire, Jacob D.; Suhaimi, Afiq; Kasper, David; Jang-Condell, Hannah

2018-01-01

The goal of this research is to use the University of Wyoming’s Red Buttes Observatory (RBO) to perform manual, remote, or automated observations of transiting exoplanet candidates. The data contributes to discovery of star systems that include never before identified exoplanets. RBO houses a 0.6-meter telescope and is located approximately 10 miles south of the University of Wyoming’s campus. Our targets are catalogued by the KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) Survey, a photometric search for transiting exoplanets around bright main sequence stars. The KELT Follow-up Network (KELT-FUN), a collaboration of small-aperture telescope users located all over the world, confirms new exoplanet candidates. As part of KELT-FUN, students use the RBO to monitor candidates identified by the KELT team. RBO typically detects transits around stars that are 8-12 in V magnitude, with transit durations of ~1-4 hours and full depth relative changes in brightness above 2 mmags. Using AstroImageJ, we process the data and we look for any indication of a transit occurrence in the processed lightcurve which might confirm the presence of the potential exoplanet. Our team has contributed over 50 light curves to KELT-FUN to date. We are able to compare our data with simultaneous observations by other members of KELT-FUN to maximize the utility of our observations. This project gives undergraduates an authentic scientific research experience, learning how to operate an observatory, process data, and participate in a scientific collaboration.

Multi-band, multi-epoch observations of the transiting warm Jupiter WASP-80b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fukui, Akihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke [Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Asakuchi, Okayama 719-0232 (Japan); Kawashima, Yui; Ikoma, Masahiro; Kurosaki, Kenji [Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Narita, Norio; Nishiyama, Shogo; Takahashi, Yasuhiro H.; Nagayama, Shogo [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan); Onitsuka, Masahiro; Baba, Haruka; Ryu, Tsuguru [The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan); Ita, Yoshifusa; Onozato, Hiroki [Astronomical Institute, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578 (Japan); Hirano, Teruyuki; Kawauchi, Kiyoe [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan); Hori, Yasunori [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Nagayama, Takahiro [Department of Physics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan); Tamura, Motohide [Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Japan); Kawai, Nobuyuki, E-mail: afukui@oao.nao.ac.jp [Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1, Oookayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan); and others

2014-08-01

WASP-80b is a warm Jupiter transiting a bright late-K/early-M dwarf, providing a good opportunity to extend the atmospheric study of hot Jupiters toward the lower temperature regime. We report multi-band, multi-epoch transit observations of WASP-80b by using three ground-based telescopes covering from optical (g', R{sub c}, and I{sub c} bands) to near-infrared (NIR; J, H, and K{sub s} bands) wavelengths. We observe 5 primary transits, each in 3 or 4 different bands simultaneously, obtaining 17 independent transit light curves. Combining them with results from previous works, we find that the observed transmission spectrum is largely consistent with both a solar abundance and thick cloud atmospheric models at a 1.7σ discrepancy level. On the other hand, we find a marginal spectral rise in the optical region compared to the NIR region at the 2.9σ level, which possibly indicates the existence of haze in the atmosphere. We simulate theoretical transmission spectra for a solar abundance but hazy atmosphere, finding that a model with equilibrium temperature of 600 K can explain the observed data well, having a discrepancy level of 1.0σ. We also search for transit timing variations, but find no timing excess larger than 50 s from a linear ephemeris. In addition, we conduct 43 day long photometric monitoring of the host star in the optical bands, finding no significant variation in the stellar brightness. Combined with the fact that no spot-crossing event is observed in the five transits, our results confirm previous findings that the host star appears quiet for spot activities, despite the indications of strong chromospheric activities.

Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: a dedicated CubeSat mission to study exoplanetary mass loss and magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Fleming, Brian T.; France, Kevin; Nell, Nicholas; Kohnert, Richard; Pool, Kelsey; Egan, Arika; Fossati, Luca; Koskinen, Tommi; Vidotto, Aline A.; Hoadley, Keri; Desert, Jean-Michel; Beasley, Matthew; Petit, Pascal M.

2018-01-01

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a near-UV (2550 to 3300 Å) 6U CubeSat mission designed to monitor transiting hot Jupiters to quantify their atmospheric mass loss and magnetic fields. CUTE will probe both atomic (Mg and Fe) and molecular (OH) lines for evidence of enhanced transit absorption, and to search for evidence of early ingress due to bow shocks ahead of the planet's orbital motion. As a dedicated mission, CUTE will observe ≳100 spectroscopic transits of hot Jupiters over a nominal 7-month mission. This represents the equivalent of >700 orbits of the only other instrument capable of these measurements, the Hubble Space Telescope. CUTE efficiently utilizes the available CubeSat volume by means of an innovative optical design to achieve a projected effective area of ˜28 cm2, low instrumental background, and a spectral resolving power of R˜3000 over the primary science bandpass. These performance characteristics enable CUTE to discern transit depths between 0.1% and 1% in individual spectral absorption lines. We present the CUTE optical and mechanical design, a summary of the science motivation and expected results, and an overview of the projected fabrication, calibration, and launch timeline.

Amateur observations of exoplanets in Finland: History and recent activities

Science.gov (United States)

Mäkelä, V.; Haukka, H.; Oksanen, A.; Kehusmaa, P.; Hentunen, V.-P.

2017-09-01

Exoplanet have been observed by Finnish amateur astronomers already 17 years. Recently there are two active observers, but the interest to photometric observations on exoplanet transits is increasing in Finland.

THE LUPUS TRANSIT SURVEY FOR HOT JUPITERS: RESULTS AND LESSONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bayliss, Daniel D. R.; Sackett, Penny D.; Weldrake, David T. F.; Tingley, Brandon W.; Lewis, Karen M.

2009-01-01

We present the results of a deep, wide-field transit survey targeting 'Hot Jupiter' planets in the Lupus region of the Galactic plane conducted over 53 nights concentrated in two epochs separated by a year. Using the Australian National University 40-inch telescope at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), the survey covered a 0.66 deg 2 region close to the Galactic plane (b = 11 0 ) and monitored a total of 110,372 stars (15.0 ≤ V ≤ 22.0). Using difference imaging photometry, 16,134 light curves with a photometric precision of σ < 0.025 mag were obtained. These light curves were searched for transits, and four candidates were detected that displayed low-amplitude variability consistent with a transiting giant planet. Further investigations, including spectral typing and radial velocity measurements for some candidates, revealed that of the four, one is a true planetary companion (Lupus-TR-3), two are blended systems (Lupus-TR-1 and 4), and one is a binary (Lupus-TR-2). The results of this successful survey are instructive for optimizing the observational strategy and follow-up procedure for deep searches for transiting planets, including an upcoming survey using the SkyMapper telescope at SSO.

#AltPlanets: Exploring the Exoplanet Catalogue with Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Laneuville, M.; Tasker, E. J.; Guttenberg, N.

2017-12-01

The launch of Kepler in 2009 brought the number of known exoplanets into the thousands, in a growth explosion that shows no sign of abating. While the data available for individual planets is presently typically restricted to orbital and bulk properties, the quantity of data points allows the potential for meaningful statistical analysis. It is not clear how planet mass, radius, orbital path, stellar properties and neighbouring planets influence one another, therefore it seems inevitable that patterns will be missed simply due to the difficulty of including so many dimensions. Even simple trends may be overlooked if they fall outside our expectation of planet formation; a strong risk in a field where new discoveries have destroyed theories from the first observations of hot Jupiters. A possible way forward is to take advantage of the capabilities of neural network autoencoders. The idea of such algorithms is to learn a representation (encoding) of the data in a lower dimension space, without a priori knowledge about links between the elements. This encoding space can then be used to discover the strongest correlations in the original dataset.The key point is that trends identified by a neural network are independent of any previous analysis and pre-conceived ideas about physical processes. Results can reveal new relationships between planet properties and verify existing trends. We applied this concept to study data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and while we have begun to explore the potential use of neural networks for exoplanet data, there are many possible extensions. For example, the network can produce a large number of 'alternative planets' whose statistics should match the current distribution. This larger dataset could highlight gaps in the parameter space or indicate observations are missing particular regimes. This could guide instrument proposals towards objects liable to yield the most information.

Open-source Software for Exoplanet Atmospheric Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Cubillos, Patricio; Blecic, Jasmina; Harrington, Joseph

2018-01-01

I will present a suite of self-standing open-source tools to model and retrieve exoplanet spectra implemented for Python. These include: (1) a Bayesian-statistical package to run Levenberg-Marquardt optimization and Markov-chain Monte Carlo posterior sampling, (2) a package to compress line-transition data from HITRAN or Exomol without loss of information, (3) a package to compute partition functions for HITRAN molecules, (4) a package to compute collision-induced absorption, and (5) a package to produce radiative-transfer spectra of transit and eclipse exoplanet observations and atmospheric retrievals.

Recent Variability Observations of Solar System Giant Planets: Fresh Context for Understanding Exoplanet and Brown Dwarf Weather

Science.gov (United States)

Marley, Mark Scott

2016-01-01

Over the past several years a number of high cadence photometric observations of solar system giant planets have been acquired by various platforms. Such observations are of interest as they provide points of comparison to the already expansive set of brown dwarf variability observations and the small, but growing, set of exoplanet variability observations. By measuring how rapidly the integrated light from solar system giant planets can evolve, variability observations of substellar objects that are unlikely to ever be resolved can be placed in a fuller context. Examples of brown dwarf variability observations include extensive work from the ground (e.g., Radigen et al. 2014), Spitzer (e.g., Metchev et al. 2015), Kepler (Gizis et al. 2015), and HST (Yang et al. 2015).Variability has been measured on the planetary mass companion to the brown dwarf 2MASS 1207b (Zhou et al. 2016) and further searches are planned in thermal emission for the known directly imaged planets with ground based telescopes (Apai et al. 2016) and in reflected light with future space based telescopes. Recent solar system variability observations include Kepler monitoring of Neptune (Simon et al. 2016) and Uranus, Spitzer observations of Neptune (Stauffer et al. 2016), and Cassini observations of Jupiter (West et al. in prep). The Cassini observations are of particular interest as they measured the variability of Jupiter at a phase angle of approximately 60 deg, comparable to the viewing geometry expected for space based direct imaging of cool extrasolar Jupiters in reflected light. These solar system analog observations capture many of the characteristics seen in brown dwarf variability, including large amplitudes and rapid light curve evolution on timescales as short as a few rotation periods. Simon et al. (2016) attribute such variations at Neptune to a combination of large scale, stable cloud structures along with smaller, more rapidly varying, cloud patches. The observed brown dwarf and

Standardizing Exoplanet Analysis with the Exoplanet Characterization Tool Kit (ExoCTK)

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, Julia; Stevenson, Kevin B.; Lewis, Nikole K.; Fraine, Jonathan D.; Pueyo, Laurent; Bruno, Giovanni; Filippazzo, Joe; Hill, Matthew; Batalha, Natasha; Wakeford, Hannah; Bushra, Rafia

2018-06-01

Exoplanet characterization depends critically on analysis tools, models, and spectral libraries that are constantly under development and have no single source nor sense of unified style or methods. The complexity of spectroscopic analysis and initial time commitment required to become competitive is prohibitive to new researchers entering the field, as well as a remaining obstacle for established groups hoping to contribute in a comparable manner to their peers. As a solution, we are developing an open-source, modular data analysis package in Python and a publicly facing web interface including tools that address atmospheric characterization, transit observation planning with JWST, JWST corongraphy simulations, limb darkening, forward modeling, and data reduction, as well as libraries of stellar, planet, and opacity models. The foundation of these software tools and libraries exist within pockets of the exoplanet community, but our project will gather these seedling tools and grow a robust, uniform, and well-maintained exoplanet characterization toolkit.

Exoplanet habitability.

Science.gov (United States)

Seager, Sara

2013-05-03

The search for exoplanets includes the promise to eventually find and identify habitable worlds. The thousands of known exoplanets and planet candidates are extremely diverse in terms of their masses or sizes, orbits, and host star type. The diversity extends to new kinds of planets, which are very common yet have no solar system counterparts. Even with the requirement that a planet's surface temperature must be compatible with liquid water (because all life on Earth requires liquid water), a new emerging view is that planets very different from Earth may have the right conditions for life. The broadened possibilities will increase the future chances of discovering an inhabited world.

Spectroscopy of Exoplanet Atmospheres with the FINESSE Explorer

Science.gov (United States)

Deroo, Pieter; Swain, Mark R.; Green, Robert O.

2012-01-01

FINESSE (Fast INfrared Exoplanet Spectroscopic Survey Explorer) will provide uniquely detailed information on the growing number of newly discovered planets by characterizing their atmospheric composition and temperature structure. This NASA Explorer mission, selected for a competitive Phase A study, is unique in its breath and scope thanks to broad instantaneous spectroscopy from the optical to the mid-IR (0.7 - 5 micron), with a survey of exoplanets measured in a consistent, uniform way. For 200 transiting exoplanets ranging from Terrestrial to Jovians, FINESSE will measure the chemical composition and temperature structure of their atmospheres and trace changes over time with exoplanet longitude. The mission will do so by measuring the spectroscopic time series for a primary and secondary eclipse over the exoplanet orbital phase curve. With spectrophotometric precision being a key enabling aspect for combined light exoplanet characterization, FINESSE is designed to produce spectrophotometric precision of better than 100 parts-per-million per spectral channel without the need for decorrelation. The exceptional stability of FINESSE will even allow the mission to characterize non-transiting planets, potentially as part of FINESSE's Participating Scientist Program. In this paper, we discuss the flow down from the target availability to observations and scheduling to the analysis and calibration of the data and how it enables FINESSE to be the mission that will truly expand the new field of comparative exoplanetology.

New frontiers of high-resolution spectroscopy: Probing the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and reflected light from exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Birkby, Jayne; Alonso, Roi; Brogi, Matteo; Charbonneau, David; Fortney, Jonathan; Hoyer, Sergio; Johnson, John Asher; de Kok, Remco; Lopez-Morales, Mercedes; Montet, Ben; Snellen, Ignas

2015-12-01

High-resolution spectroscopy (R>25,000) is a robust and powerful tool in the near-infrared characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. It has unambiguously revealed the presence of carbon monoxide and water in several hot Jupiters, measured the rotation rate of beta Pic b, and suggested the presence of fast day-to-night winds in one atmosphere. The method is applicable to transiting, non-transiting, and directly-imaged planets. It works by resolving broad molecular bands in the planetary spectrum into a dense, unique forest of individual lines and tracing them directly by their Doppler shift, while the star and tellurics remain essentially stationary. I will focus on two ongoing efforts to expand this technique. First, I will present new results on 51 Peg b revealing its infrared atmospheric compositional properties, then I will discuss an ongoing optical HARPS-N/TNG campaign (due mid October 2015) to obtain a detailed albedo spectrum of 51 Peg b at 387-691 nm in bins of 50nm. This spectrum would provide strong constraints on the previously claimed high albedo and potentially cloudy nature of this planet. Second, I will discuss preliminary results from Keck/NIRSPAO observations (due late September 2015) of LHS 6343 C, a 1000 K transiting brown dwarf with an M-dwarf host star. The high-resolution method converts this system into an eclipsing, double-lined spectroscopic binary, thus allowing dynamical mass and radius estimates of the components, free from astrophysical assumptions. Alongside probing the atmospheric composition of the brown dwarf, these data would provide the first model-independent study of the bulk properties of an old brown dwarf, with masses accurate to <5%, placing a crucial constraint on brown dwarf evolution models.

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE): a dedicated cubesat mission for the study of exoplanetary mass loss and magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Fleming, Brian T.; France, Kevin; Nell, Nicholas; Kohnert, Richard; Pool, Kelsey; Egan, Arika; Fossati, Luca; Koskinen, Tommi; Vidotto, Aline A.; Hoadley, Keri; Desert, Jean-Michel; Beasley, Matthew; Petit, Pascal

2017-08-01

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a near-UV (2550 - 3300 Å) 6U cubesat mission designed to monitor transiting hot Jupiters to quantify their atmospheric mass loss and magnetic fields. CUTE will probe both atomic (Mg and Fe) and molecular (OH) lines for evidence of enhanced transit absorption, and to search for evidence of early ingress due to bow shocks ahead of the planet's orbital motion. As a dedicated mission, CUTE will observe > 60 spectroscopic transits of hot Jupiters over a nominal seven month mission. This represents the equivalent of > 700 orbits of the only other instrument capable of these measurements, the Hubble Space Telescope. CUTE efficiently utilizes the available cubesat volume by means of an innovative optical design to achieve a projected effective area of ˜ 22 cm2 , low instrumental background, and a spectral resolving power of R ˜ 3000 over the entire science bandpass. These performance characteristics enable CUTE to discern a transit depth of motivation and expected results, and an overview of the projected fabrication, calibration and launch timeline.

A Kinematical Detection of Two Embedded Jupiter-mass Planets in HD 163296

Science.gov (United States)

Teague, Richard; Bae, Jaehan; Bergin, Edwin A.; Birnstiel, Tilman; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel

2018-06-01

We present the first kinematical detection of embedded protoplanets within a protoplanetary disk. Using archival Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) observations of HD 163296, we demonstrate a new technique to measure the rotation curves of CO isotopologue emission to sub-percent precision relative to the Keplerian rotation. These rotation curves betray substantial deviations caused by local perturbations in the radial pressure gradient, likely driven by gaps carved in the gas surface density by Jupiter-mass planets. Comparison with hydrodynamic simulations shows excellent agreement with the gas rotation profile when the disk surface density is perturbed by two Jupiter-mass planets at 83 and 137 au. As the rotation of the gas is dependent upon the pressure of the total gas component, this method provides a unique probe of the gas surface density profile without incurring significant uncertainties due to gas-to-dust ratios or local chemical abundances that plague other methods. Future analyses combining both methods promise to provide the most accurate and robust measures of embedded planetary mass. Furthermore, this method provides a unique opportunity to explore wide-separation planets beyond the mm continuum edge and to trace the gas pressure profile essential in modeling grain evolution in disks.

Transit and radial velocity survey efficiency comparison for a habitable zone Earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, Christopher J.; McCullough, P. R.

2014-01-01

Transit and radial velocity searches are two techniques for identifying nearby extrasolar planets to Earth that transit bright stars. Identifying a robust sample of these exoplanets around bright stars for detailed atmospheric characterization is a major observational undertaking. In this study we describe a framework that answers the question of whether a transit or radial velocity survey is more efficient at finding transiting exoplanets given the same amount of observing time. Within the framework we show that a transit survey's window function can be approximated using the hypergeometric probability distribution. We estimate the observing time required for a transit survey to find a transiting Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone (HZ) with an emphasis on late-type stars. We also estimate the radial velocity precision necessary to detect the equivalent HZ Earth-mass exoplanet that also transits when using an equal amount of observing time as the transit survey. We find that a radial velocity survey with σ rv ∼ 0.6 m s –1 precision has comparable efficiency in terms of observing time to a transit survey with the requisite photometric precision σ phot ∼ 300 ppm to find a transiting Earth-sized exoplanet in the HZ of late M dwarfs. For super-Earths, a σ rv ∼ 2.0 m s –1 precision radial velocity survey has comparable efficiency to a transit survey with σ phot ∼ 2300 ppm.

The Exoplanet Characterization ToolKit (ExoCTK)

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, Kevin; Fowler, Julia; Lewis, Nikole K.; Fraine, Jonathan; Pueyo, Laurent; Valenti, Jeff; Bruno, Giovanni; Filippazzo, Joseph; Hill, Matthew; Batalha, Natasha E.; Bushra, Rafia

2018-01-01

The success of exoplanet characterization depends critically on a patchwork of analysis tools and spectroscopic libraries that currently require extensive development and lack a centralized support system. Due to the complexity of spectroscopic analyses and initial time commitment required to become productive, there are currently a limited number of teams that are actively advancing the field. New teams with significant expertise, but without the proper tools, face prohibitively steep hills to climb before they can contribute. As a solution, we are developing an open-source, modular data analysis package in Python and a publicly facing web interface focused primarily on atmospheric characterization of exoplanets and exoplanet transit observation planning with JWST. The foundation of these software tools and libraries exist within pockets of the exoplanet community. Our project will gather these seedling tools and grow a robust, uniform, and well maintained exoplanet characterization toolkit.

Engaging Undergraduate Students in Transiting Exoplanet Research with Small Telescopes

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Denise C.; Stoker, E.; Gaillard, C.; Ranquist, E.; Lara, P.; Wright, K.

2013-10-01

Brigham Young University has a relatively large undergraduate physics program with 300 to 360 physics majors. Each of these students is required to be engaged in a research group and to produce a senior thesis before graduating. For the astronomy professors, this means that each of us is mentoring at least 4-6 undergraduate students at any given time. For the past few years I have been searching for meaningful research projects that make use of our telescope resources and are exciting for both myself and my students. We first started following up Kepler Objects of Interest with our 0.9 meter telescope, but quickly realized that most of the transits we could observe were better analyzed with Kepler data and were false positive objects. So now we have joined a team that is searching for transiting planets, and my students are using our 16" telescope to do ground based follow-up on the hundreds of possible transiting planet candidates produced by this survey. In this presentation I will describe our current telescopes, the observational setup, and how we use our telescopes to search for transiting planets. I'll describe some of the software the students have written. I'll also explain how to use the NASA Exoplanet Archive to gather data on known transiting planets and Kepler Objects of Interests. These databases are useful for determining the observational limits of your small telescopes and teaching your students how to reduce and report data on transiting planets. Once that is in place, you are potentially ready to join existing transiting planet missions by doing ground-based follow-up. I will explain how easy it can be to implement this type of research at any high school, college, or university with a small telescope and CCD camera.

Towards Automatic Classification of Exoplanet-Transit-Like Signals: A Case Study on Kepler Mission Data

Science.gov (United States)

Valizadegan, Hamed; Martin, Rodney; McCauliff, Sean D.; Jenkins, Jon Michael; Catanzarite, Joseph; Oza, Nikunj C.

2015-08-01

Building new catalogues of planetary candidates, astrophysical false alarms, and non-transiting phenomena is a challenging task that currently requires a reviewing team of astrophysicists and astronomers. These scientists need to examine more than 100 diagnostic metrics and associated graphics for each candidate exoplanet-transit-like signal to classify it into one of the three classes. Considering that the NASA Explorer Program's TESS mission and ESA's PLATO mission survey even a larger area of space, the classification of their transit-like signals is more time-consuming for human agents and a bottleneck to successfully construct the new catalogues in a timely manner. This encourages building automatic classification tools that can quickly and reliably classify the new signal data from these missions. The standard tool for building automatic classification systems is the supervised machine learning that requires a large set of highly accurate labeled examples in order to build an effective classifier. This requirement cannot be easily met for classifying transit-like signals because not only are existing labeled signals very limited, but also the current labels may not be reliable (because the labeling process is a subjective task). Our experiments with using different supervised classifiers to categorize transit-like signals verifies that the labeled signals are not rich enough to provide the classifier with enough power to generalize well beyond the observed cases (e.g. to unseen or test signals). That motivated us to utilize a new category of learning techniques, so-called semi-supervised learning, that combines the label information from the costly labeled signals, and distribution information from the cheaply available unlabeled signals in order to construct more effective classifiers. Our study on the Kepler Mission data shows that semi-supervised learning can significantly improve the result of multiple base classifiers (e.g. Support Vector Machines, Ada

High-resolution Imaging of Transiting Extrasolar Planetary systems (HITEP). II. Lucky Imaging results from 2015 and 2016

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, D. F.; Southworth, J.; Smalley, B.; Jørgensen, U. G.; Dominik, M.; Andersen, M. I.; Bozza, V.; Bramich, D. M.; Burgdorf, M. J.; Ciceri, S.; D'Ago, G.; Figuera Jaimes, R.; Gu, S.-H.; Hinse, T. C.; Henning, Th.; Hundertmark, M.; Kains, N.; Kerins, E.; Korhonen, H.; Kokotanekova, R.; Kuffmeier, M.; Longa-Peña, P.; Mancini, L.; MacKenzie, J.; Popovas, A.; Rabus, M.; Rahvar, S.; Sajadian, S.; Snodgrass, C.; Skottfelt, J.; Surdej, J.; Tronsgaard, R.; Unda-Sanzana, E.; von Essen, C.; Wang, Yi-Bo; Wertz, O.

2018-02-01

Context. The formation and dynamical history of hot Jupiters is currently debated, with wide stellar binaries having been suggested as a potential formation pathway. Additionally, contaminating light from both binary companions and unassociated stars can significantly bias the results of planet characterisation studies, but can be corrected for if the properties of the contaminating star are known. Aim. We search for binary companions to known transiting exoplanet host stars, in order to determine the multiplicity properties of hot Jupiter host stars. We also search for and characterise unassociated stars along the line of sight, allowing photometric and spectroscopic observations of the planetary system to be corrected for contaminating light. Methods: We analyse lucky imaging observations of 97 Southern hemisphere exoplanet host stars, using the Two Colour Instrument on the Danish 1.54 m telescope. For each detected companion star, we determine flux ratios relative to the planet host star in two passbands, and measure the relative position of the companion. The probability of each companion being physically associated was determined using our two-colour photometry. Results: A catalogue of close companion stars is presented, including flux ratios, position measurements, and estimated companion star temperature. For companions that are potential binary companions, we review archival and catalogue data for further evidence. For WASP-77AB and WASP-85AB, we combine our data with historical measurements to determine the binary orbits, showing them to be moderately eccentric and inclined to the line of sight (and hence planetary orbital axis). Combining our survey with the similar Friends of Hot Jupiters survey, we conclude that known hot Jupiter host stars show a deficit of high mass stellar companions compared to the field star population; however, this may be a result of the biases in detection and target selection by ground-based surveys. Based on data collected by

XO-2b: A HOT JUPITER WITH A VARIABLE HOST STAR THAT POTENTIALLY AFFECTS ITS MEASURED TRANSIT DEPTH

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zellem, Robert T.; Griffith, Caitlin A. [Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 East University Boulevard, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Pearson, Kyle A.; Fitzpatrick, M. Ryleigh; Teske, Johanna K.; Biddle, Lauren I. [Department of Astronomy, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Turner, Jake D. [Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Henry, Gregory W.; Williamson, Michael H., E-mail: rzellem@lpl.arizona.edu, E-mail: griffith@lpl.arizona.edu [Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd., P.O. Box 9501, Nashville, TN 37209 (United States)

2015-09-01

The transiting hot Jupiter XO-2b is an ideal target for multi-object photometry and spectroscopy as it has a relatively bright (V-mag = 11.25) K0V host star (XO-2N) and a large planet-to-star contrast ratio (R{sub p}/R{sub s} ≈ 0.015). It also has a nearby (31.″21) binary stellar companion (XO-2S) of nearly the same brightness (V-mag = 11.20) and spectral type (G9V), allowing for the characterization and removal of shared systematic errors (e.g., airmass brightness variations). We have therefore conducted a multiyear (2012–2015) study of XO-2b with the University of Arizona’s 61″ (1.55 m) Kuiper Telescope and Mont4k CCD in the Bessel U and Harris B photometric passbands to measure its Rayleigh scattering slope to place upper limits on the pressure-dependent radius at, e.g., 10 bar. Such measurements are needed to constrain its derived molecular abundances from primary transit observations. We have also been monitoring XO-2N since the 2013–2014 winter season with Tennessee State University’s Celestron-14 (0.36 m) automated imaging telescope to investigate stellar variability, which could affect XO-2b’s transit depth. Our observations indicate that XO-2N is variable, potentially due to cool star spots, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.0049 ± 0.0007 R-mag and a period of 29.89 ± 0.16 days for the 2013–2014 observing season and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.0035 ± 0.0007 R-mag and 27.34 ± 0.21 day period for the 2014–2015 observing season. Because of the likely influence of XO-2N’s variability on the derivation of XO-2b’s transit depth, we cannot bin multiple nights of data to decrease our uncertainties, preventing us from constraining its gas abundances. This study demonstrates that long-term monitoring programs of exoplanet host stars are crucial for understanding host star variability.

Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters.

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, Jason H; Ragozzine, Darin; Fabrycky, Daniel C; Carter, Joshua A; Ford, Eric B; Holman, Matthew J; Rowe, Jason F; Welsh, William F; Borucki, William J; Boss, Alan P; Ciardi, David R; Quinn, Samuel N

2012-05-22

We present the results of a search for planetary companions orbiting near hot Jupiter planet candidates (Jupiter-size candidates with orbital periods near 3 d) identified in the Kepler data through its sixth quarter of science operations. Special emphasis is given to companions between the 21 interior and exterior mean-motion resonances. A photometric transit search excludes companions with sizes ranging from roughly two-thirds to five times the size of the Earth, depending upon the noise properties of the target star. A search for dynamically induced deviations from a constant period (transit timing variations) also shows no significant signals. In contrast, comparison studies of warm Jupiters (with slightly larger orbits) and hot Neptune-size candidates do exhibit signatures of additional companions with these same tests. These differences between hot Jupiters and other planetary systems denote a distinctly different formation or dynamical history.

Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, Jason H.; Ragozzine, Darin; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Carter, Joshua A.; Ford, Eric B.; Holman, Matthew J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Welsh, William F.; Borucki, William J.; Boss, Alan P.; Ciardi, David R.; Quinn, Samuel N.

2012-01-01

We present the results of a search for planetary companions orbiting near hot Jupiter planet candidates (Jupiter-size candidates with orbital periods near 3 d) identified in the Kepler data through its sixth quarter of science operations. Special emphasis is given to companions between the 2∶1 interior and exterior mean-motion resonances. A photometric transit search excludes companions with sizes ranging from roughly two-thirds to five times the size of the Earth, depending upon the noise properties of the target star. A search for dynamically induced deviations from a constant period (transit timing variations) also shows no significant signals. In contrast, comparison studies of warm Jupiters (with slightly larger orbits) and hot Neptune-size candidates do exhibit signatures of additional companions with these same tests. These differences between hot Jupiters and other planetary systems denote a distinctly different formation or dynamical history. PMID:22566651

Gas flow in the solar nebula leading to the formation of Jupiter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sekiya, Minoru; Miyama, Shoken M.; Hayashi, Chushiro.

1987-01-01

The three-dimensional gas flow in the solar nebula, which is subject to the gravity of the Sun and proto-Jupiter, is numerically calculated using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic code i.e., the so-called smoothed-particle method. The flow is circulating around the Sun as well as falling into the potential well of proto-Jupiter. The results for various masses of proto-Jupiter show that the e-folding growth time of proto-Jupiter by accretion of the nebular gas is as short as about 300 years in stages where the mass of proto-Jupiter is 0.2 ∼ 0.5 times the present Jovian mass and that proto-Jupiter begins to push away the nebular gas from the orbit of proto-Jupiter and form a gap around the orbit, when its mass is about 0.7 times the present Jovian mass. It is possible that this pushing-away process determined the present Jovian mass

Examining the Potential of LSST to Contribute to Exoplanet Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Michael B.; Pepper, Joshua; Jacklin, Savannah; Stassun, Keivan G.

2018-01-01

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), currently under construction in Chile with scheduled first light in 2019, will be one of the major sources of data in the next decade and is one of the top priorities expressed in the last Decadal Survey. As LSST is intended to cover a range of science questions, and so the LSST community is still working on optimizing the observing strategy of the survey. With a survey area that will cover half the sky in 6 bands providing photometric data on billions of stars from 16th to 24th magnitude, LSST has the ability to be leveraged to help contribute to exoplanet science. In particular, LSST has the potential to detect exoplanets around stellar populations that are not normally usually included in transiting exoplanet searches. This includes searching for exoplanets around red and white dwarfs and stars in the galactic plane and bulge, stellar clusters, and potentially even the Magellanic Clouds. In probing these varied stellar populations, relative exoplanet frequency can be examined, and in turn, LSST may be able to provide fresh insight into how stellar environment can play a role in planetary formation rates.Our initial work on this project has been to demonstrate that even with the limitations of the LSST cadence, exoplanets would be recoverable and detectable in the LSST photometry, and to show that exoplanets indeed worth including in discussions of variable sources that LSST can contribute to. We have continued to expand this work to examine exoplanets around stars in belonging to various stellar populations, both to show the types of systems that LSST is capable of discovering, and to determine the potential exoplanet yields using standard algorithms that have already been implemented in transiting exoplanet searches, as well as how changes to LSST's observing schedule may impact both of these results.

GLIESE 581D IS THE FIRST DISCOVERED TERRESTRIAL-MASS EXOPLANET IN THE HABITABLE ZONE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wordsworth, Robin D.; Forget, Francois; Millour, Ehouarn; Charnay, Benjamin; Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste; Selsis, Franck

2011-01-01

It has been suggested that the recently discovered exoplanet GJ581d might be able to support liquid water due to its relatively low mass and orbital distance. However, GJ581d receives 35% less stellar energy than Mars and is probably locked in tidal resonance, with extremely low insolation at the poles and possibly a permanent night side. Under such conditions, it is unknown whether any habitable climate on the planet would be able to withstand global glaciation and/or atmospheric collapse. Here we present three-dimensional climate simulations which demonstrate that GJ581d will have a stable atmosphere and surface liquid water for a wide range of plausible cases, making it the first confirmed super-Earth (exoplanet of 2-10 Earth masses) in the habitable zone. We find that atmospheres with over 10 bar CO 2 and varying amounts of background gas (e.g., N 2 ) yield global mean temperatures above 0 0 C for both land and ocean-covered surfaces. Based on the emitted IR radiation calculated by the model, we propose observational tests that will allow these cases to be distinguished from other possible scenarios in the future.

Trajectory Design to Mitigate Risk on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Dichmann, Donald

2016-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will employ a highly eccentric Earth orbit, in 2:1 lunar resonance, reached with a lunar flyby preceded by 3.5 phasing loops. The TESS mission has limited propellant and several orbit constraints. Based on analysis and simulation, we have designed the phasing loops to reduce delta-V and to mitigate risk due to maneuver execution errors. We have automated the trajectory design process and use distributed processing to generate and to optimize nominal trajectories, check constraint satisfaction, and finally model the effects of maneuver errors to identify trajectories that best meet the mission requirements.

HELIUM ATMOSPHERES ON WARM NEPTUNE- AND SUB-NEPTUNE-SIZED EXOPLANETS AND APPLICATIONS TO GJ 436b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Renyu; Yung, Yuk L. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Seager, Sara, E-mail: renyu.hu@jpl.nasa.gov [Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

2015-07-01

Warm Neptune- and sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets in orbits smaller than Mercury’s are thought to have experienced extensive atmospheric evolution. Here we propose that a potential outcome of this atmospheric evolution is the formation of helium-dominated atmospheres. The hydrodynamic escape rates of Neptune- and sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets are comparable to the diffusion-limited escape rate of hydrogen, and therefore the escape is heavily affected by diffusive separation between hydrogen and helium. A helium atmosphere can thus be formed—from a primordial hydrogen–helium atmosphere—via atmospheric hydrodynamic escape from the planet. The helium atmosphere has very different abundances of major carbon and oxygen species from those of a hydrogen atmosphere, leading to distinctive transmission and thermal emission spectral features. In particular, the hypothesis of a helium-dominated atmosphere can explain the thermal emission spectrum of GJ 436b, a warm Neptune-sized exoplanet, while also being consistent with the transmission spectrum. This model atmosphere contains trace amounts of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, with the predominance of CO over CH{sub 4} as the main form of carbon. With our atmospheric evolution model, we find that if the mass of the initial atmosphere envelope is 10{sup −3} planetary mass, hydrodynamic escape can reduce the hydrogen abundance in the atmosphere by several orders of magnitude in ∼10 billion years. Observations of exoplanet transits may thus detect signatures of helium atmospheres and probe the evolutionary history of small exoplanets.

