A Framework for Prioritizing the TESS Planetary Candidates Most Amenable to Atmospheric Characterization

A key legacy of the recently launched TESS mission will be to provide the astronomical community with many of the best transiting exoplanet targets for atmospheric characterization. However, time is of the essence to take full advantage of this opportunity. JWST, although delayed, will still complete its nominal five year mission on a timeline that motivates rapid identification, confirmation, and mass measurement of the top atmospheric characterization targets from TESS. Beyond JWST, future dedicated missions for atmospheric studies such as ARIEL require the discovery and confirmation of several hundred additional sub-Jovian size planets (R_p < 10 R_Earth) orbiting bright stars, beyond those known today, to ensure a successful statistical census of exoplanet atmospheres. Ground-based ELTs will also contribute to surveying the atmospheres of the transiting planets discovered by TESS. Here we present a set of two straightforward analytic metrics, quantifying the expected signal-to-noise in transmission and thermal emission spectroscopy for a given planet, that will allow the top atmospheric characterization targets to be readily identified among the TESS planet candidates. Targets that meet our proposed threshold values for these metrics would be encouraged for rapid follow-up and confirmation via radial velocity mass measurements. Based on the catalog of simulated TESS detections by Sullivan et al. (2015), we determine appropriate cutoff values of the metrics, such that the TESS mission will ultimately yield a sample of $\sim300$ high-quality atmospheric characterization targets across a range of planet size bins, extending down to Earth-size, potentially habitable worlds.Comment: accepted to PAS

An infrared integral field spectrograph specialized for speckle suppression and the direct detection of extrasolar planets

NRC publication: Ye

Performance of the integral field spectrograph for the Gemini Planet Imager

We present performance results, from in-lab testing, of the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). GPI is a facility class instrument for the Gemini Observatory with the primary goal of directly detecting young Jovian planets. The GPI IFS is based on concepts from the OSIRIS instrument at Keck and utilizes an infrared transmissive lenslet array to sample a rectangular 2.8 x 2.8 arcsecond field of view. The IFS provides low-resolution spectra across five bands between 1 and 2.5 \u3bcm. Alternatively, the dispersing element can be replaced with a Wollaston prism to provide broadband polarimetry across the same five filter bands. The IFS construction was based at the University of California, Los Angeles in collaboration with the Universit\ue9 de Montr\ue9al, Immervision and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. During its construction, we encountered an unusual noise source from microphonic pickup by the Hawaii-2RG detector. We describe this noise and how we eliminated it through vibration isolation. The IFS has passed its preship review and was shipped to University of California, Santa Cruz at the end of 2011 for integration with the remaining sub-systems of GPI. The IFS has been integrated with the rest of GPI and is delivering high quality spectral datacubes of GPI's coronagraphic field.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

NGST NIRCam scientific program and design concept

NRC publication: Ye

Test results for the Gemini Planet Imager data reduction pipeline

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new facility instrument for the Gemini Observatory designed to detect and characterize planets and debris disks orbiting nearby stars; its science camera is a near infrared integral field spectrograph. We have developed a data pipeline for this instrument, which will be made publicly available to the community. The GPI data reduction pipeline (DRP) incorporates all necessary image reduction and calibration steps for high contrast imaging in both the spectral and polarimetric modes, including datacube generation, wavelength solution, astrometric and photometric calibrations, and speckle suppression via ADI and SSDI algorithms. It is implemented in IDL as a flexible modular system, and includes both command line and graphical interface tools including a customized viewer for GPI datacubes. This GPI data reduction pipeline is currently working very well, and is in use daily processing data during the instrument's ongoing integration and test period at UC Santa Cruz. Here we summarize the results from recent pipeline tests, and present reductions of instrument test data taken with GPI. We will continue to refine and improve these tools throughout the rest of GPI's testing and commissioning, and they will be released to the community, including both IDL source code and compiled versions that can be used without an IDL license.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

