Detection of a giant white-light flare on an L2.5 dwarf with the Next Generation Transit Survey

We present the detection of a V ∼ −10 flare from the ultracool L2.5 dwarf ULAS J224940.13−011236.9 with the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The flare was detected in a targeted search of late-type stars in NGTS full-frame images and represents one of the largest flares ever observed from an ultracool dwarf. This flare also extends the detection of white-light flares to stars with temperatures below 2000 K. We calculate the energy of the flare to be 3.4+0.9 −0.7 × 1033 erg, making it an order of magnitude more energetic than the Carrington event on the Sun. Our data show how the high-cadence NGTS full-frame images can be used to probe white-light flaring behaviour in the latest spectral types

Statistical Signatures of Nanoflare Activity. III. Evidence of Enhanced Nanoflaring Rates in Fully Convective stars as Observed by the NGTS

Abstract Previous examinations of fully convective M-dwarf stars have highlighted enhanced rates of nanoflare activity on these distant stellar sources. However, the specific role the convective boundary, which is believed to be present for spectral types earlier than M2.5V, plays on the observed nanoflare rates is not yet known. Here, we utilize a combination of statistical and Fourier techniques to examine M-dwarf stellar lightcurves that lie on either side of the convective boundary. We find that fully convective M2.5V (and later subtypes) stars have greatly enhanced nanoflare rates compared with their pre-dynamo mode-transition counterparts. Specifically, we derive a flaring power-law index in the region of 3.00 ± 0.20, alongside a decay timescale of 200 ± 100 s for M2.5V and M3V stars, matching those seen in prior observations of similar stellar subtypes. Interestingly, M4V stars exhibit longer decay timescales of 450 ± 50 s, along with an increased power-law index of 3.10 ± 0.18, suggesting an interplay between the rate of nanoflare occurrence and the intrinsic plasma parameters, e.g., the underlying Lundquist number. In contrast, partially convective (i.e., earlier subtypes from M0V to M2V) M-dwarf stars exhibit very weak nanoflare activity, which is not easily identifiable using statistical or Fourier techniques. This suggests that fully convective stellar atmospheres favor small-scale magnetic reconnection, leading to implications for the flare-energy budgets of these stars. Understanding why small-scale reconnection is enhanced in fully convective atmospheres may help solve questions relating to the dynamo behavior of these stellar sources

Classifying Exoplanet Candidates with Convolutional Neural Networks: Application to the Next Generation Transit Survey

Vetting of exoplanet candidates in transit surveys is a manual process, which suffers from a large number of false positives and a lack of consistency. Previous work has shown that convolutional neural networks (CNN) provide an efficient solution to these problems. Here, we apply a CNN to classify planet candidates from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). For training data sets we compare both real data with injected planetary transits and fully simulated data, as well as how their different compositions affect network performance. We show that fewer hand labelled light curves can be utilized, while still achieving competitive results. With our best model, we achieve an area under the curve (AUC) score of (95.6±0.2) per cent and an accuracy of (88.5±0.3) per cent on our unseen test data, as well as (76.5±0.4) per cent and (74.6±1.1) per cent in comparison to our existing manual classifications. The neural network recovers 13 out of 14 confirmed planets observed by NGTS, with high probability. We use simulated data to show that the overall network performance is resilient to mislabelling of the training data set, a problem that might arise due to unidentified, low signal-to-noise transits. Using a CNN, the time required for vetting can be reduced by half, while still recovering the vast majority of manually flagged candidates. In addition, we identify many new candidates with high probabilities which were not flagged by human vetters

