70 research outputs found
A dense mini-Neptune orbiting the bright young star HD 18599
© 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2845Very little is known about the young planet population because the detection of small planets orbiting young stars is obscured by the effects of stellar activity and fast rotation which mask planets within radial velocity and transit data sets. The few planets that have been discovered in young clusters generally orbit stars too faint for any detailed follow-up analysis. Here we present the characterization of a new mini-Neptune planet orbiting the bright (V=9) and nearby K2 dwarf star, HD 18599. The planet candidate was originally detected in TESS light curves from Sectors 2, 3, 29, and 30, with an orbital period of 4.138~days. We then used HARPS and FEROS radial velocities, to find the companion mass to be 25.54.6~M. When we combine this with the measured radius from TESS, of 2.700.05~R, we find a high planetary density of 7.11.4~g cm. The planet exists on the edge of the Neptune Desert and is the first young planet (300 Myr) of its type to inhabit this region. Structure models argue for a bulk composition to consist of 23% HO and 77% Rock and Iron. Future follow-up with large ground- and space-based telescopes can enable us to begin to understand in detail the characteristics of young Neptunes in the galaxy.Peer reviewe
Functional imaging of the developing brain with wearable high-density diffuse optical tomography: a new benchmark for infant neuroimaging outside the scanner environment
Studies of cortical function in the awake infant are extremely challenging to undertake with traditional neuroimaging approaches. Partly in response to this challenge, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has become increasingly common in developmental neuroscience, but has significant limitations including resolution, spatial specificity and ergonomics. In adults, high-density arrays of near-infrared sources and detectors have recently been shown to yield dramatic improvements in spatial resolution and specificity when compared to typical fNIRS approaches. However, most existing fNIRS devices only permit the acquisition of ∼20-100 sparsely distributed fNIRS channels, and increasing the number of optodes presents significant mechanical challenges, particularly for infant applications. A new generation of wearable, modular, high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) technologies has recently emerged that overcomes many of the limitations of traditional, fibre-based and low-density fNIRS measurements. Driven by the development of this new technology, we have undertaken the first study of the infant brain using wearable HD-DOT. Using a well-established social stimulus paradigm, and combining this new imaging technology with advances in cap design and spatial registration, we show that it is now possible to obtain high-quality, functional images of the infant brain with minimal constraints on either the environment or on the infant participants. Our results are consistent with prior low-density fNIRS measures based on similar paradigms, but demonstrate superior spatial localization, improved depth specificity, higher SNR and a dramatic improvement in the consistency of the responses across participants. Our data retention rates also demonstrate that this new generation of wearable technology is well tolerated by the infant population
Three Saturn-mass planets transiting F-type stars revealed with TESS and HARPS
While the sample of confirmed exoplanets continues to increase, the
population of transiting exoplanets around early-type stars is still limited.
These planets allow us to investigate the planet properties and formation
pathways over a wide range of stellar masses and study the impact of high
irradiation on hot Jupiters orbiting such stars. We report the discovery of
TOI-615b, TOI-622b, and TOI-2641b, three Saturn-mass planets transiting main
sequence, F-type stars. The planets were identified by the Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite (TESS) and confirmed with complementary ground-based and
radial velocity observations. TOI-615b is a highly irradiated (1277
) and bloated Saturn-mass planet (1.69
and 0.43) in a 4.66 day orbit transiting a 6850 K
star. TOI-622b has a radius of 0.82 and a mass of
0.30~ in a 6.40 day orbit. Despite its high
insolation flux (600 ), TOI-622b does not show any evidence
of radius inflation. TOI-2641b is a 0.37 planet in a
4.88 day orbit with a grazing transit (b = 1.04) that
results in a poorly constrained radius of 1.61.
Additionally, TOI-615b is considered attractive for atmospheric studies via
transmission spectroscopy with ground-based spectrographs and .
Future atmospheric and spin-orbit alignment observations are essential since
they can provide information on the atmospheric composition, formation and
migration of exoplanets across various stellar types.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, submitted to A&
A dense mini-Neptune orbiting the bright young star HD 18599
Very little is known about the young planet population because the detection of small planets orbiting young stars is obscured by the effects of stellar activity and fast rotation which mask planets within radial velocity and transit data sets. The few planets that have been discovered in young clusters generally orbit stars too faint for any detailed follow-up analysis. Here we present the characterization of a new mini-Neptune planet orbiting the bright (V=9) and nearby K2 dwarf star, HD 18599. The planet candidate was originally detected in TESS light curves from Sectors 2, 3, 29, and 30, with an orbital period of 4.138 days. We then used HARPS and FEROS radial velocities, to find the companion mass to be 25.5±4.6 M⊕. When we combine this with the measured radius from TESS of 2.70±0.05 R⊕, we find a high planetary density of 7.1±1.4 g cm-3. The planet exists on the edge of the Neptune Desert and is the first young planet (300 Myr) of its type to inhabit this region. Structure models argue for a bulk composition to consist of 23 per cent H2O and 77 per cent Rock and Iron. Future follow-up with large ground- and space-based telescopes can enable us to begin to understand in detail the characteristics of young Neptunes in the galaxy
Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS
We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting
giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) --
TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642),
TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467).
All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a
combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations
from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have
determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R = 1.00-1.45 R),
have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M, and orbit F, G, and K stars
(4753 T 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity
for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days,
= ), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, =
), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, =
). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host
stars (3.8 g 4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation
despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained
by the high mass of the planets; M (TOI-2145
b) and M (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries
contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a
magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with
well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables, Accepted by MNRA
Genetic diversity fuels gene discovery for tobacco and alcohol use
Tobacco and alcohol use are heritable behaviours associated with 15% and 5.3% of worldwide deaths, respectively, due largely to broad increased risk for disease and injury(1-4). These substances are used across the globe, yet genome-wide association studies have focused largely on individuals of European ancestries(5). Here we leveraged global genetic diversity across 3.4 million individuals from four major clines of global ancestry (approximately 21% non-European) to power the discovery and fine-mapping of genomic loci associated with tobacco and alcohol use, to inform function of these loci via ancestry-aware transcriptome-wide association studies, and to evaluate the genetic architecture and predictive power of polygenic risk within and across populations. We found that increases in sample size and genetic diversity improved locus identification and fine-mapping resolution, and that a large majority of the 3,823 associated variants (from 2,143 loci) showed consistent effect sizes across ancestry dimensions. However, polygenic risk scores developed in one ancestry performed poorly in others, highlighting the continued need to increase sample sizes of diverse ancestries to realize any potential benefit of polygenic prediction.Peer reviewe
CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves
CMB-S4---the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiment---is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB
measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the
Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of
structure to the present day. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the
quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the
experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting
framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semi-analytic projection tool,
targeted explicitly towards optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar
ratio, , in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing
of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the
achieved performance of current Stage 2--3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast
the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology
allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a
flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments given a desired
scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semi-analytic
tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of
additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several
independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for
CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current
reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4
experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial
gravitational waves for at greater than , or, in the
absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of at CL.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables, submitted to ApJ. arXiv admin note:
text overlap with arXiv:1907.0447
TOI-677 b: A Warm Jupiter (P=11.2d) on an eccentric orbit transiting a late F-type star
We report the discovery of TOI-677 b, first identified as a candidate in
light curves obtained within Sectors 9 and 10 of the Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and confirmed with radial velocities. TOI-677 b
has a mass of M_p = 1.236 M_J, a radius of R_p = 1.170 +-
0.03 R_J,and orbits its bright host star (V=9.8 mag) with an orbital period of
11.23660 +- 0.00011 d, on an eccentric orbit with e = 0.435 +- 0.024. The host
star has a mass of M_* = 1.181 +- 0.058 M_sun, a radius of R_* = 1.28 +- 0.03
R_sun, an age of 2.92 Gyr and solar metallicity, properties
consistent with a main sequence late F star with T_eff = 6295 +- 77 K. We find
evidence in the radial velocity measurements of a secondary long term signal
which could be due to an outer companion. The TOI-677 b system is a well suited
target for Rossiter-Mclaughlin observations that can constrain migration
mechanisms of close-in giant planets.Comment: Submitted to AAS journals, 15 pages, 8 figure
CMB-S4
We describe the stage 4 cosmic microwave background ground-based experiment CMB-S4
- …