SPIRou @CFHT: design of the instrument control system

SPIRou is a near-IR (0.98-2.35\u3bcm), echelle spectropolarimeter / high precision velocimeter being designed as a next-generation instrument for the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, with the main goals of detecting Earth-like planets around low-mass stars and magnetic fields of forming stars. The unique scientific and technical capabilities of SPIRou are described in a series of eight companion papers. In this paper, the means of controlling the instrument are discussed. Most of the instrument control is fairly normal, using off-the-shelf components where possible and reusing already available code for these components. Some aspects, however, are more challenging. In particular, the paper will focus on the challenges of doing fast (50 Hz) guiding with 30 mas repeatability using the object being observed as a reference and on thermally stabilizing a large optical bench to a very high precision ( 3c1 mK).Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

The Gemini Planet Imager: integration and test

The Gemini Planet Imager is a next-generation instrument for the direct detection and characterization of young warm exoplanets, designed to be an order of magnitude more sensitive than existing facilities. It combines a 1700-actuator adaptive optics system, an apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph, a precision interferometric infrared wavefront sensor, and a integral field spectrograph. All hardware and software subsystems are now complete and undergoing integration and test at UC Santa Cruz. We will present test results on each subsystem and the results of end-to-end testing. In laboratory testing, GPI has achieved a raw contrast (without post-processing) of 10-6 5\u3c3 at 0.4'', and with multiwavelength speckle suppression, 2x10^-7 at the same separation.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

GJ 367b: A dense, ultrashort-period sub-Earth planet transiting a nearby red dwarf star

Ultrashort-period (USP) exoplanets have orbital periods shorter than 1 day. Precise masses and radii of USP exoplanets could provide constraints on their unknown formation and evolution processes. We report the detection and characterization of the USP planet GJ 367b using high-precision photometry and radial velocity observations. GJ 367b orbits a bright (V-band magnitude of 10.2), nearby, and red (M-type) dwarf star every 7.7 hours. GJ 367b has a radius of 0.718 \ub1 0.054 Earth-radii and a mass of 0.546 \ub1 0.078 Earth-masses, making it a sub-Earth planet. The corresponding bulk density is 8.106 \ub1 2.165 grams per cubic centimeter—close to that of iron. An interior structure model predicts that the planet has an iron core radius fraction of 86 \ub1 5%, similar to that of Mercury’s interior

TOI-1442 b and TOI-2445 b: two ultra-short period super-Earths around M dwarfs

Context. Exoplanets with orbital periods of less than one day are know as Ultra-short period (USP) planets. They are relatively rare products of planetary formation and evolution processes, but especially favourable to current planet detection methods. At the time of writing, 120 USP planets have already been confirmed. Aims. We aim to confirm the planetary nature of two new transiting planet candidates announced by the NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), registered as TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) TOI-1442.01 and TOI-2445.01. Methods. We use the TESS data, ground-based photometric light-curves and Subaru/IRD spectrograph radial velocity (RV) measurements to validate both planetary candidates and to establish their physical properties. Results. TOI-1442 b is a hot super-Earth with an orbital period of $P = 0.4090682 \pm 0.0000004 \, d$, a radius of $R_{\mathrm{p}} = 1.15 \pm 0.06 \, R_{\oplus}$, equilibrium temperature of $T_{\mathrm{p,eq}} = 1357_{-42}^{+49} \, K$, and a mass $M_{\mathrm{p}} < 18 \, M_{\oplus}$ at 3$\sigma$. TOI-2445 b is also a hot super-Earth/mini-Neptune with an orbital period of $P = 0.3711286 \pm 0.0000004 \, d$, a radius of $R_{\mathrm{p}} = 1.33 \pm 0.09 \, R_{\oplus}$, equilibrium temperature of $T_{\mathrm{p,eq}} = 1330_{-56}^{+61} \, K$, and a mass $M_{\mathrm{p}} < 38 \, M_{\oplus}$ at 3$\sigma$. Their physical properties align with current empirical trends and formation theories of USP planets. More RV measurements will be useful to constrain the planetary masses and mean densities, as well as the predicted presence of outer planetary companions