The Transit Light Curve project. XIV. Confirmation of Anomalous Radii for the Exoplanets TrES-4b, HAT-P-3b, and WASP-12b

We present transit photometry of three exoplanets, TrES-4b, HAT-P-3b, and WASP-12b, allowing for refined estimates of the systems' parameters. TrES-4b and WASP-12b were confirmed to be "bloated" planets, with radii of 1.706 +/- 0.056 R_Jup and 1.736 +/- 0.092 R_Jup, respectively. These planets are too large to be explained with standard models of gas giant planets. In contrast, HAT-P-3b has a radius of 0.827 +/- 0.055 R_Jup, smaller than a pure hydrogen-helium planet and indicative of a highly metal-enriched composition. Analyses of the transit timings revealed no significant departures from strict periodicity. For TrES-4, our relatively recent observations allow for improvement in the orbital ephemerides, which is useful for planning future observations.Comment: AJ, in press [11 pages]; corrected error in distance to WASP-1

Type II Supernova Light Curves and Spectra From the CfA

We present multiband photometry of 60 spectroscopically-confirmed supernovae (SN): 39 SN II/IIP, 19 IIn, one IIb and one that was originally classified as a IIn but later as a Ibn. Forty-six have only optical photometry, six have only near infrared (NIR) photometry and eight have both optical and NIR. The median redshift of the sample is 0.016. We also present 192 optical spectra for 47 of the 60 SN. All data are publicly available. There are 26 optical and two NIR light curves of SN II/IIP with redshifts z > 0.01, some of which may give rise to useful distances for cosmological applications. All photometry was obtained between 2000 and 2011 at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO), via the 1.2m and 1.3m PAIRITEL telescopes for the optical and NIR, respectively. Each SN was observed in a subset of the $u'UBVRIr'i'JHK_s$ bands. There are a total of 2932 optical and 816 NIR light curve points. Optical spectra were obtained using the FLWO 1.5m Tillinghast telescope with the FAST spectrograph and the MMT Telescope with the Blue Channel Spectrograph. Our photometry is in reasonable agreement with other samples from the literature. Comparison with Pan-STARRS shows that two-thirds of our individual star sequences have weighted-mean V offsets within $\pm$0.02 mag. In comparing our standard-system SN light curves with common Carnegie Supernova Project objects using their color terms, we found that roughly three-quarters have average differences within $\pm$0.04 mag. The data from this work and the literature will provide insight into SN II explosions, help with developing methods for photometric SN classification, and contribute to their use as cosmological distance indicators.Comment: Accepted to ApJS. TAR of light curves and star sequences here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/fmalcolm2017/cfa_snII_lightcurvesndstars.june2017.tar ... Spectra can be found here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/fmalcolm2017/cfaspec_snII.tar.gz ... Passbands and plot of spectra can be found here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/SNarchive.htm

The Transit Light Curve Project. IX. Evidence for a Smaller Radius of the Exoplanet XO-3b

We present photometry of 13 transits of XO-3b, a massive transiting planet on an eccentric orbit. Previous data led to two inconsistent estimates of the planetary radius. Our data strongly favor the smaller radius, with increased precision: R_p = 1.217 +/- 0.073 R_Jup. A conflict remains between the mean stellar density determined from the light curve, and the stellar surface gravity determined from the shapes of spectral lines. We argue the light curve should take precedence, and revise the system parameters accordingly. The planetary radius is about 1 sigma larger than the theoretical radius for a hydrogen-helium planet of the given mass and insolation. To help in planning future observations, we provide refined transit and occultation ephemerides.Comment: To appear in ApJ [22 pages

LHS 1610A: A Nearby Mid-M Dwarf with a Companion That is Likely A Brown Dwarf

We present the spectroscopic orbit of LHS 1610A, a newly discovered single-lined spectroscopic binary with a trigonometric distance placing it at 9.9 pm 0.2 pc. We obtained spectra with the TRES instrument on the 1.5m Tillinghast Reflector at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory located on Mt. Hopkins in AZ. We demonstrate the use of the TiO molecular bands at 7065 -- 7165 Angstroms to measure radial velocities and achieve an average estimated velocity uncertainty of 28 m/s. We measure the orbital period to be 10.6 days and calculate a minimum mass of 44.8 pm 3.2 Jupiter masses for the secondary, indicating that it is likely a brown dwarf. We place an upper limit to 3 sigma of 2500 K on the effective temperature of the companion from infrared spectroscopic observations using IGRINS on the 4.3m Discovery Channel Telescope. In addition, we present a new photometric rotation period of 84.3 days for the primary star using data from the MEarth-South Observatory, with which we show that the system does not eclipse.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Geohidro-Pantanal: portal de informações hidrológicas da Bacia do Alto Paraguai-Pantanal.

As mídias sociais e os mapas interativos na internet têm se mostrado muito populares como veículo para disseminação de informações técnico-científicas por parte de instituições de pesquisa e tecnologia, especialmente na divulgação de informações hidrológicas e meteorológicas para o público em geral

Geohidro-Pantanal: Portal de informações hidrológicas da bacia do alto Paraguai-Pantanal.

