ExoClock Project III: 450 new exoplanet ephemerides from ground and space observations

The ExoClock project has been created with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates over an extended period, in order to produce a consistent catalogue of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalogue of updated ephemerides for 450 planets, generated by the integration of $\sim$18000 data points from multiple sources. These sources include observations from ground-based telescopes (ExoClock network and ETD), mid-time values from the literature and light-curves from space telescopes (Kepler/K2 and TESS). With all the above, we manage to collect observations for half of the post-discovery years (median), with data that have a median uncertainty less than one minute. In comparison with literature, the ephemerides generated by the project are more precise and less biased. More than 40\% of the initial literature ephemerides had to be updated to reach the goals of the project, as they were either of low precision or drifting. Moreover, the integrated approach of the project enables both the monitoring of the majority of the Ariel candidates (95\%), and also the identification of missing data. The dedicated ExoClock network effectively supports this task by contributing additional observations when a gap in the data is identified. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring to increase the observing coverage of the candidate planets. Finally, the extended observing coverage of planets allows us to detect trends (TTVs - Transit Timing Variations) for a sample of 19 planets. All products, data, and codes used in this work are open and accessible to the wider scientific community.Comment: Recommended for publication to ApJS (reviewer's comments implemented). Main body: 13 pages, total: 77 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables. Data available at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/P298

The TESS Grand Unified Hot Jupiter Survey. II. Twenty New Giant Planets

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission promises to improve our understanding of hot Jupiters by providing an all-sky, magnitude-limited sample of transiting hot Jupiters suitable for population studies. Assembling such a sample requires confirming hundreds of planet candidates with additional follow-up observations. Here, we present twenty hot Jupiters that were detected using TESS data and confirmed to be planets through photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging observations coordinated by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP). These twenty planets have orbital periods shorter than 7 days and orbit relatively bright FGK stars ($10.9 < G < 13.0$). Most of the planets are comparable in mass to Jupiter, although there are four planets with masses less than that of Saturn. TOI-3976 b, the longest period planet in our sample ($P = 6.6$ days), may be on a moderately eccentric orbit ($e = 0.18\pm0.06$), while observations of the other targets are consistent with them being on circular orbits. We measured the projected stellar obliquity of TOI-1937A b, a hot Jupiter on a 22.4 hour orbit with the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, finding the planet's orbit to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis ($|\lambda| = 4.0\pm3.5^\circ$). We also investigated the possibility that TOI-1937 is a member of the NGC 2516 open cluster, but ultimately found the evidence for cluster membership to be ambiguous. These objects are part of a larger effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters to be used for future demographic and detailed characterization work.Comment: 67 pages, 11 tables, 13 figures, 2 figure sets. Resubmitted to ApJS after revision

Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -- TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R$_{P}$ = 1.00-1.45 R$_{J}$), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M$_{J}$, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4753 $<$ T$_{eff}$ $<$ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days, $e$ = $0.220\pm0.053$), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, $e$ = $0.182^{+0.039}_{-0.049}$), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, $e$ = $0.196^{+0.059}_{-0.053}$). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 $<$ $\log$ g $<$4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; $5.35^{+0.32}_{-0.35}$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2145 b) and $5.21\pm0.52$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables, Accepted by MNRA

NUCLEAR FACTOR Y, subunit A (NF-YA) proteins positively regulate flowering and act through FLOWERING LOCUS T

Photoperiod dependent flowering is one of several mechanisms used by plants to initiate the developmental transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. The NUCLEAR FACTOR Y (NF-Y) transcription factors are heterotrimeric complexes composed of NF-YA and histone-fold domain (HFD) containing NF-YB/NF-YC, that initiate photoperiod-dependent flowering by cooperatively interacting with CONSTANS (CO) to drive the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). This involves NF-Y and CO binding at distal CCAAT and proximal “CORE” elements, respectively, in the FT promoter. While this is well established for the HFD subunits, there remains some question over the potential role of NF-YA as either positive or negative regulators of this process. Here we provide strong support, in the form of genetic and biochemical analyses, that NF-YA, in complex with NF-YB/NF-YC proteins, can directly bind the distal CCAAT box in the FT promoter and are positive regulators of flowering in an FT-dependent manner.This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (US, http://www.nsf.gov/) award 1149822 to BFH. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ye

