1,044 research outputs found
The shocking transit of WASP-12b : modelling the observed early ingress in the near ultraviolet
No full text4 pages, 2 figuresNear ultraviolet observations of WASP-12b have revealed an early ingress compared to the optical transit lightcurve. This has been interpreted as due to the presence of a magnetospheric bow shock which forms when the relative velocity of the planetary and stellar material is supersonic. We aim to reproduce this observed early ingress by modelling the stellar wind (or coronal plasma) in order to derive the speed and density of the material at the planetary orbital radius. From this we determine the orientation of the shock and the density of compressed plasma behind it. With this model for the density structure surrounding the planet we perform Monte Carlo radiation transfer simulations of the near UV transits of WASP-12b with and without a bow shock. We find that we can reproduce the transit lightcurves with a wide range of plasma temperatures, shock geometries and optical depths. Our results support the hypothesis that a bow shock could explain the observed early ingress.Peer reviewe
Detecting circumbinary planets : a new quasi-periodic search algorithm
No full textWe present a search method based around the grouping of data residuals, suitable for the detection of many quasi-periodic signals. Combined with an efficient and easily implemented method to predict the maximum transit timing variations of a transiting circumbinary exoplanet, we form a fast search algorithm for such planets. We here target the Kepler dataset in particular, where all the transiting examples of circumbinary planets have been found to date. The method is presented and demonstrated on two known systems in the Kepler data
WASP-39b : a highly inflated Saturn-mass planet orbiting a late G-type star
No full textWe present the discovery of WASP-39b, a highly inflated transiting Saturn-mass planet orbiting a late G-type dwarf star with a period of 4.055259 +/- 0.000008 d, Transit Epoch T(0) = 2 455 342.9688 +/- 0.0002 (HJD), of duration 0.1168 +/- 0.0008 d. A combined analysis of the WASP photometry, high-precision follow-up transit photometry, and radial velocities yield a planetary mass of M(pl) = 0.28 +/- 0.03 M(J) and a radius of R(pl) = 1.27 +/- 0.04 R(J), resulting in a mean density of 0.14 +/- 0.02 rho(J). The stellar parameters are mass M(star) = 0.93 +/- 0.03 M(circle dot), radius R(star) = 0.895 +/- 0.23 R(circle dot), and age 9(-4)(+3) Gyr. Only WASP-17b and WASP-31b have lower densities than WASP-39b, although they are slightly more massive and highly irradiated planets. From our spectral analysis, the metallicity of WASP-39 is measured to be [Fe/H] = -0.12 +/- 0.1 dex, and we find the planet to have an equilibrium temperature of 1116(-32)(+33) K. Both values strengthen the observed empirical correlation between these parameters and the planetary radius for the known transiting Saturn-mass planets
Transiting hot Jupiters from WASP-South, Euler and TRAPPIST: WASP-95b to WASP-101b
No full textpeer reviewedWe report the discovery of the transiting exoplanets WASP-95b, WASP-96b, WASP-97b, WASP-98b, WASP-99b, WASP-100b and WASP-101b. All are hot Jupiters with orbital periods in the range 2.1-5.7 d, masses of 0.5-2.8 MJup and radii of 1.1-1.4 RJup. The orbits of all the planets are compatible with zero eccentricity. WASP-99b produces the shallowest transit yet found by WASP-South, at 0.4 per cent.
The host stars are of spectral type F2-G8. Five have metallicities of [Fe/H] from -0.03 to +0.23, while WASP-98 has a metallicity of -0.60, exceptionally low for a star with a transiting exoplanet. Five of the host stars are brighter than V = 10.8, which significantly extends the number of bright transiting systems available for follow-up studies. WASP-95 shows a possible rotational modulation at a period of 20.7 d. We discuss the completeness of WASP survey techniques by comparing to the HATnet project
Hide and seek : radial-velocity searches for planets around active stars
No full textThe detection of low-mass extra-solar planets through radial-velocity searches is currently limited by the intrinsic magnetic activity of the host stars. The correlated noise that arises from their natural radial-velocity variability can easily mimic or conceal the orbital signals of super-Earth and Earth-mass extra-solar planets. I developed an intuitive and robust data analysis framework in which the activity-induced variations are modelled with a Gaussian process that has the frequency structure of the photometric variations of the star, thus allowing me to determine precise and reliable planetary masses.
I applied this technique to three recently discovered planetary systems: CoRoT-7,
Kepler-78 and Kepler-10. I determined the masses of the transiting super-Earth
CoRoT-7b and the small Neptune CoRoT-7c to be 4.73 ± 0.95 M⊕ and 13.56 ±
1.08 M⊕, respectively. The density of CoRoT-7b is 6.61 ± 1.72 g.cm⁻³, which is
compatible with a rocky composition. I carried out Bayesian model selection to
assess the nature of a previously identified signal at 9 days, and found that it is best
interpreted as stellar activity. Despite the high levels of activity of its host star, I
determined the mass of the Earth-sized planet Kepler-78b to be 1.76 ± 0.18 M⊕.
With a density of 6.2(+1.8:-1.4) g.cm⁻³, it is also a rocky planet. I found the masses of Kepler-10b and Kepler-10c to be 3.31 ± 0.32 M⊕ and 16.25 ± 3.66 M⊕, respectively. Their densities, of 6.4(+1.1:-0.7) g.cm⁻³ and 8.1 ± 1.8 g.cm⁻³, imply that they are both of rocky composition – even the 2 Earth-radius planet Kepler-10c!