HELIUM ATMOSPHERES ON WARM NEPTUNE- AND SUB-NEPTUNE-SIZED EXOPLANETS AND APPLICATIONS TO GJ 436b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Renyu; Yung, Yuk L.; Seager, Sara

2015-01-01

Warm Neptune- and sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets in orbits smaller than Mercury’s are thought to have experienced extensive atmospheric evolution. Here we propose that a potential outcome of this atmospheric evolution is the formation of helium-dominated atmospheres. The hydrodynamic escape rates of Neptune- and sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets are comparable to the diffusion-limited escape rate of hydrogen, and therefore the escape is heavily affected by diffusive separation between hydrogen and helium. A helium atmosphere can thus be formed—from a primordial hydrogen–helium atmosphere—via atmospheric hydrodynamic escape from the planet. The helium atmosphere has very different abundances of major carbon and oxygen species from those of a hydrogen atmosphere, leading to distinctive transmission and thermal emission spectral features. In particular, the hypothesis of a helium-dominated atmosphere can explain the thermal emission spectrum of GJ 436b, a warm Neptune-sized exoplanet, while also being consistent with the transmission spectrum. This model atmosphere contains trace amounts of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, with the predominance of CO over CH 4 as the main form of carbon. With our atmospheric evolution model, we find that if the mass of the initial atmosphere envelope is 10 −3 planetary mass, hydrodynamic escape can reduce the hydrogen abundance in the atmosphere by several orders of magnitude in ∼10 billion years. Observations of exoplanet transits may thus detect signatures of helium atmospheres and probe the evolutionary history of small exoplanets

Atmospheric mass-loss of extrasolar planets orbiting magnetically active host stars

Science.gov (United States)

Lalitha, Sairam; Schmitt, J. H. M. M.; Dash, Spandan

2018-06-01

Magnetic stellar activity of exoplanet hosts can lead to the production of large amounts of high-energy emission, which irradiates extrasolar planets, located in the immediate vicinity of such stars. This radiation is absorbed in the planets' upper atmospheres, which consequently heat up and evaporate, possibly leading to an irradiation-induced mass-loss. We present a study of the high-energy emission in the four magnetically active planet-bearing host stars, Kepler-63, Kepler-210, WASP-19, and HAT-P-11, based on new XMM-Newton observations. We find that the X-ray luminosities of these stars are rather high with orders of magnitude above the level of the active Sun. The total XUV irradiation of these planets is expected to be stronger than that of well-studied hot Jupiters. Using the estimated XUV luminosities as the energy input to the planetary atmospheres, we obtain upper limits for the total mass- loss in these hot Jupiters.

EXPLORING BIASES OF ATMOSPHERIC RETRIEVALS IN SIMULATED JWST TRANSMISSION SPECTRA OF HOT JUPITERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rocchetto, M.; Waldmann, I. P.; Tinetti, G.; Venot, O.; Lagage, P.-O.

2016-01-01

With a scheduled launch in 2018 October, the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) is expected to revolutionize the field of atmospheric characterization of exoplanets. The broad wavelength coverage and high sensitivity of its instruments will allow us to extract far more information from exoplanet spectra than what has been possible with current observations. In this paper, we investigate whether current retrieval methods will still be valid in the era of JWST , exploring common approximations used when retrieving transmission spectra of hot Jupiters. To assess biases, we use 1D photochemical models to simulate typical hot Jupiter cloud-free atmospheres and generate synthetic observations for a range of carbon-to-oxygen ratios. Then, we retrieve these spectra using TauREx, a Bayesian retrieval tool, using two methodologies: one assuming an isothermal atmosphere, and one assuming a parameterized temperature profile. Both methods assume constant-with-altitude abundances. We found that the isothermal approximation biases the retrieved parameters considerably, overestimating the abundances by about one order of magnitude. The retrieved abundances using the parameterized profile are usually within 1 σ of the true state, and we found the retrieved uncertainties to be generally larger compared to the isothermal approximation. Interestingly, we found that by using the parameterized temperature profile we could place tight constraints on the temperature structure. This opens the possibility of characterizing the temperature profile of the terminator region of hot Jupiters. Lastly, we found that assuming a constant-with-altitude mixing ratio profile is a good approximation for most of the atmospheres under study.

EXPLORING BIASES OF ATMOSPHERIC RETRIEVALS IN SIMULATED JWST TRANSMISSION SPECTRA OF HOT JUPITERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rocchetto, M.; Waldmann, I. P.; Tinetti, G. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E6BT London (United Kingdom); Venot, O. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Lagage, P.-O., E-mail: m.rocchetto@ucl.ac.uk [Irfu, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-9119 Gif-sur Yvette (France)

2016-12-10

With a scheduled launch in 2018 October, the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) is expected to revolutionize the field of atmospheric characterization of exoplanets. The broad wavelength coverage and high sensitivity of its instruments will allow us to extract far more information from exoplanet spectra than what has been possible with current observations. In this paper, we investigate whether current retrieval methods will still be valid in the era of JWST , exploring common approximations used when retrieving transmission spectra of hot Jupiters. To assess biases, we use 1D photochemical models to simulate typical hot Jupiter cloud-free atmospheres and generate synthetic observations for a range of carbon-to-oxygen ratios. Then, we retrieve these spectra using TauREx, a Bayesian retrieval tool, using two methodologies: one assuming an isothermal atmosphere, and one assuming a parameterized temperature profile. Both methods assume constant-with-altitude abundances. We found that the isothermal approximation biases the retrieved parameters considerably, overestimating the abundances by about one order of magnitude. The retrieved abundances using the parameterized profile are usually within 1 σ of the true state, and we found the retrieved uncertainties to be generally larger compared to the isothermal approximation. Interestingly, we found that by using the parameterized temperature profile we could place tight constraints on the temperature structure. This opens the possibility of characterizing the temperature profile of the terminator region of hot Jupiters. Lastly, we found that assuming a constant-with-altitude mixing ratio profile is a good approximation for most of the atmospheres under study.

Final Masses of Giant Planets II: Jupiter Formation in a Gas-Depleted Disk

OpenAIRE

Tanigawa, Takayuki; Tanaka, Hidekazu

2015-01-01

Firstly, we study the final masses of giant planets growing in protoplanetary disks through capture of disk gas, by employing an empirical formula for the gas capture rate and a shallow disk gap model, which are both based on hydrodynamical simulations. The shallow disk gaps cannot terminate growth of giant planets. For planets less massive than 10 Jupiter masses, their growth rates are mainly controlled by the gas supply through the global disk accretion, rather than their gaps. The insuffic...

A New Window into Escaping Exoplanet Atmospheres: 10830 Å Line of Helium

Science.gov (United States)

Oklopčić, Antonija; Hirata, Christopher M.

2018-03-01

Observational evidence for escaping exoplanet atmospheres has been obtained for a few exoplanets to date. It comes from strong transit signals detected in the ultraviolet, most notably in the wings of the hydrogen Lyα (Lyα) line. However, the core of the Lyα line is often heavily affected by interstellar absorption and geocoronal emission, limiting the information about the atmosphere that can be extracted from that part of the spectrum. Transit observations in atomic lines that are (a) sensitive enough to trace the rarefied gas in the planetary wind and (b) do not suffer from significant extinction by the interstellar medium could enable more detailed observations, and thus provide better constraints on theoretical models of escaping atmospheres. The absorption line of a metastable state of helium at 10830 Å could satisfy both of these conditions for some exoplanets. We develop a simple 1D model of escaping planetary atmospheres containing hydrogen and helium. We use it to calculate the density profile of helium in the 23S metastable excited state and the expected in-transit absorption at 10830 Å for two exoplanets known to have escaping atmospheres. Our results indicate that exoplanets similar to GJ 436b and HD 209458b should exhibit enhanced transit depths at 10830 Å, with ∼8% and ∼2% excess absorption in the line core, respectively.

ASTEP South: An Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets around the celestial South pole

OpenAIRE

Crouzet , Nicolas; Guillot , Tristan; Agabi , Karim; Rivet , Jean-Pierre; Bondoux , Erick; Challita , Zalpha; Fanteï-Caujolle , Yan; Fressin , François; Mékarnia , Djamel; Schmider , François-Xavier; Valbousquet , Franck; Blazit , Alain; Bonhomme , Serge; Abe , Lyu; Daban , Jean-Baptiste

2009-01-01

ASTEP South is the first phase of the ASTEP project (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets). The instrument is a fixed 10 cm refractor with a 4kx4k CCD camera in a thermalized box, pointing continuously a 3.88 degree x 3.88 degree field of view centered on the celestial South pole. ASTEP South became fully functional in June 2008 and obtained 1592 hours of data during the 2008 Antarctic winter. The data are of good quality but the analysis has to account for changes in the point spread f...

Directly imaged L-T transition exoplanets in the mid-infrared {sup ,}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skemer, Andrew J.; Hinz, Philip M.; Morzinski, Katie M.; Leisenring, Jarron M.; Close, Laird M.; Bailey, Vanessa P.; Defrere, Denis; Follette, Katherine B.; Males, Jared R.; Rodigas, Timothy J. [Steward Observatory, Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Marley, Mark S. [NASA Ames Research Center, MS-245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Skrutskie, Michael F. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States); Saumon, Didier [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop F663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Briguglio, Runa; Esposito, Simone; Puglisi, Alfio; Xompero, Marco [Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri Largo E. Fermi 5 50125 Firenze (Italy); Hill, John M. [Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2014-09-01

Gas-giant planets emit a large fraction of their light in the mid-infrared (≳3 μm), where photometry and spectroscopy are critical to our understanding of the bulk properties of extrasolar planets. Of particular importance are the L- and M-band atmospheric windows (3-5 μm), which are the longest wavelengths currently accessible to ground-based, high-contrast imagers. We present binocular LBT adaptive optics (AO) images of the HR 8799 planetary system in six narrow-band filters from 3 to 4 μm, and a Magellan AO image of the 2M1207 planetary system in a broader 3.3 μm band. These systems encompass the five known exoplanets with luminosities consistent with L → T transition brown dwarfs. Our results show that the exoplanets are brighter and have shallower spectral slopes than equivalent temperature brown dwarfs in a wavelength range that contains the methane fundamental absorption feature (spanned by the narrow-band filters and encompassed by the broader 3.3 μm filter). For 2M1207 b, we find that thick clouds and non-equilibrium chemistry caused by vertical mixing can explain the object's appearance. For the HR 8799 planets, we present new models that suggest the atmospheres must have patchy clouds, along with non-equilibrium chemistry. Together, the presence of a heterogeneous surface and vertical mixing presents a picture of dynamic planetary atmospheres in which both horizontal and vertical motions influence the chemical and condensate profiles.

Planet traps and planetary cores: origins of the planet-metallicity correlation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasegawa, Yasuhiro [Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10641, Taiwan (China); Pudritz, Ralph E., E-mail: yasu@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw, E-mail: pudritz@physics.mcmaster.ca [Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1 (Canada)

2014-10-10

Massive exoplanets are observed preferentially around high metallicity ([Fe/H]) stars while low-mass exoplanets do not show such an effect. This so-called planet-metallicity correlation generally favors the idea that most observed gas giants at r < 10 AU are formed via a core accretion process. We investigate the origin of this phenomenon using a semi-analytical model, wherein the standard core accretion takes place at planet traps in protostellar disks where rapid type I migrators are halted. We focus on the three major exoplanetary populations—hot Jupiters, exo-Jupiters located at r ≅ 1 AU, and the low-mass planets. We show using a statistical approach that the planet-metallicity correlations are well reproduced in these models. We find that there are specific transition metallicities with values [Fe/H] = –0.2 to –0.4, below which the low-mass population dominates, and above which the Jovian populations take over. The exo-Jupiters significantly exceed the hot Jupiter population at all observed metallicities. The low-mass planets formed via the core accretion are insensitive to metallicity, which may account for a large fraction of the observed super-Earths and hot-Neptunes. Finally, a controlling factor in building massive planets is the critical mass of planetary cores (M {sub c,} {sub crit}) that regulates the onset of rapid gas accretion. Assuming the current data is roughly complete at [Fe/H] > –0.6, our models predict that the most likely value of the 'mean' critical core mass of Jovian planets is (M {sub c,} {sub crit}) ≅ 5 M {sub ⊕} rather than 10 M {sub ⊕}. This implies that grain opacities in accreting envelopes should be reduced in order to lower M {sub c,} {sub crit}.

The XUV environments of exoplanets from Jupiter-size to super-Earth

Science.gov (United States)

King, George W.; Wheatley, Peter J.; Salz, Michael; Bourrier, Vincent; Czesla, Stefan; Ehrenreich, David; Kirk, James; Lecavelier des Etangs, Alain; Louden, Tom; Schmitt, Jürgen; Schneider, P. Christian

2018-05-01

Planets that reside close-in to their host star are subject to intense high-energy irradiation. Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray radiation (together, XUV) is thought to drive mass loss from planets with volatile envelopes. We present XMM-Newton observations of six nearby stars hosting transiting planets in tight orbits (with orbital period, Porb < 10 d), wherein we characterise the XUV emission from the stars and subsequent irradiation levels at the planets. In order to reconstruct the unobservable EUV emission, we derive a new set of relations from Solar TIMED/SEE data that are applicable to the standard bands of the current generation of X-ray instruments. From our sample, WASP-80b and HD 149026b experience the highest irradiation level, but HAT-P-11b is probably the best candidate for Ly α evaporation investigations because of the system's proximity to the Solar System. The four smallest planets have likely lost a greater percentage of their mass over their lives than their larger counterparts. We also detect the transit of WASP-80b in the near ultraviolet with the Optical Monitor on XMM-Newton

An Information-theoretic Approach to Optimize JWST Observations and Retrievals of Transiting Exoplanet Atmospheres

Science.gov (United States)

Howe, Alex R.; Burrows, Adam; Deming, Drake

2017-01-01

We provide an example of an analysis to explore the optimization of observations of transiting hot Jupiters with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to characterize their atmospheres based on a simple three-parameter forward model. We construct expansive forward model sets for 11 hot Jupiters, 10 of which are relatively well characterized, exploring a range of parameters such as equilibrium temperature and metallicity, as well as considering host stars over a wide range in brightness. We compute posterior distributions of our model parameters for each planet with all of the available JWST spectroscopic modes and several programs of combined observations and compute their effectiveness using the metric of estimated mutual information per degree of freedom. From these simulations, clear trends emerge that provide guidelines for designing a JWST observing program. We demonstrate that these guidelines apply over a wide range of planet parameters and target brightnesses for our simple forward model.

AN INFORMATION-THEORETIC APPROACH TO OPTIMIZE JWST OBSERVATIONS AND RETRIEVALS OF TRANSITING EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howe, Alex R.; Burrows, Adam [Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Deming, Drake, E-mail: arhowe@umich.edu, E-mail: burrows@astro.princeton.edu, E-mail: ddeming@astro.umd.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

2017-01-20

We provide an example of an analysis to explore the optimization of observations of transiting hot Jupiters with the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) to characterize their atmospheres based on a simple three-parameter forward model. We construct expansive forward model sets for 11 hot Jupiters, 10 of which are relatively well characterized, exploring a range of parameters such as equilibrium temperature and metallicity, as well as considering host stars over a wide range in brightness. We compute posterior distributions of our model parameters for each planet with all of the available JWST spectroscopic modes and several programs of combined observations and compute their effectiveness using the metric of estimated mutual information per degree of freedom. From these simulations, clear trends emerge that provide guidelines for designing a JWST observing program. We demonstrate that these guidelines apply over a wide range of planet parameters and target brightnesses for our simple forward model.

Records of Migration in the Exoplanet Configurations

Science.gov (United States)

Michtchenko, Tatiana A.; Rodriguez Colucci, A.; Tadeu Dos Santos, M.

2013-05-01

Abstract (2,250 Maximum Characters): When compared to our Solar System, many exoplanet systems exhibit quite unusual planet configurations; some of these are hot Jupiters, which orbit their central stars with periods of a few days, others are resonant systems composed of two or more planets with commensurable orbital periods. It has been suggested that these configurations can be the result of a migration processes originated by tidal interactions of the planets with disks and central stars. The process known as planet migration occurs due to dissipative forces which affect the planetary semi-major axes and cause the planets to move towards to, or away from, the central star. In this talk, we present possible signatures of planet migration in the distribution of the hot Jupiters and resonant exoplanet pairs. For this task, we develop a semi-analytical model to describe the evolution of the migrating planetary pair, based on the fundamental concepts of conservative and dissipative dynamics of the three-body problem. Our approach is based on an analysis of the energy and the orbital angular momentum exchange between the two-planet system and an external medium; thus no specific kind of dissipative forces needs to be invoked. We show that, under assumption that dissipation is weak and slow, the evolutionary routes of the migrating planets are traced by the stationary solutions of the conservative problem (Birkhoff, Dynamical systems, 1966). The ultimate convergence and the evolution of the system along one of these modes of motion are determined uniquely by the condition that the dissipation rate is sufficiently smaller than the roper frequencies of the system. We show that it is possible to reassemble the starting configurations and migration history of the systems on the basis of their final states, and consequently to constrain the parameters of the physical processes involved.

Atmospheric Retrievals of HAT-P-16b and WASP-11b/HAT-P-10b

Science.gov (United States)

McIntyre, Kathleen; Harrington, Joseph; Challener, Ryan; Lenius, Maria; Hartman, Joel D.; Bakos, Gaspar A.; Blecic, Jasmina; Cubillos, Patricio E.; Cameron, Andrew

2018-01-01

We report Bayesian atmospheric retrievals performed on the exoplanets HAT-P-16b and WASP-11b/HAT-P-10b. HAT-P-16b is a hot (equilibrium temperature 1626 ± 40 K, assuming zero Bond albedo and efficient energy redistribution), 4.19 ± 0.09 Jupiter-mass exoplanet orbiting an F8 star every 2.775960 ± 0.000003 days (Buchhave et al 2010). WASP-11b/HAT-P-10b is a cooler (1020 ± 17 K), 0.487 ± 0.018 Jupiter-mass exoplanet orbiting a K3 star every 3.7224747 ± 0.0000065 days (Bakos et al. 2009, co-discovered by West et al. 2008). We observed secondary eclipses of both planets using the 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm channels of the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (program ID 60003). We applied our Photometry for Orbits, Eclipses, and Transits (POET) code to produce normalized eclipse light curves, and our Bayesian Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (BART) code to constrain the temperature-pressure profiles and atmospheric molecular abundances of the two planets. Spitzer is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. This work was supported by NASA Planetary Atmospheres grant NNX12AI69G and NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program grant NNX13AF38G.

TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM OF EARTH AS A TRANSITING EXOPLANET FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET TO THE NEAR-INFRARED

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Betremieux, Y. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Kaltenegger, L., E-mail: betremieux@mpia.de, E-mail: kaltenegger@mpia.de [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden street, Cambridge MA 02138 (United States)

2013-08-01

Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets is a tool to characterize rocky planets and explore their habitability. Using the Earth itself as a proxy, we model the atmospheric cross section as a function of wavelength, and show the effect of each atmospheric species, Rayleigh scattering, and refraction from 115 to 1000 nm. Clouds do not significantly affect this picture because refraction prevents the lowest 12.75 km of the atmosphere, in a transiting geometry for an Earth-Sun analog, to be sampled by a distant observer. We calculate the effective planetary radius for the primary eclipse spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet around a Sun-like star. Below 200 nm, ultraviolet (UV) O{sub 2} absorption increases the effective planetary radius by about 180 km, versus 27 km at 760.3 nm, and 14 km in the near-infrared (NIR) due predominantly to refraction. This translates into a 2.6% change in effective planetary radius over the UV-NIR wavelength range, showing that the UV is an interesting wavelength range for future space missions.

A Low-mass Exoplanet Candidate Detected by K2 Transiting the Praesepe M Dwarf JS 183

Science.gov (United States)

Pepper, Joshua; Gillen, Ed; Parviainen, Hannu; Hillenbrand, Lynne A.; Cody, Ann Marie; Aigrain, Suzanne; Stauffer, John; Vrba, Frederick J.; David, Trevor; Lillo-Box, Jorge; Stassun, Keivan G.; Conroy, Kyle E.; Pope, Benjamin J. S.; Barrado, David

2017-04-01

We report the discovery of a repeating photometric signal from a low-mass member of the Praesepe open cluster that we interpret as a Neptune-sized transiting planet. The star is JS 183 (HSHJ 163, EPIC 211916756), with T eff = 3325 ± 100 K, M * = 0.44 ± 0.04 M ⊙, R * = 0.44 ± 0.03 R ⊙, and {log}{g}* = 4.82+/- 0.06. The planet has an orbital period of 10.134588 days and a radius of R P = 0.32 ± 0.02 R J. Since the star is faint at V = 16.5 and J = 13.3, we are unable to obtain a measured radial velocity orbit, but we can constrain the companion mass to below about 1.7 M J, and thus well below the planetary boundary. JS 183b (since designated as K2-95b) is the second transiting planet found with K2 that resides in a several-hundred-megayear open cluster; both planets orbit mid-M dwarf stars and are approximately Neptune sized. With a well-determined stellar density from the planetary transit, and with an independently known metallicity from its cluster membership, JS 183 provides a particularly valuable test of stellar models at the fully convective boundary. We find that JS 183 is the lowest-density transit host known at the fully convective boundary, and that its very low density is consistent with current models of stars just above the fully convective boundary but in tension with the models just below the fully convective boundary.

MASCARA-2 b. A hot Jupiter transiting the mV = 7.6 A-star HD 185603

Science.gov (United States)

Talens, G. J. J.; Justesen, A. B.; Albrecht, S.; McCormac, J.; Van Eylen, V.; Otten, G. P. P. L.; Murgas, F.; Palle, E.; Pollacco, D.; Stuik, R.; Spronck, J. F. P.; Lesage, A.-L.; Grundahl, F.; Fredslund Andersen, M.; Antoci, V.; Snellen, I. A. G.

2018-04-01

In this paper we present MASCARA-2 b, a hot Jupiter transiting the mV = 7.6 A2 star HD 185603. Since early 2015, MASCARA has taken more than 1.6 million flux measurements of the star, corresponding to a total of almost 3000 h of observations, revealing a periodic dimming in the flux with a depth of 1.3%. Photometric follow-up observations were performed with the NITES and IAC80 telescopes and spectroscopic measurements were obtained with the Hertzsprung SONG telescope. We find MASCARA-2 b orbits HD 185603 with a period of 3.4741119-0.000006+0.000005 at a distance of 0.057 ± 0.006 au, has a radius of 1.83 ± 0.07 RJ and place a 99% upper limit on the mass of http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/612/A57

Kepler-424 b: A 'lonely' hot Jupiter that found A companion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Endl, Michael; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Havel, Mathieu; Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa; Isaacson, Howard; Buchhave, Lars A.; Brugamyer, Erik; Robertson, Paul; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Lucas, Phillip; Fischer, Debra; Ciardi, David R.

2014-01-01

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be l onely . This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to υ Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M ⊕ .

Kepler-424 b: A 'lonely' hot Jupiter that found A companion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Endl, Michael [McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Havel, Mathieu; Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Brugamyer, Erik [Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Robertson, Paul [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Pennsylvania State University (United States); Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J. [McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Lucas, Phillip [Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB (United Kingdom); Fischer, Debra [Department of Astronomy, Yale University (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2014-11-10

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be {sup l}onely{sup .} This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to υ Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M {sub ⊕}.

Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program: Evaluation of Transiting Exoplanet WASP-63b.

Science.gov (United States)

Kilpatrick, Brian; Cubillos, Patricio; Bruno, Giovanni; Lewis, Nikole K.; Stevenson, Kevin B.; Wakeford, Hannah; Blecic, Jasmina; Burrows, Adam Seth; Deming, Drake; Heng, Kevin; Line, Michael R.; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Morley, Caroline; Waldmann, Ingo P.; Transiting Exoplanet Early Release Science Community

2017-06-01

We present observations of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ``A Preparatory Program to Identify the Single Best Transiting Exoplanet for JWST Early Release Science" for WASP-63b, one of the community targets proposed for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Science (ERS) program. A large collaboration of transiting exoplanet scientists identified a set of ``community targets" which meet a certain set of criteria for ecliptic latitude, period, host star brightness, well constrained orbital parameters, and strength of spectroscopic features. WASP-63b was one of the targets identified as a potential candidate for the ERS program. It is presented as an inflated planet with a large signal. It will be accessible to JWST approximately six months after the planned start of Cycle 1/ERS in April 2019 making it an ideal candidate should there be any delays in the JWST timetable. Here, we observe WASP-63b to evaluate its suitability as the best target to test the capabilities of JWST. Ideally, a clear atmosphere will be best suited for bench marking the instruments ability to detect spectroscopic features. We can use the strength of the water absorption feature at 1.4 μm as a way to determine the presence of obscuring clouds/hazes. The results of atmospheric retrieval are presented along with a discussion on the suitability of WASP-63b as the best target to be observed during the ERS Program.

Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-4b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huitson, C. M. [CASA, University of Colorado, 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0389 (United States); Désert, J.-M. [API, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94249, 1090 GE Amsterdam (Netherlands); Bean, J. L. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Fortney, J. J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Stevenson, K. B. [Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Bergmann, M., E-mail: catherine.huitson@colorado.edu [NOAO and Gemini Observatory, present address Palo Alto, CA (United States)

2017-09-01

We present the complete optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b from 440 to 940 nm at R  ∼ 400–1500 obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrometers (GMOS); this is the first result from a comparative exoplanetology survey program of close-in gas giants conducted with GMOS. WASP-4b has an equilibrium temperature of 1700 K and is favorable to study in transmission due to its large scale height (370 km). We derive the transmission spectrum of WASP-4b using four transits observed with the MOS technique. We demonstrate repeatable results across multiple epochs with GMOS, and derive a combined transmission spectrum at a precision about twice above photon noise, which is roughly equal to one atmospheric scale height. The transmission spectrum is well fitted with a uniform opacity as a function of wavelength. The uniform opacity and absence of a Rayleigh slope from molecular hydrogen suggest that the atmosphere is dominated by clouds with condensate grain sizes of ∼1  μ m. This result is consistent with previous observations of hot Jupiters since clouds have been seen in planets with similar equilibrium temperatures to WASP-4b. We describe a custom pipeline that we have written to reduce GMOS time-series data of exoplanet transits, and present a thorough analysis of the dominant noise sources in GMOS, which primarily consist of wavelength- and time-dependent displacements of the spectra on the detector, mainly due to a lack of atmospheric dispersion correction.

Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-4b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huitson, C. M.; Désert, J.-M.; Bean, J. L.; Fortney, J. J.; Stevenson, K. B.; Bergmann, M.

2017-01-01

We present the complete optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b from 440 to 940 nm at R  ∼ 400–1500 obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrometers (GMOS); this is the first result from a comparative exoplanetology survey program of close-in gas giants conducted with GMOS. WASP-4b has an equilibrium temperature of 1700 K and is favorable to study in transmission due to its large scale height (370 km). We derive the transmission spectrum of WASP-4b using four transits observed with the MOS technique. We demonstrate repeatable results across multiple epochs with GMOS, and derive a combined transmission spectrum at a precision about twice above photon noise, which is roughly equal to one atmospheric scale height. The transmission spectrum is well fitted with a uniform opacity as a function of wavelength. The uniform opacity and absence of a Rayleigh slope from molecular hydrogen suggest that the atmosphere is dominated by clouds with condensate grain sizes of ∼1  μ m. This result is consistent with previous observations of hot Jupiters since clouds have been seen in planets with similar equilibrium temperatures to WASP-4b. We describe a custom pipeline that we have written to reduce GMOS time-series data of exoplanet transits, and present a thorough analysis of the dominant noise sources in GMOS, which primarily consist of wavelength- and time-dependent displacements of the spectra on the detector, mainly due to a lack of atmospheric dispersion correction.

Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-4b

Science.gov (United States)

Huitson, C. M.; Désert, J.-M.; Bean, J. L.; Fortney, J. J.; Stevenson, K. B.; Bergmann, M.

2017-09-01

We present the complete optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b from 440 to 940 nm at R ˜ 400-1500 obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrometers (GMOS); this is the first result from a comparative exoplanetology survey program of close-in gas giants conducted with GMOS. WASP-4b has an equilibrium temperature of 1700 K and is favorable to study in transmission due to its large scale height (370 km). We derive the transmission spectrum of WASP-4b using four transits observed with the MOS technique. We demonstrate repeatable results across multiple epochs with GMOS, and derive a combined transmission spectrum at a precision about twice above photon noise, which is roughly equal to one atmospheric scale height. The transmission spectrum is well fitted with a uniform opacity as a function of wavelength. The uniform opacity and absence of a Rayleigh slope from molecular hydrogen suggest that the atmosphere is dominated by clouds with condensate grain sizes of ˜1 μm. This result is consistent with previous observations of hot Jupiters since clouds have been seen in planets with similar equilibrium temperatures to WASP-4b. We describe a custom pipeline that we have written to reduce GMOS time-series data of exoplanet transits, and present a thorough analysis of the dominant noise sources in GMOS, which primarily consist of wavelength- and time-dependent displacements of the spectra on the detector, mainly due to a lack of atmospheric dispersion correction.

Core-powered mass-loss and the radius distribution of small exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Ginzburg, Sivan; Schlichting, Hilke E.; Sari, Re'em

2018-05-01

Recent observations identify a valley in the radius distribution of small exoplanets, with planets in the range 1.5-2.0 R⊕ significantly less common than somewhat smaller or larger planets. This valley may suggest a bimodal population of rocky planets that are either engulfed by massive gas envelopes that significantly enlarge their radius, or do not have detectable atmospheres at all. One explanation of such a bimodal distribution is atmospheric erosion by high-energy stellar photons. We investigate an alternative mechanism: the luminosity of the cooling rocky core, which can completely erode light envelopes while preserving heavy ones, produces a deficit of intermediate sized planets. We evolve planetary populations that are derived from observations using a simple analytical prescription, accounting self-consistently for envelope accretion, cooling and mass-loss, and demonstrate that core-powered mass-loss naturally reproduces the observed radius distribution, regardless of the high-energy incident flux. Observations of planets around different stellar types may distinguish between photoevaporation, which is powered by the high-energy tail of the stellar radiation, and core-powered mass-loss, which depends on the bolometric flux through the planet's equilibrium temperature that sets both its cooling and mass-loss rates.

Kepler-424 b: A "Lonely" Hot Jupiter that Found a Companion

Science.gov (United States)

Endl, Michael; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Isaacson, Howard; Buchhave, Lars A.; Brugamyer, Erik; Robertson, Paul; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Havel, Mathieu; Lucas, Phillip; Howell, Steve B.; Fischer, Debra; Quintana, Elisa; Ciardi, David R.

2014-11-01

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be "lonely". This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to \\upsilon Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M ⊕. Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Searching for the Transit of the Earth-mass Exoplanet Proxima Centauri b in Antarctica: Preliminary Result

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hui-Gen; Jiang, Peng; Huang, Xingxing; Yu, Zhou-Yi; Yang, Ming; Jia, Minghao; Awiphan, Supachai; Pan, Xiang; Liu, Bo; Zhang, Hongfei; Wang, Jian; Li, Zhengyang; Du, Fujia; Li, Xiaoyan; Lu, Haiping; Zhang, Zhiyong; Tian, Qi-Guo; Li, Bin; Ji, Tuo; Zhang, Shaohua; Shi, Xiheng; Wang, Ji; Zhou, Ji-Lin; Zhou, Hongyan

2018-01-01

Proxima Centauri is known as the closest star to the Sun. Recently, radial velocity (RV) observations revealed the existence of an Earth-mass planet around it. With an orbital period of ∼11 days, Proxima Centauri b is probably in the habitable zone of its host star. We undertook a photometric monitoring campaign to search for its transit, using the Bright Star Survey Telescope at the Zhongshan Station in Antarctica. A transit-like signal appearing on 2016 September 8 has been tentatively identified. Its midtime, T C = 2,457,640.1990 ± 0.0017 HJD, is consistent with the predicted ephemeris based on the RV orbit in a 1σ confidence interval. Time-correlated noise is pronounced in the light curve of Proxima Centauri, affecting the detection of transits. We develop a technique, in a Gaussian process framework, to gauge the statistical significance of a potential transit detection. The tentative transit signal reported here has a confidence level of 2.5σ. Further detection of its periodic signals is necessary to confirm the planetary transit of Proxima Centauri b. We plan to monitor Proxima Centauri in the next polar night at Dome A in Antarctica, taking advantage of continuous darkness. Kipping et al. reported two tentative transit-like signals of Proxima Centauri b observed by the Microvariability and Oscillation of Stars space telescope in 2014 and 2015. The midtransit time of our detection is 138 minutes later than that predicted by their transit ephemeris. If all of the signals are real transits, the misalignment of the epochs plausibly suggests transit timing variations of Proxima Centauri b induced by an outer planet in this system.

Atmospheres of Two Super-Puffs: Transmission Spectra of Kepler 51b and Kepler 51d

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Jessica; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Desert, Jean-Michel; Deck, Katherine; Fabrycky, Daniel; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Line, Michael R.; Lopez, Eric; Masuda, Kento; Morley, Caroline; Sanchis Ojeda, Roberto; Winn, Joshua N.

2018-06-01

The Kepler 51 system hosts three transiting, extremely low-mass, low-density exoplanets. These planets orbit a young G type star at periods of 45, 85 and 130 days, placing them outside of the regime for the inflated hot-Jupiters. Instead, the Kepler 51 planets are part of a rare class of exoplanets: the super-puffs. Models suggest these H/He-rich planets formed outside of the snow-line and migrated inwards, which might imply abundant water in their atmospheres. Because Kepler 51b and 51d have low surface gravities, they also have scale heights 10x larger than a typical hot-Jupiter, making them prime targets for atmospheric investigation. Kepler 51c, while also possessing a large scale height, only grazes its star during transit. We are also presented with a unique opportunity to study two super-puffs in very different temperature regimes around the same star. Therefore, we observed two transits each of both Kepler 51b and 51d with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 G141 grism spectroscopy. Using these data we created spectroscopic light curves that allow us to compute a transmission spectrum for each planet. We conclude that both planets have a flat transmission spectrum with a precision better than 0.6 scale heights between 1.1 and 1.7 microns. We also analyzed the transit timing variations of each planet by combining re-fitted Kepler mid-transit times with our measured HST times. From these additional timing points, we are able to better constrain the planetary masses and the dynamics of the system. With these updated masses and revisited stellar parameters, we determine precise measurements on the densities of these planets. We will present these results as well as discuss the implications for high altitude aerosols in both Kepler 51b and 51d.

M-dwarf exoplanet surface density distribution. A log-normal fit from 0.07 to 400 AU

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Michael R.; Amara, Adam; Reggiani, Maddalena; Quanz, Sascha P.

2018-04-01

Aims: We fit a log-normal function to the M-dwarf orbital surface density distribution of gas giant planets, over the mass range 1-10 times that of Jupiter, from 0.07 to 400 AU. Methods: We used a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to explore the likelihoods of various parameter values consistent with point estimates of the data given our assumed functional form. Results: This fit is consistent with radial velocity, microlensing, and direct-imaging observations, is well-motivated from theoretical and phenomenological points of view, and predicts results of future surveys. We present probability distributions for each parameter and a maximum likelihood estimate solution. Conclusions: We suggest that this function makes more physical sense than other widely used functions, and we explore the implications of our results on the design of future exoplanet surveys.

Characterizing Exoplanet Atmospheres : A Complete Line List for Phosphine

Science.gov (United States)

Sousa-Silva, C.; Yurchenko, S. N.; Tennyson, J.

2013-09-01

The ability to characterise the atmospheres of cool stars, brown dwarfs and exoplanets requires fundamental data for all species contributing significantly to their opacity. However, with notable exceptions such as water and ammonia, existing molecular line lists are not sufficiently accurate or complete to allow for a full spectroscopic analysis of these bodies. ExoMol (www.exomol.com [1]) is a project that aims to rectify this by generating comprehensive line lists for all molecules likely to be detected in the atmospheres of cool astrophysical objects in the foreseeable future. The spectral data is generated by employing ab initio quantum mechanical methods, performing empirical refinement based on experimental spectroscopic data and harnessing high performance computing. Here we present our work on phosphine, (PH3), an equilateral pyramidal molecule (the phosphorus analogue to ammonia). Phosphine is known to be important for the atmospheres of giant-planets, cool stars and many other astronomical bodies. Rotational transition features of phosphine have been found in the far- infrared spectra of Saturn and Jupiter [2, 3], where it is a marker for vertical convection zones. A computed room temperature line list of phosphine is presented here [4], illustrated in the accompanying figure 1. This line list is a precursor to a high temperature equivalent to be produced in the near future, necessary for the analysis of cool stars and brown dwarfs. All the transitions' energy levels and Einstein A-coefficients were computed using the program TROVE [5].

rosuvastatin (JUPITER)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ridker, Paul M; MacFadyen, Jean G; Fonseca, Francisco A H

2009-01-01

were calculated across a range of end points, timeframes, and subgroups using data from Justification for the Use of statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), a randomized evaluation of rosuvastatin 20 mg versus placebo conducted among 17 802 apparently healthy men...... infarction, stroke, revascularization, or death, the 5-year NNT within JUPITER was 20 (95% CI, 14 to 34). All subgroups had 5-year NNT values for this end point below 50; as examples, 5-year NNT values were 17 for men and 31 for women, 21 for whites and 19 for nonwhites, 18 for those with body mass index 300...

