A search for flares and mass ejections on young late-type stars in the open cluster Blanco-1

We present a search for stellar activity (flares and mass ejections) in a sample of 28 stars in the young open cluster Blanco-1. We use optical spectra obtained with European Southern Observatory&#39;s Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph installed on the Very Large Telescope. From the total observing time of &tilde;5 h, we find four Halpha flares but no distinct indication of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the investigated dK-dM stars. Two flares show `dips&#39; in their light curves right before their impulsive phases which are similar to previous discoveries in photometric light curves of active dMe stars. We estimate an upper limit of &lt;4 CMEs per day per star and discuss this result with respect to a empirical estimation of the CME rate of main-sequence stars. We find that we should have detected at least one CME per star with a mass of &lt;= 3 &times; 1017 g depending on the star&#39;s X-ray luminosity, but the estimated Halpha fluxes associated with these masses are below the detection limit of our observations. We conclude that the parameter which mainly influences the detection of stellar CMEs using the method of Doppler-shifted emission caused by moving plasma is not the spectral resolution/velocity but the flux/mass of the CME.</p

Discovery of an inflated hot Jupiter around a slightly evolved star TOI-1789

Stars and planetary system

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs: The warm super-Earths in twin orbits around the mid-type M dwarfs Ross 1020 (GJ 3779) and LP 819-052 (GJ 1265)

We announce the discovery of two planetary companions orbiting around the low-mass stars Ross 1020 (GJ 3779, M4.0V) and LP 819-052 (GJ 1265, M4.5V). The discovery is based on the analysis of CARMENES radial velocity (RV) observations in the visual channel as part of its survey for exoplanets around M dwarfs. In the case of GJ 1265, CARMENES observations were complemented with publicly available Doppler measurements from HARPS. The datasets reveal two planetary companions, one for each star, that share very similar properties: minimum masses of 8.0 ± 0.5 M and 7.4 ± 0.5 M in low-eccentricity orbits with periods of 3.023 ± 0.001 d and 3.651 ± 0.001 d for GJ 3779 b and GJ 1265 b, respectively. The periodic signals around 3 d found in the RV data have no counterpart in any spectral activity indicator. Furthermore, we collected available photometric data for the two host stars, which confirm that the additional Doppler variations found at periods of approximately 95 d can be attributed to the rotation of the stars. The addition of these planets to a mass-period diagram of known planets around M dwarfs suggests a bimodal distribution with a lack of short-period low-mass planets in the range of 2-5 M . It also indicates that super-Earths (>5 M ) currently detected by RV and transit techniques around M stars are usually found in systems dominated by a single planet.© ESO 2018.CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme(s) 072.C-0488(E) and 183.C-0437(A). R. L. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713673 and financial support through the >la Caixa> INPhINIT Fellowship Grant for Doctoral studies at Spanish Research Centres of Excellence, >la Caixa> Banking Foundation, Barcelona, Spain. This work is partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grants ESP2013-48391-C4-2-R, ESP2016-80435-C2-1/2-R, and AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P

K2-60b and K2-107b. A Sub-Jovian and a Jovian Planet from the K2 Mission

FWN – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit LeidenStars and planetary system

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs: different roads to radii and masses of the target stars

Aims. We determine the radii and masses of 293 nearby, bright M dwarfs of the CARMENES survey. This is the first time that such a large and homogeneous high-resolution (R > 80, 000) spectroscopic survey has been used to derive these fundamental stellar parameters. Methods. We derived the radii using Stefan-Boltzmann’s law. We obtained the required effective temperatures T_(eff) from a spectral analysis and we obtained the required luminosities L from integrated broadband photometry together with the Gaia DR2 parallaxes. The mass was then determined using a mass-radius relation that we derived from eclipsing binaries known in the literature. We compared this method with three other methods: (1) We calculated the mass from the radius and the surface gravity log g, which was obtained from the same spectral analysis as T_(eff). (2) We used a widely used infrared mass-magnitude relation. (3) We used a Bayesian approach to infer stellar parameters from the comparison of the absolute magnitudes and colors of our targets with evolutionary models. Results. Between spectral types M0 V and M7 V our radii cover the range 0.1 Rꙩ < R < 0.6 Rꙩ with an error of 2–3% and our masses cover 0.09 Mꙩ < M < 0.6 Mꙩ with an error of 3–5%. We find good agreement between the masses determined with these different methods for most of our targets. Only the masses of very young objects show discrepancies. This can be well explained with the assumptions that we used for our methods

Three Small Planets Transiting a Hyades Star

Stars and planetary system

Dynamic protein methylation in chromatin biology

Post-translational modification of chromatin is emerging as an increasingly important regulator of chromosomal processes. In particular, histone lysine and arginine methylation play important roles in regulating transcription, maintaining genomic integrity, and contributing to epigenetic memory. Recently, the use of new approaches to analyse histone methylation, the generation of genetic model systems, and the ability to interrogate genome wide histone modification profiles has aided in defining how histone methylation contributes to these processes. Here we focus on the recent advances in our understanding of the histone methylation system and examine how dynamic histone methylation contributes to normal cellular function in mammals

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented