640 research outputs found
Improved parameters of seven Kepler giant companions characterized with SOPHIE and HARPS-N
Radial-velocity observations of Kepler candidates obtained with the SOPHIE
and HARPS-N spectrographs have permitted unveiling the nature of the five giant
planets Kepler-41b, Kepler-43b, Kepler-44b, Kepler-74b, and Kepler-75b, the
massive companion Kepler-39b, and the brown dwarf KOI-205b. These companions
were previously characterized with long-cadence (LC) Kepler data. Here we aim
at refining the parameters of these transiting systems by i) modelling the
published radial velocities (RV) and Kepler short-cadence (SC) data that
provide a much better sampling of the transits, ii) performing new spectral
analyses of the SOPHIE and ESPaDOnS spectra, and iii) improving stellar
rotation periods hence stellar age estimates through gyrochronology, when
possible. Posterior distributions of the system parameters were derived with a
differential evolution Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. Our main results are
as follows: a) Kepler-41b is significantly larger and less dense than
previously found because a lower orbital inclination is favoured by SC data.
This also affects the determination of the geometric albedo that is lower than
previously derived: Ag < 0.135; b) Kepler-44b is moderately smaller and denser
than reported in the discovery paper; c) good agreement was achieved with
published Kepler-43, Kepler-75, and KOI-205 system parameters, although the
host stars Kepler-75 and KOI-205 were found to be slightly richer in metals and
hotter, respectively; d) the previously reported non-zero eccentricities of
Kepler-39b and Kepler-74b might be spurious. If their orbits were circular, the
two companions would be smaller and denser than in the eccentric case. The
radius of Kepler-39b is still larger than predicted by theoretical isochrones.
Its parent star is hotter and richer in metals than previously determined.
[ABRIDGED]Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates. XV. KOI-614b, KOI-206b, and KOI-680b: a massive warm Jupiter orbiting a G0 metallic dwarf and two highly inflated planets with a distant companion around evolved F-type stars
We report the validation and characterization of three new transiting
exoplanets using SOPHIE radial velocities: KOI-614b, KOI-206b, and KOI-680b.
KOI-614b has a mass of and a radius of
, and it orbits a G0, metallic
([Fe/H]=) dwarf in 12.9 days. Its mass and radius are familiar and
compatible with standard planetary evolution models, so it is one of the few
known transiting planets in this mass range to have an orbital period over ten
days. With an equilibrium temperature of K, this places
KOI-614b at the transition between what is usually referred to as "hot" and
"warm" Jupiters. KOI-206b has a mass of and a
radius of , and it orbits a slightly evolved F7-type
star in a 5.3-day orbit. It is a massive inflated hot Jupiter that is
particularly challenging for planetary models because it requires unusually
large amounts of additional dissipated energy in the planet. On the other hand,
KOI-680b has a much lower mass of and requires less
extra-dissipation to explain its uncommonly large radius of . It is one of the biggest transiting planets characterized so far,
and it orbits a subgiant F9-star well on its way to the red giant stage, with
an orbital period of 8.6 days. With host stars of masses of
and , respectively, KOI-206b,
and KOI-680b are interesting objects for theories of formation and survival of
short-period planets around stars more massive than the Sun. For those two
targets, we also find signs of a possible distant additional companion in the
system
Prebiotic chemistry and atmospheric warming of early Earth by an active young Sun
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via the DOI in this recordNitrogen is a critical ingredient of complex biological molecules. Molecular nitrogen, however, which was outgassed into the Earth's early atmosphere, is relatively chemically inert and nitrogen fixation into more chemically reactive compounds requires high temperatures. Possible mechanisms of nitrogen fixation include lightning, atmospheric shock heating by meteorites, and solar ultraviolet radiation. Here we show that nitrogen fixation in the early terrestrial atmosphere can be explained by frequent and powerful coronal mass ejection events from the young Sun - so-called superflares. Using magnetohydrodynamic simulations constrained by Kepler Space Telescope observations, we find that successive superflare ejections produce shocks that accelerate energetic particles, which would have compressed the early Earth's magnetosphere. The resulting extended polar cap openings provide pathways for energetic particles to penetrate into the atmosphere and, according to our atmospheric chemistry simulations, initiate reactions converting molecular nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane to the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide as well as hydrogen cyanide, an essential compound for life. Furthermore, the destruction of N 2 , CO 2 and CH 4 suggests that these greenhouse gases cannot explain the stability of liquid water on the early Earth. Instead, we propose that the efficient formation of nitrous oxide could explain a warm early Earth.We thank three referees for constructive suggestions that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by NASA GSFC Science Task Group 263 funds. V. Airapetian performed the part of this work while staying at ELSI/Tokyo Tech
Detection of oxygen and carbon in the hydrodynamically escaping atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD209458b
Four transits of the planet orbiting the star HD209458 were observed with the
STIS spectrograph on board HST. The wavelength domain (1180-1710A) includes HI
as well as CI, CII, CIV, NV, OI, SI, SiII, SiIII and SiIV lines. During the
transits, absorptions are detected in HI, OI and CII (5+/-2%, 13+/-4.5% and
7.5+/-3.5%, respectively). No absorptions are detected for other lines. The 5%
mean absorption over the whole HI Lyman alpha line is consistent with the
previous detection at higher resolution (Vidal-Madjar et al. 2003). The
absorption depths in OI and CII show that oxygen and carbon are present in the
extended upper atmosphere of HD209458b. These species must be carried out up to
the Roche lobe and beyond, most likely in a state of hydrodynamic escape.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJ Letters, revised
version with slightly revisited absorption depth estimate
Quasi-molecular lines in Lyman wings of cool DA white dwarfs; Application to FUSE observations of G231-40
We present new theoretical calculations of the total line profiles of Lyman
alpha and Lyman beta which include perturbations by both neutral hydrogen AND
protons and all possible quasi-molecular states of H_2 and H_2^+. They are used
to improve theoretical modeling of synthetic spectra for cool DA white dwarfs.