Trajectory Design Enhancements to Mitigate Risk for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Science.gov (United States)

Dichmann, Donald; Parker, Joel; Nickel, Craig; Lutz, Stephen

2016-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will employ a highly eccentric Earth orbit, in 2:1 lunar resonance, which will be reached with a lunar flyby preceded by 3.5 phasing loops. The TESS mission has limited propellant and several constraints on the science orbit and on the phasing loops. Based on analysis and simulation, we have designed the phasing loops to reduce delta-V (DV) and to mitigate risk due to maneuver execution errors. We have automated the trajectory design process and use distributed processing to generate and optimal nominal trajectories; to check constraint satisfaction; and finally to model the effects of maneuver errors to identify trajectories that best meet the mission requirements.

MOA-2011-BLG-262Lb: A sub-Earth-mass moon orbiting a gas giant primary or a high velocity planetary system in the galactic Bulge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennett, D. P. [Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); Batista, V. [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Bond, I. A.; Ling, C. H. [Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland 0745 (New Zealand); Bennett, C. S. [Department of Physics, Massachussets Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Suzuki, D.; Koshimoto, N. [Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-0043 (Japan); Beaulieu, J.-P. [UPMC-CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d' Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris (France); Udalski, A. [Warsaw University Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa (Poland); Donatowicz, J. [Technische Universität Wien, Wieder Hauptst. 8-10, A-1040 Vienna (Austria); Bozza, V. [Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Salerno, Via Ponte Don Melillo 132, I-84084 Fisciano (Italy); Abe, F.; Fukunaga, D.; Itow, Y.; Masuda, K.; Matsubara, Y.; Muraki, Y. [Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601 (Japan); Botzler, C. S.; Freeman, M. [Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland 1001 (New Zealand); Fukui, A., E-mail: bennett@nd.edu [Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Okayama 719-0232 (Japan); Collaboration: MOA Collaboration; PLANET Collaboration; μFUN Collaboration; OGLE Collaboration; RoboNet Collaboration; and others

2014-04-20

We present the first microlensing candidate for a free-floating exoplanet-exomoon system, MOA-2011-BLG-262, with a primary lens mass of M {sub host} ∼ 4 Jupiter masses hosting a sub-Earth mass moon. The argument for an exomoon hinges on the system being relatively close to the Sun. The data constrain the product M{sub L} π{sub rel} where M{sub L} is the lens system mass and π{sub rel} is the lens-source relative parallax. If the lens system is nearby (large π{sub rel}), then M{sub L} is small (a few Jupiter masses) and the companion is a sub-Earth-mass exomoon. The best-fit solution has a large lens-source relative proper motion, μ{sub rel} = 19.6 ± 1.6 mas yr{sup –1}, which would rule out a distant lens system unless the source star has an unusually high proper motion. However, data from the OGLE collaboration nearly rule out a high source proper motion, so the exoplanet+exomoon model is the favored interpretation for the best fit model. However, there is an alternate solution that has a lower proper motion and fits the data almost as well. This solution is compatible with a distant (so stellar) host. A Bayesian analysis does not favor the exoplanet+exomoon interpretation, so Occam's razor favors a lens system in the bulge with host and companion masses of M{sub host}=0.12{sub −0.06}{sup +0.19} M{sub ⊙} and m{sub comp}=18{sub −10}{sup +28} M{sub ⊕}, at a projected separation of a{sub ⊥}=0.84{sub −0.14}{sup +0.25} AU. The existence of this degeneracy is an unlucky accident, so current microlensing experiments are in principle sensitive to exomoons. In some circumstances, it will be possible to definitively establish the mass of such lens systems through the microlensing parallax effect. Future experiments will be sensitive to less extreme exomoons.

HAT-P-13b,c: A TRANSITING HOT JUPITER WITH A MASSIVE OUTER COMPANION ON AN ECCENTRIC ORBIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bakos, G. A.; Noyes, R. W.; Hartman, J.; Torres, G.; Latham, D. W.; Sasselov, D. D.; Stefanik, R. P.; Sipocz, B.; Kovacs, Gabor; Esquerdo, G. A.; Pal, A.; Howard, A. W.; Marcy, G. W.; Kovacs, Geza; Fischer, D. A.; Johnson, J. A.; Lazar, J.; Papp, I.; Sari, P.

2009-01-01

We report on the discovery of a planetary system with a close-in transiting hot Jupiter on a near circular orbit and a massive outer planet on a highly eccentric orbit. The inner planet, HAT-P-13b, transits the bright V = 10.622 G4 dwarf star GSC 3416 - 00543 every P = 2.916260 ± 0.000010 days, with transit epoch T c = 2454779.92979 ± 0.00038 (BJD) and duration 0.1345 ± 0.0017 days. The outer planet HAT-P-13c orbits the star every P 2 = 428.5 ± 3.0 days with a nominal transit center (assuming zero impact parameter) of T 2c = 2454870.4 ± 1.8 (BJD) or time of periastron passage T 2,peri = 2454890.05 ± 0.48 (BJD). Transits of the outer planet have not been observed, and may not be present. The host star has a mass of 1.22 +0.05 -0.10 M sun , radius of 1.56 ± 0.08 R sun , effective temperature of 5653 ± 90 K, and is rather metal-rich with [Fe/H] = +0.41 ± 0.08. The inner planetary companion has a mass of 0.853 +0.029 -0.046 M J , and radius of 1.281 ± 0.079 R J , yielding a mean density of 0.498 +0.103 -0.069 g cm -3 . The outer companion has m 2 sin i 2 = 15.2 ± 1.0 M J , and orbits on a highly eccentric orbit of e 2 = 0.691 ± 0.018. While we have not detected significant transit timing variations of HAT-P-13b, due to gravitational and light-travel time effects, future observations will constrain the orbital inclination of HAT-P-13c, along with its mutual inclination to HAT-P-13b. The HAT-P-13 (b, c) double-planet system may prove extremely valuable for theoretical studies of the formation and dynamics of planetary systems.

A Search for Exoplanets in Short-Period Binary Star Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald Kaitchuck

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This paper reports the progress of a search for exoplanets with S-type orbits in short-period binary star systems. The selected targets have stellar orbital periods of just a few days. These systems are eclipsing binaries so that exoplanet transits, if planets exist, will be highly likely. We report the results for seven binary star systems.

The Occurrence Rate of Hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Rampalli, Rayna; Catanzarite, Joseph; Batalha, Natalie M.

2017-01-01

As the first kind of exoplanet to be discovered, hot Jupiters have always been objects of interest. Despite being prevalent in radial velocity and ground-based surveys, they were found to be much rarer based on Kepler observations. These data show a pile-up at radii of 9-22 Rearth and orbital periods of 1-10 days. Computing accurate occurrence rates can lend insight into planet-formation and migration-theories. To get a more accurate look, the idea of reliability was introduced. Each hot Jupiter candidate was assigned a reliability based on its location in the galactic plane and likelihood of being a false positive. Numbers were updated if ground-based follow-up indicated a candidate was indeed a false positive. These reliabilities were introduced into an occurrence rate calculation and yielded about a 12% decrease in occurrence rate for each period bin examined and a 25% decrease across all the bins. To get a better idea of the cause behind the pileup, occurrence rates based on parent stellar metallicity were calculated. As expected from previous work, higher metallicity stars yield higher occurrence rates. Future work includes examining period distributions in both the high metallicity and low metallicity sample for a better understanding and confirmation of the pile-up effect.

Exoplanet's Figure and Its Interior

Science.gov (United States)

Mian, Zhang; Cheng-li, Huang

2018-01-01

Along with the development of the observing technology, the observation and study on the exoplanets' oblateness and apsidal precession have achieved significant progress. The oblateness of an exoplanet is determined by its interior density profile and rotation period. Between its Love number k2 and core size exists obviously a negative correlation. So oblateness and k2 can well constrain its interior structure. Starting from the Lane-Emden equation, the planet models based on different polytropic indices are built. Then the flattening factors are obtained by solving the Wavre's integro-differential equation. The result shows that the smaller the polytropic index, the faster the rotation, and the larger the oblateness. We have selected 469 exoplanets, which have simultaneously the observed or estimated values of radius, mass, and orbit period from the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Exoplanet Archive, and calculated their flattening factors under the two assumptions: tidal locking and fixed rotation period of 10.55 hours. The result shows that the flattening factors are too small to be detected under the tidal locking assumption, and that 28% of exoplanets have the flattening factors larger than 0.1 under the fixed rotation period of 10.55 hours. The Love numbers under the different polytropic models are solved by the Zharkov's approach, and the relation between k2 and core size is discussed.

Searching for Exoplanets using Artificial Intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Kyle Alexander; Palafox, Leon; Griffith, Caitlin Ann

2017-10-01

In the last decade, over a million stars were monitored to detect transiting planets. The large volume of data obtained from current and future missions (e.g. Kepler, K2, TESS and LSST) requires automated methods to detect the signature of a planet. Manual interpretation of potential exoplanet candidates is labor intensive and subject to human error, the results of which are difficult to quantify. Here we present a new method of detecting exoplanet candidates in large planetary search projects which, unlike current methods uses a neural network. Neural networks, also called ``deep learning'' or ``deep nets'', are a state of the art machine learning technique designed to give a computer perception into a specific problem by training it to recognize patterns. Unlike past transit detection algorithms, the deep net learns to characterize the data instead of relying on hand-coded metrics that humans perceive as the most representative. Exoplanet transits have different shapes, as a result of, e.g. the planet's and stellar atmosphere and transit geometry. Thus, a simple template does not suffice to capture the subtle details, especially if the signal is below the noise or strong systematics are present. Current false-positive rates from the Kepler data are estimated around 12.3% for Earth-like planets and there has been no study of the false negative rates. It is therefore important to ask how the properties of current algorithms exactly affect the results of the Kepler mission and, future missions such as TESS, which flies next year. These uncertainties affect the fundamental research derived from missions, such as the discovery of habitable planets, estimates of their occurrence rates and our understanding about the nature and evolution of planetary systems.

CONSTRAINING HIGH-SPEED WINDS IN EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES THROUGH OBSERVATIONS OF ANOMALOUS DOPPLER SHIFTS DURING TRANSIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller-Ricci Kempton, Eliza; Rauscher, Emily

2012-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) dynamical models of hot Jupiter atmospheres predict very strong wind speeds. For tidally locked hot Jupiters, winds at high altitude in the planet's atmosphere advect heat from the day side to the cooler night side of the planet. Net wind speeds on the order of 1-10 km s –1 directed towards the night side of the planet are predicted at mbar pressures, which is the approximate pressure level probed by transmission spectroscopy. These winds should result in an observed blueshift of spectral lines in transmission on the order of the wind speed. Indeed, Snellen et al. recently observed a 2 ± 1 km s –1 blueshift of CO transmission features for HD 209458b, which has been interpreted as a detection of the day-to-night (substellar to anti-stellar) winds that have been predicted by 3D atmospheric dynamics modeling. Here, we present the results of a coupled 3D atmospheric dynamics and transmission spectrum model, which predicts the Doppler-shifted spectrum of a hot Jupiter during transit resulting from winds in the planet's atmosphere. We explore four different models for the hot Jupiter atmosphere using different prescriptions for atmospheric drag via interaction with planetary magnetic fields. We find that models with no magnetic drag produce net Doppler blueshifts in the transmission spectrum of ∼2 km s –1 and that lower Doppler shifts of ∼1 km s –1 are found for the higher drag cases, results consistent with—but not yet strongly constrained by—the Snellen et al. measurement. We additionally explore the possibility of recovering the average terminator wind speed as a function of altitude by measuring Doppler shifts of individual spectral lines and spatially resolving wind speeds across the leading and trailing terminators during ingress and egress.

Worlds Beyond: Follow-up Observations and Confirmation of K2 Exoplanet Candidates

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Rachel; Lowenthal, James; Lowenthal, James D.; Cooper, Olivia; Helou, Elana; Papineau, Emily; Peck, Annie; Stephens, Loren; Walker, Kerry

2018-06-01

We present the results of an 8-month follow-up transit photometry campaign focused on exoplanet candidates produced by the K2 mission. Observations were conducted at the McConnell Rooftop Observatory at Smith College in Northampton, MA, with a 16” telescope and CCD. Targets were observed through a 400-700 nm broadband filter at a 1 minute cadence. We attempted to observe the complete duration of the transit plus a minimum one-hour baseline before and after the transit event whenever possible. Our observations typically reach an RMS of 2 millimags for an 11th-magnitude star. Candidates were selected based on a number of factors, including a transit depth of around 10 millimags, a host star magnitude between 10-13, a duration that is observable over the span of a night, and a period shorter than 30 days. There are currently around 700 unconfirmed exoplanets from K2, and these criteria shortened that list to around 20 ideal candidates, many of which were flagged as possible false positives. Our results showcase the capability of small observatories to conduct precise follow-up observations of exoplanet transits.

Ogle-2012-blg-0724lb: A Saturn Mass Planet Around an M-dwarf

Science.gov (United States)

Hirao, Y.; Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; Rattenbury, N.; Suzuki, D.; Koshimoto, N.; Abe, F.; Asakura, Y.; Bhattacharya, A.

2016-01-01

We report the discovery of a planet by the microlensing method, OGLE-2012-BLG-0724Lb. Although the duration of the planetary signal for this event was one of the shortest seen for a planetary event, the anomaly was well covered thanks to high-cadence observations taken by the survey groups OGLE and MOA. By analyzing the light curve, this planetary system is found to have a mass ratio q = (1.58 +/- 0.15) x 10(exp -3). By conducting a Bayesian analysis, we estimate that the host star is an M dwarf with a mass of M(sub L) = 0.29(+0.33/-0.16) solar mass located at D(sub L) = 6.7(+1.1/-1.2) kpc away from the Earth and the companion's mass is m(sub P) = 0.47(+0.54/-0.26) M(Jup). The projected planet- host separation is a falsum = 1.6(+0.4/-0.3) AU. Because the lens-source relative proper motion is relatively high, future highresolution images would detect the lens host star and determine the lens properties uniquely. This system is likely a Saturn-mass exoplanet around an M dwarf, and such systems are commonly detected by gravitational microlensing. This adds another example of a possible pileup of sub-Jupiters (0.2 less than m(sub P)/M(sub Jup) less than 1) in contrast to a lack of Jupiters (approximately 1-2 M(sub Jup)) around M dwarfs, supporting the prediction by core accretion models that Jupiter-mass or more massive planets are unlikely to form around M dwarfs.

LkCa 15: A YOUNG EXOPLANET CAUGHT AT FORMATION?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraus, Adam L.; Ireland, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Young and directly imaged exoplanets offer critical tests of planet-formation models that are not matched by radial velocity surveys of mature stars. These targets have been extremely elusive to date, with no exoplanets younger than 10-20 Myr and only a handful of direct-imaged exoplanets at all ages. We report the direct-imaging discovery of a likely (proto)planet around the young (∼2 Myr) solar analog LkCa 15, located inside a known gap in the protoplanetary disk (a 'transitional disk'). Our observations use non-redundant aperture masking interferometry at three epochs to reveal a faint and relatively blue point source (M K ' =9.1±0.2, K' – L' = 0.98 ± 0.22), flanked by approximately co-orbital emission that is red and resolved into at least two sources (M L ' =7.5±0.2, K' – L' = 2.7 ± 0.3; M L ' =7.4±0.2, K' – L' = 1.94 ± 0.16). We propose that the most likely geometry consists of a newly formed (proto)planet that is surrounded by dusty material. The nominal estimated mass is ∼6 M Jup according to the 1 Myr hot-start models. However, we argue based on its luminosity, color, and the presence of circumplanetary material that the planet has likely been caught at its epoch of assembly, and hence this mass is an upper limit due to its extreme youth and flux contributed by accretion. The projected separations (71.9 ± 1.6 mas, 100.7 ± 1.9 mas, and 88.2 ± 1.8 mas) and deprojected orbital radii (16, 21, and 19 AU) correspond to the center of the disk gap, but are too close to the primary star for a circular orbit to account for the observed inner edge of the outer disk, so an alternative explanation (i.e., additional planets or an eccentric orbit) is likely required. This discovery is the first direct evidence that at least some transitional disks do indeed host newly formed (or forming) exoplanetary systems, and the observed properties provide crucial insight into the gas giant formation process.

Study of Jupiter polarization properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolkvadze, O.R.

1980-01-01

Investigations into polarization properties of the Jupiter reflected light were carried on at the Abastumani astrophysical observatory in 1967, 1968 and 1969 in the four spectral ranges: 4000, 4800, 5400 and 6600 A deg. Data on light polarization in different parts of the Jupiter visible disk are given. Curves of dependence of the planet light polarization degree on a phase angle are plotted. It is shown that in the central part of the visible planet disk the polarization degree is low. Atmosphere is in a stable state in this part of Jupiter. Mean radius of particles of a cloud layer is equal to 0.26μ, and optical thickness of overcloud atmosphere tau=0.05. Height of transition boundary of the cloud layer into overcloud gas atmosphere changes from year to year at the edges of the equatorial zone. Optical thickness of overcloud atmosphere changes also with changing height of a transient layer. The polar Jupiter regions possess a high degree of polarization which depends on a latitude. Polarization increases monotonously with the latitude and over polar regions accepts a maximum value [ru

A Research-Informed Approach to Teaching About Exoplanet Detection in STEM Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Brissenden, Gina; Wallace, C. S.; Prather, E. E.; Traub, W. A.; Greene, W. M.; Biferno, A. A.

2014-01-01

JPL’s NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program’s (ExEP) Public Engagement Program, in collaboration with the Center for Astronomy Education (CAE), is engaged in a research and curriculum development program to bring the science of exoplanet detection into STEM classrooms. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of astronomers pursuing research related to exoplanets, along with a significant increase in interest amongst students and the general public regarding the topic of exoplanets. CAE has previously developed a curriculum unit (including Think-Pair-Share questions and a Lecture-Tutorial) to help students develop a deeper understanding of the Doppler method for detecting extrasolar planets. To date, there is a nearly nonexistent research base on students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties related to the science of the transit and gravitational microlensing methods for detecting extrasolar planets. Appropriate for physical science classrooms from middle school to the introductory college level, the learner-centered active engagement activities we are developing are going through an iterative research and assessment process to ensure that they enable students to achieve increased conceptual understandings and reasoning skills in these areas. In this talk, we will report on our development process for two new Lecture-Tutorials that help students learn about the transit and gravitational microlensing methods for finding exoplanets.

HATS-43b, HATS-44b, HATS-45b, and HATS-46b: Four Short-period Transiting Giant Planets in the Neptune–Jupiter Mass Range

Science.gov (United States)

Brahm, R.; Hartman, J. D.; Jordán, A.; Bakos, G. Á.; Espinoza, N.; Rabus, M.; Bhatti, W.; Penev, K.; Sarkis, P.; Suc, V.; Csubry, Z.; Bayliss, D.; Bento, J.; Zhou, G.; Mancini, L.; Henning, T.; Ciceri, S.; de Val-Borro, M.; Shectman, S.; Crane, J. D.; Arriagada, P.; Butler, P.; Teske, J.; Thompson, I.; Osip, D.; Díaz, M.; Schmidt, B.; Lázár, J.; Papp, I.; Sári, P.

2018-03-01

We report the discovery of four short-period extrasolar planets transiting moderately bright stars from photometric measurements of the HATSouth network coupled to additional spectroscopic and photometric follow-up observations. While the planet masses range from 0.26 to 0.90 {M}{{J}}, the radii are all approximately a Jupiter radii, resulting in a wide range of bulk densities. The orbital period of the planets ranges from 2.7 days to 4.7 days, with HATS-43b having an orbit that appears to be marginally non-circular (e = 0.173 ± 0.089). HATS-44 is notable for having a high metallicity ([{Fe}/{{H}}] = 0.320 ± 0.071). The host stars spectral types range from late F to early K, and all of them are moderately bright (13.3 Carnegie Institute is operated by PU in conjunction with PUC, the station at the High Energy Spectroscopic Survey (H.E.S.S.) site is operated in conjunction with MPIA, and the station at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) is operated jointly with ANU. This paper includes data gathered with the MPG 2.2 m and ESO 3.6 m telescopes at the ESO Observatory in La Silla. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

A Spitzer five-band analysis of the Jupiter-sized planet TrES-1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cubillos, Patricio; Harrington, Joseph; Foster, Andrew S. D.; Lust, Nate B.; Hardy, Ryan A.; Bowman, M. Oliver [Planetary Sciences Group, Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-2385 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku, E-mail: pcubillos@fulbrightmail.org [Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States)

2014-12-10

With an equilibrium temperature of 1200 K, TrES-1 is one of the coolest hot Jupiters observed by Spitzer. It was also the first planet discovered by any transit survey and one of the first exoplanets from which thermal emission was directly observed. We analyzed all Spitzer eclipse and transit data for TrES-1 and obtained its eclipse depths and brightness temperatures in the 3.6 μm (0.083% ± 0.024%, 1270 ± 110 K), 4.5 μm (0.094% ± 0.024%, 1126 ± 90 K), 5.8 μm (0.162% ± 0.042%, 1205 ± 130 K), 8.0 μm (0.213% ± 0.042%, 1190 ± 130 K), and 16 μm (0.33% ± 0.12%, 1270 ± 310 K) bands. The eclipse depths can be explained, within 1σ errors, by a standard atmospheric model with solar abundance composition in chemical equilibrium, with or without a thermal inversion. The combined analysis of the transit, eclipse, and radial-velocity ephemerides gives an eccentricity of e=0.033{sub −0.031}{sup +0.015}, consistent with a circular orbit. Since TrES-1's eclipses have low signal-to-noise ratios, we implemented optimal photometry and differential-evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms in our Photometry for Orbits, Eclipses, and Transits pipeline. Benefits include higher photometric precision and ∼10 times faster MCMC convergence, with better exploration of the phase space and no manual parameter tuning.

Exoplanet atmospheres physical processes

CERN Document Server

Seager, Sara

2010-01-01

Over the past twenty years, astronomers have identified hundreds of extrasolar planets--planets orbiting stars other than the sun. Recent research in this burgeoning field has made it possible to observe and measure the atmospheres of these exoplanets. This is the first textbook to describe the basic physical processes--including radiative transfer, molecular absorption, and chemical processes--common to all planetary atmospheres, as well as the transit, eclipse, and thermal phase variation observations that are unique to exoplanets. In each chapter, Sara Seager offers a conceptual introduction, examples that combine the relevant physics equations with real data, and exercises. Topics range from foundational knowledge, such as the origin of atmospheric composition and planetary spectra, to more advanced concepts, such as solutions to the radiative transfer equation, polarization, and molecular and condensate opacities. Since planets vary widely in their atmospheric properties, Seager emphasizes the major p...

The Frequency of Hot Jupiters in the Galaxy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sackett P. D.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The frequency of Hot Jupiters around Galactic dwarf stars is determined from the results of the SuperLupus transit survey and realistic Monte Carlo simulations of the survey efficiency. We find that for Hot Jupiters with mean radii of 1.1RJ and periods between 1 and 10 days, the frequency around dwarf stars is just 0.16±0.60.2%.

Prospects for Ground-Based Detection and Follow-up of TESS-Discovered Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Varakian, Matthew; Deming, Drake

2018-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will monitor over 200,000 main sequence dwarf stars for exoplanetary transits, with the goal of discovering small planets orbiting stars that are bright enough for follow-up observations. We here evaluate the prospects for ground-based transit detection and follow-up of the TESS-discovered planets. We focus particularly on the TESS planets that only transit once during each 27.4 day TESS observing window per region, and we calculate to what extent ground-based recovery of additional transits will be possible. Using simulated exoplanet systems from Sullivan et al. and assuming the use of a 60-cm telescope at a high quality observing site, we project the S/N ratios for transits of such planets. We use Phoenix stellar models for stars with surface temperatures from 2500K to 12000K, and we account for limb darkening, red atmospheric noise, and missed transits due to the day-night cycle and poor weather.

Búsqueda de exoplanetas: ?`Cuán confiables son las observaciones obtenidas mediante telescopios terrestres?

Science.gov (United States)

von Essen, C.; Páez, R. I.; Schmitt, J. H. M. M.

The main goal of this work is to present a model that generates synthetic light curves of primary transits, comparable to real observations, to study transit timing variations (TTV). Considering that we can observe the sky from different virtual observatories, we simulated observations of primary transits caused by a hot-Jupiter. We artificially added a perturbation caused by an Earth-like exoplanet in a 3:2 mean motion resonance. These simulations would allow to analyze the degree of distorsion that the light curves admit, in order to recover back the induced signal by the exoplanet. FULL TEXT IN SPANISH

K2-231 b: A Sub-Neptune Exoplanet Transiting a Solar Twin in Ruprecht 147

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, Jason Lee; Vanderburg, Andrew; Torres, Guillermo; Kraus, Adam L.; Huber, Daniel; Mann, Andrew W.; Rizzuto, Aaron C.; Isaacson, Howard; Howard, Andrew W.; Henze, Christopher E.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Wright, Jason T.

2018-04-01

We identify a sub-Neptune exoplanet (R p = 2.5 ± 0.2 {R}\\oplus ) transiting a solar twin in the Ruprecht 147 star cluster (3 Gyr, 300 pc, [Fe/H] = +0.1 dex). The ∼81 day light curve for EPIC 219800881 (V = 12.71) from K2 Campaign 7 shows six transits with a period of 13.84 days, a depth of ∼0.06%, and a duration of ∼4 hr. Based on our analysis of high-resolution MIKE spectra, broadband optical and NIR photometry, the cluster parallax and interstellar reddening, and isochrone models from PARSEC, Dartmouth, and MIST, we estimate the following properties for the host star: M ⋆ = 1.01 ± 0.03 {M}ȯ , R ⋆ = 0.95 ± 0.03 {R}ȯ , and {T}{{eff}} = 5695 ± 50 K. This star appears to be single based on our modeling of the photometry, the low radial velocity (RV) variability measured over nearly 10 yr, and Keck/NIRC2 adaptive optics imaging and aperture-masking interferometry. Applying a probabilistic mass–radius relation, we estimate that the mass of this planet is M p = 7 + 5 – 3 {M}\\oplus , which would cause an RV semi-amplitude of K = 2 ± 1 {\\text{m s}}-1 that may be measurable with existing precise RV facilities. After statistically validating this planet with BLENDER, we now designate it K2-231b, making it the second substellar object to be discovered in Ruprecht 147 and the first planet; it joins the small but growing ranks of 22 other planets and three candidates found in open clusters.

On internal constitution of Jupiter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozyrev, N.A.

1977-01-01

Jupiter internal construction is considered. The density and pressure inside a cosmic body can be calculated from the known values of the mass and radius. For Jupiter, the inertia moment calculated from the motion of the satellites permits to determine the degree of uniformity of its structure and to find more precise values of density and pressure in the center of the planet. In assumption that the matter of Jupiter consists of hydrogen only, the dependence of pressure on temperature was calculated with accounting for the degeneracy of gas and electrostatic interactions. Hence the central temperature, calculated from pressure and density, appears to be equal to 165.000 deg K. At the thermal conductivity by free electrons such a temperature at the center is to result in a thermal flux of about 1.0x10 4 erg/cm 2 from Jupiter's surface, which was observed during the flights of the ''Pioneer'' stations

De-Trending K2 Exoplanet Targets for High Spacecraft Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, Nicholas; Luger, Rodrigo; Barnes, Rory

2018-01-01

After the failure of two reaction wheels, the Kepler space telescope lost its fine pointing ability and entered a new phase of observation, K2. Targets observed by K2 have high motion relative to the detector and K2 light curves have higher noise than Kepler observations. Despite the increased noise, systematics removal pipelines such as K2SFF and EVEREST have enabled continued high-precision transiting planet science with the telescope, resulting in the detection of hundreds of new exoplanets. However, as the spacecraft begins to run out of fuel, sputtering will drive large and random variations in pointing that can prevent detection of exoplanets during the remaining 5 campaigns. In general, higher motion will spread the stellar point spread function (PSF) across more pixels during a campaign, which increases the number of degrees of freedom in the noise component and significantly reduces the de-trending power of traditional systematics removal methods. We use a model of the Kepler CCD combined with pixel-level information of a large number of stars across the detector to improve the performance of the EVEREST pipeline at high motion. We also consider the problem of increased crowding for static apertures in the high-motion regime and develop pixel response function (PRF)-fitting techniques to mitigate contamination and maximize the de-trending power. We assess the performance of our code by simulating sputtering events and assessing exoplanet detection efficiency with transit injection/recovery tests. We find that targets with roll amplitudes of up to 8 pixels, approximately 15 times K2 roll, can be de-trended within 2 to 3 factors of current K2 photometric precision for stars up to 14th magnitude. Achieved recovery precision allows detection of small planets around 11th and 12th magnitude stars. These methods can be applied to the light curves of K2 targets for existing and future campaigns to ensure that precision exoplanet science can still be performed

Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of hot jupiter upper atmospheres

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trammell, George B.; Li, Zhi-Yun; Arras, Phil, E-mail: gbt8f@virginia.edu, E-mail: zl4h@virginia.edu, E-mail: arras@virginia.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400325, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States)

2014-06-20

Two-dimensional simulations of hot Jupiter upper atmospheres including the planet's magnetic field are presented. The goal is to explore magnetic effects on the layer of the atmosphere that is ionized and heated by stellar EUV radiation, and the imprint of these effects on the Lyα transmission spectrum. The simulations are axisymmetric, isothermal, and include both rotation and azimuth-averaged stellar tides. Mass density is converted to atomic hydrogen density through the assumption of ionization equilibrium. The three-zone structure—polar dead zone (DZ), mid-latitude wind zone (WZ), and equatorial DZ—found in previous analytic calculations is confirmed. For a magnetic field comparable to that of Jupiter, the equatorial DZ, which is confined by the magnetic field and corotates with the planet, contributes at least half of the transit signal. For even stronger fields, the gas escaping in the mid-latitude WZ is found to have a smaller contribution to the transit depth than the equatorial DZ. Transmission spectra computed from the simulations are compared to Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Advanced Camera for Surveys data for HD 209458b and HD 189733b, and the range of model parameters consistent with the data is found. The central result of this paper is that the transit depth increases strongly with magnetic field strength when the hydrogen ionization layer is magnetically dominated, for dipole magnetic field B {sub 0} ≳ 10 G. Hence transit depth is sensitive to magnetic field strength, in addition to standard quantities such as the ratio of thermal to gravitational binding energies. Another effect of the magnetic field is that the planet loses angular momentum orders of magnitude faster than in the non-magnetic case, because the magnetic field greatly increases the lever arm for wind braking of the planet's rotation. Spin-down timescales for magnetized models of HD 209458b that agree with the observed transit depth

ASTEP: Towards the detection and characterization of exoplanets from Dome C

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rauer H.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The ASTEP project (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets, aims at testing the quality of the Dome C site in Antarctica for photometry in the visible, as well as detecting and characterizing transiting exoplanets. A dedicated telescope, ASTEP400, has been developped and installed at Concordia. The first campaign took place during the winter 2010, and the telescope functionned nominally during all the winter. A first analysis of the data leads to a precision of 189 and 205 ppm for WASP-19 and WASP-18 respectively, for continuous observations during 1 month. This shows that extremely high precision photometry is achievable from Dome C.

Biodiesel Mass Transit Demonstration

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

The Biodiesel Mass Transit Demonstration report is intended for mass transit decision makers and fleet managers considering biodiesel use. This is the final report for the demonstration project implemented by the National Biodiesel Board under a gran...

WFIRST: The Exoplanet Microlensing Survey Tells Us Where We Can Find the Cool Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, David; Gaudi, B. Scott; WFIRST Microlensing Science Investigation Team

2018-01-01

The WFIRST Exoplanet microlensing survey will complete a demographic survey of all types of planets ranging from ~0.5 AU to planets that have become unbound from the stellar systems of their birth. WFIRST's sensitivity extends down below the mass of Mars (or 0.1 Earth masses,and it is sensitive to analogs of all the planets in the Solar System, except for Mercury. When combined with Kepler's statistical census of hot and warm planets in short period orbits, WFIRST's exoplanet microlensing survey will give us a complete picture the mass and separation distribution of all types of planets. The current plans for this survey are presented, and recent developments relating to the WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey will be presented, including recent ground-based microlensing results that challenge current theories of planet formation. Opportunities for community involvement in the WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey will be mentioned.

Chasing Small Exoplanets with Ground-Based Near-Infrared Transit Photometry

Science.gov (United States)

Colon, K. D.; Barentsen, G.; Vinicius, Z.; Vanderburg, A.; Coughlin, J.; Thompson, S.; Mullally, F.; Barclay, T.; Quintana, E.

2017-11-01

I will present results from a ground-based survey to measure the infrared radius and other properties of small K2 exoplanets and candidates. The survey is preparation for upcoming discoveries from TESS and characterization with JWST.

Strange Isotope Ratios in Jupiter

Science.gov (United States)

Manuel, O.; Ragland, D.; Windler, K.; Zirbel, J.; Johannes, L.; Nolte, A.

1998-05-01

At the January AAS meeting, Dr. Daniel Goldin ordered the release of isotopic data from the 1995 Galileo probe into Jupiter. This probe took mass readings for mass numbers 2-150, which includes all of the noble gas isotopes. A certain few noble gas isotopes, specifically those at mass/charge = 21, 40, 78, 124, and 126, are difficult to distinguish from background, while interference causes some variation in signals for noble gas isotopes at mass/charge = 20, 22, 36, 38, 40, 80, 82, 83, 84 and 86. Some contamination was caused by incomplete adsorption of low mass hydrocarbons by Carbosieve, the material used in the concentration cells [Space Sci. Rev. 60, 120 (1992)]. Thus, preliminary results are most reliable in the high mass region that includes xenon. The Galileo Probe provided the first direct measurements from a planet with a chemical composition drastically different from Earth. Our preliminary analyses indicate that Jupiter contains Xe-X [Nature 240, 99 (1972)], which differs significantly from Earth's xenon. Xe-X and primordial He are tightly coupled on the microscopic scale of meteorite minerals [Science 195, 208 (1977); Meteoritics 15, 117 (1980)]. The presence today of Xe-X in the He-rich atmosphere of Jupiter suggests that the primordial linkage of Xe-X with He extended across the protosolar nebula, on a planetary scale [Comments Astrophys. 18, 335 (1997)]. Contamination by hydrocarbons and other gases does not necessarily remove light noble gases from further consideration. Currently, isolation of signals of these elements from interference continues and may result in the presentation of many other interesting observations at the conference.