Another shipment of six short-period giant planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), and TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 &lt;G &lt; 11.8, 7.7 &lt;K &lt; 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (RP = 0.99–1.45 RJ), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.26 MJ, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4766 ≤ Teff ≤ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 d, 0.394+0.035-0.038), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 d, e = 0.208+0.034-0.047), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 d, e = 0.195+0.043-0.040). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 &lt; log g &lt;4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; 5.26+0.38-0.37 MJ (TOI-2145 b) and 4.82 ± 0.41 MJ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use TESS to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies. © 2023 The Author(s).80NSSC20K0250; LE140100050; FEUZ-2020-0038, PGC2018-098153-B-C31; National Science Foundation, NSF: 1516242, 1608203, 2007811, AST-1751874, AST-1907790; David and Lucile Packard Foundation, DLPF; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA: GN-2018B-LP-101, NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233; W. M. Keck Foundation, WMKF; New York Community Trust, NYCT; Research Corporation for Science Advancement, RCSA; Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, PSGC; Ames Research Center, ARC; George Mason University, GMU; University of North Carolina, UNC; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT; University of Pennsylvania; Ohio State University, OSU; California Institute of Technology, CIT; University of Florida, UF; Michigan State University, MSU; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC-CH; Pennsylvania State University, PSU; University of Montana, UM; University of Texas at Austin, UT; Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, SAO; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020: 1952545, 724427; Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation; Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center, ABC-UTC; National Centres of Competence in Research SwissMAP; Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, DPAC; European Research Council, ERC; European Space Agency, ESA; Australian Research Council, ARC: DP180100972, DP210103119, DP220100365, FL220100117, LE160100001; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG: HA 3279/12-1, SPP1992; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKEN: JP18H05439; University of New South Wales, UNSW; University of Southern Queensland, USQ; Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, FONDECYT: 11200751, 1210718, 14ENI2-26865, IC120009; Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, CREST: JPMJCR1761; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka: 075-15-2020-780, N13.1902.21.0039; Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, MCTI; University of Toronto, U of T; Université de Genève, UNIGE; Ministry of Economy; Nanjing University, NJU; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, IAC; NCCR Catalysis, NCCRThe authors thank the CHIRON team members, including Todd Henry, Leonardo Paredes, Hodari James, Azmain Nisak, Rodrigo Hinojosa, Roberto Aviles, Wei-Chun Jao, and CTIO staffs, for their work in acquiring RVs with CHIRON at CTIO. This research has made use of SAO/NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia ( https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia ), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium ). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. Based in part on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações (MCTI/LNA) do Brasil, the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate. The authors acknowledge the use of public TESS Alert data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which are operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). This paper includes observations obtained under Gemini program GN-2018B-LP-101. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This publication makes use of The Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE), which is a facility based at the University of Geneva (CH) dedicated to extrasolar planets data visualisation, exchange and analysis. DACE is a platform of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, federating the Swiss expertise in Exoplanet research. The DACE platform is available at https://dace.unige.ch .LC, KS, EA, JR, JER, JAR, PW, and EZ are grateful for support from NSF grants AST-1751874 and AST-1907790, along with a Cottrell Fellowship from the Research Corporation. CZ is supported by a Dunlap Fellowship at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, funded through an endowment established by the Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. T.H. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC Advanced Grant Origins 83 24 28. JVS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Four Aces; grant agreement No. 724427). PR acknowledges support from NSF grant No. 1952545. RB and AJ acknowledges support from FONDECYT Projects 11200751 and 1210718 and from the CORFO project N◦14ENI2-26865. AJ, RB and MH acknowledge support from project IC120009 ‘Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)’ of the Millenium Science Initiative, Chilean Ministry of Economy. The Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. KKM gratefully acknowledges support from the New York Community Trust’s Fund for Astrophysical Research. LG and AG are supported by NASA Massachusetts Space Grant Fellowships. EWG, ME, and PC acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA 3279/12-1 within the DFG Schwerpunkt SPP1992, Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets. BSG was partially supported by the Thomas Jefferson Chair for Space Exploration at the Ohio State University. CD acknowledges support from the Hellman Fellows Fund and NASA XRP via grant 80NSSC20K0250. BSS, MVG, and AAB acknowledge the support of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the grant 075-15-2020-780 (N13.1902.21.0039). BA is supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP180100972. TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119). TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119 and FL220100117). The authors thank the CHIRON team members, including Todd Henry, Leonardo Paredes, Hodari James, Azmain Nisak, Rodrigo Hinojosa, Roberto Aviles, Wei-Chun Jao, and CTIO staffs, for their work in acquiring RVs with CHIRON at CTIO. This research has made use of SAO/NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. Based in part on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações (MCTI/LNA) do Brasil, the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate. The authors acknowledge the use of public TESS Alert data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which are operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). This paper includes observations obtained under Gemini program GN-2018B-LP-101. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This publication makes use of The Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE), which is a facility based at the University of Geneva (CH) dedicated to extrasolar planets data visualisation, exchange and analysis. DACE is a platform of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, federating the Swiss expertise in Exoplanet research. The DACE platform is available at https://dace.unige.ch. MINERVA-Australis is supported by Australian Research Council LIEF Grant LE160100001 (Discovery Grant DP180100972 and DP220100365) Mount Cuba Astronomical Foundation, and institutional partners University of Southern Queensland, UNSW Sydney, MIT, Nanjing University, George Mason University, University of Louisville, University of California Riverside, University of Florida, and The University of Texas at Austin. The authors respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of all lands throughout Australia and recognize their continued cultural and spiritual connection to the land, waterways, cosmos, and community. The authors pay our deepest respects to all Elders, ancestors and descendants of the Giabal, Jarowair, and Kambuwal nations, upon whose lands the MINERVA-Australis facility at Mt Kent is situated. MINERVA-North is a collaboration among the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Montana, the University of Southern Queensland, University of Pennsylvania, and George Mason University. It is made possible by generous contributions from its collaborating institutions and Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (EPSCOR grant NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grant LE140100050), and the National Science Foundation (grants 1516242, 1608203, and 2007811). This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work is partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grants PGC2018-098153-B-C31.The work of VK was supported by the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation, topic FEUZ-2020-0038. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18H05439, JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR1761. This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide.Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work is partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grants PGC2018-098153-B-C31.The work of VK was supported by the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation, topic FEUZ-2020-0038.LC, KS, EA, JR, JER, JAR, PW, and EZ are grateful for support from NSF grants AST-1751874 and AST-1907790, along with a Cottrell Fellowship from the Research Corporation. CZ is supported by a Dunlap Fellowship at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, funded through an endowment established by the Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. T.H. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC Advanced Grant Origins 83 24 28. JVS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Four Aces; grant agreement No. 724427). PR acknowledges support from NSF grant No. 1952545. RB and AJ acknowledges support from FONDECYT Projects 11200751 and 1210718 and from the CORFO project N°14ENI2-26865. AJ, RB and MH acknowledge support from project IC120009 ‘Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)’ of the Millenium Science Initiative, Chilean Ministry of Economy. The Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. KKM gratefully acknowledges support from the New York Community Trust’s Fund for Astrophysical Research. LG and AG are supported by NASA Massachusetts Space Grant Fellowships. EWG, ME, and PC acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA 3279/12-1 within the DFG Schwerpunkt SPP1992, Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets. BSG was partially supported by the Thomas Jefferson Chair for Space Exploration at the Ohio State University. CD acknowledges support from the Hellman Fellows Fund and NASA XRP via grant 80NSSC20K0250. BSS, MVG, and AAB acknowledge the support of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the grant 075-15-2020-780 (N13.1902.21.0039). BA is supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP180100972. TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119). TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119 and FL220100117).Minerva -Australis is supported by Australian Research Council LIEF Grant LE160100001 (Discovery Grant DP180100972 and DP220100365) Mount Cuba Astronomical Foundation, and institutional partners University of Southern Queensland, UNSW Sydney, MIT, Nanjing University, George Mason University, University of Louisville, University of California Riverside, University of Florida, and The University of Texas at Austin. The authors respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of all lands throughout Australia and recognize their continued cultural and spiritual connection to the land, waterways, cosmos, and community. The authors pay our deepest respects to all Elders, ancestors and descendants of the Giabal, Jarowair, and Kambuwal nations, upon whose lands the Minerva -Australis facility at Mt Kent is situated.MINERVA-North is a collaboration among the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Montana, the University of Southern Queensland, University of Pennsylvania, and George Mason University. It is made possible by generous contributions from its collaborating institutions and Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (EPSCOR grant NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grant LE140100050), and the National Science Foundation (grants 1516242, 1608203, and 2007811)

