Search for additional bodies with the transit timing method

Unter den derzeit bekannten extrasolaren Planeten gibt es eine Anzahl von Systemen, deren Umlaufebenen so ausgerichtet sind, dass sie die Sichtlinie auf den Stern durchkreuzen. Passiert dies, so wird für den Beobachter ist eine kurzzeitige Verdunkelung des Sterns messbar. Das Studium dieser planetaren Transits bietet uns die Möglichkeit, fundamentale Parameter des Planeten, nämlich Masse, Radius und Bahninklination, festzulegen. Auch eröffnen uns Transits die Möglichkeit, die Periode des Planeten mit großer Genauigkeit zu messen und dadurch kleine Variationen in dieser festzustellen, Variationen die durch den gravitativen Einfluss weiterer Körper im Planetensystem insbesondere weiterer eventuell erdähnlicher Planeten) entstehen können. In dieser Arbeit untersuche ich das System OGLE2-TR-L9 nach derartigen Variationen und bestimme die Parameter des Planeten an Hand der neuen Daten neu.In the study of transiting exoplanets the re-observation of known extrasolar planets has a number of benefits, since it allows to constrain the system parameters, as well as gather a set of central transit times which can be used to reveal the presence of so called transit-timing-variations. These variations in the central transit time and consequently in the planetary period which can be attributed to additional bodies, such as moons, Trojans and additional planets. In this work, I probe the system OGLE2-TR-L9 for such variations and use the data collected to redetermine the system parameters

High Precision Photometry from EulerCam and TRAPPIST: The Case of WASP-42, WASP-49 and WASP-50

Transiting extrasolar planets provide unmatched insights into the structure and composition of close-in planets. When a planet transits its host star, its radius is known, which together with radial velocity measurements, allows accessing the planetary density. We present results obtained using the Euler and TRAPPIST telescopes that aim at reaching very high accuracy on the parameters derived from transit lightcurves. Here, we show the case of the recently discovered WASP-42b and WASP-49b and new observations of WASP-50

The Role of N2 as a Geo-Biosignature for the Detection and Characterization of Earth-like Habitats

Since the Archean, N2 has been a major atmospheric constituent in Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen is an essential element in the building blocks of life, therefore the geobiological nitrogen cycle is a fundamental factor in the long term evolution of both Earth and Earth-like exoplanets. We discuss the development of the Earth's N2 atmosphere since the planet's formation and its relation with the geobiological cycle. Then we suggest atmospheric evolution scenarios and their possible interaction with life forms: firstly, for a stagnant-lid anoxic world, secondly for a tectonically active anoxic world, and thirdly for an oxidized tectonically active world. Furthermore, we discuss a possible demise of present Earth's biosphere and its effects on the atmosphere. Since life forms are the most efficient means for recycling deposited nitrogen back into the atmosphere nowadays, they sustain its surface partial pressure at high levels. Also, the simultaneous presence of significant N2 and O2 is chemically incompatible in an atmosphere over geological timescales. Thus, we argue that an N2-dominated atmosphere in combination with O2 on Earth-like planets within circumstellar habitable zones can be considered as a geo-biosignature. Terrestrial planets with such atmospheres will have an operating tectonic regime connected with an aerobe biosphere, whereas other scenarios in most cases end up with a CO2-dominated atmosphere. We conclude with implications for the search for life on Earth-like exoplanets inside the habitable zones of M to K-stars