THE LEECH EXOPLANET IMAGING SURVEY: ORBIT AND COMPONENT MASSES OF THE INTERMEDIATE-AGE, LATE-TYPE BINARY NO UMa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schlieder, Joshua E. [NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science and Astrobiology Division, MS 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Skemer, Andrew J.; Hinz, Philip; Leisenring, Jarron; Defrère, Denis; Close, Laird M.; Eisner, Josh A. [Steward Observatory, Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Maire, Anne-Lise; Desidera, Silvano [INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I-35122, Padova (Italy); Skrutskie, Michael F. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904 (United States); Bailey, Vanessa [Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States); Esposito, Simone [INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125, Firenze (Italy); Strassmeier, Klaus G.; Weber, Michael [Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482, Potsdam (Germany); Biller, Beth A.; Bonnefoy, Mickaël; Buenzli, Esther; Henning, Thomas [Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg (Germany); Crepp, Justin R. [Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556 (United States); Hofmann, Karl-Heinz, E-mail: joshua.e.schlieder@nasa.gov [Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121, Bonn (Germany); and others

2016-02-10

We present high-resolution Large Binocular Telescope LBTI/LMIRcam images of the spectroscopic and astrometric binary NO UMa obtained as part of the LBT Interferometer Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt exoplanet imaging survey. Our H-, K{sub s}-, and L′-band observations resolve the system at angular separations <0.″09. The components exhibit significant orbital motion over a span of ∼7 months. We combine our imaging data with archival images, published speckle interferometry measurements, and existing spectroscopic velocity data to solve the full orbital solution and estimate component masses. The masses of the K2.0 ± 0.5 primary and K6.5 ± 0.5 secondary are 0.83 ± 0.02 M{sub ⊙} and 0.64 ± 0.02 M{sub ⊙}, respectively. We also derive a system distance of d = 25.87 ± 0.02 pc and revise the Galactic kinematics of NO UMa. Our revised Galactic kinematics confirm NO UMa as a nuclear member of the ∼500 Myr old Ursa Major moving group, and it is thus a mass and age benchmark. We compare the masses of the NO UMa binary components to those predicted by five sets of stellar evolution models at the age of the Ursa Major group. We find excellent agreement between our measured masses and model predictions with little systematic scatter between the models. NO UMa joins the short list of nearby, bright, late-type binaries having known ages and fully characterized orbits.

Jupiter: Cosmic Jekyll and Hyde.

Science.gov (United States)

Grazier, Kevin R

2016-01-01

It has been widely reported that Jupiter has a profound role in shielding the terrestrial planets from comet impacts in the Solar System, and that a jovian planet is a requirement for the evolution of life on Earth. To evaluate whether jovians, in fact, shield habitable planets from impacts (a phenomenon often referred to as the "Jupiter as shield" concept), this study simulated the evolution of 10,000 particles in each of the jovian inter-planet gaps for the cases of full-mass and embryo planets for up to 100 My. The results of these simulations predict a number of phenomena that not only discount the "Jupiter as shield" concept, they also predict that in a Solar System like ours, large gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter had a different, and potentially even more important, role in the evolution of life on our planet by delivering the volatile-laden material required for the formation of life. The simulations illustrate that, although all particles occupied "non-life threatening" orbits at their onset of the simulations, a significant fraction of the 30,000 particles evolved into Earth-crossing orbits. A comparison of multiple runs with different planetary configurations revealed that Jupiter was responsible for the vast majority of the encounters that "kicked" outer planet material into the terrestrial planet region, and that Saturn assisted in the process far more than has previously been acknowledged. Jupiter also tends to "fix" the aphelion of planetesimals at its orbit irrespective of their initial starting zones, which has the effect of slowing their passages through the inner Solar System, and thus potentially improving the odds of accretion of cometary material by terrestrial planets. As expected, the simulations indicate that the full-mass planets perturb many objects into the deep outer Solar System, or eject them entirely; however, planetary embryos also did this with surprising efficiency. Finally, the simulations predict that Jupiter's capacity to

Asteroseismology of the Transiting Exoplanet Host HD 17156 with Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gilliland, Ronald L.; McCullough, Peter R.; Nelan, Edmund P.

2011-01-01

light curve. Using the density constraint from asteroseismology, and stellar evolution modeling results in M * = 1.285 ± 0.026 M sun, R * = 1.507 ± 0.012 R sun, and a stellar age of 3.2 ± 0.3 Gyr. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science......Observations conducted with the Fine Guidance Sensor on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) providing high cadence and precision time-series photometry were obtained over 10 consecutive days in 2008 December on the host star of the transiting exoplanet HD 17156b. During this time, 1.0 × 1012 photons...... Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555....

The nature of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Grimm, Simon L.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Gillon, Michaël; Dorn, Caroline; Agol, Eric; Burdanov, Artem; Delrez, Laetitia; Sestovic, Marko; Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.; Turbet, Martin; Bolmont, Émeline; Caldas, Anthony; Wit, Julien de; Jehin, Emmanuël; Leconte, Jérémy; Raymond, Sean N.; Grootel, Valérie Van; Burgasser, Adam J.; Carey, Sean; Fabrycky, Daniel; Heng, Kevin; Hernandez, David M.; Ingalls, James G.; Lederer, Susan; Selsis, Franck; Queloz, Didier

2018-06-01

Context. The TRAPPIST-1 system hosts seven Earth-sized, temperate exoplanets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. As such, it represents a remarkable setting to study the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets that formed in the same protoplanetary disk. While the sizes of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are all known to better than 5% precision, their densities have significant uncertainties (between 28% and 95%) because of poor constraints on the planet's masses. Aims: The goal of this paper is to improve our knowledge of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary masses and densities using transit-timing variations (TTVs). The complexity of the TTV inversion problem is known to be particularly acute in multi-planetary systems (convergence issues, degeneracies and size of the parameter space), especially for resonant chain systems such as TRAPPIST-1. Methods: To overcome these challenges, we have used a novel method that employs a genetic algorithm coupled to a full N-body integrator that we applied to a set of 284 individual transit timings. This approach enables us to efficiently explore the parameter space and to derive reliable masses and densities from TTVs for all seven planets. Results: Our new masses result in a five- to eight-fold improvement on the planetary density uncertainties, with precisions ranging from 5% to 12%. These updated values provide new insights into the bulk structure of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. We find that TRAPPIST-1 c and e likely have largely rocky interiors, while planets b, d, f, g, and h require envelopes of volatiles in the form of thick atmospheres, oceans, or ice, in most cases with water mass fractions less than 5%.

A COLD NEPTUNE-MASS PLANET OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb: COLD NEPTUNES ARE COMMON

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sumi, T.; Abe, F.; Fukui, A.

2010-01-01

We present the discovery of a Neptune-mass planet OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb with a planet-star mass ratio of q = [9.5 ± 2.1] x 10 -5 via gravitational microlensing. The planetary deviation was detected in real-time thanks to the high cadence of the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics survey, real-time light-curve monitoring and intensive follow-up observations. A Bayesian analysis returns the stellar mass and distance at M l = 0.64 +0.21 -0.26 M sun and D l = 5.9 +0.9 -1.4 kpc, respectively, so the mass and separation of the planet are M p = 20 +7 -8 M + and a = 3.3 +1.4 -0.8 AU, respectively. This discovery adds another cold Neptune-mass planet to the planetary sample discovered by microlensing, which now comprises four cold Neptune/super-Earths, five gas giant planets, and another sub-Saturn mass planet whose nature is unclear. The discovery of these 10 cold exoplanets by the microlensing method implies that the mass ratio function of cold exoplanets scales as dN pl /dlog q ∝ q -0.7±0.2 with a 95% confidence level upper limit of n pl /dlog q ∝ q n ). As microlensing is most sensitive to planets beyond the snow-line, this implies that Neptune-mass planets are at least three times more common than Jupiters in this region at the 95% confidence level.

Stellar Companions of Exoplanet Host Stars in K2

Science.gov (United States)

Matson, Rachel; Howell, Steve; Horch, Elliott; Everett, Mark

2018-01-01

Stellar multiplicity has significant implications for the detection and characterization of exoplanets. A stellar companion can mimic the signal of a transiting planet or distort the true planetary radii, leading to improper density estimates and over-predicting the occurrence rates of Earth-sized planets. Determining the fraction of exoplanet host stars that are also binaries allows us to better determine planetary characteristics as well as establish the relationship between binarity and planet formation. Using high-resolution speckle imaging to obtain diffraction limited images of K2 planet candidate host stars we detect stellar companions within one arcsec and up to six magnitudes fainter than the host star. By comparing our observed companion fraction to TRILEGAL star count simulations, and using the known detection limits of speckle imaging, we find the binary fraction of K2 planet host stars to be similar to that of Kepler host stars and solar-type field stars. Accounting for stellar companions in exoplanet studies is therefore essential for deriving true stellar and planetary properties as well as maximizing the returns for TESS and future exoplanet missions.

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ollivier, M.; Gillon, M.; Santerne, A.

2012-01-01

Aims. We report the discovery of CoRoT-16b, a low density hot jupiter that orbits a faint G5V star (mV = 15.63) in 5.3523 ± 0.0002 days with slight eccentricity. A fit of the data with no a priori assumptions on the orbit leads to an eccentricity of 0.33 ± 0.1. We discuss this value and also derive......RoT-16b is a 0.535 −0.083/+0.085 MJ, 1.17 −0.14/+0.16 RJ hot Jupiter with a density of 0.44 −0.14/+0.21 g cm-3. Despite its short orbital distance (0.0618 ± 0.0015 AU) and the age of the parent star (6.73 ± 2.8 Gyr), the planet orbit exhibits significantly non-zero eccentricity. This is very uncommon...

Trajectory Design for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Science.gov (United States)

Dichmann, Donald J.; Parker, Joel; Williams, Trevor; Mendelsohn, Chad

2014-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission launching in 2017. TESS will travel in a highly eccentric orbit around Earth, with initial perigee radius near 17 Earth radii (Re) and apogee radius near 59 Re. The orbit period is near 2:1 resonance with the Moon, with apogee nearly 90 degrees out-of-phase with the Moon, in a configuration that has been shown to be operationally stable. TESS will execute phasing loops followed by a lunar flyby, with a final maneuver to achieve 2:1 resonance with the Moon. The goals of a resonant orbit with long-term stability, short eclipses and limited oscillations of perigee present significant challenges to the trajectory design. To rapidly assess launch opportunities, we adapted the SWM76 launch window tool to assess the TESS mission constraints. To understand the long-term dynamics of such a resonant orbit in the Earth-Moon system we employed Dynamical Systems Theory in the Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP). For precise trajectory analysis we use a high-fidelity model and multiple shooting in the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) to optimize the maneuver delta-V and meet mission constraints. Finally we describe how the techniques we have developed can be applied to missions with similar requirements.

A PRELIMINARY JUPITER MODEL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hubbard, W. B.; Militzer, B.

2016-01-01

In anticipation of new observational results for Jupiter's axial moment of inertia and gravitational zonal harmonic coefficients from the forthcoming Juno orbiter, we present a number of preliminary Jupiter interior models. We combine results from ab initio computer simulations of hydrogen–helium mixtures, including immiscibility calculations, with a new nonperturbative calculation of Jupiter's zonal harmonic coefficients, to derive a self-consistent model for the planet's external gravity and moment of inertia. We assume helium rain modified the interior temperature and composition profiles. Our calculation predicts zonal harmonic values to which measurements can be compared. Although some models fit the observed (pre-Juno) second- and fourth-order zonal harmonics to within their error bars, our preferred reference model predicts a fourth-order zonal harmonic whose absolute value lies above the pre-Juno error bars. This model has a dense core of about 12 Earth masses and a hydrogen–helium-rich envelope with approximately three times solar metallicity

A PRELIMINARY JUPITER MODEL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hubbard, W. B. [Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Militzer, B. [Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

2016-03-20

In anticipation of new observational results for Jupiter's axial moment of inertia and gravitational zonal harmonic coefficients from the forthcoming Juno orbiter, we present a number of preliminary Jupiter interior models. We combine results from ab initio computer simulations of hydrogen–helium mixtures, including immiscibility calculations, with a new nonperturbative calculation of Jupiter's zonal harmonic coefficients, to derive a self-consistent model for the planet's external gravity and moment of inertia. We assume helium rain modified the interior temperature and composition profiles. Our calculation predicts zonal harmonic values to which measurements can be compared. Although some models fit the observed (pre-Juno) second- and fourth-order zonal harmonics to within their error bars, our preferred reference model predicts a fourth-order zonal harmonic whose absolute value lies above the pre-Juno error bars. This model has a dense core of about 12 Earth masses and a hydrogen–helium-rich envelope with approximately three times solar metallicity.

DISCOVERY OF A LOW-MASS COMPANION TO A METAL-RICH F STAR WITH THE MARVELS PILOT PROJECT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleming, Scott W.; Ge Jian; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Lee, Brian; Cuong Nguyen, Duy; Morehead, Robert C.; Wan Xiaoke; Zhao Bo; Liu Jian; Guo Pengcheng; Kane, Stephen R.; Eastman, Jason D.; Siverd, Robert J.; Scott Gaudi, B.; Niedzielski, Andrzej; Sivarani, Thirupathi; Stassun, Keivan G.; Gary, Bruce; Wolszczan, Alex; Barnes, Rory

2010-01-01

We report the discovery of a low-mass companion orbiting the metal-rich, main sequence F star TYC 2949-00557-1 during the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS) pilot project. The host star has an effective temperature T eff = 6135 ± 40 K, logg = 4.4 ± 0.1, and [Fe/H] = 0.32 ± 0.01, indicating a mass of M = 1.25 ± 0.09 M sun and R = 1.15 ± 0.15 R sun . The companion has an orbital period of 5.69449 ± 0.00023 days and straddles the hydrogen burning limit with a minimum mass of 64 M J , and thus may be an example of the rare class of brown dwarfs orbiting at distances comparable to those of 'Hot Jupiters'. We present relative photometry that demonstrates that the host star is photometrically stable at the few millimagnitude level on time scales of hours to years, and rules out transits for a companion of radius ∼>0.8 R J at the 95% confidence level. Tidal analysis of the system suggests that the star and companion are likely in a double synchronous state where both rotational and orbital synchronization have been achieved. This is the first low-mass companion detected with a multi-object, dispersed, fixed-delay interferometer.

Exoplanet Science in the Classroom: Learning Activities for an Introductory Physics Course

Science.gov (United States)

Della-Rose, Devin; Carlson, Randall; de La Harpe, Kimberly; Novotny, Steven; Polsgrove, Daniel

2018-03-01

Discovery of planets outside our solar system, known as extra-solar planets or exoplanets for short, has been at the forefront of astronomical research for over 25 years. Reports of new discoveries have almost become routine; however, the excitement surrounding them has not. Amazingly, as groundbreaking as exoplanet science is, the basic physics is quite accessible to first-year physics students, as discussed in previous TPT articles. To further illustrate this point, we developed an iOS application that generates synthetic exoplanet data to provide students and teachers with interactive learning activities. Using introductory physics concepts, we demonstrate how to estimate exoplanet mass, radius, and density from the app output. These calculations form the basis for a diverse range of classroom activities. We conclude with a summary of exoplanet science resources for teachers.

THE INFLUENCE OF NONUNIFORM CLOUD COVER ON TRANSIT TRANSMISSION SPECTRA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Line, Michael R. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035 (United States); Parmentier, Vivien, E-mail: mrline@ucsc.edu [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California–Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)

2016-03-20

We model the impact of nonuniform cloud cover on transit transmission spectra. Patchy clouds exist in nearly every solar system atmosphere, brown dwarfs, and transiting exoplanets. Our major findings suggest that fractional cloud coverage can exactly mimic high mean molecular weight atmospheres and vice versa over certain wavelength regions, in particular, over the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) bandpass (1.1–1.7 μm). We also find that patchy cloud coverage exhibits a signature that is different from uniform global clouds. Furthermore, we explain analytically why the “patchy cloud-high mean molecular weight” degeneracy exists. We also explore the degeneracy of nonuniform cloud coverage in atmospheric retrievals on both synthetic and real planets. We find from retrievals on a synthetic solar composition hot Jupiter with patchy clouds and a cloud-free high mean molecular weight warm Neptune that both cloud-free high mean molecular weight atmospheres and partially cloudy atmospheres can explain the data equally well. Another key finding is that the HST WFC3 transit transmission spectra of two well-observed objects, the hot Jupiter HD 189733b and the warm Neptune HAT-P-11b, can be explained well by solar composition atmospheres with patchy clouds without the need to invoke high mean molecular weight or global clouds. The degeneracy between high molecular weight and solar composition partially cloudy atmospheres can be broken by observing the molecular Rayleigh scattering differences between the two. Furthermore, the signature of partially cloudy limbs also appears as a ∼100 ppm residual in the ingress and egress of the transit light curves, provided that the transit timing is known to seconds.

Exoplanets, Exo-Solar Life, and Human Significance

Science.gov (United States)

Wiseman, Jennifer

2011-01-01

With the recent detection of over 500 extrasolar planets, the existence of "other worlds", perhaps even other Earths, is no longer in the realm of science fiction. The study of exoplanets rapidly moved from an activity on the fringe of astronomy to one of the highest priorities of the world's astronomical programs. Actual images of extrasolar planets were revealed over the past two years for the first time. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is already characterizing the atmospheres of Jupiter-like planets, in other systems. And the recent launch of the NASA Kepler space telescope is enabling the first statistical assessment of how common solar systems like our own really are. As we begin to characterize these "other worlds" and assess their habitability, the question of the significance and uniqueness of life on Earth will impact our society as never before. I will provide a comprehensive overview of the techniques and status of exoplanet detection, followed by reflections as to the societal impact of finding out that Earths are common, or rare. Will finding other potentially habitable planets create another "Copernican Revolution"? Will perceptions of the significance of life on Earth change when we find other Earth-like planets? I will discuss the plans of the scientific community for future telescopes that will be abe to survey our solar neighborhood for Earth-like planets, study their atmospheres, and search for biological signs of life.

H{sub 2}O ABUNDANCES IN THE ATMOSPHERES OF THREE HOT JUPITERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Madhusudhan, Nikku; Hedges, Christina [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Crouzet, Nicolas; McCullough, Peter R. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Deming, Drake, E-mail: nmadhu@ast.cam.ac.uk [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

2014-08-10

The core accretion theory for giant planet formation predicts enrichment of elemental abundances in planetary envelopes caused by runaway accretion of planetesimals, which is consistent with measured super-solar abundances of C, N, P, S, Xe, and Ar in Jupiter's atmosphere. However, the abundance of O, which is expected to be the most dominant constituent of planetesimals, is unknown for solar system giant planets, owing to the condensation of water in their ultra-cold atmospheres, thereby posing a key unknown in solar system formation. On the other hand, hundreds of extrasolar ''hot Jupiters'' are known with very high temperatures (≥1000 K), making them excellent targets to measure H{sub 2}O abundances and, hence, oxygen in their atmospheres. We constrain the atmospheric H{sub 2}O abundances in three hot Jupiters (HD 189733b, HD 209458b, and WASP-12b), spanning a wide temperature range (1200-2500 K), using their near-infrared transmission spectra obtained using the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We report conclusive measurements of H{sub 2}O in HD 189733b and HD 209458b, while that in WASP-12b is not well constrained by present data. The data allow nearly solar as well as significantly sub-solar abundances in HD 189733b and WASP-12b. However, for HD 209458b, we report the most precise H{sub 2}O measurement in an exoplanet to date that suggests a ∼20-135 × sub-solar H{sub 2}O abundance. We discuss the implications of our results on the formation conditions of hot Jupiters and on the likelihood of clouds in their atmospheres. Our results highlight the critical importance of high-precision spectra of hot Jupiters for deriving their H{sub 2}O abundances.

Hot Jupiters Aren't As Lonely As We Thought

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-01-01

The Friends of Hot Jupiters (FOHJ) project is a systematic search for planetary- and stellar-mass companions in systems that have known hot Jupiters short-period, gas-giant planets. This survey has discovered that many more hot Jupiters may have companions than originally believed.Missing FriendsFOHJ was begun with the goal of better understanding the systems that host hot Jupiters, in order to settle several longstanding issues.The first problem was one of observational statistics. We know that roughly half of the Sun-like stars nearby are in binary systems, yet weve only discovered a handful of hot Jupiters around binaries. Are binary systems less likely to host hot Jupiters? Or have we just missed the binary companions in the hot-Jupiter-hosting systems weve seen so far?An additional issue relates to formation mechanisms. Hot Jupiters probably migrated inward from where they formed out beyond the ice lines in protoplanetary disks but how?This median-stacked image, obtained with adaptive optics, shows one of the newly-discovered stellar companions to a star hosting a hot Jupiter. The projected separation is ~180 AU. [Ngo et al. 2015]Observations reveal two populations of hot Jupiters: those with circular orbits aligned with their hosts spins, and those with eccentric, misaligned orbits. The former population support a migration model dominated by local planet-disk interactions, whereas the latter population suggest the hot Jupiters migrated through dynamical interactions with distant companions. A careful determination of the companion rate in hot-Jupiter-hosting systems could help establish the ability of these two models to explain the observed populations.Search for CompanionsThe FOHJ project began in 2012 and studied 51 systems hosting known, transiting hot Jupiters with roughly half on circular, aligned orbits and half on eccentric, misaligned orbits. The survey consisted of three different, complementary components:Study 1Lead author: Heather Knutson

High-precision ground-based photometry of exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Mooij Ernst J.W.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available High-precision photometry of transiting exoplanet systems has contributed significantly to our understanding of the properties of their atmospheres. The best targets are the bright exoplanet systems, for which the high number of photons allow very high signal-to-noise ratios. Most of the current instruments are not optimised for these high-precision measurements, either they have a large read-out overhead to reduce the readnoise and/or their field-of-view is limited, preventing simultaneous observations of both the target and a reference star. Recently we have proposed a new wide-field imager for the Observatoir de Mont-Megantic optimised for these bright systems (PI: Jayawardhana. The instruments has a dual beam design and a field-of-view of 17' by 17'. The cameras have a read-out time of 2 seconds, significantly reducing read-out overheads. Over the past years we have obtained significant experience with how to reach the high precision required for the characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres. Based on our experience we provide the following advice: Get the best calibrations possible. In the case of bad weather, characterise the instrument (e.g. non-linearity, dome flats, bias level, this is vital for better understanding of the science data. Observe the target for as long as possible, the out-of-transit baseline is as important as the transit/eclipse itself. A short baseline can lead to improperly corrected systematic and mis-estimation of the red-noise. Keep everything (e.g. position on detector, exposure time as stable as possible. Take care that the defocus is not too strong. For a large defocus, the contribution of the total flux from the sky-background in the aperture could well exceed that of the target, resulting in very strict requirements on the precision at which the background is measured.

Exoplanets search and characterization with the SOPHIE spectrograph at OHP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hébrard G.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Several programs of exoplanets search and characterization have been started with SOPHIE at the 1.93-m telescope of Haute-Provence Observatory, France. SOPHIE is an environmentally stabilized echelle spectrograph dedicated to high-precision radial velocity measurements. The objectives of these programs include systematic searches for exoplanets around different types of stars, characterizations of planet-host stars, studies of transiting planets through RossiterMcLaughlin effect, follow-up observations of photometric surveys. The instrument SOPHIE and a review of its latest results are presented here.

KMTNet: A Cold Exoplanet Census Through a Global Microlensing Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Calen B.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Han, Cheongho; Nataf, David; Skowron, Jan; Penny, Matthew; Gould, Andrew

2015-01-01

The unique sensitivity of gravitational microlensing to low-mass planets near and beyond the snow line makes it an indispensable tool for understanding the distribution and formation mechanisms of exoplanets. The Korean Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) consists of three 1.6m telescopes each with a 4 deg2 field of view and will be dedicated to monitoring the Galactic Bulge in order to detect exoplanets via gravitational microlensing. With its relatively large aperture, large field of view, high (~10-minute) cadence, and near-complete longitudinal coverage of the Galactic Bulge for 8 months a year, KMTNet is expected to increase the the annual detection rate of exoplanets via microlensing by a factor of ~5 over current surveys, pushing down to the mass of Earth for bound and unbound planets. I will summarize the predicted yields of KMTNet's survey based on detailed simulations, highlighting its sensitivity to low-mass planets and its expected haul of free-floating planets. I will also describe the prospects for characterization of the exoplanetary systems KMTNet will detect, focusing on the variety of techniques current and future high-resolution facilities such as VLT, GMT, and JWST can use to measure the flux from the host stars and ultimately derive planet masses.

TRANSITING THE SUN. II. THE IMPACT OF STELLAR ACTIVITY ON Lyα TRANSITS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Llama, J.; Shkolnik, E. L.

2016-01-01

High-energy observations of the Sun provide an opportunity to test the limits of our ability to accurately measure the properties of transiting exoplanets in the presence of stellar activity. Here we insert the transit of a hot Jupiter into continuous disk integrated data of the Sun in Lyα from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory/EVE instrument to assess the impact of stellar activity on the measured planet-to-star radius ratio (R p /R ⋆ ). In 75% of our simulated light curves, we measure the correct radius ratio; however, incorrect values can be measured if there is significant short-term variability in the light curve. The maximum measured value of R p /R ⋆ is 50% larger than the input value, which is much smaller than the large Lyα transit depths that have been reported in the literature, suggesting that for stars with activity levels comparable to the Sun, stellar activity alone cannot account for these deep transits. We ran simulations without a transit and found that stellar activity cannot mimic the Lyα transit of 55 Cancari b, strengthening the conclusion that this planet has a partially transiting exopshere. We were able to compare our simulations to more active stars by artificially increasing the variability in the Solar Lyα light curve. In the higher variability data, the largest value of R p /R ⋆ we measured is <3× the input value, which again is not large enough to reproduce the Lyα transit depth reported for the more active stars HD 189733 and GJ 436, supporting the interpretation that these planets have extended atmospheres and possible cometary tails

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: III. Confirmation of 4 Multiple Planet Systems by a Fourier-Domain Study of Anti-correlated Transit Timing Variations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steffen, Jason H.; /Fermilab; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; /Lick Observ.; Ford, Eric B.; /Florida U.; Carter, Joshua A.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Fressin, Francois; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Holman, Matthew J.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Lissauer, Jack J.; /NASA, Ames; Rowe, Jason F.; /SETI Inst., Mtn. View /NASA, Ames; Ragozzine, Darin; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Welsh, William F.; /Caltech; Borucki, William J.; /NASA, Ames /UC, Santa Barbara

2012-01-01

We present a method to confirm the planetary nature of objects in systems with multiple transiting exoplanet candidates. This method involves a Fourier-domain analysis of the deviations in the transit times from a constant period that result from dynamical interactions within the system. The combination of observed anticorrelations in the transit times and mass constraints from dynamical stability allow us to claim the discovery of four planetary systems, Kepler-25, Kepler-26, Kepler-27 and Kepler-28, containing eight planets and one additional planet candidate.

How expanded ionospheres of Hot Jupiters can prevent escape of radio emission generated by the cyclotron maser instability

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, C.; Lammer, H.; Shaikhislamov, I. F.; Chadney, J. M.; Khodachenko, M. L.; Grießmeier, J.-M.; Rucker, H. O.; Vocks, C.; Macher, W.; Odert, P.; Kislyakova, K. G.

2017-08-01

We present a study of plasma conditions in the atmospheres of the Hot Jupiters HD 209458b and HD 189733b and for an HD 209458b like planet at orbit locations between 0.2 and 1 au around a Sun-like star. We discuss how these conditions influence the radio emission we expect from their magnetospheres. We find that the environmental conditions are such that the cyclotron maser instability (CMI), the process responsible for the generation of radio waves at magnetic planets in the Solar system, most likely will not operate at Hot Jupiters. Hydrodynamically expanding atmospheres possess extended ionospheres whose plasma densities within the magnetosphere are so large that the plasma frequency is much higher than the cyclotron frequency, which contradicts the condition for the production of radio emission and prevents the escape of radio waves from close-in exoplanets at distances produce radio emission. However, even if the CMI could operate, the extended ionospheres of Hot Jupiters are too dense to allow the radio emission to escape from the planets.

THE FREQUENCY OF HOT JUPITERS IN THE GALAXY: RESULTS FROM THE SuperLupus SURVEY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bayliss, Daniel D. R.; Sackett, Penny D.

2011-01-01

We present the results of the SuperLupus Survey for transiting hot Jupiter planets, which monitored a single Galactic disk field spanning 0.66 deg 2 for 108 nights over three years. Ten candidates were detected: one is a transiting planet, two remain candidates, and seven have been subsequently identified as false positives. We construct a new image quality metric, S j , based on the behavior of 26,859 light curves, which allows us to discard poor images in an objective and quantitative manner. Furthermore, in some cases we are able to identify statistical false positives by analyzing temporal correlations between S j and transit signatures. We use Monte Carlo simulations to measure our detection efficiency by injecting artificial transits onto real light curves and applying identical selection criteria as used in our survey. We find at 90% confidence level that 0.10 +0.27 –0.08 % of dwarf stars host a hot Jupiter with a period of 1-10 days. Our results are consistent with other transit surveys, but appear consistently lower than the hot Jupiter frequencies reported from radial velocity surveys, a difference we attribute, at least in part, to the difference in stellar populations probed. In light of our determination of the frequency of hot Jupiters in Galactic field stars, previous null results for transiting planets in open cluster and globular cluster surveys no longer appear anomalously low.

FIVE NEW TRANSIT EPOCHS OF THE EXOPLANET OGLE-TR-111b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoyer, S.; Rojo, P.; Lopez-Morales, M.; DIaz, R. F.; Chambers, J.; Minniti, D.

2011-01-01

We report five new transit epochs of the extrasolar planet OGLE-TR-111b, observed in the v-HIGH and Bessell I bands with the FORS1 and FORS2 at the ESO Very Large Telescope between 2008 April and May. The new transits have been combined with all previously published transit data for this planet to provide a new transit timing variations (TTVs) analysis of its orbit. We find no TTVs with amplitudes larger than 1.5 minutes over a four-year observation time baseline, in agreement with the recent result by Adams et al. Dynamical simulations fully exclude the presence of additional planets in the system with masses greater than 1.3, 0.4, and 0.5 M + at the 3:2, 1:2, and 2:1 resonances, respectively. We also place an upper limit of about 30 M + on the mass of potential second planets in the region between the 3:2 and 1:2 mean-motion resonances.

CAPTURE OF TROJANS BY JUMPING JUPITER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nesvorný, David; Vokrouhlický, David; Morbidelli, Alessandro

2013-01-01

Jupiter Trojans are thought to be survivors of a much larger population of planetesimals that existed in the planetary region when planets formed. They can provide important constraints on the mass and properties of the planetesimal disk, and its dispersal during planet migration. Here, we tested a possibility that the Trojans were captured during the early dynamical instability among the outer planets (aka the Nice model), when the semimajor axis of Jupiter was changing as a result of scattering encounters with an ice giant. The capture occurs in this model when Jupiter's orbit and its Lagrange points become radially displaced in a scattering event and fall into a region populated by planetesimals (that previously evolved from their natal transplanetary disk to ∼5 AU during the instability). Our numerical simulations of the new capture model, hereafter jump capture, satisfactorily reproduce the orbital distribution of the Trojans and their total mass. The jump capture is potentially capable of explaining the observed asymmetry in the number of leading and trailing Trojans. We find that the capture probability is (6-8) × 10 –7 for each particle in the original transplanetary disk, implying that the disk contained (3-4) × 10 7 planetesimals with absolute magnitude H disk ∼ 14-28 M Earth , is consistent with the mass deduced from recent dynamical simulations of the planetary instability.

Cassini-VIMS at Jupiter: Solar occultation measurements using Io

Science.gov (United States)

Formisano, V.; D'Aversa, E.; Bellucci, G.; Baines, K.H.; Bibring, J.-P.; Brown, R.H.; Buratti, B.J.; Capaccioni, F.; Cerroni, P.; Clark, R.N.; Coradini, A.; Cruikshank, D.P.; Drossart, P.; Jaumann, R.; Langevin, Y.; Matson, D.L.; McCord, T.B.; Mennella, V.; Nelson, R.M.; Nicholson, P.D.; Sicardy, B.; Sotin, Christophe; Chamberlain, M.C.; Hansen, G.; Hibbits, K.; Showalter, M.; Filacchione, G.

2003-01-01

We report unusual and somewhat unexpected observations of the jovian satellite Io, showing strong methane absorption bands. These observations were made by the Cassini VIMS experiment during the Jupiter flyby of December/January 2000/2001. The explanation is straightforward: Entering or exiting from Jupiter's shadow during an eclipse, Io is illuminated by solar light which has transited the atmosphere of Jupiter. This light, therefore becomes imprinted with the spectral signature of Jupiter's upper atmosphere, which includes strong atmospheric methane absorption bands. Intercepting solar light refracted by the jovian atmosphere, Io essentially becomes a "miffor" for solar occultation events of Jupiter. The thickness of the layer where refracted solar light is observed is so large (more than 3000 km at Io's orbit), that we can foresee a nearly continuous multi-year period of similar events at Saturn, utilizing the large and bright ring system. During Cassini's 4-year nominal mission, this probing tecnique should reveal information of Saturn's atmosphere over a large range of southern latitudes and times. ?? 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DISCRIMINATING BETWEEN CLOUDY, HAZY, AND CLEAR SKY EXOPLANETS USING REFRACTION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Misra, Amit K.; Meadows, Victoria S. [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

2014-11-01

We propose a method to distinguish between cloudy, hazy, and clear sky (free of clouds and hazes) exoplanet atmospheres that could be applicable to upcoming large aperture space- and ground-based telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). These facilities will be powerful tools for characterizing transiting exoplanets, but only after a considerable amount of telescope time is devoted to a single planet. A technique that could provide a relatively rapid means of identifying haze-free targets (which may be more valuable targets for characterization) could potentially increase the science return for these telescopes. Our proposed method utilizes broadband observations of refracted light in the out-of-transit spectrum. Light refracted through an exoplanet atmosphere can lead to an increase of flux prior to ingress and subsequent to egress. Because this light is transmitted at pressures greater than those for typical cloud and haze layers, the detection of refracted light could indicate a cloud- or haze-free atmosphere. A detection of refracted light could be accomplished in <10 hr for Jovian exoplanets with JWST and <5 hr for super-Earths/mini-Neptunes with E-ELT. We find that this technique is most effective for planets with equilibrium temperatures between 200 and 500 K, which may include potentially habitable planets. A detection of refracted light for a potentially habitable planet would strongly suggest the planet was free of a global cloud or haze layer, and therefore a promising candidate for follow-up observations.

DISCRIMINATING BETWEEN CLOUDY, HAZY, AND CLEAR SKY EXOPLANETS USING REFRACTION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Misra, Amit K.; Meadows, Victoria S.

2014-01-01

We propose a method to distinguish between cloudy, hazy, and clear sky (free of clouds and hazes) exoplanet atmospheres that could be applicable to upcoming large aperture space- and ground-based telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). These facilities will be powerful tools for characterizing transiting exoplanets, but only after a considerable amount of telescope time is devoted to a single planet. A technique that could provide a relatively rapid means of identifying haze-free targets (which may be more valuable targets for characterization) could potentially increase the science return for these telescopes. Our proposed method utilizes broadband observations of refracted light in the out-of-transit spectrum. Light refracted through an exoplanet atmosphere can lead to an increase of flux prior to ingress and subsequent to egress. Because this light is transmitted at pressures greater than those for typical cloud and haze layers, the detection of refracted light could indicate a cloud- or haze-free atmosphere. A detection of refracted light could be accomplished in <10 hr for Jovian exoplanets with JWST and <5 hr for super-Earths/mini-Neptunes with E-ELT. We find that this technique is most effective for planets with equilibrium temperatures between 200 and 500 K, which may include potentially habitable planets. A detection of refracted light for a potentially habitable planet would strongly suggest the planet was free of a global cloud or haze layer, and therefore a promising candidate for follow-up observations

Self-consistent atmosphere modeling with cloud formation for low-mass stars and exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Juncher, Diana; Jørgensen, Uffe G.; Helling, Christiane

2017-12-01

Context. Low-mass stars and extrasolar planets have ultra-cool atmospheres where a rich chemistry occurs and clouds form. The increasing amount of spectroscopic observations for extrasolar planets requires self-consistent model atmosphere simulations to consistently include the formation processes that determine cloud formation and their feedback onto the atmosphere. Aims: Our aim is to complement the MARCS model atmosphere suit with simulations applicable to low-mass stars and exoplanets in preparation of E-ELT, JWST, PLATO and other upcoming facilities. Methods: The MARCS code calculates stellar atmosphere models, providing self-consistent solutions of the radiative transfer and the atmospheric structure and chemistry. We combine MARCS with a kinetic model that describes cloud formation in ultra-cool atmospheres (seed formation, growth/evaporation, gravitational settling, convective mixing, element depletion). Results: We present a small grid of self-consistently calculated atmosphere models for Teff = 2000-3000 K with solar initial abundances and log (g) = 4.5. Cloud formation in stellar and sub-stellar atmospheres appears for Teff day-night energy transport and no temperature inversion.