A Possible Alignment between the Orbits of Planetary Systems and their Visual Binary Companions

Astronomers do not have a complete picture of the effects of wide-binary companions (semimajor axes greater than 100 au) on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. We investigate these effects using new data from Gaia Early Data Release 3 and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission to characterize wide-binary systems with transiting exoplanets. We identify a sample of 67 systems of transiting exoplanet candidates (with well-determined, edge-on orbital inclinations) that reside in wide visual binary systems. We derive limits on orbital parameters for the wide-binary systems and measure the minimum difference in orbital inclination between the binary and planet orbits. We determine that there is statistically significant difference in the inclination distribution of wide-binary systems with transiting planets compared to a control sample, with the probability that the two distributions are the same being 0.0037. This implies that there is an overabundance of planets in binary systems whose orbits are aligned with those of the binary. The overabundance of aligned systems appears to primarily have semimajor axes less than 700 au. We investigate some effects that could cause the alignment and conclude that a torque caused by a misaligned binary companion on the protoplanetary disk is the most promising explanation. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.AB022006; ANR-15-IDEX-01; 80NSSC19K1727; National Science Foundation, NSF; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA: 18-2XRP18_2-0136; New York Community Trust, NYCT; Australian Research Council, ARC; National Research Foundation, NRF; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKEN: 15H02063, 18H05442, 20K14521, 22000005, JP17H04574, JP18H05439, JP20J21872, JP20K14518, JP21K13955; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT; Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, SNF; Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, FNRS: FRFC 2.5.594.09; Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, MSIP; Nagoya University, NU: 10147207, 10147214; Université de Liège, ULg; Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, UCSC: DI-FIAI 03/2021; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, NAOJ; Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology, PRESTO: JPMJPR1775; Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, IAA: SEV-2017-0709This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate.K.K.M. acknowledges support from the New York Community Trust's Fund for Astrophysical Research.The research leading to these results has received funding from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. TRAPPIST is funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS) under the grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liège (Belgium), in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco).This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP20K14518, and by Astrobiology Center SATELLITE Research project AB022006.This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP21K13955.This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. 20K14521.This paper is based on observations made with the MuSCAT3 instrument, developed by the Astrobiology Center and under financial supports by JSPS KAKENHI (JP18H05439) and JST PRESTO (JPMJPR1775), at Faulkes Telescope North on Maui, HI, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory.The IRSF project is a collaboration between Nagoya University and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (A) (grant Nos. 10147207 and 10147214) and Optical & Near-Infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program, from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa.C.R.-L. acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709).M.T. is supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005.This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP18H05439, and JST PRESTO grant No. JPMJPR1775, and a University Research Support Grant from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).P.J.A. acknowledges support from grant AYA2016-79425-C3-3-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709)

ExoClock Project. III. 450 New Exoplanet Ephemerides from Ground and Space Observations

The ExoClock project has been created to increase the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates, in order to produce a consistent catalog of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalog of updated ephemerides for 450 planets, generated by the integration of ∼18,000 data points from multiple sources. These sources include observations from ground-based telescopes (the ExoClock network and the Exoplanet Transit Database), midtime values from the literature, and light curves from space telescopes (Kepler, K2, and TESS). With all the above, we manage to collect observations for half of the postdiscovery years (median), with data that have a median uncertainty less than 1 minute. In comparison with the literature, the ephemerides generated by the project are more precise and less biased. More than 40% of the initial literature ephemerides had to be updated to reach the goals of the project, as they were either of low precision or drifting. Moreover, the integrated approach of the project enables both the monitoring of the majority of the Ariel candidates (95%), and also the identification of missing data. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring to increase the observing coverage of the candidate planets. Finally, the extended observing coverage of planets allows us to detect trends (transit-timing variations) for a sample of 19 planets. All the products, data, and codes used in this work are open and accessible to the wider scientific community

NUCLEAR FACTOR Y, Subunit C (NF-YC) Transcription Factors Are Positive Regulators of Photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana

We thank Dr. Ben Smith (University of Oklahoma) for assistance with FLIM-FRET measurements and Dr. Min Ni (University of Minnesota) for critical reading of the manuscript. The cop1-4 mutant allele and cop1-4 co-9 cross were kindly provided by George Coupland (Max Planck Institute).Author Summary Light perception is critically important for the fitness of plants in both natural and agricultural settings. Plants not only use light for photosynthesis, but also as a cue for proper development. As a seedling emerges from soil it must determine the light environment and adopt an appropriate growth habit. When blue and red wavelengths are the dominant sources of light, plants will undergo photomorphogenesis. Photomorphogenesis describes a number of developmental responses initiated by light in a seedling, and includes shortened stems and establishing the ability to photosynthesize. The genes regulating photomorphogenesis have been studied extensively, but a complete picture remains elusive. Here we describe the finding that NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y (NF-Y) genes are positive regulators of photomorphogenesis—i.e., in plants where NF-Y genes are mutated, they display some characteristics of dark grown plants, even though they are in the light. Our data suggests that the roles of NF-Y genes in light perception do not fit in easily with those of other described pathways. Thus, studying these genes promises to help develop a more complete picture of how light drives plant development.Yeshttp://www.plosgenetics.org/static/editorial#pee