Novae in the SuperWASP data base

We present the results of trawling through the SuperWASP data base for classical and recurrent novae. We report light curves for a nova in eruption, and for classical novae and a recurrent nova in quiescence. For five objects in quiescence, we report periodicity, arising in most cases from orbital modulation of the light from the cool secondary star. The stability of the SuperWASP system means that these data have huge potential for the study not only of novae in eruption, but also of the long-term modulations of light during quiescence

HIGH-SPEED PHOTOMETRY OF THE DISINTEGRATING PLANETESIMALS AT WD1145+017: EVIDENCE FOR RAPID DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION

We obtained high-speed photometry of the disintegrating planetesimals orbiting the white dwarf WD 1145+017, spanning a period of four weeks. The light curves show a dramatic evolution of the system since the first observations obtained about seven months ago. Multiple transit events are detected in every light curve, which have varying durations (sime3–12 minutes) and depths (sime10%–60%). The time-averaged extinction is sime11%, much higher than at the time of the Kepler observations. The shortest-duration transits require that the occulting cloud of debris has a few times the size of the white dwarf, longer events are often resolved into the superposition of several individual transits. The transits evolve on timescales of days, both in shape and in depth, with most of them gradually appearing and disappearing over the course of the observing campaign. Several transits can be tracked across multiple nights, all of them recur on periods of sime4.49 hr, indicating multiple planetary debris fragments on nearly identical orbits. Identifying the specific origin of these bodies within this planetary system, and the evolution leading to their current orbits remains a challenging problem

WASP-25b: A 0.6M planet in the Southern hemisphere

We report the detection of a 0.6 MJ extrasolar planet by WASP-South, WASP-25b, transiting its solar-type host star every 3.76 d. A simultaneous analysis of the WASP, FTS and Euler photometry and CORALIE spectroscopy yields a planet of Rp= 1.22 RJ and Mp= 0.58 MJ around a slightly metal-poor solar-type host star, [Fe/H]=− 0.05 ± 0.10, of R*= 0.92 R⊙ and M*= 1.00 M⊙. WASP-25b is found to have a density of ρp= 0.32 ρJ, a low value for a sub-Jupiter mass planet. We investigate the relationship of planetary radius to planetary equilibrium temperature and host star metallicity for transiting exoplanets with a similar mass to WASP-25b, finding that these two parameters explain the radii of most low-mass planets well

Qatar-1b: A hot Jupiter orbiting a metal-rich K dwarf star

We report the discovery and initial characterization of Qatar-1b, a hot Jupiter-orbiting metal-rich K dwarf star, the first planet discovered by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey. We describe the strategy used to select candidate transiting planets from photometry generated by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey camera array. We examine the rate of astrophysical and other false positives found during the spectroscopic reconnaissance of the initial batch of candidates. A simultaneous fit to the follow-up radial velocities and photometry of Qatar-1b yields a planetary mass of 1.09 ± 0.08 MJ and a radius of 1.16 ± 0.05 RJ. The orbital period and separation are 1.420 033 ± 0.000 016 d and 0.023 43 ± 0.000 26 au for an orbit assumed to be circular. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate indicate an age greater than 4 Gyr for the system

Liverpool Telescope follow-up of candidate electromagnetic counterparts during the first run of Advanced LIGO

The first direct detection of gravitational waves was made in late 2015 with the Advanced LIGO detectors. By prior arrangement, a worldwide collaboration of electromagnetic follow-up observers were notified of candidate gravitational wave events during the first science run, and many facilities were engaged in the search for counterparts. No counterparts were identified, which is in line with expectations given that the events were classified as black hole - black hole mergers. However these searches laid the foundation for similar follow-up campaigns in future gravitational wave detector science runs, in which the detection of neutron star merger events with observable electromagnetic counterparts is much more likely. Three alerts were issued to the electromagnetic collaboration over the course of the first science run, which lasted from September 2015 to January 2016. Two of these alerts were associated with the gravitational wave events since named GW150914 and GW151226. In this paper we provide an overview of the Liverpool Telescope contribution to the follow-up campaign over this period. Given the hundreds of square degree uncertainty in the sky position of any gravitational wave event, efficient searching for candidate counterparts required survey telescopes with large (~degrees) fields-of-view. The role of the Liverpool Telescope was to provide follow-up classification spectroscopy of any candidates. We followed candidates associated with all three alerts, observing 1, 9 and 17 candidates respectively. We classify the majority of the transients we observed as supernovae

WASP-21b: a hot-Saturn exoplanet transiting a thick disc star

We 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

WASP-52b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, and WASP-60b: Four new transiting close-in giant planets

We present the discovery of four new transiting hot Jupiters, detected mainly from SuperWASP-North and SOPHIE observations. These new planets, WASP-52b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, and WASP-60b, have orbital periods ranging from 1.7 to 7.9 days, masses between 0.46 and 0.94 MJup, and radii between 0.73 and 1.49 RJup. Their G1 to K5 dwarf host stars have V magnitudes in the range 11.7−13.0. The depths of the transits are between 0.6 and 2.7%, depending on the target. With their large radii, WASP-52b and WASP-58b are new cases of low-density, inflated planets, whereas WASP-59b is likely to have a large, dense core. WASP-60 shows shallow transits. In the case of WASP-52 we also detected the Rossiter-McLaughlin anomaly via time-resolved spectroscopy of a transit. We measured the sky-projected obliquity λ = 24° +17-9, indicating that WASP-52b orbits in the same direction as its host star isrotating and that this prograde orbit is slightly misaligned with the stellar equator. These four new planetary systems increase our statistics on hot Jupiters and provide new targets for follow-up studies

WASP-14b: 7.3 M transiting planet in an eccentric orbit

We report the discovery of a 7.3 MJ exoplanet WASP-14b, one of the most massive transiting exoplanets observed to date. The planet orbits the 10th-magnitude F5V star USNO-B1 11118−0262485 with a period of 2.243 752 d and orbital eccentricity e= 0.09. A simultaneous fit of the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 7.3 ± 0.5 MJ and a radius of 1.28 ± 0.08 RJ. This leads to a mean density of about 4.6 g cm−3 making it the densest transiting exoplanets yet found at an orbital period less than 3 d. We estimate this system to be at a distance of 160 ± 20 pc. Spectral analysis of the host star reveals a temperature of 6475 ± 100 K, log g= 4.07 cm s−2 and v sin i= 4.9 ± 1.0 km s−1, and also a high lithium abundance, log N(Li) = 2.84 ± 0.05. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate suggest an age for the system of about 0.5–1.0 Gyr