In parallel, I deepened our understanding of the physical origin of stellar radial-velocity variability through the study of the Sun, which is the only star whose surface can be imaged at high resolution. I found that the full-disc magnetic flux is an excellent proxy for activity-induced radial-velocity variations; this result may become key to breaking the activity barrier in coming years.
I also found that in the case of CoRoT-7, the suppression of convective blueshift leads to radial-velocity variations with an rms of 1.82 m.s⁻¹, while the modulation induced by the presence of dark spots on the rotating stellar disc has an rms of 0.46 m.s⁻¹. For the Sun, I found these contributions to be 2.22 m.s⁻¹ and 0.14 m.s⁻¹, respectively. These results suggest that for slowly rotating stars, the suppression of convective blueshift is the dominant contributor to the activity-modulated radial-velocity signal, rather than the rotational Doppler shift of the flux blocked by starspots
Three sub-Jupiter-mass planets: WASP-69b & WASP-84b transit active K dwarfs and WASP-70Ab transits the evolved primary of a G4+K3 binary
No full textpeer reviewedWe report the discovery of the transiting exoplanets WASP-69b, WASP-70Ab and WASP-84b, each of which orbits a bright star (V ˜ 10). WASP-69b is a bloated Saturn-mass planet (0.26 MJup, 1.06 RJup) in a 3.868-d period around an active, ˜1-Gyr, mid-K dwarf. ROSAT detected X-rays 60±27 arcsec from WASP-69. If the star is the source then the planet could be undergoing mass-loss at a rate of ˜1012 g s-1. This is one to two orders of magnitude higher than the evaporation rate estimated for HD 209458b and HD 189733b, both of which have exhibited anomalously large Lyman alpha absorption during transit. WASP-70Ab is a sub-Jupiter-mass planet (0.59 MJup, 1.16 RJup) in a 3.713-d orbit around the primary of a spatially resolved, 9-10-Gyr, G4+K3 binary, with a separation of 3.3 arcsec (>=800 au). WASP-84b is a sub-Jupiter-mass planet (0.69 MJup, 0.94 RJup) in an 8.523-d orbit around an active, ˜1-Gyr, early-K dwarf. Of the transiting planets discovered from the ground to date, WASP-84b has the third-longest period. For the active stars WASP-69 and WASP-84, we pre-whitened the radial velocities using a low-order harmonic series. We found that this reduced the residual scatter more than did the oft-used method of pre-whitening with a fit between residual radial velocity and bisector span. The system parameters were essentially unaffected by pre-whitening
WASP-21b : a hot-Saturn exoplanet transiting a thick disc star
No full textWe report the discovery of WASP-21b, a new transiting exoplanet discovered by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) Consortium and established and characterized with the FIES, SOPHIE, CORALIE and HARPS fiber-fed echelle spectrographs. A 4.3-d period, 1.1% transit depth and 3.4-h duration are derived for WASP-21b using SuperWASP-North and high precision photometric observations at the Liverpool Telescope. Simultaneous fitting to the photometric and radial velocity data with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure leads to a planet in the mass regime of Saturn. With a radius of 1.07 RJup and mass of 0.30 MJup, WASP-21b
has a density close to 0.24 ρJup corresponding to the distribution peak at low density of transiting gaseous giant planets. With a host star metallicity [Fe/H] of –0.46, WASP-21b strengthens the correlation between planetary density and host star metallicity for the five
known Saturn-like transiting planets. Furthermore there are clear indications that WASP-21b is the first transiting planet belonging to the thick disc
Warm Spitzer occultation photometry of WASP-26b at 3.6 and 4.5 mu m
No full textWe present new warm Spitzer occultation photometry of WASP-26 at 3.6 and 4.5 mu m along with new transit photometry taken in the g, r and i bands. We report the first detection of the occultation of WASP-26b, with occultation depths at 3.6 and 4.5 mu m of 0.001 26 +/- 0.000 13 and 0.001 49 +/- 0.000 16 corresponding to brightness temperatures of 1825 +/- 80 and 1725 +/- 89 K, respectively. We find that the eccentricity of the orbit is consistent with a circular orbit at the 1 sigma level (e = 0.0028(-0.0022)(+0.0097), 3 sigma upper limit e < 0.04). According to the activity-inversion relation of Knutson et al., WASP-26b is predicted to host a thermal inversion. The brightness temperatures deduced from the eclipse depths are consistent with an isothermal atmosphere, although the planet may host a weak thermal inversion given the uncertainties on these values. The data are equally well fitted by atmospheric models with or without a thermal inversion. We find that variation in activity of solar-like stars does not change enough over the time-scales of months or years to change the interpretation of the Knutson et al. activity-inversion relation, provided that the measured activity level is averaged over several nights. Further data are required to fully constrain the thermal structure of the atmosphere because the planet lies very close to the boundary between atmospheres with and without a thermal inversion.Peer reviewe
WASP-26b : a 1-Jupiter-mass planet around an early-G-type star
No full textWe report the discovery of WASP-26b, a moderately over-sized Jupiter-mass exoplanet transiting its 11.3-mag early-G-type host star (1SWASP J001824.70-151602.3; TYC 5839-876-1) every 2.7566 days. A simultaneous fit to transit photometry and radial-velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 1.02 ± 0.03 MJup and radius of 1.32 ± 0.08 RJup. The host star, WASP-26, has a mass of
1.12 ± 0.03 M and a radius of 1.34 ± 0.06 R and is in a visual double with a fainter K-type star. The two stars are at least a common-proper motion pair with a common distance of around 250 ± 15 pc and an age of 6 ± 2 Gy
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