We compare them with FUSE observation of G231-40. The appearance of the line
wings between Lyman alpha and Lyman beta is shown to be sensitive to the
relative abundance of hydrogen ions and neutral atoms, and thereby to provide a
temperature diagnostic for stellar atmospheres and laboratory plasmas.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates XI. Kepler-412 system: probing the properties of a new inflated hot Jupiter
We confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-412b, listed as planet candidate
KOI-202 in the Kepler catalog, thanks to our radial velocity follow-up program
of Kepler-released planet candidates, which is on going with the SOPHIE
spectrograph. We performed a complete analysis of the system by combining the
Kepler observations from Q1 to Q15, to ground-based spectroscopic observations
that allowed us to derive radial velocity measurements, together with the host
star parameters and properties. We also analyzed the light curve to derive the
star's rotation period and the phase function of the planet, including the
secondary eclipse. We found the planet has a mass of 0.939 0.085
M and a radius of 1.325 0.043 R which makes it a member
of the bloated giant subgroup. It orbits its G3 V host star in 1.72 days. The
system has an isochronal age of 5.1 Gyr, consistent with its moderate stellar
activity as observed in the Kepler light curve and the rotation of the star of
17.2 1.6 days. From the detected secondary, we derived the day side
temperature as a function of the geometric albedo and estimated the geometrical
albedo, Ag, is in the range 0.094 to 0.013. The measured night side flux
corresponds to a night side brightness temperature of 2154 83 K, much
greater than what is expected for a planet with homogeneous heat
redistribution. From the comparison to star and planet evolution models, we
found that dissipation should operate in the deep interior of the planet. This
modeling also shows that despite its inflated radius, the planet presents a
noticeable amount of heavy elements, which accounts for a mass fraction of 0.11
0.04.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
PASTIS: Bayesian extrasolar planet validation II. Constraining exoplanet blend scenarios using spectroscopic diagnoses
The statistical validation of transiting exoplanets proved to be an efficient
technique to secure the nature of small exoplanet signals which cannot be
established by purely spectroscopic means. However, the spectroscopic diagnoses
are providing us with useful constraints on the presence of blended stellar
contaminants. In this paper, we present how a contaminating star affects the
measurements of the various spectroscopic diagnoses as function of the
parameters of the target and contaminating stars using the model implemented
into the PASTIS planet-validation software. We find particular cases for which
a blend might produce a large radial velocity signal but no bisector variation.
It might also produce a bisector variation anti-correlated with the radial
velocity one, as in the case of stellar spots. In those cases, the full width
half maximum variation provides complementary constraints. These results can be
used to constrain blend scenarios for transiting planet candidates or radial
velocity planets. We review all the spectroscopic diagnoses reported in the
literature so far, especially the ones to monitor the line asymmetry. We
estimate their uncertainty and compare their sensitivity to blends. Based on
that, we recommend the use of BiGauss which is the most sensitive diagnosis to
monitor line-profile asymmetry. In this paper, we also investigate the
sensitivity of the radial velocities to constrain blend scenarios and develop a
formalism to estimate the level of dilution of a blended signal. Finally, we
apply our blend model to re-analyse the spectroscopic diagnoses of HD16702, an
unresolved face-on binary which exhibits bisector variations.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
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