The Radiation Environment of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey L. Linsky

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Exoplanets are born and evolve in the radiation and particle environment created by their host star. The host star’s optical and infrared radiation heats the exoplanet’s lower atmosphere and surface, while the ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet and X-radiation control the photochemistry and mass loss from the exoplanet’s upper atmosphere. Stellar radiation, especially at the shorter wavelengths, changes dramatically as a host star evolves leading to changes in the planet’s atmosphere and habitability. This paper reviews the present state of our knowledge concerning the time-dependent radiation emitted by stars with convective zones, that is stars with spectral types F, G, K, and M, which comprise nearly all of the host stars of detected exoplanets.

Exoplanet modelling with the Met Office Unified Model

Science.gov (United States)

Boutle, Ian; Lines, Stefan; Mayne, Nathan; Lee, Graham; Helling, Christiane; Drummond, Ben; Manners, James; Goyal, Jayesh; Lambert, Hugo; Acreman, David; Earnshaw, Paul; Amundsen, David; Baraffe, Isabelle

2017-04-01

This talk will present an overview of work being done to adapt the Unified Model, one of the most sophisticated weather and climate models of this planet, into a flexible planet simulator for use in the study of any exoplanet. We will focus on two current projects: Clouds in hot Jupiter atmospheres - recent HST observations have revealed a continuum in atmospheric composition from cloudy to clear skies. The presence of clouds is inferred from a grey opacity in the near-IR that mutes key absorption features in the transmission spectra. Unlike the L-T Brown Dwarf sequence, this transition does not correlate well with equilibrium temperature, suggesting that a cloud formation scheme more comprehensive than simply considering the condensation temperature needed for homogenous cloud growth, is required. In our work, we conduct 3D simulations of cloud nucleation, growth, advection, evaporation and gravitational settling in the atmospheres of HD209458b and HD189733 using the kinetic and mixed-grain cloud formation code DIHRT, coupled to the Unified Model. We explore cloud composition, vertical structure and particle sizes, as well as highlighting the importance of the strong atmospheric dynamics seen in tidally locked hot Jupiters on the evolution and distribution of the cloud. Climate of Proxima B - we present results of simulations of the climate of the newly discovered planet Proxima Centauri B, examining the responses of both an `Earth-like' atmosphere and simplified nitrogen and trace carbon dioxide atmosphere to the radiation likely received. Overall, our results are in agreement with previous studies in suggesting Proxima Centauri B may well have surface temperatures conducive to the presence of liquid water. Moreover, we have expanded the parameter regime over which the planet may support liquid water to higher values of eccentricity and lower incident fluxes, guided by observational constraints. This increased parameter space arises because of the low sensitivity

Small inner companions of warm Jupiters: Lifetimes and legacies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Laerhoven, Christa; Greenberg, Richard

2013-01-01

Although warm Jupiters are generally too far from their stars for tides to be important, the presence of an inner planetary companion to a warm Jupiter can result in tidal evolution of the system. Insight into the process and its effects comes form classical secular theory of planetary perturbations. The lifetime of the inner planet may be shorter than the age of the system, because the warm Jupiter maintains its eccentricity and hence promotes tidal migration into the star. Thus a warm Jupiter observed to be alone in its system might have previously cleared away any interior planets. Before its demise, even if an inner planet is of terrestrial scale, it may promote damping of the warm Jupiter's eccentricity. Thus any inferences of the initial orbit of an observed warm Jupiter must include the possibility of a greater initial eccentricity than would be estimated by assuming it had always been alone. Tidal evolution involving multiple planets also enhances the internal heating of the planets, which readily exceeds that of stellar radiation for the inner planet, and may be great enough to affect the internal structure of warm Jupiters. Secular theory gives insight into the tidal processes, providing, among other things, a way to constrain eccentricities of transiting planets based on estimates of the tidal parameter Q.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION ON THE STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE OF EXOPLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, J. H. [Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 110, Kunming 650011 (China); Ben-Jaffel, Lotfi, E-mail: guojh@ynao.ac.cn, E-mail: bjaffel@iap.fr [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 6 et CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut Astrophysique de Paris, F-75014 Paris (France)

2016-02-20

By varying the profiles of stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we tested the influences of stellar EUV SEDs on the physical and chemical properties of an escaping atmosphere. We apply our model to study four exoplanets: HD 189733b, HD 209458b, GJ 436b, and Kepler-11b. We find that the total mass loss rates of an exoplanet, which are determined mainly by the integrated fluxes, are moderately affected by the profiles of the EUV SED, but the composition and species distributions in the atmosphere can be dramatically modified by the different profiles of the EUV SED. For exoplanets with a high hydrodynamic escape parameter (λ), the amount of atomic hydrogen produced by photoionization at different altitudes can vary by one to two orders of magnitude with the variation of stellar EUV SEDs. The effect of photoionization of H is prominent when the EUV SED is dominated by the low-energy spectral region (400–900 Å), which pushes the transition of H/H{sup +} to low altitudes. In contrast, the transition of H/H{sup +} moves to higher altitudes when most photons are concentrated in the high-energy spectral region (50–400 Å). For exoplanets with a low λ, the lower temperatures of the atmosphere make many chemical reactions so important that photoionization alone can no longer determine the composition of the escaping atmosphere. For HD 189733b, it is possible to explain the time variability of Lyα between 2010 and 2011 by a change in the EUV SED of the host K-type star, yet invoking only thermal H i in the atmosphere.

The Kepler and K2 Near-Infrared Transit Survey (KNITS)

Science.gov (United States)

Colon, Knicole; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Barentsen, Geert; Cardoso, Jose Vinicius de Miranda; Vanderburg, Andrew

2018-01-01

NASA's Kepler mission discovered a plethora of transiting exoplanets after observing a single region of the Galaxy for four years. After a second reaction wheel failed, NASA's Kepler spacecraft was repurposed as K2 to observe different fields along the ecliptic in ~80 day campaigns. To date, K2 has discovered ~130 exoplanets along with another ~400 candidates. The exoplanets that have been confirmed or validated from Kepler and K2 have been primarily subject to spectroscopic observations, high-resolution imaging, or statistical methods. However, most of these, along with all the remaining candidate exoplanets, have had no follow-up transit photometry. In addition, recent studies have shown that for single-planet systems, statistical validation alone can be unreliable and additional follow-up observations are required to reveal the true nature of the system. I will present the latest results from an ongoing program to use the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory for near-infrared transit photometry of Kepler and K2 exoplanets and candidates. Our program of high-precision, high-cadence, high-spatial-resolution near-infrared transit photometry is providing new measurements of the transit ephemerides and planetary radii as well as weeding out false positives lurking within the candidate lists. To date, 25 K2 and 5 Kepler targets have been observed with WIYN. I will also describe upcoming observations with WIYN that will take place in January 2018 as part of a campaign to observe exoplanet transits in the near-infrared simultaneously with the Kepler spacecraft during K2 Campaign 16. Our program ultimately provides a vetted sample of exoplanets that could be targeted in the future by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and also demonstrates WIYN’s capabilities for observations of exoplanets to be discovered by NASA's all-sky Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).Data presented herein were obtained at the WIYN Observatory from

Evidence for a Dayside Thermal Inversion and High Metallicity for the Hot Jupiter WASP-18b

Science.gov (United States)

Sheppard, Kyle; Mandell, Avi M.; Tamburo, Patrick; Gandhi, Siddarth; Pinhas, Arazi; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Deming, Drake

2018-01-01

Hot Jupiters have been vital in revealing the structural and atmospheric diversity of gas-rich planets. Since they are exposed to extreme conditions and relatively easy to observe through transit and eclipse spectroscopy, hot Jupiters provide a window into a unique part of parameter space, allowing us to better understand both atmospheric physics and planetary structure. Additionally, constraints on the structure and composition of exoplanetary atmospheres allow us to test and generalize planetary formation models. We find evidence for a strong thermal inversion in the dayside atmosphere of the highly irradiated hot Jupiter WASP-18b (Teq=2400K, M=10MJ) based on Hubble Space Telescope secondary eclipse observations and Spitzer eclipse photometry. We report a 4.7σ detection of CO, and a non-detection of water vapor as well as all other relevant species (e.g., TiO, VO). The most probable atmospheric retrieval solution indicates a C/O ratio of 1 and an extremely high metallicity (C/H=~283x solar). If confirmed with future observations, WASP-18b would be the first example of a planet with a non-oxide driven thermal inversion and an atmospheric metallicity inconsistent with that predicted for Jupiter-mass planets.

Monte Carlo Analysis as a Trajectory Design Driver for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Nickel, Craig; Parker, Joel; Dichmann, Don; Lebois, Ryan; Lutz, Stephen

2016-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will be injected into a highly eccentric Earth orbit and fly 3.5 phasing loops followed by a lunar flyby to enter a mission orbit with lunar 2:1 resonance. Through the phasing loops and mission orbit, the trajectory is significantly affected by lunar and solar gravity. We have developed a trajectory design to achieve the mission orbit and meet mission constraints, including eclipse avoidance and a 30-year geostationary orbit avoidance requirement. A parallelized Monte Carlo simulation was performed to validate the trajectory after injecting common perturbations, including launch dispersions, orbit determination errors, and maneuver execution errors. The Monte Carlo analysis helped identify mission risks and is used in the trajectory selection process.

TWO NEARBY SUB-EARTH-SIZED EXOPLANET CANDIDATES IN THE GJ 436 SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stevenson, Kevin B.; Harrington, Joseph; Lust, Nate B.; Blecic, Jasmina; Hardy, Ryan A.; Cubillos, Patricio; Campo, Christopher J.; Lewis, Nikole K.; Montagnier, Guillaume; Moses, Julianne I.; Visscher, Channon

2012-01-01

We report the detection of UCF-1.01, a strong exoplanet candidate with a radius 0.66 ± 0.04 times that of Earth (R ⊕ ). This sub-Earth-sized planet transits the nearby M-dwarf star GJ 436 with a period of 1.365862 ± 8 × 10 –6 days. We also report evidence of a 0.65 ± 0.06 R ⊕ exoplanet candidate (labeled UCF-1.02) orbiting the same star with an undetermined period. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we measure the dimming of light as the planets pass in front of their parent star to assess their sizes and orbital parameters. If confirmed today, UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02 would be designated GJ 436c and GJ 436d, respectively, and would be part of the first multiple-transiting-planet system outside of the Kepler field. Assuming Earth-like densities of 5.515 g cm –3 , we predict both candidates to have similar masses (∼0.28 Earth-masses, M ⊕ , 2.6 Mars-masses) and surface gravities of ∼0.65 g (where g is the gravity on Earth). UCF-1.01's equilibrium temperature (T eq , where emitted and absorbed radiation balance for an equivalent blackbody) is 860 K, making the planet unlikely to harbor life as on Earth. Its weak gravitational field and close proximity to its host star imply that UCF-1.01 is unlikely to have retained its original atmosphere; however, a transient atmosphere is possible if recent impacts or tidal heating were to supply volatiles to the surface. We also present additional observations of GJ 436b during secondary eclipse. The 3.6 μm light curve shows indications of stellar activity, making a reliable secondary eclipse measurement impossible. A second non-detection at 4.5 μm supports our previous work in which we find a methane-deficient and carbon monoxide-rich dayside atmosphere.

Two nearby Sub-Earth-sized Exoplanet Candidates in the GJ 436 System

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, Kevin B.; Harrington, Joseph; Lust, Nate B.; Lewis, Nikole K.; Montagnier, Guillaume; Moses, Julianne I.; Visscher, Channon; Blecic, Jasmina; Hardy, Ryan A.; Cubillos, Patricio; Campo, Christopher J.

2012-08-01

We report the detection of UCF-1.01, a strong exoplanet candidate with a radius 0.66 ± 0.04 times that of Earth (R ⊕). This sub-Earth-sized planet transits the nearby M-dwarf star GJ 436 with a period of 1.365862 ± 8 × 10-6 days. We also report evidence of a 0.65 ± 0.06 R ⊕ exoplanet candidate (labeled UCF-1.02) orbiting the same star with an undetermined period. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we measure the dimming of light as the planets pass in front of their parent star to assess their sizes and orbital parameters. If confirmed today, UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02 would be designated GJ 436c and GJ 436d, respectively, and would be part of the first multiple-transiting-planet system outside of the Kepler field. Assuming Earth-like densities of 5.515 g cm-3, we predict both candidates to have similar masses (~0.28 Earth-masses, M ⊕, 2.6 Mars-masses) and surface gravities of ~0.65 g (where g is the gravity on Earth). UCF-1.01's equilibrium temperature (T eq, where emitted and absorbed radiation balance for an equivalent blackbody) is 860 K, making the planet unlikely to harbor life as on Earth. Its weak gravitational field and close proximity to its host star imply that UCF-1.01 is unlikely to have retained its original atmosphere; however, a transient atmosphere is possible if recent impacts or tidal heating were to supply volatiles to the surface. We also present additional observations of GJ 436b during secondary eclipse. The 3.6 μm light curve shows indications of stellar activity, making a reliable secondary eclipse measurement impossible. A second non-detection at 4.5 μm supports our previous work in which we find a methane-deficient and carbon monoxide-rich dayside atmosphere.

A Cubesat Payload for Exoplanet Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcella Iuzzolino

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The search for undiscovered planets outside the solar system is a scientific topic that is rapidly spreading into the astrophysical and engineering communities. In this framework, the design of an innovative payload to detect exoplanets from a nano-sized space platform, like a 3U cubesat, is presented. The selected detection method is photometric transit, and the payload aims to detect flux decrements down to ~0.01% with a precision of 12 ppm. The payload design is also aimed at false positive recognition. The solution consists of a four-facets pyramid on the top of the payload, to allow for measurement redundancy and low-resolution spectral dispersion of the star images. The innovative concept is the use of a small and cheap platform for a relevant astronomical mission. The faintest observable target star has V-magnitude equal to 3.38. Despite missions aimed at ultra-precise photometry from microsatellites (e.g., MOST, BRITE, the transit of exoplanets orbiting very bright stars has not yet been surveyed photometrically from space, since any observation from a small/medium sized (30 cm optical aperture telescope would saturate the detector. This cubesat mission can provide these missing measurements. This work is set up as a demonstrative project to verify the feasibility of the payload concept.

Cold Hole Over Jupiter's Pole

Science.gov (United States)

2002-01-01

Observations with two NASA telescopes show that Jupiter has an arctic polar vortex similar to a vortex over Earth's Antarctica that enables depletion of Earth's stratospheric ozone.These composite images of Jupiter's north polar region from the Hubble Space Telescope (right) and the Infrared Telescope Facility (left) show a quasi-hexagonal shape that extends vertically from the stratosphere down into the top of the troposphere. A sharp temperature drop, compared to surrounding air masses, creates an eastward wind that tends to keep the polar atmosphere, including the stratospheric haze, isolated from the rest of the atmosphere.The linear striations in the composite projections are artifacts of the image processing. The area closest to the pole has been omitted because it was too close to the edge of the planet in the original images to represent the planet reliably.The composite on the right combines images from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 of the Hubble Space Telescope taken at a wavelength of 890 nanometers, which shows stratospheric haze particles.The sharp boundary and wave-like structure of the haze layer suggest a polar vortex and a similarity to Earth's stratospheric polar clouds. Images of Jupiter's thermal radiation clinch that identification. The composite on the left, for example, is made from images taken with Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mid-Infrared Large-Well Imager at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at a wavelength of 17 microns. It shows polar air mass that is 5 to 6 degrees Celsius (9 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) colder than its surroundings, with the same border as the stratospheric haze. Similar observations at other infrared wavelengths show the cold air mass extends at least as high as the middle stratosphere down to the top of the troposphere.These images were taken Aug. 11 through Aug. 13, 1999, near a time when Jupiter's north pole was most visible from Earth. Other Infrared Telescope Facility images at frequencies sensitive to the

Increased Heat Transport in Ultra-hot Jupiter Atmospheres through H2 Dissociation and Recombination

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Taylor J.; Cowan, Nicolas B.

2018-04-01

A new class of exoplanets is beginning to emerge: planets with dayside atmospheres that resemble stellar atmospheres as most of their molecular constituents dissociate. The effects of the dissociation of these species will be varied and must be carefully accounted for. Here we take the first steps toward understanding the consequences of dissociation and recombination of molecular hydrogen (H2) on atmospheric heat recirculation. Using a simple energy balance model with eastward winds, we demonstrate that H2 dissociation/recombination can significantly increase the day–night heat transport on ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs): gas giant exoplanets where significant H2 dissociation occurs. The atomic hydrogen from the highly irradiated daysides of UHJs will transport some of the energy deposited on the dayside toward the nightside of the planet where the H atoms recombine into H2; this mechanism bears similarities to latent heat. Given a fixed wind speed, this will act to increase the heat recirculation efficiency; alternatively, a measured heat recirculation efficiency will require slower wind speeds after accounting for H2 dissociation/recombination.

Exploring exoplanet populations with NASA's Kepler Mission.

Science.gov (United States)

Batalha, Natalie M

2014-09-02

The Kepler Mission is exploring the diversity of planets and planetary systems. Its legacy will be a catalog of discoveries sufficient for computing planet occurrence rates as a function of size, orbital period, star type, and insolation flux. The mission has made significant progress toward achieving that goal. Over 3,500 transiting exoplanets have been identified from the analysis of the first 3 y of data, 100 planets of which are in the habitable zone. The catalog has a high reliability rate (85-90% averaged over the period/radius plane), which is improving as follow-up observations continue. Dynamical (e.g., velocimetry and transit timing) and statistical methods have confirmed and characterized hundreds of planets over a large range of sizes and compositions for both single- and multiple-star systems. Population studies suggest that planets abound in our galaxy and that small planets are particularly frequent. Here, I report on the progress Kepler has made measuring the prevalence of exoplanets orbiting within one astronomical unit of their host stars in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's long-term goal of finding habitable environments beyond the solar system.

Direct evidence for an evolving dust cloud in the exoplanet KIC 12557548 b

Science.gov (United States)

Bochinski, J. J.; Haswell, C. A.; Dhillon, V. S.; Littlefair, S. P.; Marsh, T. R.

2014-04-01

We present simultaneous multi-color optical photometry of the transiting exoplanet KIC 12557548 b which reveals, for the first time, the colour dependence of the transit depth. These depths are consistent with dust extinction as observed in the ISM, but require grain sizes comparable to the largest found in the ISM: 0.25μm - 1μm. This provides direct evidence in favour of the disrupting low-mass rocky planet model for this object. Our light curves also give the the highest-quality coverage of individual transits to date. The smooth low amplitude pre-ingress and post-egress features, and the sharp V-shaped transits noted and modelled in the phase-folded Kepler data are probably artefacts of averaging many transits of variable shape. Our light curves reveal instead a step-like shoulder in the egress. The transit shape overall is not too different from that caused by a circular disc of occulting material, suggesting that the bulk of the extincting dust is not significantly elongated along the orbital path. The changing wavelength-dependent transit depth offers an unprecedented opportunity to determine the composition of the disintegrating rocky body KIC 12557548 b. We detected 3 out-of-transit u' band events consistent with stellar flares. These could be signatures of star-planet interactions.

TRANSITING THE SUN. II. THE IMPACT OF STELLAR ACTIVITY ON Lyα TRANSITS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Llama, J.; Shkolnik, E. L., E-mail: joe.llama@lowell.edu [Lowell Observatory, 1400 W Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States)

2016-01-20

High-energy observations of the Sun provide an opportunity to test the limits of our ability to accurately measure the properties of transiting exoplanets in the presence of stellar activity. Here we insert the transit of a hot Jupiter into continuous disk integrated data of the Sun in Lyα from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory/EVE instrument to assess the impact of stellar activity on the measured planet-to-star radius ratio (R{sub p}/R{sub ⋆}). In 75% of our simulated light curves, we measure the correct radius ratio; however, incorrect values can be measured if there is significant short-term variability in the light curve. The maximum measured value of R{sub p}/R{sub ⋆} is 50% larger than the input value, which is much smaller than the large Lyα transit depths that have been reported in the literature, suggesting that for stars with activity levels comparable to the Sun, stellar activity alone cannot account for these deep transits. We ran simulations without a transit and found that stellar activity cannot mimic the Lyα transit of 55 Cancari b, strengthening the conclusion that this planet has a partially transiting exopshere. We were able to compare our simulations to more active stars by artificially increasing the variability in the Solar Lyα light curve. In the higher variability data, the largest value of R{sub p}/R{sub ⋆} we measured is <3× the input value, which again is not large enough to reproduce the Lyα transit depth reported for the more active stars HD 189733 and GJ 436, supporting the interpretation that these planets have extended atmospheres and possible cometary tails.

A ground-based near-infrared emission spectrum of the exoplanet HD 189733b.

Science.gov (United States)

Swain, Mark R; Deroo, Pieter; Griffith, Caitlin A; Tinetti, Giovanna; Thatte, Azam; Vasisht, Gautam; Chen, Pin; Bouwman, Jeroen; Crossfield, Ian J; Angerhausen, Daniel; Afonso, Cristina; Henning, Thomas

2010-02-04

Detection of molecules using infrared spectroscopy probes the conditions and compositions of exoplanet atmospheres. Water (H(2)O), methane (CH(4)), carbon dioxide (CO(2)), and carbon monoxide (CO) have been detected in two hot Jupiters. These previous results relied on space-based telescopes that do not provide spectroscopic capability in the 2.4-5.2 microm spectral region. Here we report ground-based observations of the dayside emission spectrum for HD 189733b between 2.0-2.4 microm and 3.1-4.1 microm, where we find a bright emission feature. Where overlap with space-based instruments exists, our results are in excellent agreement with previous measurements. A feature at approximately 3.25 microm is unexpected and difficult to explain with models that assume local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions at the 1 bar to 1 x 10(-6) bar pressures typically sampled by infrared measurements. The most likely explanation for this feature is that it arises from non-LTE emission from CH(4), similar to what is seen in the atmospheres of planets in our own Solar System. These results suggest that non-LTE effects may need to be considered when interpreting measurements of strongly irradiated exoplanets.

Chromospheric and Transition Region Emission Properties of G, K, and M dwarf Exoplanet Host Stars

Science.gov (United States)

France, Kevin; Arulanantham, Nicole; Fossati, Luca; Lanza, A. F.; Linsky, Jeffrey L.; Redfield, Seth; Loyd, Robert; Schneider, Christian

2018-01-01

Exoplanet magnetic fields have proven notoriously hard to detect, despite theoretical predictions of substantial magnetic field strengths on close-in extrasolar giant planets. It has been suggested that stellar and planetary magnetic field interactions can manifest as enhanced stellar activity relative to nominal age-rotation-activity relationships for main sequence stars or enhanced activity on stars hosting short-period massive planets. In a recent study of M and K dwarf exoplanet host stars, we demonstrated a significant correlation between the relative luminosity in high-temperature stellar emission lines (L(ion)/L_Bol) and the “star-planet interaction strength”, M_plan/a_plan. Here, we expand on that work with a survey of G, K, and M dwarf exoplanet host stars obtained in two recent far-ultraviolet spectroscopic programs with the Hubble Space Telescope. We have measured the relative luminosities of stellar lines C II, Si III, Si IV, and N V (formation temperatures from 30,000 – 150,000 K) in a sample of ~60 exoplanet host stars and an additional ~40 dwarf stars without known planets. We present results on star-planet interaction signals as a function of spectral type and line formation temperature, as well as a statistical comparison of stars with and without planets.

The Transit Monitoring in the South (TraMoS project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

López-Morales Mercedes

2013-04-01

Full Text Available We present the Transit Monitoring in the South (TraMoS project. TraMoS has monitored transits of 30 exoplanets with telescopes located in Chile since 2008, whit the following goals: (1 to refine the physical and/or orbital parameters of those exoplanet system, and (2 to search for variations in the mid-times of the transits and in other parameters such as orbital inclination or transit's depth, that could indicate the presence of additional bodies in the system. We highlight here the first results of TraMoS in three selected exoplanets.

Lucy: Navigating a Jupiter Trojan Tour

Science.gov (United States)

Stanbridge, Dale; Williams, Ken; Williams, Bobby; Jackman, Coralie; Weaver, Hal; Berry, Kevin; Sutter, Brian; Englander, Jacob

2017-01-01

In January 2017, NASA selected the Lucy mission to explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These six bodies, remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, were captured in the Sun-Jupiter L4 and L5 Lagrangian regions early in the solar system formation. These particular bodies were chosen because of their diverse spectral properties and the chance to observe up close for the first time two orbiting approximately equal mass binaries, Patroclus and Menoetius. KinetX, Inc. is the primary navigation supplier for the Lucy mission. This paper describes preliminary navigation analyses of the approach phase for each Trojan encounter.

Observing the ExoEarth: Simulating the Retrieval of Exoplanet Parameters Using DSCOVR

Science.gov (United States)

Kane, S.; Cowan, N. B.; Domagal-Goldman, S. D.; Herman, J. R.; Robinson, T.; Stine, A.

2017-12-01

The field of exoplanets has rapidly expanded from detection to include exoplanet characterization. This has been enabled by developments such as the detection of terrestrial-sized planets and the use of transit spectroscopy to study exoplanet atmospheres. Studies of rocky planets are leading towards the direct imaging of exoplanets and the development of techniques to extract their intrinsic properties. The importance of properties such as rotation, albedo, and obliquity are significant since they inform planet formation theories and are key input parameters for Global Circulation Models used to determine surface conditions, including habitability. Thus, a complete characterization of exoplanets for understanding habitable climates requires the ability to measure these key planetary parameters. The retrieval of planetary rotation rates, albedos, and obliquities from highly undersampled imaging data can be honed using satellites designed to study the Earth's atmosphere. In this talk I will describe how the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) provides a unique opportunity to test such retrieval methods using data for the sunlit hemisphere of the Earth. Our methods use the high-resolution DSCOVR-EPIC images to simulate the Earth as an exoplanet, by deconvolving the images to match a variety of expected exoplanet mission requirements, and by comparing EPIC data with the cavity radiometer data from DSCOVR-NISTAR that views the Earth as a single pixel. Through this methodology, we are creating a grid of retrieval states as a function of image resolution, observing cadence, passband, etc. Our modeling of the DSCOVR data will provide an effective baseline from which to develop tools that can be applied to a variety of exoplanet imaging data.

False Positives in Exoplanet Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Leuquire, Jacob; Kasper, David; Jang-Condell, Hannah; Kar, Aman; Sorber, Rebecca; Suhaimi, Afiq; KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope)

2018-06-01

Our team at the University of Wyoming uses a 0.6 m telescope at RBO (Red Buttes Observatory) to help confirm results on potential exoplanet candidates from low resolution, wide field surveys shared by the KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) team. False positives are common in this work. We carry out transit photometry, and this method comes with special types of false positives. The most common false positive seen at the confirmation level is an EB (eclipsing binary). Low resolution images are great in detecting multiple sources for photometric dips in light curves, but they lack the precision to decipher single targets at an accurate level. For example, target star KC18C030621 needed RBO’s photometric precision to determine there was a nearby EB causing exoplanet type light curves. Identifying false positives with our telescope is important work because it helps eliminate the waste of time taken by more expensive telescopes trying to rule out negative candidate stars. It also furthers the identification of other types of photometric events, like eclipsing binaries, so they can be studied on their own.

Exoplanet Caught on the Move

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-01

observations, taken during autumn 2009, revealed the object on the other side of the disc after a period of hiding either behind or in front of the star (in which case it is hidden in the glare of the star). This confirmed that the source indeed was an exoplanet and that it was orbiting its host star. It also provided insights into the size of its orbit around the star. Images are available for approximately ten exoplanets, and the planet around Beta Pictoris (designated "Beta Pictoris b") has the smallest orbit known so far. It is located at a distance between 8 and 15 times the Earth-Sun separation - or 8-15 Astronomical Units - which is about the distance of Saturn from the Sun. "The short period of the planet will allow us to record the full orbit within maybe 15-20 years, and further studies of Beta Pictoris b will provide invaluable insights into the physics and chemistry of a young giant planet's atmosphere," says student researcher Mickael Bonnefoy. The planet has a mass of about nine Jupiter masses and the right mass and location to explain the observed warp in the inner parts of the disc. This discovery therefore bears some similarity to the prediction of the existence of Neptune by astronomers Adams and Le Verrier in the 19th century, based on observations of the orbit of Uranus. "Together with the planets found around the young, massive stars Fomalhaut and HR8799, the existence of Beta Pictoris b suggests that super-Jupiters could be frequent byproducts of planet formation around more massive stars," explains Gael Chauvin, a member of the team. Such planets disturb the discs around their stars, creating structures that should be readily observable with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the revolutionary telescope being built by ESO together with international partners. A few other planetary candidates have been imaged, but they are all located further from their host star than Beta Pictoris b. If located in the Solar System, they all would

A Comparison of BLISS and PLD on Low-SNR WASP-29b Spitzer Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Challener, Ryan; Harrington, Joseph; Cubillos, Patricio E.; Blecic, Jasmina; Deming, Drake; Hellier, Coel

2018-01-01

We present an analysis of Spitzer secondary eclipse observations of exoplanet WASP-29b. WASP-29b is a Saturn-sized, short-period exoplanet with mass 0.24 ± 0.02 Jupiter masses and radius 0.84 ± 0.06 Jupiter radii (Hellier et al., 2010). We measure eclipse depths and midpoints using our Photometry for Orbits, Eclipses, and Transits (POET) code, which does photometry and light-curve modeling with a BiLinearly Interpolated Subpixel Sensitivity (BLISS) map, and our Zen Eliminates Noise (ZEN) code, which takes POET photometry and applies Pixel-Level Decorrelation (PLD). BLISS creates a physical map of pixel gain variations, and is thereby independent of any astrophysical effects. PLD takes a mathematical approach, using relative variations in pixel values near the target to eliminate position-correlated noise. The results are consistent between the methods, except in one outlier observation where neither model could effectively remove correlated noise in the light curve. Using the eclipse timings, along with previous transit observations and radial velocity data, we further refine the orbit of WASP-29b, and, when excluding the outlier, determine an eccentricity between 0.037 and 0.056. We performed atmospheric retrieval with our Bayesian Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (BART) code but find that, when the outlier is discarded, the planet is consistent with a blackbody, and molecular abundances cannot be constrained. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This work was supported by NASA Planetary Atmospheres grant NNX12AI69G and NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program grant NNX13AF38G.

Design Considerations: Falcon M Dwarf Habitable Exoplanet Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Polsgrove, Daniel; Novotny, Steven; Della-Rose, Devin J.; Chun, Francis; Tippets, Roger; O'Shea, Patrick; Miller, Matthew

2016-01-01

The Falcon Telescope Network (FTN) is an assemblage of twelve automated 20-inch telescopes positioned around the globe, controlled from the Cadet Space Operations Center (CSOC) at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Five of the 12 sites are currently installed, with full operational capability expected by the end of 2016. Though optimized for studying near-earth objects to accomplish its primary mission of Space Situational Awareness (SSA), the Falcon telescopes are in many ways similar to those used by ongoing and planned exoplanet transit surveys targeting individual M dwarf stars (e.g., MEarth, APACHE, SPECULOOS). The network's worldwide geographic distribution provides additional potential advantages. We have performed analytical and empirical studies exploring the viability of employing the FTN for a future survey of nearby late-type M dwarfs tailored to detect transits of 1-2REarth exoplanets in habitable-zone orbits . We present empirical results on photometric precision derived from data collected with multiple Falcon telescopes on a set of nearby (survey design parameters is also described, including an analysis of site-specific weather data, anticipated telescope time allocation and the percentage of nearby M dwarfs with sufficient check stars within the Falcons' 11' x 11' field-of-view required to perform effective differential photometry. The results of this ongoing effort will inform the likelihood of discovering one (or more) habitable-zone exoplanets given current occurrence rate estimates over a nominal five-year campaign, and will dictate specific survey design features in preparation for initiating project execution when the FTN begins full-scale automated operations.

Exoplanet Population Distribution from Kepler Data

Science.gov (United States)

Traub, Wesley A.

2015-08-01

The underlying population of exoplanets around stars in the Kepler sample can be inferred by binning the Kepler planets in radius and period, invoking an empirical noise model, assuming a model exoplanet distribution function, randomly assigning planets to each of the Kepler target stars, asking whether each planet’s transit signal could be detected by Kepler, binning the resulting simulated detections, comparing the simulations with the observed data sample, and iterating on the model parameters until a satisfactory fit is obtained. The process is designed to simulate Kepler’s observing procedure. The key assumption is that the distribution function is continuous and the product of separable functions of period and radius. Any additional suspected biases in the sample can be handled by adjusting the noise model. The first advantage of this overall procedure is that the actual detection process is simulated as closely as possible, on a target by target basis, so the resulting estimated population should be closer to the actual population than by any other method of analysis. The second advantage is that the resulting distribution function can be extended to values of period and radius that go beyond the sample space, including, for example, application to estimating eta-sub-Earth, and also estimating the expected science yields of future direct-imaging exoplanet missions such as WFIRST-AFTA.

A Planet Soon to Meet Its Demise

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-02-01

A tiny telescope has discovered a scalding hot world orbiting its star 1,300 light-years from us. KELT-16b may only be around for a few more hundreds of thousands of years, however.Dont Underestimate Tiny TelescopesThe KELT-North telescope in Arizona. This tiny telescope was responsible for the discovery of KELT-16b. [Vanderbilt University]In an era of ever larger observatories, you might think that theres no longer a place for small-aperture ground-based telescopes. But small ground-based telescopes have been responsible for the discovery and characterization of around 250 exoplanets so far and these are the targets that are especially useful for exoplanet science, as they aremore easily followed up than the faint discoveries made by telescopes like Kepler.The Kilogree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) consists of two telescopes one in Arizona and one in South Africa that each have a 4.2-centimeter aperture. In total, KELT observes roughly 70% of the entire sky searching for planets transiting bright hosts. And its recently found quite an interesting one: KELT-16b. In a publication led by Thomas Oberst (Westminster College in Pennsylvania), a team of scientists presents their find.Combined follow-up light curves obtained for KELT-16b from 19 transits. The best-fit period is just under a day. [Oberst et al. 2017]A Hot WorldKELT-16b is whats known as a hot Jupiter. Using the KELT data and follow-up observations of 19 transits, Oberst and collaborators estimate KELT-16bs radius at roughly 1.4 times that of Jupiter and its mass at 2.75 times Jupiters. Its equilibrium temperature is a scalding 2453 K caused by the fact that it orbits so close to its host star that it completes each orbit in a mere 0.97 days!This short period is extremely unusual: there are only five other known transiting exoplanets with periods shorter than a day. KELT-16b is orbiting very close to its host, making it subject to extreme irradiation and strong tidal forces.Based on KELT-16bs orbit

Assembly, alignment and test of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) optical assemblies

Science.gov (United States)

Balonek, Gregory; Brown, Joshua J.; Andre, James E.; Chesbrough, Christian D.; Chrisp, Michael P.; Dalpiaz, Michael; Lennon, Joseph; Richards, B. C.; Clark, Kristin E.

2017-08-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will carry four visible waveband, seven-element, refractive F/1.4 lenses, each with a 34 degree diagonal field of view. This paper describes the methods used for the assembly, alignment and test of the four flight optical assemblies. Prior to commencing the build of the four flight optical assemblies, a Risk Reduction Unit (RRU) was successfully assembled and tested [1]. The lessons learned from the RRU were applied to the build of the flight assemblies. The main modifications to the flight assemblies include the inking of the third lens element stray light mitigation, tighter alignment tolerances, and diamond turning for critical mechanical surfaces. Each of the optical assemblies was tested interferometrically and measured with a low coherence distance measuring interferometer (DMI) to predict the optimal shim thickness between the lens assembly and detector before -75°C environmental testing. In addition to individual test data, environmental test results from prior assemblies allow for the exploration of marginal performance differences between each of the optical assemblies.

An integrated payload design for the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory (EChO)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Swinyard, Bruce; Tinetti, Giovanna; Tennyson, Jonathan

2012-01-01

by ESA in the context of a medium class mission within the Cosmic Vision programme for launch post 2020. The payload suite is required to provide simultaneous coverage from the visible to the mid-infrared and must be highly stable and effectively operate as a single instrument. In this paper we describe......The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory (EChO) is a space mission dedicated to undertaking spectroscopy of transiting exoplanets over the widest wavelength range possible. It is based around a highly stable space platform with a 1.2 m class telescope. The mission is currently being studied...