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based sky survey designed to find transiting Neptunes and super-Earths. By covering at least sixteen times the sky area of Kepler we will find small planets around stars that are sufficiently bright for radial velocity confirmation, mass determination and atmospheric characterisation. The NGTS instrument will consist of an array of twelve independently pointed 20cm telescopes fitted with red-sensitive CCD cameras. It will be constructed at the ESO Paranal Observatory, thereby benefiting from the very best photometric conditions as well as follow up synergy with the VLT and E-ELT. Our design has been verified through the operation of two prototype instruments, demonstrating white noise characteristics to sub-mmag photometric precision. Detailed simulations show that about thirty bright super-Earths and up to two hundred Neptunes could be discovered. Our science operations are due to begin in 2014

Detection of a giant flare displaying quasi-periodic pulsations from a pre-main sequence M star with NGTS

We present the detection of an energetic flare on the pre-main-sequence M3 star NGTS J121939.5–355557, which we estimate to be only 2 Myr old. The flare had an energy of 3.2 ±0.4 0.3 ×1036 erg and a fractional amplitude of 7.2 ± 0.8, making it one of the most energetic flares seen on an M star. The star is also X-ray active, in the saturated regime with log LX/LBol = −3.1. In the flare’s peak, we have identified multimode quasi-periodic pulsations formed of two statistically significant periods of approximately 320 and 660 s. This flare is one of the largest amplitude events to exhibit such pulsations. The shorter period mode is observed to start after a short-lived spike in flux lasting around 30 s, which would not have been resolved in Kepler or TESS short-cadence modes. Our data show how the high cadence of the Next Generation Transient Survey (NGTS) can be used to apply solar techniques to stellar flares and to identify potential causes of the observed oscillations. We also discuss the implications of this flare for the habitability of planets around M star hosts and how NGTS can help our understanding of this

NGTS discovery of a highly inflated Saturn-mass planet and a highly irradiated hot Jupiter

We report the discovery of two new transiting giant exoplanets NGTS-26 b and NGTS-27 b by the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). NGTS-26 b orbits around a G6-type main sequence star every 4.52 days. It has a mass of 0.29-0.06+0.07 MJup and a radius of 1.33-0.05+0.06 RJup making it a Saturn-mass planet with a highly inflated radius. NGTS-27 b orbits around a slightly evolved G3-type star every 3.37 days. It has a mass of 0.59-0.07+0.10 MJup and a radius of 1.40±0.04 RJup, making it a relatively standard hot Jupiter. The transits of these two planetary systems were re-observed and confirmed in photometry by the SAAO 1.0-m telescope, 1.2-m Euler Swiss telescope as well as the TESS spacecraft, and their masses were derived spectroscopically by the CORALIE, FEROS and HARPS spectrographs. Both giant exoplanets are highly irradiated by their host stars and present an anomalously inflated radius, especially NGTS-26 b which is one of the largest objects among peers of similar mass

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)

We describe the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), which is a ground-based project searching for transiting exoplanets orbiting bright stars. NGTS builds on the legacy of previous surveys, most notably WASP, and is designed to achieve higher photometric precision and hence find smaller planets than have previously been detected from the ground. It also operates in red light,maximizing sensitivity to late K and earlyMdwarf stars. The survey specifications call for photometric precision of 0.1 per cent in red light over an instantaneous field of view of 100 deg 2 , enabling the detection of Neptune-sized exoplanets around Sun-like stars and super-Earths around M dwarfs. The survey is carried out with a purpose-built facility at Cerro Paranal, Chile, which is the premier site of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). An array of twelve 20 cm f/2.8 telescopes fitted with back-illuminated deep-depletion CCD cameras is used to survey fields intensively at intermediateGalactic latitudes. The instrument is also ideally suited to ground-based photometric follow-up of exoplanet candidates from space telescopes such as TESS, Gaia and PLATO. We present observations that combine precise autoguiding and the superb observing conditions at Paranal to provide routine photometric precision of 0.1 per cent in 1 h for stars with I-band magnitudes brighter than 13. We describe the instrument and data analysis methods as well as the status of the survey, which achieved first light in 2015 and began full-survey operations in 2016. NGTS data will be made publicly available through the ESO archive