As mídias sociais e os mapas interativos na internet têm se mostrado muito populares como veículo para disseminação de informações técnico-científicas por parte de instituições de pesquisa e tecnologia, especialmente na divulgação de informações hidrológicas e meteorológicas para o público em geral. Na região da Bacia do Alto Paraguai no Pantanal, há um grande interesse no tema por parte da população, devido à influência das inundações e estiagens nas atividades humanas realizadas na zona rural. A Embrapa Pantanal vem publicando na rede social ?Facebook?, desde dezembro de 2013, o monitoramento e alertas sobre estimativas dos níveis dos rios do Pantanal com base em métodos hidrológicos e estatísticos. Além dos alertas, são publicadas no Portal de Informações Hidrológicas ?Geohidro-Pantanal? informações hidrometeorológicas de outras instituições. Dessa forma o público tem acesso aos dados que são usados nas análises dos alertas possibilitando a transparência no trabalho de pesquisa. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a partir de informações fornecidas pelo ?Facebook? a aceitação, pelo público, das informações disponibilizadas a partir das estatísticas de acesso dos interessados na página. Em 25/02/2015, a página estava com 766 ?curtidas?. De acordo com os dados sobre o perfil das pessoas que curtiram e acessaram a página, quanto ao sexo, 54% são homens e 46% mulheres. Quanto à faixa etária, a de 24 a 35 anos foi a mais frequente, mas foram registrados acessos de pessoas desde 13 até mais de 65 anos A grande maioria dos 766 usuários que curtiram a página é originária do Brasil (735), seguido pelos do Paraguai (15) e da Bolívia (8). Dos brasileiros, a maioria é de cidades do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, sendo 162 de Campo Grande, 134 de Corumbá e 35 de São Paulo, evidenciando o regionalismo dos usuários. Mesmo os usuários de outros estados como São Paulo, alguns têm fazenda no Pantanal. A grande maioria tem como idioma o português (705), seguido pelo inglês - EUA (22) e espanhol (21). O alcance da página nos últimos 28 dias foi analisado considerando o país de origem levando-se em conta apenas os três maiores - Brasil (1.028), Bolívia (59) e Estados Unidos (13). O número de acessos ao longo do tempo, desde 01 de dezembro de 2013 mostrou um padrão de concentração de acessos na época da cheia de 2014 e também em relação a períodos de maior atividade de postagem de novas informações, evidenciando o interesse nas informações e alertas para a tomada de decisão e por curiosidade sobre o tema. As publicações mais acessadas em 2014 foram os alertas de nível e as notas informativas. O terceiro alerta de nível teve 1.110 acessos. A tabela informativa dos ?Níveis máximos do Rio Paraguai em Bela Vista do Norte e Ladário semelhantes ao nível estimado para 2014?, com dados das maiores cheias já ocorridas, teve 1.123 acessos. O vídeo ?Veja como são as inundações do Pantanal nesse vídeo dos anos de 2001 a 2009? teve 953 acessos. Conclui-se que, considerando a especificidade regional do tema o portal Geohidro-Pantanal tem apresentado boa aceitação na veiculação de informações hidrometeorológicas geradas na pesquisa pela Embrapa Pantanal, parceiros e demais instituições

CfA4: Light Curves for 94 Type Ia Supernovae

We present multi-band optical photometry of 94 spectroscopically-confirmed Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) in the redshift range 0.0055 to 0.073, obtained between 2006 and 2011. There are a total of 5522 light curve points. We show that our natural system SN photometry has a precision of roughly 0.03 mag or better in BVr'i', 0.06 mag in u', and 0.07 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag and estimate that it has a systematic uncertainty of 0.014, 0.010, 0.012, 0.014, 0.046, and 0.073 mag in BVr'i'u'U, respectively. Comparisons of our standard system photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars reveal mean agreement across samples in the range of ~0.00-0.03 mag. We discuss the recent measurements of our telescope-plus-detector throughput by direct monochromatic illumination by Cramer et al (in prep.). This technique measures the whole optical path through the telescope, auxiliary optics, filters, and detector under the same conditions used to make SN measurements. Extremely well-characterized natural-system passbands (both in wavelength and over time) are crucial for the next generation of SN Ia photometry to reach the 0.01 mag accuracy level. The current sample of low-z SN Ia is now sufficiently large to remove most of the statistical sampling error from the dark energy error budget. But pursuing the dark-energy systematic errors by determining highly-accurate detector passbands, combining optical and near-infrared (NIR) photometry and spectra, using the nearby sample to illuminate the population properties of SN Ia, and measuring the local departures from the Hubble flow will benefit from larger, carefully measured nearby samples.Comment: 43 page

CfA3: 185 Type Ia Supernova Light Curves from the CfA

We present multi-band photometry of 185 type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia), with over 11500 observations. These were acquired between 2001 and 2008 at the F. L. Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). This sample contains the largest number of homogeneously-observed and reduced nearby SN Ia (z < 0.08) published to date. It more than doubles the nearby sample, bringing SN Ia cosmology to the point where systematic uncertainties dominate. Our natural system photometry has a precision of 0.02 mag or better in BVRIr'i' and roughly 0.04 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag. We also estimate a systematic uncertainty of 0.03 mag in our SN Ia standard system BVRIr'i' photometry and 0.07 mag for U. Comparisons of our standard system photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars, where available for the same SN, reveal agreement at the level of a few hundredths mag in most cases. We find that 1991bg-like SN Ia are sufficiently distinct from other SN Ia in their color and light-curve-shape/luminosity relation that they should be treated separately in light-curve/distance fitter training samples. The CfA3 sample will contribute to the development of better light-curve/distance fitters, particularly in the few dozen cases where near-infrared photometry has been obtained and, together, can help disentangle host-galaxy reddening from intrinsic supernova color, reducing the systematic uncertainty in SN Ia distances due to dust.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal. Minor changes from last version. Light curves, comparison star photometry, and passband tables are available at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/CfA3