The Effect of Starspots on Detectability of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Ryan; Berta-Thompson, Zachory

2018-01-01

Transmission spectroscopy is an effective tool for detecting and characterizing the atmospheres of transiting extrasolar planets. However, the presence of cool spots on a planet’s host star can be a source of uncertainty that is difficult to account for. Cool starspots introduce wavelength-dependent features and noise into the transmission spectrum of an orbiting exoplanet. For sufficiently cool stars, especially M dwarfs, this could cause false detections of water and other species in the planet’s atmosphere. To understand the extent of this problem, we use a combination of PHOENIX model spectra and the starspot simulation code MACULA to simulate the effects of starspots on observed transmission spectra for a wide variety of stars and spot configurations. By comparing the simulated DoTV (Depth of Transit Variation) due to starspots with models of the expected DoTV from exoplanet atmospheres with a given composition, we can estimate the level of effect the starspots have on the detectability of various atmospheres. For example, our results indicate for TRAPPIST-1’s planets that while the large amplitude absorption features from a H/He-rich atmosphere should be easily detectable, a pure water atmosphere would be much harder to distinguish from starspot noise. Consequently, proper characterization of exoplanet atmospheres, especially around cool, active host stars, requires a proper understanding of the star’s spot properties and suitable methods for reducing or removing spot-induced brightness fluctuations as a source of noise.

Atmospheric retrieval analysis of the directly imaged exoplanet HR 8799b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jae-Min [University of Zürich, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich (Switzerland); Heng, Kevin [University of Bern, Center for Space and Habitability, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern (Switzerland); Irwin, Patrick G. J., E-mail: lee@physik.uzh.ch, E-mail: kevin.heng@csh.unibe.ch, E-mail: irwin@atm.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU (United Kingdom)

2013-12-01

Directly imaged exoplanets are unexplored laboratories for the application of the spectral and temperature retrieval method, where the chemistry and composition of their atmospheres are inferred from inverse modeling of the available data. As a pilot study, we focus on the extrasolar gas giant HR 8799b, for which more than 50 data points are available. We upgrade our non-linear optimal estimation retrieval method to include a phenomenological model of clouds that requires the cloud optical depth and monodisperse particle size to be specified. Previous studies have focused on forward models with assumed values of the exoplanetary properties; there is no consensus on the best-fit values of the radius, mass, surface gravity, and effective temperature of HR 8799b. We show that cloud-free models produce reasonable fits to the data if the atmosphere is of super-solar metallicity and non-solar elemental abundances. Intermediate cloudy models with moderate values of the cloud optical depth and micron-sized particles provide an equally reasonable fit to the data and require a lower mean molecular weight. We report our best-fit values for the radius, mass, surface gravity, and effective temperature of HR 8799b. The mean molecular weight is about 3.8, while the carbon-to-oxygen ratio is about unity due to the prevalence of carbon monoxide. Our study emphasizes the need for robust claims about the nature of an exoplanetary atmosphere to be based on analyses involving both photometry and spectroscopy and inferred from beyond a few photometric data points, such as are typically reported for hot Jupiters.

A near-infrared transmission spectrum for the warm Saturn HAT-P-12b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Line, Michael R.; Knutson, Heather; Desert, Jean-Michel [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Deming, Drake; Wilkins, Ashlee, E-mail: mrl@gps.caltech.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

2013-12-01

We present a Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera-3 (WFC3) transmission spectrum for the transiting exoplanet HAT-P-12b. This warm (1000 K) sub-Saturn-mass planet has a smaller mass and a lower temperature than the hot Jupiters that have been studied so far. We find that the planet's measured transmission spectrum lacks the expected water absorption feature for a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere and is instead best described by a model with high-altitude clouds. Using a frequentist hypothesis testing procedure, we can rule out a hydrogen-dominated cloud-free atmosphere to 4.9σ. When combined with other recent WFC3 studies, our observations suggest that clouds may be common in exoplanetary atmospheres.

New exoplanets from the SuperWASP-North survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keenan F.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We present the current status of the WASP search for transiting exoplanets, focusing on recent planet discoveries from SuperWASP-North and the joint equatorial region (-20≤Dec≤+20 observed by both WASP telescopes. We report the results of monitoring of WASP planets, and discuss how these contribute to our understanding of planet properties and their diversity.

Multi-band characterization of the hot Jupiters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moyano, M.; Almeida, L. A.; von Essen, C.

2017-01-01

We have carried out a campaign to characterize the hot Jupiters WASP-5b, WASP-44b and WASP-46b using multiband photometry collected at the Observatorio do Pico Dos Dias in Brazil. We have determined the planetary physical properties and new transit ephemerides for these systems. The new orbital...

Binary catalogue of exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Richard; Bazso, Akos; Zechner, Renate; Funk, Barbara

2016-02-01

Since 1995 there is a database which list most of the known exoplanets (The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia at http://exoplanet.eu/). With the growing number of detected exoplanets in binary and multiple star systems it became more important to mark and to separate them into a new database, which is not available in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Therefore we established an online database (which can be found at: http://www.univie.ac.at/adg/schwarz/multiple.html) for all known exoplanets in binary star systems and in addition for multiple star systems, which will be updated regularly and linked to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. The binary catalogue of exoplanets is available online as data file and can be used for statistical purposes. Our database is divided into two parts: the data of the stars and the planets, given in a separate list. We describe also the different parameters of the exoplanetary systems and present some applications.

Exploring exoplanet populations with NASA’s Kepler Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Batalha, Natalie M.

2014-01-01

The Kepler Mission is exploring the diversity of planets and planetary systems. Its legacy will be a catalog of discoveries sufficient for computing planet occurrence rates as a function of size, orbital period, star type, and insolation flux. The mission has made significant progress toward achieving that goal. Over 3,500 transiting exoplanets have been identified from the analysis of the first 3 y of data, 100 planets of which are in the habitable zone. The catalog has a high reliability rate (85–90% averaged over the period/radius plane), which is improving as follow-up observations continue. Dynamical (e.g., velocimetry and transit timing) and statistical methods have confirmed and characterized hundreds of planets over a large range of sizes and compositions for both single- and multiple-star systems. Population studies suggest that planets abound in our galaxy and that small planets are particularly frequent. Here, I report on the progress Kepler has made measuring the prevalence of exoplanets orbiting within one astronomical unit of their host stars in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s long-term goal of finding habitable environments beyond the solar system. PMID:25049406

Comparing Jupiter and Saturn: dimensionless input rates from plasma sources within the magnetosphere

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. M. Vasyliūnas

2008-06-01

Full Text Available The quantitative significance for a planetary magnetosphere of plasma sources associated with a moon of the planet can be assessed only by expressing the plasma mass input rate in dimensionless form, as the ratio of the actual mass input to some reference value. Traditionally, the solar wind mass flux through an area equal to the cross-section of the magnetosphere has been used. Here I identify another reference value of mass input, independent of the solar wind and constructed from planetary parameters alone, which can be shown to represent a mass input sufficiently large to prevent corotation already at the source location. The source rate from Enceladus at Saturn has been reported to be an order of magnitude smaller (in absolute numbers than that from Io at Jupiter. Both reference values, however, are also smaller at Saturn than at Jupiter, by factors ~40 to 60; expressed in dimensionless form, the estimated mass input from Enceladus may be larger than that from Io by factors ~4 to 6. The magnetosphere of Saturn may thus, despite a lower mass input in kg s⁻¹, intrinsically be more heavily mass-loaded than the magnetosphere of Jupiter.

Comparing Jupiter and Saturn: dimensionless input rates from plasma sources within the magnetosphere

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. M. Vasyliūnas

2008-06-01

Full Text Available The quantitative significance for a planetary magnetosphere of plasma sources associated with a moon of the planet can be assessed only by expressing the plasma mass input rate in dimensionless form, as the ratio of the actual mass input to some reference value. Traditionally, the solar wind mass flux through an area equal to the cross-section of the magnetosphere has been used. Here I identify another reference value of mass input, independent of the solar wind and constructed from planetary parameters alone, which can be shown to represent a mass input sufficiently large to prevent corotation already at the source location. The source rate from Enceladus at Saturn has been reported to be an order of magnitude smaller (in absolute numbers than that from Io at Jupiter. Both reference values, however, are also smaller at Saturn than at Jupiter, by factors ~40 to 60; expressed in dimensionless form, the estimated mass input from Enceladus may be larger than that from Io by factors ~4 to 6. The magnetosphere of Saturn may thus, despite a lower mass input in kg s−1, intrinsically be more heavily mass-loaded than the magnetosphere of Jupiter.

Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn analog with gravitational microlensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaudi, B S; Bennett, D P; Udalski, A; Gould, A; Christie, G W; Maoz, D; Dong, S; McCormick, J; Szymanski, M K; Tristram, P J; Nikolaev, S; Paczynski, B; Kubiak, M; Pietrzynski, G; Soszynski, I; Szewczyk, O; Ulaczyk, K; Wyrzykowski, L; Depoy, D L; Han, C; Kaspi, S; Lee, C-U; Mallia, F; Natusch, T; Pogge, R W; Park, B-G; Abe, F; Bond, I A; Botzler, C S; Fukui, A; Hearnshaw, J B; Itow, Y; Kamiya, K; Korpela, A V; Kilmartin, P M; Lin, W; Masuda, K; Matsubara, Y; Motomura, M; Muraki, Y; Nakamura, S; Okumura, T; Ohnishi, K; Rattenbury, N J; Sako, T; Saito, To; Sato, S; Skuljan, L; Sullivan, D J; Sumi, T; Sweatman, W L; Yock, P C M; Albrow, M D; Allan, A; Beaulieu, J-P; Burgdorf, M J; Cook, K H; Coutures, C; Dominik, M; Dieters, S; Fouqué, P; Greenhill, J; Horne, K; Steele, I; Tsapras, Y; Chaboyer, B; Crocker, A; Frank, S; Macintosh, B

2008-02-15

Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of approximately 0.71 and approximately 0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of approximately 2.3 and approximately 4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary star of mass approximately 0.50 solar mass at a distance of approximately 1.5 kiloparsecs. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only six confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.

ECLIPSING BINARY SCIENCE VIA THE MERGING OF TRANSIT AND DOPPLER EXOPLANET SURVEY DATA-A CASE STUDY WITH THE MARVELS PILOT PROJECT AND SuperWASP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleming, Scott W.; Ge Jian; De Lee, Nathan M.; Zhao Bo; Wan Xiaoke; Guo Pengcheng; Maxted, Pierre F. L.; Anderson, David R.; Hellier, Coel; Hebb, Leslie; Stassun, Keivan G.; Cargile, Phillip A.; Gary, Bruce; Ghezzi, Luan; Wisniewski, John; Porto de Mello, G. F.; Ferreira, Leticia; West, Richard G.; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Pollacco, Don

2011-01-01

Exoplanet transit and Doppler surveys discover many binary stars during their operation that can be used to conduct a variety of ancillary science. Specifically, eclipsing binary stars can be used to study the stellar mass-radius relationship and to test predictions of theoretical stellar evolution models. By cross-referencing 24 binary stars found in the MARVELS Pilot Project with SuperWASP photometry, we find two new eclipsing binaries, TYC 0272-00458-1 and TYC 1422-01328-1, which we use as case studies to develop a general approach to eclipsing binaries in survey data. TYC 0272-00458-1 is a single-lined spectroscopic binary for which we calculate a mass of the secondary and radii for both components using reasonable constraints on the primary mass through several different techniques. For a primary mass of M 1 = 0.92 ± 0.1 M sun , we find M 2 = 0.610 ± 0.036 M sun , R 1 = 0.932 ± 0.076 R sun , and R 2 = 0.559 ± 0.102 R sun , and find that both stars have masses and radii consistent with model predictions. TYC 1422-01328-1 is a triple-component system for which we can directly measure the masses and radii of the eclipsing pair. We find that the eclipsing pair consists of an evolved primary star (M 1 = 1.163 ± 0.034 M sun , R 1 = 2.063 ± 0.058 R sun ) and a G-type dwarf secondary (M 2 = 0.905 ± 0.067 M sun , R 2 = 0.887 ± 0.037 R sun ). We provide the framework necessary to apply this analysis to much larger data sets.

An Earth-sized exoplanet with a Mercury-like composition

Science.gov (United States)

Santerne, A.; Brugger, B.; Armstrong, D. J.; Adibekyan, V.; Lillo-Box, J.; Gosselin, H.; Aguichine, A.; Almenara, J.-M.; Barrado, D.; Barros, S. C. C.; Bayliss, D.; Boisse, I.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bouchy, F.; Brown, D. J. A.; Deleuil, M.; Delgado Mena, E.; Demangeon, O.; Díaz, R. F.; Doyle, A.; Dumusque, X.; Faedi, F.; Faria, J. P.; Figueira, P.; Foxell, E.; Giles, H.; Hébrard, G.; Hojjatpanah, S.; Hobson, M.; Jackman, J.; King, G.; Kirk, J.; Lam, K. W. F.; Ligi, R.; Lovis, C.; Louden, T.; McCormac, J.; Mousis, O.; Neal, J. J.; Osborn, H. P.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Santos, N. C.; Sousa, S. G.; Udry, S.; Vigan, A.

2018-05-01

Earth, Venus, Mars and some extrasolar terrestrial planets1 have a mass and radius that is consistent with a mass fraction of about 30% metallic core and 70% silicate mantle2. At the inner frontier of the Solar System, Mercury has a completely different composition, with a mass fraction of about 70% metallic core and 30% silicate mantle3. Several formation or evolution scenarios are proposed to explain this metal-rich composition, such as a giant impact4, mantle evaporation5 or the depletion of silicate at the inner edge of the protoplanetary disk6. These scenarios are still strongly debated. Here, we report the discovery of a multiple transiting planetary system (K2-229) in which the inner planet has a radius of 1.165 ± 0.066 Earth radii and a mass of 2.59 ± 0.43 Earth masses. This Earth-sized planet thus has a core-mass fraction that is compatible with that of Mercury, although it was expected to be similar to that of Earth based on host-star chemistry7. This larger Mercury analogue either formed with a very peculiar composition or has evolved, for example, by losing part of its mantle. Further characterization of Mercury-like exoplanets such as K2-229 b will help to put the detailed in situ observations of Mercury (with MESSENGER and BepiColombo8) into the global context of the formation and evolution of solar and extrasolar terrestrial planets.

An Earth-sized exoplanet with a Mercury-like composition

Science.gov (United States)

Santerne, A.; Brugger, B.; Armstrong, D. J.; Adibekyan, V.; Lillo-Box, J.; Gosselin, H.; Aguichine, A.; Almenara, J.-M.; Barrado, D.; Barros, S. C. C.; Bayliss, D.; Boisse, I.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bouchy, F.; Brown, D. J. A.; Deleuil, M.; Delgado Mena, E.; Demangeon, O.; Díaz, R. F.; Doyle, A.; Dumusque, X.; Faedi, F.; Faria, J. P.; Figueira, P.; Foxell, E.; Giles, H.; Hébrard, G.; Hojjatpanah, S.; Hobson, M.; Jackman, J.; King, G.; Kirk, J.; Lam, K. W. F.; Ligi, R.; Lovis, C.; Louden, T.; McCormac, J.; Mousis, O.; Neal, J. J.; Osborn, H. P.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Santos, N. C.; Sousa, S. G.; Udry, S.; Vigan, A.

2018-03-01

Earth, Venus, Mars and some extrasolar terrestrial planets1 have a mass and radius that is consistent with a mass fraction of about 30% metallic core and 70% silicate mantle2. At the inner frontier of the Solar System, Mercury has a completely different composition, with a mass fraction of about 70% metallic core and 30% silicate mantle3. Several formation or evolution scenarios are proposed to explain this metal-rich composition, such as a giant impact4, mantle evaporation5 or the depletion of silicate at the inner edge of the protoplanetary disk6. These scenarios are still strongly debated. Here, we report the discovery of a multiple transiting planetary system (K2-229) in which the inner planet has a radius of 1.165 ± 0.066 Earth radii and a mass of 2.59 ± 0.43 Earth masses. This Earth-sized planet thus has a core-mass fraction that is compatible with that of Mercury, although it was expected to be similar to that of Earth based on host-star chemistry7. This larger Mercury analogue either formed with a very peculiar composition or has evolved, for example, by losing part of its mantle. Further characterization of Mercury-like exoplanets such as K2-229 b will help to put the detailed in situ observations of Mercury (with MESSENGER and BepiColombo8) into the global context of the formation and evolution of solar and extrasolar terrestrial planets.

A New Spin to Exoplanet Habitability Criteria

Science.gov (United States)

Georgoulis, M. K.; Patsourakos, S.

2017-12-01

We describe a physically- and statistically-based method to infer the near-Sun magnetic field of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and then extrapolate it to the inner heliosphere and beyond. Besides a ballpark agreement with in-situ observations of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) at L1, we use our estimates to show that Earth does not seem to be at risk of an extinction-level atmospheric erosion or stripping by the magnetic pressure of extreme solar eruptions, even way above a Carrington-type event. This does not seem to be the case with exoplanets, however, at least those orbiting in the classically defined habitability zones of magnetically active dwarf stars at orbital radii of a small fraction of 1 AU. We show that the combination of stellar ICMEs and the tidally locking zone of mother stars, that quite likely does not allow these exoplanets to attain Earth-like magnetic fields to shield themselves, probably render the existence of a proper atmosphere in them untenable. We propose, therefore, a critical revision of habitability criteria in these cases that would limit the number of target exoplanets considered as potential biosphere hosts.

An Explanation of Jupiter's Equatorially Symmetric Gravitational Field using a Four-layer, Non-spheroidal Model with Zonal Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Dali; Zhang, Keke; Schubert, Gerald; Anderson, John

2017-10-01

The structure/amplitude of the Jovian equatorially symmetric gravitational field is affected by both rotational distortion and the fast equatorially symmetric zonal flow. We construct a fully self-consistent, four-layer, non-spheroidal (i.e, the shape is irregular) model of Jupiter that comprises an inner core, a metallic region, an outer molecular envelope and a thin transition layer between the metallic and molecular regions. While the core is assumed to have a uniform density, three different equations of state are adopted for the metallic, molecular and transition regions. We solve the governing equations via a perturbation approach. The leading-order problem accounts for the full effect of rotational distortion, and determines the density, size and shape of the core, the location and thickness of the transition layer, and the shape of the 1-bar pressure level; it also produces the mass, the equatorial and polar radii of Jupiter, and the even zonal gravitational coefficients caused by the rotational distortion. The next-order problem determines the corrections caused by the zonal flow which is assumed to be confined within the molecular envelope and on cylinders parallel to the rotation axis. Our model provides the total even gravitational coefficients that can be compared with those acquired by the Juno spacecraft.

The Roles of Tidal Evolution and Evaporative Mass Loss in the Origin of CoRoT-7 b

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Brian; Miller, Neil; Barnes, Rory; Raymond, Sean N.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Greenberg, Richard

2010-01-01

CoRoT-7 b is the first confirmed rocky exoplanet, but, with an orbital semimajor axis of 0.0172 au, its origins may be unlike any rocky planet in our Solar System. In this study, we consider the roles of tidal evolution and evaporative mass loss in CoRoT-7 b's history, which together have modified the planet's mass and orbit. If CoRoT-7 b has always been a rocky body, evaporation may have driven off almost half its original mass, but the mass loss may depend sensitively on the extent of tidal decay of its orbit. As tides caused CoRoT-7 b's orbit to decay, they brought the planet closer to its host star, thereby enhancing the mass loss rate. Such a large mass loss also suggests the possibility that CoRoT-7 b began as a gas giant planet and had its original atmosphere completely evaporated. In this case, we find that CoRoT-7 b's original mass probably did not exceed 200 Earth masses (about two-third of a Jupiter mass). Tides raised on the host star by the planet may have significantly reduced the orbital semimajor axis, perhaps causing the planet to migrate through mean-motion resonances with the other planet in the system, CoRoT-7 c. The coupling between tidal evolution and mass loss may be important not only for CoRoT-7 b but also for other close-in exoplanets, and future studies of mass loss and orbital evolution may provide insight into the origin and fate of close-in planets, both rocky and gaseous.

The 4.5 μm full-orbit phase curve of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zellem, Robert T.; Griffith, Caitlin A.; Showman, Adam P.; Lewis, Nikole K.; Knutson, Heather A.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Laughlin, Gregory; Cowan, Nicolas B.; Agol, Eric; Burrows, Adam; Charbonneau, David; Deming, Drake; Langton, Jonathan

2014-01-01

The hot Jupiter HD 209458b is particularly amenable to detailed study as it is among the brightest transiting exoplanet systems currently known (V-mag = 7.65; K-mag = 6.308) and has a large planet-to-star contrast ratio. HD 209458b is predicted to be in synchronous rotation about its host star with a hot spot that is shifted eastward of the substellar point by superrotating equatorial winds. Here we present the first full-orbit observations of HD 209458b, in which its 4.5 μm emission was recorded with Spitzer/IRAC. Our study revises the previous 4.5 μm measurement of HD 209458b's secondary eclipse emission downward by ∼35% to 0.1391% −0.0069% +0.0072% , changing our interpretation of the properties of its dayside atmosphere. We find that the hot spot on the planet's dayside is shifted eastward of the substellar point by 40.°9 ± 6.°0, in agreement with circulation models predicting equatorial superrotation. HD 209458b's dayside (T bright = 1499 ± 15 K) and nightside (T bright = 972 ± 44 K) emission indicate a day-to-night brightness temperature contrast smaller than that observed for more highly irradiated exoplanets, suggesting that the day-to-night temperature contrast may be partially a function of the incident stellar radiation. The observed phase curve shape deviates modestly from global circulation model predictions potentially due to disequilibrium chemistry or deficiencies in the current hot CH 4 line lists used in these models. Observations of the phase curve at additional wavelengths are needed in order to determine the possible presence and spatial extent of a dayside temperature inversion, as well as to improve our overall understanding of this planet's atmospheric circulation.

The 4.5 μm full-orbit phase curve of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zellem, Robert T.; Griffith, Caitlin A.; Showman, Adam P. [Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 East University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Lewis, Nikole K. [Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Knutson, Heather A. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, MC 170-25 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J.; Laughlin, Gregory [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Cowan, Nicolas B. [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Agol, Eric [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Physics-Astronomy Building, 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, 4 Ivy Lane, Peyton Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Charbonneau, David [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street MS-16, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Langton, Jonathan, E-mail: rzellem@lpl.arizona.edu [Physics Department, Principia College, 1 Maybeck Place, Elsah, IL 62028 (United States)

2014-07-20

The hot Jupiter HD 209458b is particularly amenable to detailed study as it is among the brightest transiting exoplanet systems currently known (V-mag = 7.65; K-mag = 6.308) and has a large planet-to-star contrast ratio. HD 209458b is predicted to be in synchronous rotation about its host star with a hot spot that is shifted eastward of the substellar point by superrotating equatorial winds. Here we present the first full-orbit observations of HD 209458b, in which its 4.5 μm emission was recorded with Spitzer/IRAC. Our study revises the previous 4.5 μm measurement of HD 209458b's secondary eclipse emission downward by ∼35% to 0.1391%{sub −0.0069%}{sup +0.0072%}, changing our interpretation of the properties of its dayside atmosphere. We find that the hot spot on the planet's dayside is shifted eastward of the substellar point by 40.°9 ± 6.°0, in agreement with circulation models predicting equatorial superrotation. HD 209458b's dayside (T{sub bright} = 1499 ± 15 K) and nightside (T{sub bright} = 972 ± 44 K) emission indicate a day-to-night brightness temperature contrast smaller than that observed for more highly irradiated exoplanets, suggesting that the day-to-night temperature contrast may be partially a function of the incident stellar radiation. The observed phase curve shape deviates modestly from global circulation model predictions potentially due to disequilibrium chemistry or deficiencies in the current hot CH{sub 4} line lists used in these models. Observations of the phase curve at additional wavelengths are needed in order to determine the possible presence and spatial extent of a dayside temperature inversion, as well as to improve our overall understanding of this planet's atmospheric circulation.

FROM HOT JUPITERS TO SUPER-EARTHS VIA ROCHE LOBE OVERFLOW

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Valsecchi, Francesca; Rasio, Frederic A.; Steffen, Jason H. [Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)

2014-09-20

Through tidal dissipation in a slowly spinning host star, the orbits of many hot Jupiters may decay down to the Roche limit. We expect that the ensuing mass transfer will be stable in most cases. Using detailed numerical calculations, we find that this evolution is quite rapid, potentially leading to the complete removal of the gaseous envelope in a few gigayears, and leaving behind an exposed rocky core (a {sup h}ot super-Earth{sup )}. Final orbital periods are quite sensitive to the details of the planet's mass-radius relation and to the effects of irradiation and photo-evaporation, but could be as short as a few hours or as long as several days. Our scenario predicts the existence of planets with intermediate masses ({sup h}ot Neptunes{sup )} that should be found precisely at their Roche limit and in the process of losing mass through Roche lobe overflow. The observed excess of small single-planet candidate systems observed by Kepler may also be the result of this process. If so, the properties of their host stars should track those of the hot Jupiters. Moreover, the number of systems that produced hot Jupiters could be two to three times larger than one would infer from contemporary observations.

Extending and Characterizing an Exoplanet System in a Pristine Chain of Resonances

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, Jessie; Gorjian, Varoujan; Hardegree-Ullman, Kevin; Livingston, John; Dressing, Courtney; Barclay, Thomas; Lintott, Chris; Ciardi, David; Barentson, Geert; Kristiansen, Martti; Crossfield, Ian; Benneke, Bjorn; Howard, Andrew

2018-01-01

The K2-138 (EPIC 245950175; 2MASS J23154776-1050590) exoplanet system was recently identified in the K2 mission campaign 12 data (Christiansen et al. 2018). The moderately bright (K=10.3) K1V star hosts at least five sub-Neptune planets (1.6-3.3 Re) in a compact configuration, all with periods shorter than 13 days. The five confirmed planets in the system form an unbroken chain of near first-order mean motion resonances, with each successive pair of planets having close to a 3:2 commensurability; this is the longest such chain as yet discovered. The K2 data contain two additional transits which, if confirmed as due to a sixth planet, could extend the chain even further. Due to the proximity of the K2-138 planets to mean motion resonances, it is an ideal target to search for transit timing variations (TTVs). In order to further both of these time-critical and important science cases, we propose for DDT time to capture a third transit of the candidate sixth planet, and also observe a chance nearby cluster of three transits of planets b, c, and d. (12hr for the 6th planet was approved.)

DOPPLER SIGNATURES OF THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION ON HOT JUPITERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Showman, Adam P.; Lewis, Nikole K.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Shabram, Megan

2013-01-01

The meteorology of hot Jupiters has been characterized primarily with thermal measurements, but recent observations suggest the possibility of directly detecting the winds by observing the Doppler shift of spectral lines seen during transit. Motivated by these observations, we show how Doppler measurements can place powerful constraints on the meteorology. We show that the atmospheric circulation—and Doppler signature—of hot Jupiters splits into two regimes. Under weak stellar insolation, the day-night thermal forcing generates fast zonal jet streams from the interaction of atmospheric waves with the mean flow. In this regime, air along the terminator (as seen during transit) flows toward Earth in some regions and away from Earth in others, leading to a Doppler signature exhibiting superposed blueshifted and redshifted components. Under intense stellar insolation, however, the strong thermal forcing damps these planetary-scale waves, inhibiting their ability to generate jets. Strong frictional drag likewise damps these waves and inhibits jet formation. As a result, this second regime exhibits a circulation dominated by high-altitude, day-to-night airflow, leading to a predominantly blueshifted Doppler signature during transit. We present state-of-the-art circulation models including non-gray radiative transfer to quantify this regime shift and the resulting Doppler signatures; these models suggest that cool planets like GJ 436b lie in the first regime, HD 189733b is transitional, while planets hotter than HD 209458b lie in the second regime. Moreover, we show how the amplitude of the Doppler shifts constrains the strength of frictional drag in the upper atmospheres of hot Jupiters. If due to winds, the ∼2 km s –1 blueshift inferred on HD 209458b may require drag time constants as short as 10 4 -10 6 s, possibly the result of Lorentz-force braking on this planet's hot dayside.

The Interiors of Jupiter and Saturn

Science.gov (United States)

Helled, Ravit

2018-05-01

Probing the interiors of the giant planets in our Solar System is not an easy task. This requires a set of observations combined with theoretical models that are used to infer the planetary composition and its depth dependence. The masses of Jupiter and Saturn are 318 and 96 Earth masses, respectively, and since a few decades, we know that they mostly consist of hydrogen and helium. It is the mass of heavy elements (all elements heavier than helium) that is not well determined, as well as its distribution within the planets. While the heavy elements are not the dominating materials in Jupiter and Saturn, they are the key for our understanding of their formation and evolution histories. The planetary internal structure is inferred to fit the available observational constraints including the planetary masses, radii, 1-bar temperatures, rotation rates, and gravitational fields. Then, using theoretical equations of states (EOSs) for hydrogen, helium, their mixtures, and heavier elements (typically rocks and/or ices), a structure model is developed. However, there is no unique solution for the planetary structure, and the results depend on the used EOSs and the model assumptions imposed by the modeler. Standard interior models of Jupiter and Saturn include three main regions: (1) the central region (core) that consists of heavy elements, (2) an inner metallic hydrogen envelope that is helium rich, and (3) an outer molecular hydrogen envelope depleted with helium. The distribution of heavy elements can be either homogenous or discontinuous between the two envelopes. Major model assumptions that can affect the derived internal structure include the number of layers, the heat transport mechanism within the planet (and its entropy), the nature of the core (compact vs. diluted), and the location/pressure where the envelopes are divided. Alternative structure models assume a less distinct division between the layers and/or a less non-homogenous distribution of the heavy

No variations in transit times for Qatar-1 b

Science.gov (United States)

Maciejewski, G.; Fernández, M.; Aceituno, F. J.; Ohlert, J.; Puchalski, D.; Dimitrov, D.; Seeliger, M.; Kitze, M.; Raetz, St.; Errmann, R.; Gilbert, H.; Pannicke, A.; Schmidt, J.-G.; Neuhäuser, R.

2015-05-01

Aims: The transiting hot-Jupiter planet Qatar-1 b exhibits variations in transit times that could be perturbative. A hot Jupiter with a planetary companion on a nearby orbit would constitute an unprecedented planetary configuration, which is important for theories of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. We performed a photometric follow-up campaign to confirm or refute transit timing variations. Methods: We extend the baseline of transit observations by acquiring 18 new transit light curves acquired with 0.6-2.0 m telescopes. These photometric time series, together with data available in the literature, were analyzed in a homogenous way to derive reliable transit parameters and their uncertainties. Results: We show that the dataset of transit times is consistent with a linear ephemeris leaving no hint of any periodic variations with a range of 1 min. We find no compelling evidence of a close-in planetary companion to Qatar-1 b. This finding is in line with a paradigm that hot Jupiters are not components of compact multiplanetary systems. Based on dynamical simulations, we place tighter constraints on the mass of any fictitious nearby planet in the system. Furthermore, new transit light curves allowed us to redetermine system parameters with better precision than reported in previous studies. Our values generally agree with previous determinations. Partly based on (1) data collected with telescopes at the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory and (2) observations obtained with telescopes of the University Observatory Jena, which is operated by the Astrophysical Institute of the Friedrich-Schiller-University.Tables of light curve data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/577/A109

Sulfur Hazes in Giant Exoplanet Atmospheres: Impacts on Reflected Light Spectra

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gao, Peter; Marley, Mark S.; Zahnle, Kevin [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Robinson, Tyler D. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Lewis, Nikole K., E-mail: pgao@caltech.edu [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)

2017-03-01

Recent work has shown that sulfur hazes may arise in the atmospheres of some giant exoplanets, due to the photolysis of H{sub 2}S. We investigate the impact such a haze would have on an exoplanet’s geometric albedo spectrum and how it may affect the direct imaging results of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope ( WFIRST ), a planned NASA space telescope. For temperate (250 K <  T {sub eq} < 700 K) Jupiter-mass planets, photochemical destruction of H{sub 2}S results in the production of ∼1 ppmv of S{sub 8} between 100 and 0.1 mbar, which, if cool enough, will condense to form a haze. Nominal haze masses are found to drastically alter a planet’s geometric albedo spectrum: whereas a clear atmosphere is dark at wavelengths between 0.5 and 1 μ m, due to molecular absorption, the addition of a sulfur haze boosts the albedo there to ∼0.7, due to scattering. Strong absorption by the haze shortward of 0.4 μ m results in albedos <0.1, in contrast to the high albedos produced by Rayleigh scattering in a clear atmosphere. As a result, the color of the planet shifts from blue to orange. The existence of a sulfur haze masks the molecular signatures of methane and water, thereby complicating the characterization of atmospheric composition. Detection of such a haze by WFIRST is possible, though discriminating between a sulfur haze and any other highly reflective, high-altitude scatterer will require observations shortward of 0.4 μ m, which is currently beyond WFIRST ’s design.

Transit Timing Variation analysis with Kepler light curves of KOI 227 and Kepler 93b

Science.gov (United States)

Dulz, Shannon; Reed, Mike

2017-01-01

By searching for transit signals in approximately 150,000 stars, NASA’s Kepler Space telescope found thousands of exoplanets over its primary mission from 2009 to 2013 (Tenenbaum et al. 2014, ApJS, 211, 6). Yet, a detailed follow-up examination of Kepler light curves may contribute more evidence on system dynamics and planetary atmospheres of these objects. Kepler’s continuous observing of these systems over the mission duration produced light curves of sufficient duration to allow for the search for transit timing variations. Transit timing variations over the course of many orbits may indicate a precessing orbit or the existence of a non-transiting third body such as another exoplanet. Flux contributions of the planet just prior to secondary eclipse may provide a measurement of bond albedo from the day-side of the transiting planet. Any asymmetries of the transit shape may indicate thermal asymmetries which can measure upper atmosphere motion of the planet. These two factors can constrain atmospheric models of close orbiting exoplanets. We first establish our procedure with the well-documented TTV system, KOI 227 (Nesvorny et al. 2014, ApJ, 790, 31). Using the test case of KOI 227, we analyze Kepler-93b for TTVs and day-side flux contributions. Kepler-93b is likely a rocky planet with R = 1.50 ± 0.03 Earth Radii and M = 2.59 ± 2.0 Earth Masses (Marcy et al. 2014, ApJS, 210, 20). This research is funded by a NASA EPSCoR grant.

KEPLER-21b: A 1.6 R{sub Earth} PLANET TRANSITING THE BRIGHT OSCILLATING F SUBGIANT STAR HD 179070

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howell, Steve B. [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States); Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Quinn, Samuel N. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Metcalfe, Travis S. [High Altitude Observatory and Scientific Computing Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307 (United States); Monteiro, Mario J. P. F. G. [Centro de Astrofisica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Appourchaux, Thierry [Institut d' Astrophysique Spatiale, Universite Paris XI-CNRS (UMR8617), Batiment 121, 91405 Orsay Cedex (France); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Creevey, Orlagh L. [Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Quirion, Pierre-Olivier [Canadian Space Agency, 6767 Boulevard de l' Aeroport, Saint-Hubert, QC, J3Y 8Y9 (Canada); Stello, Denis [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Kjeldsen, Hans; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Garcia, Rafael A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Universite Paris Diderot-IRFU/SAp, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); and others

2012-02-20

We present Kepler observations of the bright (V = 8.3), oscillating star HD 179070. The observations show transit-like events which reveal that the star is orbited every 2.8 days by a small, 1.6 R{sub Earth} object. Seismic studies of HD 179070 using short cadence Kepler observations show that HD 179070 has a frequency-power spectrum consistent with solar-like oscillations that are acoustic p-modes. Asteroseismic analysis provides robust values for the mass and radius of HD 179070, 1.34 {+-} 0.06 M{sub Sun} and 1.86 {+-} 0.04 R{sub Sun }, respectively, as well as yielding an age of 2.84 {+-} 0.34 Gyr for this F5 subgiant. Together with ground-based follow-up observations, analysis of the Kepler light curves and image data, and blend scenario models, we conservatively show at the >99.7% confidence level (3{sigma}) that the transit event is caused by a 1.64 {+-} 0.04 R{sub Earth} exoplanet in a 2.785755 {+-} 0.000032 day orbit. The exoplanet is only 0.04 AU away from the star and our spectroscopic observations provide an upper limit to its mass of {approx}10 M{sub Earth} (2{sigma}). HD 179070 is the brightest exoplanet host star yet discovered by Kepler.

High Contrast Imaging of Exoplanets and Exoplanetary Systems with JWST

Science.gov (United States)

Hinkley, Sasha; Skemer, Andrew; Biller, Beth; Baraffe, I.; Bonnefoy, M.; Bowler, B.; Carter, A.; Chen, C.; Choquet, E.; Currie, T.; Danielski, C.; Fortney, J.; Grady, C.; Greenbaum, A.; Hines, D.; Janson, M.; Kalas, P.; Kennedy, G.; Kraus, A.; Lagrange, A.; Liu, M.; Marley, M.; Marois, C.; Matthews, B.; Mawet, D.; Metchev, S.; Meyer, M.; Millar-Blanchaer, M.; Perrin, M.; Pueyo, L.; Quanz, S.; Rameau, J.; Rodigas, T.; Sallum, S.; Sargent, B.; Schlieder, J.; Schneider, G.; Stapelfeldt, K.; Tremblin, P.; Vigan, A.; Ygouf, M.

2017-11-01

JWST will transform our ability to characterize directly imaged planets and circumstellar debris disks, including the first spectroscopic characterization of directly imaged exoplanets at wavelengths beyond 5 microns, providing a powerful diagnostic of cloud particle properties, atmospheric structure, and composition. To lay the groundwork for these science goals, we propose a 39-hour ERS program to rapidly establish optimal strategies for JWST high contrast imaging. We will acquire: a) coronagraphic imaging of a newly discovered exoplanet companion, and a well-studied circumstellar debris disk with NIRCam & MIRI; b) spectroscopy of a wide separation planetary mass companion with NIRSPEC & MIRI; and c) deep aperture masking interferometry with NIRISS. Our primary goals are to: 1) generate representative datasets in modes to be commonly used by the exoplanet and disk imaging communities; 2) deliver science enabling products to empower a broad user base to develop successful future investigations; and 3) carry out breakthrough science by characterizing exoplanets for the first time over their full spectral range from 2-28 microns, and debris disk spectrophotometry out to 15 microns sampling the 3 micron water ice feature. Our team represents the majority of the community dedicated to exoplanet and disk imaging and has decades of experience with high contrast imaging algorithms and pipelines. We have developed a collaboration management plan and several organized working groups to ensure we can rapidly and effectively deliver high quality Science Enabling Products to the community.

[1012.5676] The Exoplanet Orbit Database

Science.gov (United States)

: The Exoplanet Orbit Database Authors: Jason T Wright, Onsi Fakhouri, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Eunkyu Han present a database of well determined orbital parameters of exoplanets. This database comprises parameters, and the method used for the planets discovery. This Exoplanet Orbit Database includes all planets

Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets. I. Constraints on the dust composition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Lieshout, R.; Min, M.; Dominik, C.

2014-01-01

Context. Recently, two exoplanet candidates have been discovered, KIC 12557548b and KOI-2700b, whose transit profiles show evidence of a comet-like tail of dust trailing the planet, thought to be fed by the evaporation of the planet’s surface. Aims. We aim to put constraints on the composition of

Transit confirmation and improved stellar and planet parameters for the super-Earth HD 97658 b and its host star

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Grootel, V.; Gillon, M.; Scuflaire, R. [Institut d' Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, 17 Allée du 6 Août, B-4000 Liège (Belgium); Valencia, D. [Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4 (Canada); Madhusudhan, N.; Demory, B.-O.; Queloz, D. [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Dragomir, D. [Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, 6740 Cortona Dr. Suite 102, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States); Howe, A. R.; Burrows, A. S. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Deming, D. [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 (United States); Ehrenreich, D.; Lovis, C.; Mayor, M.; Pepe, F.; Segransan, D.; Udry, S. [Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny (Switzerland); Seager, S., E-mail: valerie.vangrootel@ulg.ac.be [Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

2014-05-01

Super-Earths transiting nearby bright stars are key objects that simultaneously allow for accurate measurements of both their mass and radius, providing essential constraints on their internal composition. We present here the confirmation, based on Spitzer transit observations, that the super-Earth HD 97658 b transits its host star. HD 97658 is a low-mass (M {sub *} = 0.77 ± 0.05 M {sub ☉}) K1 dwarf, as determined from the Hipparcos parallax and stellar evolution modeling. To constrain the planet parameters, we carry out Bayesian global analyses of Keck-High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (Keck-HIRES) radial velocities and Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) and Spitzer photometry. HD 97658 b is a massive (M{sub P}=7.55{sub −0.79}{sup +0.83} M{sub ⊕}) and large (R{sub P}=2.247{sub −0.095}{sup +0.098}R{sub ⊕} at 4.5 μm) super-Earth. We investigate the possible internal compositions for HD 97658 b. Our results indicate a large rocky component, of at least 60% by mass, and very little H-He components, at most 2% by mass. We also discuss how future asteroseismic observations can improve the knowledge of the HD 97658 system, in particular by constraining its age. Orbiting a bright host star, HD 97658 b will be a key target for upcoming space missions such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS), the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), and the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize thoroughly its structure and atmosphere.

FINDING EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE USING GROUND-BASED HIGH-DISPERSION SPECTROSCOPY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snellen, I. A. G.; Le Poole, R.; Brogi, M.; Birkby, J.; De Kok, R. J.

2013-01-01

Exoplanet observations promise one day to unveil the presence of extraterrestrial life. Atmospheric compounds in strong chemical disequilibrium would point to large-scale biological activity just as oxygen and methane do in the Earth's atmosphere. The cancellation of both the Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin missions means that it is unlikely that a dedicated space telescope to search for biomarker gases in exoplanet atmospheres will be launched within the next 25 years. Here we show that ground-based telescopes provide a strong alternative for finding biomarkers in exoplanet atmospheres through transit observations. Recent results on hot Jupiters show the enormous potential of high-dispersion spectroscopy to separate the extraterrestrial and telluric signals, making use of the Doppler shift of the planet. The transmission signal of oxygen from an Earth-twin orbiting a small red dwarf star is only a factor of three smaller than that of carbon monoxide recently detected in the hot Jupiter τ Boötis b, albeit such a star will be orders of magnitude fainter. We show that if Earth-like planets are common, the planned extremely large telescopes can detect oxygen within a few dozen transits. Ultimately, large arrays of dedicated flux-collector telescopes equipped with high-dispersion spectrographs can provide the large collecting area needed to perform a statistical study of life-bearing planets in the solar neighborhood.

EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION BY PROXY: A TRANSITING 2.15 R⊕ PLANET NEAR THE HABITABLE ZONE OF THE LATE K DWARF KEPLER-61

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballard, Sarah; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Torres, Guillermo; Irwin, Jonathan; Newton, Elisabeth; Desert, Jean-Michel; Crepp, Justin R.; Shporer, Avi; Mann, Andrew W.; Ciardi, David R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steven B.; Horch, Elliott P.; Everett, Mark E.

2013-01-01

We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R ⊕ planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 ± 0.13 R ⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 273 ± 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 ± 0.00020 days and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby ''proxy'' stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses

Pan-Planets: Searching for hot Jupiters around cool dwarfs

Science.gov (United States)

Obermeier, C.; Koppenhoefer, J.; Saglia, R. P.; Henning, Th.; Bender, R.; Kodric, M.; Deacon, N.; Riffeser, A.; Burgett, W.; Chambers, K. C.; Draper, P. W.; Flewelling, H.; Hodapp, K. W.; Kaiser, N.; Kudritzki, R.-P.; Magnier, E. A.; Metcalfe, N.; Price, P. A.; Sweeney, W.; Wainscoat, R. J.; Waters, C.

2016-03-01

The Pan-Planets survey observed an area of 42 sq deg. in the galactic disk for about 165 h. The main scientific goal of the project is the detection of transiting planets around M dwarfs. We establish an efficient procedure for determining the stellar parameters Teff and log g of all sources using a method based on SED fitting, utilizing a three-dimensional dust map and proper motion information. In this way we identify more than 60 000 M dwarfs, which is by far the largest sample of low-mass stars observed in a transit survey to date. We present several planet candidates around M dwarfs and hotter stars that are currently being followed up. Using Monte Carlo simulations we calculate the detection efficiency of the Pan-Planets survey for different stellar and planetary populations. We expect to find 3.0+3.3-1.6 hot Jupiters around F, G, and K dwarfs with periods lower than 10 days based on the planet occurrence rates derived in previous surveys. For M dwarfs, the percentage of stars with a hot Jupiter is under debate. Theoretical models expect a lower occurrence rate than for larger main sequence stars. However, radial velocity surveys find upper limits of about 1% due to their small sample, while the Kepler survey finds a occurrence rate that we estimate to be at least 0.17b(+0.67-0.04) %, making it even higher than the determined fraction from OGLE-III for F, G and K stellar types, 0.14 (+0.15-0.076) %. With the large sample size of Pan-Planets, we are able to determine an occurrence rate of 0.11 (+0.37-0.02) % in case one of our candidates turns out to be a real detection. If, however, none of our candidates turn out to be true planets, we are able to put an upper limit of 0.34% with a 95% confidence on the hot Jupiter occurrence rate of M dwarfs. This limit is a significant improvement over previous estimates where the lowest limit published so far is 1.1% found in the WFCAM Transit Survey. Therefore we cannot yet confirm the theoretical prediction of a lower

A nebula of gases from Io surrounding Jupiter.

Science.gov (United States)

Krimigis, Stamatios M; Mitchell, Donald G; Hamilton, Douglas C; Dandouras, Jannis; Armstrong, Thomas P; Bolton, Scott J; Cheng, Andrew F; Gloeckler, George; Hsieh, K C; Keath, Edwin P; Krupp, Norbert; Lagg, Andreas; Lanzerotti, Louis J; Livi, Stefano; Mauk, Barry H; McEntire, Richard W; Roelof, Edmond C; Wilken, Berend; Williams, Donald J

2002-02-28

Several planetary missions have reported the presence of substantial numbers of energetic ions and electrons surrounding Jupiter; relativistic electrons are observable up to several astronomical units (au) from the planet. A population of energetic (>30[?]keV) neutral particles also has been reported, but the instrumentation was not able to determine the mass or charge state of the particles, which were subsequently labelled energetic neutral atoms. Although images showing the presence of the trace element sodium were obtained, the source and identity of the neutral atoms---and their overall significance relative to the loss of charged particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere---were unknown. Here we report the discovery by the Cassini spacecraft of a fast (>103[?]km[?]s-1) and hot magnetospheric neutral wind extending more than 0.5[?]au from Jupiter, and the presence of energetic neutral atoms (both hot and cold) that have been accelerated by the electric field in the solar wind. We suggest that these atoms originate in volcanic gases from Io, undergo significant evolution through various electromagnetic interactions, escape Jupiter's magnetosphere and then populate the environment around the planet. Thus a 'nebula' is created that extends outwards over hundreds of jovian radii.

Results of the astrometry and direct imaging testbed for exoplanet detection

Science.gov (United States)

Bendek, Eduardo A.; Belikov, Ruslan; Pluzhnik, Eugene; Guyon, Olivier; Milster, Thomas; Johnson, Lee; Finan, Emily; Knight, Justin; Rodack, Alexander

2017-09-01

Measuring masses of long-period planets around F, G, and K stars is necessary to characterize exoplanets and assess their habitability. Imaging stellar astrometry offers a unique opportunity to solve radial velocity system inclination ambiguity and determine exoplanet masses. The main limiting factor in sparse-field astrometry, besides photon noise, is the non-systematic dynamic distortions that arise from perturbations in the optical train. Even space optics suffer from dynamic distortions in the optical system at the sub-μas level. To overcome this limitation we propose a diffractive pupil that uses an array of dots on the primary mirror creating polychromatic diffraction spikes in the focal plane, which are used to calibrate the distortions in the optical system. By combining this technology with a high-performance coronagraph, measurements of planetary systems orbits and masses can be obtained faster and more accurately than by applying traditional techniques separately. In this paper, we present the results of the combined astrometry and and highcontrast imaging experiments performed at NASA Ames Research Center as part of a Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions program. We demonstrated 2.38x10-5 λ/D astrometric accuracy per axis and 1.72x10-7 raw contrast from 1.6 to 4.5 λ/D. In addition, using a simple average subtraction post-processing we demonstrated no contamination of the coronagraph field down to 4.79x10-9 raw contrast.

TEMPERATURE STRUCTURE AND ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF DRY TIDALLY LOCKED ROCKY EXOPLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koll, Daniel D. B.; Abbot, Dorian S., E-mail: dkoll@uchicago.edu [Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)

2016-07-10

Next-generation space telescopes will observe the atmospheres of rocky planets orbiting nearby M-dwarfs. Understanding these observations will require well-developed theory in addition to numerical simulations. Here we present theoretical models for the temperature structure and atmospheric circulation of dry, tidally locked rocky exoplanets with gray radiative transfer and test them using a general circulation model (GCM). First, we develop a radiative-convective (RC) model that captures surface temperatures of slowly rotating and cool atmospheres. Second, we show that the atmospheric circulation acts as a global heat engine, which places strong constraints on large-scale wind speeds. Third, we develop an RC-subsiding model which extends our RC model to hot and thin atmospheres. We find that rocky planets develop large day–night temperature gradients at a ratio of wave-to-radiative timescales up to two orders of magnitude smaller than the value suggested by work on hot Jupiters. The small ratio is due to the heat engine inefficiency and asymmetry between updrafts and subsidence in convecting atmospheres. Fourth, we show, using GCM simulations, that rotation only has a strong effect on temperature structure if the atmosphere is hot or thin. Our models let us map out atmospheric scenarios for planets such as GJ 1132b, and show how thermal phase curves could constrain them. Measuring phase curves of short-period planets will require similar amounts of time on the James Webb Space Telescope as detecting molecules via transit spectroscopy, so future observations should pursue both techniques.

CoRoT-2b: a Tidally Inflated, Young Exoplanet?

Science.gov (United States)

Guillot, Tristan; Havel, M.

2009-09-01

CoRoT-2b is among the most anomalously large transiting exoplanet known. Due to its large mass (3.3 Mjup), its large radius ( 1.5 Rjup) cannot be explained by standard evolution models. Recipes that work for other anomalously large exoplanets (e.g. HD209458b), such as invoking kinetic energy transport in the planetary interior or increased opacities, clearly fail for CoRoT-2b. Interestingly, the planet's parent star is an active star with a large fraction (7 to 20%) of spots and a rapid rotation (4.5 days). We first model the star's evolution to accurately constrain the planetary parameters. We find that the stellar activity has little influence on the star's evolution and inferred parameters. However, stellar evolution models point towards two kind of solutions for the star-planet system: (i) a very young system (20-40 Ma) with a star still undergoing pre-main sequence contraction, and a planet which could have a radius as low as 1.4 Rjup, or (ii) a young main-sequence star (40 to 500 Ma) with a planet that is slightly more inflated ( 1.5 Rjup). In either case, planetary evolution models require a significant added internal energy to explain the inferred planet size: from a minimum of 3x1028 erg/s in case (i), to up to 1.5x1029 erg/s in case (ii). We find that evolution models consistently including planet/star tides are able to reproduce the inferred radius but only for a short period of time ( 10 Ma). This points towards a young age for the star/planet system and dissipation by tides due to either circularization or synchronization of the planet. Additional observations of the star (infrared excess due to disk?) and of the planet (precise Rossiter effect, IR secondary eclispe) would be highly valuable to understand the early evolution of star-exoplanet systems.

Scalable Gaussian Processes and the search for exoplanets

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2015-01-01

Gaussian Processes are a class of non-parametric models that are often used to model stochastic behavior in time series or spatial data. A major limitation for the application of these models to large datasets is the computational cost. The cost of a single evaluation of the model likelihood scales as the third power of the number of data points. In the search for transiting exoplanets, the datasets of interest have tens of thousands to millions of measurements with uneven sampling, rendering naive application of a Gaussian Process model impractical. To attack this problem, we have developed robust approximate methods for Gaussian Process regression that can be applied at this scale. I will describe the general problem of Gaussian Process regression and offer several applicable use cases. Finally, I will present our work on scaling this model to the exciting field of exoplanet discovery and introduce a well-tested open source implementation of these new methods.

Beyond Kepler: Direct Imaging of Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Belikov, Ruslan

2018-01-01

The exoplanets field has been revolutionizing astronomy over the past 20+ years and shows no signs of stopping. The next big wave of exoplanet science may come from direct imaging of exoplanets. Several (non-habitable) exoplanets have already been imaged from the ground and NASA is planning an instrument for its 2020s flagship mission (WFIRST) to directly image large exoplanets. One of the key goals of the field is the detection and characterization of "Earth 2.0", i.e. a rocky planet with an atmosphere capable of supporting life. This appears possible with several potential instruments in the late 2020s such as WFIRST with a starshade, Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) from the ground, or one of NASA possible flagship missions in the 2030s (HabEx or LUVOIR). Also, if an Earth-like planet exists around Alpha Centauri (A or B), it may be possible to directly image it in the next approx. 5 years with a small space mission such as the Alpha Centauri Exoplanet Satellite (ACESat). I will describe the current challenges and opportunities in this exciting field, as well as the work we are doing at the Exoplanet Technologies group to enable this exciting science.

Searching sequences of resonant orbits between a spacecraft and Jupiter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Formiga, J K S; Prado, A F B A

2013-01-01

This research shows a study of the dynamical behavior of a spacecraft that performs a series of close approaches with the planet Jupiter. The main idea is to find a sequence of resonant orbits that allows the spacecraft to stay in the region of the space near the orbit of Jupiter around the Sun gaining energy from each passage by the planet. The dynamical model considers the existence of only two massive bodies in the systems, which are the Sun and Jupiter. They are assumed to be in circular orbits around their center of mass. Analytical equations are used to obtain the values of the parameters required to get this sequence of close approaches. Those equations are useful, because they show which orbits are physically possible when taking into account that the periapsis distances have to be above the surface of the Sun and that the closest approach distances during the passage by Jupiter have to be above its surface

EPIC229426032 b and EPIC246067459 b: discovery and characterization of two new transiting hot Jupiters from K2

Science.gov (United States)

Soto, M. G.; Díaz, M. R.; Jenkins, J. S.; Rojas, F.; Espinoza, N.; Brahm, R.; Drass, H.; Jones, M. I.; Rabus, M.; Hartman, J.; Sarkis, P.; Jordán, A.; Lachaume, R.; Pantoja, B.; Vučković, M.; Ciardi, D. R.; Crossfield, I.; Dressing, C.; Gonzales, E.; Hirsch, L.

2018-05-01

We report the discovery of two hot Jupiters orbiting the stars EPIC229426032 and EPIC246067459. We used photometric data from Campaign 11 and 12 of the Kepler K2 Mission and radial velocity data obtained using the HARPS, FEROS, and CORALIE spectrographs. EPIC229426032 b and EPIC246067459 b have masses of 1.60^{+0.11}_{-0.11} and 0.86^{+0.13}_{-0.12}Mjup, radii of 1.65^{+0.07}_{-0.08} and 1.30^{+0.15}_{-0.14} R_{jup}, and are orbiting their host stars in 2.18 and 3.20-day orbits, respectively. The large radius of EPIC229426032 b leads us to conclude that this candidate corresponds to a highly inflated hot Jupiter. EPIC2460674559 b has a radius consistent with theoretical models, considering the high incident flux falling on the planet. We consider EPIC229426032 b to be a excellent system for follow-up studies, since not only is it very inflated, but it also orbits a relatively bright star (V = 11.6).

Radial velocity follow-up of CoRoT transiting exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deleuil M.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We report on the results from the radial-velocity follow-up program performed to establish the planetary nature and to characterize the transiting candidates discovered by the space mission CoRoT. We use the SOPHIE at OHP, HARPS at ESO and the HIRES at Keck spectrographs to collect spectra and high-precision radial velocity (RV measurements for several dozens different candidates from CoRoT. We have measured the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of several confirmed planets, especially CoRoT-1b which revealed that it is another highly inclined system. Such high-precision RV data are necessary for the discovery of new transiting planets. Furthermore, several low mass planet candidates have emerged from our Keck and HARPS data.

HST HOT-JUPITER TRANSMISSION SPECTRAL SURVEY: CLEAR SKIES FOR COOL SATURN WASP-39b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fischer, Patrick D.; Knutson, Heather A. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Sing, David K.; Kataria, Tiffany; Nikolov, Nikolay [Astrophysics Group, School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QL (United Kingdom); Henry, Gregory W.; Williamson, Michael W. [Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Burrows, Adam S. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Peyton Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Showman, Adam P.; Ballester, Gilda E. [Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Désert, Jean-Michel [CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, 389-UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Aigrain, Suzanne [Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH (United Kingdom); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Etangs, Alain Lecavelier des; Vidal-Madjar, Alfred [CNRS, Institut dAstrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, 98bis boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris (France)

2016-08-10

We present the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) optical transmission spectroscopy of the cool Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from 0.29-1.025 μ m, along with complementary transit observations from Spitzer IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5 μ m. The low density and large atmospheric pressure scale height of WASP-39b make it particularly amenable to atmospheric characterization using this technique. We detect a Rayleigh scattering slope as well as sodium and potassium absorption features; this is the first exoplanet in which both alkali features are clearly detected with the extended wings predicted by cloud-free atmosphere models. The full transmission spectrum is well matched by a clear H{sub 2}-dominated atmosphere, or one containing a weak contribution from haze, in good agreement with the preliminary reduction of these data presented in Sing et al. WASP-39b is predicted to have a pressure-temperature profile comparable to that of HD 189733b and WASP-6b, making it one of the coolest transiting gas giants observed in our HST STIS survey. Despite this similarity, WASP-39b appears to be largely cloud-free, while the transmission spectra of HD 189733b and WASP-6b both indicate the presence of high altitude clouds or hazes. These observations further emphasize the surprising diversity of cloudy and cloud-free gas giant planets in short-period orbits and the corresponding challenges associated with developing predictive cloud models for these atmospheres.

CoRoT’s first seven planets: An overview*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barge P.

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The up to 150 day uninterrupted high-precision photometry of about 100000 stars – provided so far by the exoplanet channel of the CoRoT space telescope – gave a new perspective on the planet population of our galactic neighbourhood. The seven planets with very accurate parameters widen the range of known planet properties in almost any respect. Giant planets have been detected at low metallicity, rapidly rotating and active, spotted stars. CoRoT-3 populated the brown dwarf desert and closed the gap of measured physical properties between standard giant planets and very low mass stars. CoRoT extended the known range of planet masses down-to 5 Earth masses and up to 21 Jupiter masses, the radii to less than 2 Earth radii and up to the most inflated hot Jupiter found so far, and the periods of planets discovered by transits to 9 days. Two CoRoT planets have host stars with the lowest content of heavy elements known to show a transit hinting towards a different planet-host-star-metallicity relation then the one found by radial-velocity search programs. Finally the properties of the CoRoT-7b prove that terrestrial planets with a density close to Earth exist outside the Solar System. The detection of the secondary transit of CoRoT-1 at the 10−5-level and the very clear detection of the 1.7 Earth radii of CoRoT-7b at 3.5 10−4 relative flux are promising evidence of CoRoT being able to detect even smaller, Earth sized planets.

The Mass of the Candidate Exoplanet Companion to HD 33636 from Hubble Space Telescope Astrometry and High-Precision Radial Velocities

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, Jacob L.; McArthur, Barbara E.; Benedict, G. Fritz; Harrison, Thomas E.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Nelan, Edmund; Smith, Verne V.

2007-08-01

We have determined a dynamical mass for the companion to HD 33636 that indicates it is a low-mass star instead of an exoplanet. Our result is based on an analysis of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) astrometry and ground-based radial velocity data. We have obtained high-cadence radial velocity measurements spanning 1.3 yr of HD 33636 with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory. We combined these data with previously published velocities to create a data set that spans 9 yr. We used this data set to search for, and place mass limits on, the existence of additional companions in the HD 33636 system. Our high-precision astrometric observations of the system with the HST Fine Guidance Sensor 1r span 1.2 yr. We simultaneously modeled the radial velocity and astrometry data to determine the parallax, proper motion, and perturbation orbit parameters of HD 33636. Our derived parallax, πabs=35.6+/-0.2 mas, agrees within the uncertainties with the Hipparcos value. We find a perturbation period P=2117.3+/-0.8 days, semimajor axis aA=14.2+/-0.2 mas, and system inclination i=4.1deg+/-0.1deg. Assuming the mass of the primary star to be MA=1.02+/-0.03 Msolar, we obtain a companion mass MB=142+/-11 MJup=0.14+/-0.01 Msolar. The much larger true mass of the companion relative to its minimum mass estimated from the spectroscopic orbit parameters (Msini=9.3 MJup) is due to the nearly face-on orbit orientation. This result demonstrates the value of follow-up astrometric observations to determine the true masses of exoplanet candidates detected with the radial velocity method. Based on data obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The HST observations were obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. The HET is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford

In-Situ Sampling Analysis of a Jupiter Trojan Asteroid by High Resolution Mass Spectrometry in the Solar Power Sail Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Kebukawa, Y.; Aoki, J.; Ito, M.; Kawai, Y.; Okada, T.; Matsumoto, J.; Yano, H.; Yurimoto, H.; Terada, K.; Toyoda, M.; Yabuta, H.; Nakamura, R.; Cottin, H.; Grand, N.; Mori, O.

2017-12-01

The Solar Power Sail (SPS) mission is one of candidates for the upcoming strategic middle-class space exploration to demonstrate the first outer Solar System journey of Japan. The mission concept includes in-situ sampling analysis of the surface and subsurface (up to 1 m) materials of a Jupiter Trojan asteroid using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The candidates for the HRMS are multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MULTUM) type and Cosmorbitrap type. We plan to analyze isotopic and elemental compositions of volatile materials from organic matter, hydrated minerals, and ice (if any), in order to understand origin and evolution of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. It will provide insights into planet formation/migration theories, evolution and distribution of volatiles in the Solar System, and missing link between asteroids and comets on evolutional. The HRMS system allows to measure H, N, C, O isotopic compositions and elemental compositions of molecules prepared by various pre-MS procedures including stepwise heating up to 600ºC, gas chromatography (GC), and high-temperature pyrolysis with catalyst to decompose the samples into simple gaseous molecules (e.g., H2, CO, and N2) for isotopic ratio analysis. The required mass resolution should be at least 30,000 for analyzing isotopic ratios for simple gaseous molecules. For elemental compositions, mass accuracy of 10 ppm is required to determine elemental compositions for molecules with m/z up to 300 (as well as compound specific isotopic compositions for smaller molecules). Our planned analytical sequences consist of three runs for both surface and subsurface samples. In addition, `sniff mode' which simply introduces environmental gaseous molecules into a HRMS will be done by the system.

Lightning and Life on Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Rimmer, Paul; Ardaseva, Aleksandra; Hodosan, Gabriella; Helling, Christiane

2016-07-01

Miller and Urey performed a ground-breaking experiment, in which they discovered that electric discharges through a low redox ratio gas of methane, ammonia, water vapor and hydrogen produced a variety of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Since this experiment, there has been significant interest on the connection between lightning chemistry and the origin of life. Investigation into the atmosphere of the Early Earth has generated a serious challenge for this project, as it has been determined both that Earth's early atmosphere was likely dominated by carbon dioxide and molecular nitrogen with only small amounts of hydrogen, having a very high redox ratio, and that discharges in gases with high redox ratios fail to yield more than trace amounts of biologically relevant products. This challenge has motivated several origin of life researchers to abandon lightning chemistry, and to concentrate on other pathways for prebiotic synthesis. The discovery of over 2000 exoplanets includes a handful of rocky planets within the habitable zones around their host stars. These planets can be viewed as remote laboratories in which efficient lightning driven prebiotic synthesis may take place. This is because many of these rocky exoplanets, called super-Earths, have masses significantly greater than that of Earth. This higher mass would allow them to more retain greater amounts hydrogen within their atmosphere, reducing the redox ratio. Discharges in super-Earth atmospheres can therefore result in a significant yield of amino acids. In this talk, I will discuss new work on what lightning might look like on exoplanets, and on lightning driven chemistry on super-Earths. Using a chemical kinetics model for a super-Earth atmosphere with smaller redox ratios, I will show that in the presence of lightning, the production of the amino acid glycine is enhanced up to a certain point, but with very low redox ratios, the production of glycine is again inhibited. I will conclude

Turning Planetary Theory Upside Down

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

attached to the 3.6-metre ESO telescope and the CORALIE spectrometer on the Euler Swiss telescope, both at La Silla, were used to confirm the new planets and measure the angle through which each planet's orbit is tilted relative to its star's equator. The robotic Faulkes Telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory, located in Hawaii and Australia, provided the brightness measurements that determined the sizes of the planets. Follow-up observations of WASP exoplanet candidates are obtained at the Swiss Euler Telescope at La Silla, Chile (in collaboration with colleagues at Geneva Observatory), at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma, and at the 1.93-metre telescope of the Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France (in collaboration with colleagues at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris and the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille). The studies of the orbital tilt angles of the WASP planets were made with the HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope and with the CORALIE instrument on the Euler Swiss telescope, both at La Silla in the southern hemisphere, and at Tautenburg Observatory, McDonald Observatory and the Nordic Optical Telescope in the northern hemisphere. [4] Hot Jupiters are planets orbiting other stars that have masses similar to, or greater than, that of Jupiter, but that orbit their parent stars much more closely than any of the planets in our own Solar System. Because they are both large and close they are easier to detect from their gravitational effect on their stars and also more likely to transit the disc of the star. Most of the first exoplanets to be found were of this class. More information ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom

Eccentricity from transit photometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Eylen, Vincent; Albrecht, Simon

2015-01-01

and can be described by a Rayleigh distribution with $\\sigma$ = 0.049 $\\pm$ 0.013. This is in full agreement with solar system eccentricities, but in contrast to the eccentricity distributions previously derived for exoplanets from radial velocity studies. Our findings are helpful in identifying which...... (TTVs), and we present some previously unreported TTVs. Finally transit durations help distinguish between false positives and true planets and we use our measurements to confirm six new exoplanets....

Integrated Exoplanet Modeling with the GSFC Exoplanet Modeling & Analysis Center (EMAC)

Science.gov (United States)

Mandell, Avi M.; Hostetter, Carl; Pulkkinen, Antti; Domagal-Goldman, Shawn David

2018-01-01

Our ability to characterize the atmospheres of extrasolar planets will be revolutionized by JWST, WFIRST and future ground- and space-based telescopes. In preparation, the exoplanet community must develop an integrated suite of tools with which we can comprehensively predict and analyze observations of exoplanets, in order to characterize the planetary environments and ultimately search them for signs of habitability and life.The GSFC Exoplanet Modeling and Analysis Center (EMAC) will be a web-accessible high-performance computing platform with science support for modelers and software developers to host and integrate their scientific software tools, with the goal of leveraging the scientific contributions from the entire exoplanet community to improve our interpretations of future exoplanet discoveries. Our suite of models will include stellar models, models for star-planet interactions, atmospheric models, planet system science models, telescope models, instrument models, and finally models for retrieving signals from observational data. By integrating this suite of models, the community will be able to self-consistently calculate the emergent spectra from the planet whether from emission, scattering, or in transmission, and use these simulations to model the performance of current and new telescopes and their instrumentation.The EMAC infrastructure will not only provide a repository for planetary and exoplanetary community models, modeling tools and intermodal comparisons, but it will include a "run-on-demand" portal with each software tool hosted on a separate virtual machine. The EMAC system will eventually include a means of running or “checking in” new model simulations that are in accordance with the community-derived standards. Additionally, the results of intermodal comparisons will be used to produce open source publications that quantify the model comparisons and provide an overview of community consensus on model uncertainties on the climates of

Understanding Mass Atrocity Prevention during Periods of Democratic Transition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen McLoughlin

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to provide a better understanding of why some countries experience mass atrocities during periods of democratic transition, while others do not. Scholars have long regarded democracy as an important source of stability and protection from mass atrocities such as genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. But democratic transition itself is fraught with the heightened risk of violent conflict and even mass atrocities. Indeed, a number of studies have identified regimes in transition as containing the highest risk of political instability and mass atrocities. What is overlooked is the question of how and why some regimes undergo such transitions without experiencing mass atrocities, despite the presence of a number of salient risk factors, including state-based discrimination, inter-group tension and horizontal inequality. Utilizing a new analytical framework, this article investigates this lacuna by conducting a comparative analysis of two countries—one that experienced atrocities (Burundi during transition, and one that did not (Guyana. How countries avoid such violence during transition has the potential to yield insights for the mitigation of risk associated with mass atrocity crimes.

SECULAR CHAOS AND THE PRODUCTION OF HOT JUPITERS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Yanqin; Lithwick, Yoram

2011-01-01

In a planetary system with two or more well-spaced, eccentric, inclined planets, secular interactions may lead to chaos. The innermost planet may gradually become very eccentric and/or inclined as a result of the secular degrees of freedom drifting toward equipartition of angular momentum deficit. Secular chaos is known to be responsible for the eventual destabilization of Mercury in our own solar system. Here we focus on systems with three giant planets. We characterize the secular chaos and demonstrate the criterion for it to occur, but leave a detailed understanding of secular chaos to a companion paper. After an extended period of eccentricity diffusion, the inner planet's pericenter can approach the star to within a few stellar radii. Strong tidal interactions and ensuing tidal dissipation extract orbital energy from the planet and pull it inward, creating a hot Jupiter. In contrast to other proposed channels for the production of hot Jupiters, such a scenario (which we term 'secular migration') explains a range of observations: the pile-up of hot Jupiters at 3 day orbital periods, the fact that hot Jupiters are in general less massive than other radial velocity planets, that they may have misaligned inclinations with respect to stellar spin, and that they have few easily detectable companions (but may have giant companions in distant orbits). Secular migration can also explain close-in planets as low in mass as Neptune; and an aborted secular migration can explain the 'warm Jupiters' at intermediate distances. In addition, the frequency of hot Jupiters formed via secular migration increases with stellar age. We further suggest that secular chaos may be responsible for the observed eccentricities of giant planets at larger distances and that these planets could exhibit significant spin-orbit misalignment.

An Analytic Model Approach to the Frequency of Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Traub, Wesley A.

2016-10-01

The underlying population of exoplanets around stars in the Kepler sample can be inferred by a simulation that includes binning the Kepler planets in radius and period, invoking an empirical noise model, assuming a model exoplanet distribution function, randomly assigning planets to each of the Kepler target stars, asking whether each planet's transit signal could be detected by Kepler, binning the resulting simulated detections, comparing the simulations with the observed data sample, and iterating on the model parameters until a satisfactory fit is obtained. The process is designed to simulate the Kepler observing procedure. The key assumption is that the distribution function is the product of separable functions of period and radius. Any additional suspected biases in the sample can be handled by adjusting the noise model or selective editing of the range of input planets. An advantage of this overall procedure is that it is a forward calculation designed to simulate the observed data, subject to a presumed underlying population distribution, minimizing the effect of bin-to-bin fluctuations. Another advantage is that the resulting distribution function can be extended to values of period and radius that go beyond the sample space, including, for example, application to estimating eta-sub-Earth, and also estimating the expected science yields of future direct-imaging exoplanet missions such as WFIRST-AFTA.

Sharpening Up Jupiter

Science.gov (United States)

2008-10-01

New image-correction technique delivers sharpest whole-planet ground-based picture ever A record two-hour observation of Jupiter using a superior technique to remove atmospheric blur has produced the sharpest whole-planet picture ever taken from the ground. The series of 265 snapshots obtained with the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) prototype instrument mounted on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveal changes in Jupiter's smog-like haze, probably in response to a planet-wide upheaval more than a year ago. Sharpening Up Jupiter ESO PR Photo 33/08 Sharpening Up Jupiter Being able to correct wide field images for atmospheric distortions has been the dream of scientists and engineers for decades. The new images of Jupiter prove the value of the advanced technology used by MAD, which uses two or more guide stars instead of one as references to remove the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence over a field of view thirty times larger than existing techniques [1]. "This type of adaptive optics has a big advantage for looking at large objects, such as planets, star clusters or nebulae," says lead researcher Franck Marchis, from UC Berkeley and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, USA. "While regular adaptive optics provides excellent correction in a small field of view, MAD provides good correction over a larger area of sky. And in fact, were it not for MAD, we would not have been able to perform these amazing observations." MAD allowed the researchers to observe Jupiter for almost two hours on 16 and 17 August 2008, a record duration, according to the observing team. Conventional adaptive optics systems using a single Jupiter moon as reference cannot monitor Jupiter for so long because the moon moves too far from the planet. The Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe Jupiter continuously for more than about 50 minutes, because its view is regularly blocked by the Earth during Hubble's 96-minute orbit. Using MAD, ESO astronomer Paola Amico

Near-IR Direct Detection of Water Vapor in Tau Bootis b

Science.gov (United States)

2014-02-24

unknown orbital inclination. Treating the τ Boo system as a high flux ratio double-lined spectroscopic binary permits the direct measurement of the...the atmosphere of a non-transiting hot Jupiter, τ Boo b. Key words: planets and satellites: atmospheres – techniques: spectroscopic 1. INTRODUCTION...sensitivity required for these detections. Despite the agreement between the two groups, the direct detection of exoplanets, especially τ Boo b, has

DUST COAGULATION IN THE VICINITY OF A GAP-OPENING JUPITER-MASS PLANET

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carballido, Augusto; Matthews, Lorin S.; Hyde, Truell W., E-mail: Augusto_Carballido@baylor.edu [Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798 (United States)

2016-06-01

We analyze the coagulation of dust in and around a gap opened by a Jupiter-mass planet. To this end, we carry out a high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the gap environment, which is turbulent due to the magnetorotational instability. From the MHD simulation, we obtain values of the gas velocities, densities, and turbulent stresses (a) close to the gap edge, (b) in one of the two gas streams that accrete onto the planet, (c) inside the low-density gap, and (d) outside the gap. The MHD values are then input into a Monte Carlo dust-coagulation algorithm which models grain sticking and compaction. We also introduce a simple implementation for bouncing, for comparison purposes. We consider two dust populations for each region: one whose initial size distribution is monodisperse, with monomer radius equal to 1 μ m, and another one whose initial size distribution follows the Mathis–Rumpl–Nordsieck distribution for interstellar dust grains, with an initial range of monomer radii between 0.5 and 10 μ m. Without bouncing, our Monte Carlo calculations show steady growth of dust aggregates in all regions, and the mass-weighted (m-w) average porosity of the initially monodisperse population reaches extremely high final values of 98%. The final m-w porosities in all other cases without bouncing range between 30% and 82%. The efficiency of compaction is due to high turbulent relative speeds between dust particles. When bouncing is introduced, growth is slowed down in the planetary wake and inside the gap. Future studies will need to explore the effect of different planet masses and electric charge on grains.

DUST COAGULATION IN THE VICINITY OF A GAP-OPENING JUPITER-MASS PLANET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carballido, Augusto; Matthews, Lorin S.; Hyde, Truell W.

2016-01-01

We analyze the coagulation of dust in and around a gap opened by a Jupiter-mass planet. To this end, we carry out a high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the gap environment, which is turbulent due to the magnetorotational instability. From the MHD simulation, we obtain values of the gas velocities, densities, and turbulent stresses (a) close to the gap edge, (b) in one of the two gas streams that accrete onto the planet, (c) inside the low-density gap, and (d) outside the gap. The MHD values are then input into a Monte Carlo dust-coagulation algorithm which models grain sticking and compaction. We also introduce a simple implementation for bouncing, for comparison purposes. We consider two dust populations for each region: one whose initial size distribution is monodisperse, with monomer radius equal to 1 μ m, and another one whose initial size distribution follows the Mathis–Rumpl–Nordsieck distribution for interstellar dust grains, with an initial range of monomer radii between 0.5 and 10 μ m. Without bouncing, our Monte Carlo calculations show steady growth of dust aggregates in all regions, and the mass-weighted (m-w) average porosity of the initially monodisperse population reaches extremely high final values of 98%. The final m-w porosities in all other cases without bouncing range between 30% and 82%. The efficiency of compaction is due to high turbulent relative speeds between dust particles. When bouncing is introduced, growth is slowed down in the planetary wake and inside the gap. Future studies will need to explore the effect of different planet masses and electric charge on grains.

WARM SPITZER PHOTOMETRY OF THREE HOT JUPITERS: HAT-P-3b, HAT-P-4b AND HAT-P-12b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Todorov, Kamen O. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Knutson, Heather A. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J.; Laughlin, Gregory [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Lewis, Nikole K. [Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Cowan, Nicolas B. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Agol, Eric [Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Desert, Jean-Michel [Astronomy Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Sada, Pedro V. [Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Monterrey, Monterrey (Mexico); Charbonneau, David [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Langton, Jonathan [Department of Physics, Principia College, Elsah, IL 62028 (United States); Showman, Adam P. [Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2013-06-20

We present Warm Spitzer/IRAC secondary eclipse time series photometry of three short-period transiting exoplanets, HAT-P-3b, HAT-P-4b and HAT-P-12b, in both the available 3.6 and 4.5 {mu}m bands. HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-4b are Jupiter-mass objects orbiting an early K and an early G dwarf star, respectively. For HAT-P-3b we find eclipse depths of 0.112%+0.015%-0.030% (3.6 micron) and 0.094%+0.016%-0.009% (4.5 {mu}m). The HAT-P-4b values are 0.142%+0.014%-0.016% (3.6 micron) and 0.122%+0.012%-0.014% 4.5 {mu}m). The two planets' photometry is consistent with inefficient heat redistribution from their day to night sides (and low albedos), but it is inconclusive about possible temperature inversions in their atmospheres. HAT-P-12b is a Saturn-mass planet and is one of the coolest planets ever observed during secondary eclipse, along with the hot Neptune GJ 436b and the hot Saturn WASP-29b. We are able to place 3{sigma} upper limits on the secondary eclipse depth of HAT-P-12b in both wavelengths: <0.042% (3.6 {mu}m) and <0.085% (4.5 {mu}m). We discuss these results in the context of the Spitzer secondary eclipse measurements of GJ 436b and WASP-29b. It is possible that we do not detect the eclipses of HAT-P-12b due to high eccentricity, but find that weak planetary emission in these wavelengths is a more likely explanation. We place 3{sigma} upper limits on the |e cos {omega}| quantity (where e is eccentricity and {omega} is the argument of periapsis) for HAT-P-3b (<0.0081) and HAT-P-4b (<0.0042), based on the secondary eclipse timings.

USING STELLAR DENSITIES TO EVALUATE TRANSITING EXOPLANETARY CANDIDATES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tingley, B.; Deeg, H. J.; Bonomo, A. S.

2011-01-01

One of the persistent complications in searches for transiting exoplanets is the low percentage of the detected candidates that ultimately prove to be planets, which significantly increases the load on the telescopes used for the follow-up observations to confirm or reject candidates. Several attempts have been made at creating techniques that can pare down candidate lists without the need of additional observations. Some of these techniques involve a detailed analysis of light curve characteristics; others estimate the stellar density or some proxy thereof. In this paper, we extend upon this second approach, exploring the use of independently calculated stellar densities to identify the most promising transiting exoplanet candidates. We use a set of CoRoT candidates and the set of known transiting exoplanets to examine the potential of this approach. In particular, we note the possibilities inherent in the high-precision photometry from space missions, which can detect stellar asteroseismic pulsations from which accurate stellar densities can be extracted without additional observations.

Jupiter's interior and deep atmosphere: The initial pole-to-pole passes with the Juno spacecraft

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bolton, S. J.; Adriani, Alberto; Adumitroaie, V.

2017-01-01

On 27 August 2016, the Juno spacecraft acquired science observations of Jupiter, passing less than 5000 kilometers above the equatorial cloud tops. Images of Jupiter's poles show a chaotic scene, unlike Saturn's poles. Microwave sounding reveals weather features at pressures deeper than 100 bars,...... of magnitude more precise. This has implications for the distribution of heavy elements in the interior, including the existence and mass of Jupiter's core. The observed magnetic field exhibits smaller spatial variations than expected, indicative of a rich harmonic content....

Empirical models of Jupiter's interior from Juno data. Moment of inertia and tidal Love number k2

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Dongdong

2018-05-01

Context. The Juno spacecraft has significantly improved the accuracy of gravitational harmonic coefficients J4, J6 and J8 during its first two perijoves. However, there are still differences in the interior model predictions of core mass and envelope metallicity because of the uncertainties in the hydrogen-helium equations of state. New theoretical approaches or observational data are hence required in order to further constrain the interior models of Jupiter. A well constrained interior model of Jupiter is helpful for understanding not only the dynamic flows in the interior, but also the formation history of giant planets. Aims: We present the radial density profiles of Jupiter fitted to the Juno gravity field observations. Also, we aim to investigate our ability to constrain the core properties of Jupiter using its moment of inertia and tidal Love number k2 which could be accessible by the Juno spacecraft. Methods: In this work, the radial density profile was constrained by the Juno gravity field data within the empirical two-layer model in which the equations of state are not needed as an input model parameter. Different two-layer models are constructed in terms of core properties. The dependence of the calculated moment of inertia and tidal Love number k2 on the core properties was investigated in order to discern their abilities to further constrain the internal structure of Jupiter. Results: The calculated normalized moment of inertia (NMOI) ranges from 0.2749 to 0.2762, in reasonable agreement with the other predictions. There is a good correlation between the NMOI value and the core properties including masses and radii. Therefore, measurements of NMOI by Juno can be used to constrain both the core mass and size of Jupiter's two-layer interior models. For the tidal Love number k2, the degeneracy of k2 is found and analyzed within the two-layer interior model. In spite of this, measurements of k2 can still be used to further constrain the core mass and size

RE-INFLATED WARM JUPITERS AROUND RED GIANTS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez, Eric D. [Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh (United Kingdom); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)

2016-02-10

Since the discovery of the first transiting hot Jupiters, models have sought to explain the anomalously large radii of highly irradiated gas giants. We now know that the size of hot Jupiter radius anomalies scales strongly with a planet's level of irradiation and numerous models like tidal heating, ohmic dissipation, and thermal tides have since been developed to help explain these inflated radii. In general, however, these models can be grouped into two broad categories: models that directly inflate planetary radii by depositing a fraction of the incident irradiation into the interior and models that simply slow a planet's radiative cooling, allowing it to retain more heat from formation and thereby delay contraction. Here we present a new test to distinguish between these two classes of models. Gas giants orbiting at moderate orbital periods around post-main-sequence stars will experience enormous increases to their irradiation as their host stars move up the sub-giant and red-giant branches. If hot Jupiter inflation works by depositing irradiation into the planet's deep interiors then planetary radii should increase in response to the increased irradiation. This means that otherwise non-inflated gas giants at moderate orbital periods of >10 days can re-inflate as their host stars evolve. Here we explore the circumstances that can lead to the creation of these “re-inflated” gas giants and examine how the existence or absence of such planets can be used to place unique constraints on the physics of the hot Jupiter inflation mechanism. Finally, we explore the prospects for detecting this potentially important undiscovered population of planets.

Radio Emission from Red-Giant Hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Fujii, Yuka; Spiegel, David S.; Mroczkowski, Tony; Nordhaus, Jason; Zimmerman, Neil T.; Parsons, Aaron R.; Mirbabayi, Mehrdad; Madhusudhan, Nikku

2016-01-01

When planet-hosting stars evolve off the main sequence and go through the red-giant branch, the stars become orders of magnitudes more luminous and, at the same time, lose mass at much higher rates than their main sequence counterparts. Accordingly, if planetary companions exist around these stars at orbital distances of a few au, they will be heated up to the level of canonical hot Jupiters and also be subjected to a dense stellar wind. Given that magnetized planets interacting with stellar winds emit radio waves, such "Red-Giant Hot Jupiters" (RGHJs) may also be candidate radio emitters. We estimate the spectral auroral radio intensity of RGHJs based on the empirical relation with the stellar wind as well as a proposed scaling for planetary magnetic fields. RGHJs might be intrinsically as bright as or brighter than canonical hot Jupiters and about 100 times brighter than equivalent objects around main-sequence stars. We examine the capabilities of low-frequency radio observatories to detect this emission and find that the signal from an RGHJ may be detectable at distances up to a few hundred parsecs with the Square Kilometer Array.

Exoplanet Observing: From Art to Science

Science.gov (United States)

Conti, Dennis M.; Gleeson, Jack

2017-06-01

This paper will review the now well-established best practices for conducting high precision exoplanet observing with small telescopes. The paper will also review the AAVSO's activities in promoting these best practices among the amateur astronomer community through training material and online courses, as well as through the establishment of an AAVSO Exoplanet Database. This latter development will be an essential element in supporting followup exoplanet observations for upcoming space telescope missions such as TESS and JWST.

Jupiter Environment Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Sturm, Erick J.; Monahue, Kenneth M.; Biehl, James P.; Kokorowski, Michael; Ngalande, Cedrick,; Boedeker, Jordan

2012-01-01

The Jupiter Environment Tool (JET) is a custom UI plug-in for STK that provides an interface to Jupiter environment models for visualization and analysis. Users can visualize the different magnetic field models of Jupiter through various rendering methods, which are fully integrated within STK s 3D Window. This allows users to take snapshots and make animations of their scenarios with magnetic field visualizations. Analytical data can be accessed in the form of custom vectors. Given these custom vectors, users have access to magnetic field data in custom reports, graphs, access constraints, coverage analysis, and anywhere else vectors are used within STK.

Latest Results from the Multi-Object Keck Exoplanet Tracker

Science.gov (United States)

Van Eyken, Julian C.; Ge, J.; Wan, X.; Zhao, B.; Hariharan, A.; Mahadevan, S.; DeWitt, C.; Guo, P.; Cohen, R.; Fleming, S. W.; Crepp, J.; Warner, C.; Kane, S.; Leger, F.; Pan, K.

2006-12-01

The W. M. Keck Exoplanet Tracker is a precision Doppler radial velocity instrument based on dispersed fixed-delay interferometry (DFDI) which takes advantage of the new technique to allow multi-object RV surveying. Installed at the 2.5m Sloan telescope at Apache Point Observatory, the combination of Michelson interferometer and medium resolution spectrograph allows design for simultaneous Doppler measurements of up to 60 targets, while maintaining high instrument throughput. Using a single-object prototype of the instrument at the Kitt Peak National Observatory 2.1m telescope, we previously discovered a 0.49MJup planet, HD 102195b (ET-1), orbiting with a 4.11d period, and other interesting targets are being followed up. From recent trial observations, the Keck Exoplanet Tracker now yields 59 usable simultaneous fringing stellar spectra, of a quality sufficient to attempt to detect short period hot-Jupiter type planets. Recent engineering improvements reduced errors by a factor of 2, and typical photon limits for stellar data are now at the 30m/s level for magnitude V 10.5 (depending on spectral type and v sin i), with a best value of 6.9m/s at V=7.6. Preliminary RMS precisions from solar data (daytime sky) are around 10m/s over a few days, with some spectra reaching close to their photon limit of 6-7m/s on the short term ( 1 hour). A number of targets showing interesting RV variability are currently being followed up independently. Additional engineering work is planned which should make for further significant gains in Doppler precision. Here we present the latest results and updates from the most recent engineering and observing runs with the Keck ET.

Jupiter

CERN Document Server

Penne, Barbra

2017-01-01

Our solar system's largest planet is huge enough that all of the system's other planets could fit inside it. Although Jupiter has been known since ancient times, scientists are still learning exciting new information about the planet and its satellites today. In fact, several of its moons are now believed to have oceans below their icy surfaces. Chapters focus on topics such as Jupiter's orbit and rotation, rings, atmosphere, and moons, as well as on the space missions that have helped us get a closer look at the planet and its moons over the past decades.

A simple model to describe intrinsic stellar noise for exoplanet detection around red giants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

North, Thomas S. H.; Chaplin, William J.; Gilliland, Ronald L.

2017-01-01

In spite of the huge advances in exoplanet research provided by the NASA Kepler Mission, there remain only a small number of transit detections around evolved stars. Here, we present a reformulation of the noise properties of red-giant stars, where the intrinsic stellar granulation and the stella...

A ground-based optical transmission spectrum of WASP-6b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jordán, Andrés; Espinoza, Néstor; Rabus, Markus; Eyheramendy, Susana; Sing, David K.; Désert, Jean-Michel; Bakos, Gáspár Á.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; López-Morales, Mercedes; Szentgyorgyi, Andrew; Maxted, Pierre F. L.; Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.

2013-01-01

We present a ground-based optical transmission spectrum of the inflated sub-Jupiter-mass planet WASP-6b. The spectrum was measured in 20 spectral channels from 480 nm to 860 nm using a series of 91 spectra over a complete transit event. The observations were carried out using multi-object differential spectrophotometry with the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph on the Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. We model systematic effects on the observed light curves using principal component analysis on the comparison stars and allow for the presence of short and long memory correlation structure in our Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis of the transit light curves for WASP-6. The measured transmission spectrum presents a general trend of decreasing apparent planetary size with wavelength and lacks evidence for broad spectral features of Na and K predicted by clear atmosphere models. The spectrum is consistent with that expected for scattering that is more efficient in the blue, as could be caused by hazes or condensates in the atmosphere of WASP-6b. WASP-6b therefore appears to be yet another massive exoplanet with evidence for a mostly featureless transmission spectrum, underscoring the importance that hazes and condensates can have in determining the transmission spectra of exoplanets.

Voyage to Jupiter.

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, David; Samz, Jane

This publication illustrates the features of Jupiter and its family of satellites pictured by the Pioneer and the Voyager missions. Chapters included are: (1) "The Jovian System" (describing the history of astronomy); (2) "Pioneers to Jupiter" (outlining the Pioneer Mission); (3) "The Voyager Mission"; (4)…

Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project (TEMP). IV. Refined System Parameters, Transit Timing Variations, and Orbital Stability of the Transiting Planetary System HAT-P-25

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xian-Yu; Wang, Songhu; Hinse, Tobias C.; Li, Kai; Wang, Yong-Hao; Laughlin, Gregory; Liu, Hui-Gen; Zhang, Hui; Wu, Zhen-Yu; Zhou, Xu; Zhou, Ji-Lin; Hu, Shao-Ming; Wu, Dong-Hong; Peng, Xi-Yan; Chen, Yuan-Yuan

2018-06-01

We present eight new light curves of the transiting extra-solar planet HAT-P-25b obtained from 2013 to 2016 with three telescopes at two observatories. We use the new light curves, along with recent literature material, to estimate the physical and orbital parameters of the transiting planet. Specifically, we determine the mid-transit times (T C ) and update the linear ephemeris, T C[0] = 2456418.80996 ± 0.00025 [BJDTDB] and P = 3.65281572 ± 0.00000095 days. We carry out a search for transit timing variations (TTVs), and find no significant TTV signal at the ΔT = 80 s-level, placing a limit on the possible strength of planet–planet interactions (TTVG). In the course of our analysis, we calculate the upper mass-limits of the potential nearby perturbers. Near the 1:2, 2:1, and 3:1 resonances with HAT-P-25b, perturbers with masses greater than 0.5, 0.3, and 0.5 M ⊕ respectively, can be excluded. Furthermore, based on the analysis of TTVs caused by light travel time effect (LTTE) we also eliminate the possibility that a long-period perturber exists with M p > 3000 MJ within a = 11.2 au of the parent star.

A SEARCH FOR ADDITIONAL PLANETS IN THE NASA EPOXI OBSERVATIONS OF THE EXOPLANET SYSTEM GJ 436

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballard, Sarah; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Charbonneau, David; Holman, Matthew J.; Fabrycky, Daniel; Deming, Drake; Barry, Richard K.; Kuchner, Marc J.; Livengood, Timothy A.; Hewagama, Tilak; A'Hearn, Michael F.; Wellnitz, Dennis D.; Sunshine, Jessica M.; Hampton, Don L.; Lisse, Carey M.; Seager, Sara; Veverka, Joseph F.

2010-01-01

We present time series photometry of the M dwarf transiting exoplanet system GJ 436 obtained with the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) component of the NASA EPOXI mission. We conduct a search of the high-precision time series for additional planets around GJ 436, which could be revealed either directly through their photometric transits or indirectly through the variations these second planets induce on the transits of the previously known planet. In the case of GJ 436, the presence of a second planet is perhaps indicated by the residual orbital eccentricity of the known hot Neptune companion. We find no candidate transits with significance higher than our detection limit. From Monte Carlo tests of the time series, we rule out transiting planets larger than 1.5 R + interior to GJ 436b with 95% confidence and larger than 1.25 R + with 80% confidence. Assuming coplanarity of additional planets with the orbit of GJ 436b, we cannot expect that putative planets with orbital periods longer than about 3.4 days will transit. However, if such a planet were to transit, we would rule out planets larger than 2.0 R + with orbital periods less than 8.5 days with 95% confidence. We also place dynamical constraints on additional bodies in the GJ 436 system, independent of radial velocity measurements. Our analysis should serve as a useful guide for similar analyses of transiting exoplanets for which radial velocity measurements are not available, such as those discovered by the Kepler mission. From the lack of observed secular perturbations, we set upper limits on the mass of a second planet as small as 10 M + in coplanar orbits and 1 M + in non-coplanar orbits close to GJ 436b. We present refined estimates of the system parameters for GJ 436. We find P = 2.64389579 ± 0.00000080 d, R * = 0.437 ± 0.016 R sun , and R p = 3.880 ± 0.147 R + . We also report a sinusoidal modulation in the GJ 436 light curve that we attribute to star spots. This signal is

The Jupiter program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramirez, J.J.

1995-01-01

Jupiter is a Sandia initiative to develop the next generation of fast Z-pinch drivers for applications to high energy density physics, inertial confinement fusion, and radiation effects simulation. Jupiter will also provide unique capabilities for science research in a broad spectrum of areas involving ultra high magnetic fields, hot/dense plasmas, x-ray physics, intense neutron sources, etc. The program is based on the premise that a single facility using magnetically driven implosions can meet the needs in these multiple program areas. Jupiter requires a 450-500 TW, 8-10 MV, ∼ 100 ns pulsed power generator to impart - 15 MJ kinetic energy to an imploding plasma load. The baseline concept uses a highly modular, robust architecture with demonstrated performance reliability. The design also has the flexibility to drive longer implosion times. This paper describes the Jupiter accelerator concept, and the research underway to establish the technological readiness to proceed with construction of the facility

Teetering Stars: Resonant Excitation of Stellar Obliquities by Hot and Warm Jupiters with External Companions

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Kassandra; Lai, Dong

2018-04-01

Stellar spin-orbit misalignments (obliquities) in hot Jupiter systems have been extensively probed in recent years thanks to Rossiter-McLaughlin observations. Such obliquities may reveal clues about hot Jupiter dynamical and migration histories. Common explanations for generating stellar obliquities include high-eccentricity migration, or primordial disk misalignment. This talk investigates another mechanism for producing stellar spin-orbit misalignments in systems hosting a close-in giant planet with an external, inclined planetary companion. Spin-orbit misalignment may be excited due to a secular resonance, occurring when the precession rate of the stellar spin axis (due to the inner orbit) becomes comparable to the precession rate of the inner orbital axis (due to the outer companion). Due to the spin-down of the host star via magnetic braking, this resonance may be achieved at some point during the star's main sequence lifetime for a wide range of giant planet masses and orbital architectures. We focus on both hot Jupiters (with orbital periods less than ten days) and warm Jupiters (with orbital periods around tens of days), and identify the outer perburber properties needed to generate substantial obliquities via resonant excitation, in terms of mass, separation, and inclination. For hot Jupiters, the stellar spin axis is strongly coupled to the orbital axis, and resonant excitation of obliquity requires a close perturber, located within 1-2 AU. For warm Jupiters, the spin and orbital axes are more weakly coupled, and the resonance may be achieved for more distant perturbers (at several to tens of AU). Resonant excitation of the stellar obliquity is accompanied by a decrease in the planets' mutual orbital inclination, and can thus erase high mutual inclinations in two-planet systems. Since many warm Jupiters are known to have outer planetary companions at several AU or beyond, stellar obliquities in warm Jupiter systems may be common, regardless of the

A Framework to Combine Low- and High-resolution Spectroscopy for the Atmospheres of Transiting Exoplanets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brogi, M.; Line, M.; Bean, J.; Désert, J.-M.; Schwarz, H.

2017-01-01

Current observations of the atmospheres of close-in exoplanets are predominantly obtained with two techniques: low-resolution spectroscopy with space telescopes and high-resolution spectroscopy from the ground. Although the observables delivered by the two methods are in principle highly

A Physical Model-based Correction for Charge Traps in the Hubble Space Telescope ’s Wide Field Camera 3 Near-IR Detector and Its Applications to Transiting Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Yifan; Apai, Dániel; Schneider, Glenn [Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Lew, Ben W. P., E-mail: yzhou@as.arizona.edu [Department of Planetary Science/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, 1640 E. University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85718 (United States)

2017-06-01

The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) near-IR channel is extensively used in time-resolved observations, especially for transiting exoplanet spectroscopy as well as brown dwarf and directly imaged exoplanet rotational phase mapping. The ramp effect is the dominant source of systematics in the WFC3 for time-resolved observations, which limits its photometric precision. Current mitigation strategies are based on empirical fits and require additional orbits to help the telescope reach a thermal equilibrium . We show that the ramp-effect profiles can be explained and corrected with high fidelity using charge trapping theories. We also present a model for this process that can be used to predict and to correct charge trap systematics. Our model is based on a very small number of parameters that are intrinsic to the detector. We find that these parameters are very stable between the different data sets, and we provide best-fit values. Our model is tested with more than 120 orbits (∼40 visits) of WFC3 observations and is proved to be able to provide near photon noise limited corrections for observations made with both staring and scanning modes of transiting exoplanets as well as for starting-mode observations of brown dwarfs. After our model correction, the light curve of the first orbit in each visit has the same photometric precision as subsequent orbits, so data from the first orbit no longer need to be discarded. Near-IR arrays with the same physical characteristics (e.g., JWST/NIRCam ) may also benefit from the extension of this model if similar systematic profiles are observed.

JUICE space mission to Jupiter

CERN Document Server

CERN. Geneva

2018-01-01

JUICE - JUpiter ICy moons Explorer - is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Planned for launch in 2022 and arrival at Jupiter in 2029, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. JUICE will perform detailed investigations of Jupiter and its system in all their inter-relations and complexity with particular emphasis on Ganymede as a planetary body and potential habitat. Investigations of Europa and Callisto would complete a comparative picture of the Galilean moons. Jupiter is the archetype for the giant planets of the Solar System and for the numerous giant planets now known to orbit other stars. Moreover, Jupiter's diverse Galilean satellites - three of which are believed to harbour internal oceans - are central to understanding the habitability of icy worlds. JUICE spacecraft will carry the most powerful remote sensing, geophysical, and in situ paylo...

Characterization of exoplanet atmospheres using high-dispersion spectroscopy with the E-ELT and beyond

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Snellen Ignas

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Ground-based high-dispersion (R ∼ 100,000 spectroscopy provides unique information on exoplanet atmospheres, inaccessible from space - even using the JWST or other future space telescopes. Recent successes in transmission- and dayside spectroscopy using CRIRES on the Very Large Telescope prelude the enormous discovery potential of high-dispersion spectrographs on the E-ELT, such as METIS in the thermal infrared, and HIRES in the optical/near-infrared. This includes the orbital inclination and masses of hundred(s of non-transiting planets, line-by-line molecular band spectra, planet rotation and global wind patterns, longitudinal spectral variations, and possibly isotopologue ratios. Thinking beyond the E-ELT, we advocate that ultimately a systematic search for oxygen in atmospheres of nearby Earth-like planets can be conducted using large arrays of relatively low-cost flux collector telescopes equipped with high-dispersion spectrographs.

Adaptive Optics Observations of Exoplanets, Brown Dwarfs, and Binary Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Hinkley, Sasha

2012-04-01

The current direct observations of brown dwarfs and exoplanets have been obtained using instruments not specifically designed for overcoming the large contrast ratio between the host star and any wide-separation faint companions. However, we are about to witness the birth of several new dedicated observing platforms specifically geared towards high contrast imaging of these objects. The Gemini Planet Imager, VLT-SPHERE, Subaru HiCIAO, and Project 1640 at the Palomar 5m telescope will return images of numerous exoplanets and brown dwarfs over hundreds of observing nights in the next five years. Along with diffraction-limited coronagraphs and high-order adaptive optics, these instruments also will return spectral and polarimetric information on any discovered targets, giving clues to their atmospheric compositions and characteristics. Such spectral characterization will be key to forming a detailed theory of comparative exoplanetary science which will be widely applicable to both exoplanets and brown dwarfs. Further, the prevalence of aperture masking interferometry in the field of high contrast imaging is also allowing observers to sense massive, young planets at solar system scales (~3-30 AU)- separations out of reach to conventional direct imaging techniques. Such observations can provide snapshots at the earliest phases of planet formation-information essential for constraining formation mechanisms as well as evolutionary models of planetary mass companions. As a demonstration of the power of this technique, I briefly review recent aperture masking observations of the HR 8799 system. Moreover, all of the aforementioned techniques are already extremely adept at detecting low-mass stellar companions to their target stars, and I present some recent highlights.

Exoplanet Biosignatures: Future Directions

OpenAIRE

Walker, Sara I.; Bains, William; Cronin, Leroy; DasSarma, Shiladitya; Danielache, Sebastian; Domagal-Goldman, Shawn; Kacar, Betul; Kiang, Nancy Y.; Lenardic, Adrian; Reinhard, Christopher T.; Moore, William; Schwieterman, Edward W.; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Smith, Harrison B.

2017-01-01

Exoplanet science promises a continued rapid accumulation of new observations in the near future, energizing a drive to understand and interpret the forthcoming wealth of data to identify signs of life beyond our Solar System. The large statistics of exoplanet samples, combined with the ambiguity of our understanding of universal properties of life and its signatures, necessitate a quantitative framework for biosignature assessment Here, we introduce a Bayesian framework for guiding future di...

Detecting and Interpreting the Dynamical Evolution of Transiting Multiplanet Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Sean Martin

The dynamical interactions of our Solar System have been studied in depth since Isaac Newton recognized that the planets may not be stable to each other's gravitational perturbations. Recently, the discovery of exoplanet systems, including approximately a thousand planet candidates in systems of more than two bodies, has opened an extremely vast and diverse laboratory for planetary dynamics. In this dissertation, I describe techniques for measuring the dynamical, post-Keplerian interactions of planetary systems. Such signals often require numerical N-body analysis and photodynamic techniques combined with Bayesian statistics to correctly determine the properties of the planetary systems causing them. By simultaneously fitting the entire lightcurve data set at once, I am able to extract low signal-to-noise effects such as the resonance dynamics of a very faint system (Kepler-223), the slow orbital precession of a giant planet system (Kepler-108), and transit timing variations among very small and low mass planets (Kepler-444). I use these analyses to gain physical insight into the system's history, such as Kepler-108's potentially chaotic, violent past. Kepler-223's present structure indicates a migration origin for at least some close-in, sub-Neptune planets, which I explore in terms of tidal dissipation, smooth and stochastic migration, and secular evolution. I also analyze circumbinary systems including the newly discovered KIC 10753734. Taken together, these results provide insight into planetary formation in a broad array of environments for planet from compact sub-Neptune systems to Jupiters and circumbinary planets.

Ground Based Support for Exoplanet Space Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Haukka, H.; Hentunen, V.-P.; Salmi, T.; Aartolahti, H.; Juutilainen, J.; Vilokki, H.; Nissinen, M.

2011-10-01

Taurus Hill Observatory (THO), observatory code A95, is an amateur observatory located in Varkaus, Finland. The observatory is maintained by the local astronomical association Warkauden Kassiopeia. THO research team has observed and measured various stellar objects and phenomena. Observatory has mainly focused to asteroid [1] and exoplanet light curve measurements, observing the gamma rays burst, supernova discoveries and monitoring [2] and long term monitoring projects [3]. In the early 2011 Europlanet NA1 and NA2 organized "Coordinated Observations of Exoplanets from Ground and Space"-workshop in Graz, Austria. The workshop gathered together proam astronomers who have the equipment to measure the light curves of the exoplanets. Also there were professional scientists working in the exoplanet field who attended to the workshop. The result of the workshop was to organize coordinated observation campaign for follow-up observations of exoplanets (e.g. CoRoT planets). Also coordinated observation campaign to observe stellar CME outbreaks was planned. THO has a lot of experience in field of exoplanet light curve measurements and therefore this campaign is very supported by the research team of the observatory. In next coming observing seasons THO will concentrate its efforts for this kind of campaigns.

SPECTROSCOPIC EVIDENCE FOR A TEMPERATURE INVERSION IN THE DAYSIDE ATMOSPHERE OF HOT JUPITER WASP-33b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haynes, Korey; Mandell, Avi M. [Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Knutson, Heather, E-mail: khaynes0112@gmail.com [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2015-06-20

We present observations of two occultations of the extrasolar planet WASP-33b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope, which allow us to constrain the temperature structure and composition of its dayside atmosphere. WASP-33b is the most highly irradiated hot Jupiter discovered to date, and the only exoplanet known to orbit a δ-Scuti star. We observed in spatial scan mode to decrease instrument systematic effects in the data, and removed fluctuations in the data due to stellar pulsations. The rms for our final, binned spectrum is 1.05 times the photon noise. We compare our final spectrum, along with previously published photometric data, to atmospheric models of WASP-33b spanning a wide range in temperature profiles and chemical compositions. We find that the data require models with an oxygen-rich chemical composition and a temperature profile that increases at high altitude. We find that our measured spectrum displays an excess in the measured flux toward short wavelengths that is best explained as emission from TiO. If confirmed by additional measurements at shorter wavelengths, this planet would become the first hot Jupiter with a thermal inversion that can be definitively attributed to the presence of TiO in its dayside atmosphere.

A CONSISTENT RETRIEVAL ANALYSIS OF 10 HOT JUPITERS OBSERVED IN TRANSMISSION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barstow, J. K. [Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London (United Kingdom); Aigrain, S.; Irwin, P. G. J. [Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom); Sing, D. K., E-mail: j.eberhardt@ucl.ac.uk [School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter (United Kingdom)

2017-01-01

We present a consistent optimal estimation retrieval analysis of 10 hot Jupiter exoplanets, each with transmission spectral data spanning the visible to near-infrared wavelength range. Using the NEMESIS radiative transfer and retrieval tool, we calculate a range of possible atmospheric states for WASP-6b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b, WASP-19b, WASP-31b, WASP-39b, HD 189733b, HD 209458b, HAT-P-1b, and HAT-P-12b. We find that the spectra of all 10 planets are consistent with the presence of some atmospheric aerosol; WASP-6b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b, WASP-19b, HD 189733b, and HAT-P-12b are all fit best by Rayleigh scattering aerosols, whereas WASP-31b, WASP-39b and HD 209458b are better represented by a gray cloud model. HAT-P-1b has solutions that fall into both categories. WASP-6b, HAT-P-12b, HD 189733b, and WASP-12b must have aerosol extending to low atmospheric pressures (below 0.1 mbar). In general, planets with equilibrium temperatures between 1300 and 1700 K are best represented by deeper, gray cloud layers, whereas cooler or hotter planets are better fit using high Rayleigh scattering aerosol. We find little evidence for the presence of molecular absorbers other than H{sub 2}O. Retrieval methods can provide a consistent picture across a range of hot Jupiter atmospheres with existing data, and will be a powerful tool for the interpretation of James Webb Space Telescope observations.

23 CFR 810.210 - Authorization for use and occupancy by mass transit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Authorization for use and occupancy by mass transit. 810... TRANSPORTATION MASS TRANSIT AND SPECIAL USE HIGHWAY PROJECTS Making Highway Rights-of-Way Available for Mass Transit Projects § 810.210 Authorization for use and occupancy by mass transit. (a) Upon being authorized...