The Peculiar Atmospheric Chemistry of KELT-9b

The atmospheric temperatures of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9b straddle the transition between gas giants and stars, and therefore between two traditionally distinct regimes of atmospheric chemistry. Previous theoretical studies assume the atmosphere of KELT-9b to be in chemical equilibrium. Despite the high ultraviolet flux from KELT-9, we show using photochemical kinetics calculations that the observable atmosphere of KELT-9b is predicted to be close to chemical equilibrium, which greatly simplifies any theoretical interpretation of its spectra. It also makes the atmosphere of KELT-9b, which is expected to be cloudfree, a tightly constrained chemical system that lends itself to a clean set of theoretical predictions. Due to the lower pressures probed in transmission (compared to emission) spectroscopy, we predict the abundance of water to vary by several orders of magnitude across the atmospheric limb depending on temperature, which makes water a sensitive thermometer. Carbon monoxide is predicted to be the dominant molecule under a wide range of scenarios, rendering it a robust diagnostic of the metallicity when analyzed in tandem with water. All of the other usual suspects (acetylene, ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, methane) are predicted to be subdominant at solar metallicity, while atomic oxygen, iron and magnesium are predicted to have relative abundances as high as 1 part in 10,000. Neutral atomic iron is predicted to be seen through a forest of optical and near-infrared lines, which makes KELT-9b suitable for high-resolution ground-based spectroscopy with HARPS-N or CARMENES. We summarize future observational prospects of characterizing the atmosphere of KELT-9b.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 9 pages, 6 figures. Corrected minor errors in Figures 1a and 1b (some line styles were switched by accident), text and conclusions unchanged, these minor changes will be updated in final ApJ proo

Studying the Atmospheres of the Most Intriguing WASP Hot Jupiters

Among the over 300 transiting planets confirmed to date, approximately 130 have been found by groundbased wide angle transit surveys such asWASP. While these surveys are not sensitive enough to detect lowmass planets, they excel at picking out rare hot- Jupiters orbiting reasonably bright stars (V mag = 9 - 11) across the sky. These planets occupy a favorable region in parameter space, as they show frequent and deep transits. Due to the proximity to their host stars these gas giants possess hot extended atmospheres making them ideal targets for the study of their atmospheres via transmission and occultation spectrophotometry. During occultation, the flux emerging from the planetary dayside is eliminated. By comparing the flux in- and out-of occultation, the planet-to-star brightness ratio can be measured. Observations in different passbands yield a measure of the planetary spectral energy distribution and thereby allow to determine the atmospheric temperature structure, heat redistribution efficiency, albedo, and to place constraints on the atmospheric composition. From the spectro-photometric observation of transits, we can measure wavelength dependencies in the effective planetary radius that are sensitive to signatures of chemical elements in the planetary atmosphere. We present results of ongoing observing campaigns employing these methods to study the atmospheres of hot Jupiters discovered by the WASP survey. In particular we show results for the very short-period planet WASP-19b based on data from the 1m-class Euler-Swiss and TRAPPIST telescopes, as well as a transmission spectrum of the low-density hot Saturn WASP-49b obtained from FORS2 at the VLT/UT1

WASP-80b has a dayside within the T-dwarf range

AHMJT is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) fellow under grant number P300P2-147773. MG and EJ are Research Associates at the F.R.S-FNRS; LD received the support the support of the F.R.I.A. fund of the FNRS. DE, KH, and SU acknowledge the financial support of the SNSF in the frame of the National Centre for Competence in Research ‘PlanetS’. EH and IR acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER) through grants AYA2012-39612-C03-01 and ESP2013-48391-C4-1-R.WASP-80b is a missing link in the study of exo-atmospheres. It falls between the warm Neptunes and the hot Jupiters and is amenable for characterisation, thanks to its host star's properties. We observed the planet through transit and during occultation with Warm Spitzer. Combining our mid-infrared transits with optical time series, we find that the planet presents a transmission spectrum indistinguishable from a horizontal line. In emission, WASP-80b is the intrinsically faintest planet whose dayside flux has been detected in both the 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m Spitzer channels. The depths of the occultations reveal that WASP-80b is as bright and as red as a T4 dwarf, but that its temperature is cooler. If planets go through the equivalent of an L-T transition, our results would imply this happens at cooler temperatures than for brown dwarfs. Placing WASP-80b's dayside into a colour-magnitude diagram, it falls exactly at the junction between a blackbody model and the T-dwarf sequence; we cannot discern which of those two interpretations is the more likely. Flux measurements on other planets with similar equilibrium temperatures are required to establish whether irradiated gas giants, like brown dwarfs, transition between two spectral classes. An eventual detection of methane absorption in transmission would also help lift that degeneracy. We obtained a second series of high-resolution spectra during transit, using HARPS. We reanalyse the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The data now favour an aligned orbital solution and a stellar rotation nearly three times slower than stellar line broadening implies. A contribution to stellar line broadening, maybe macroturbulence, is likely to have been underestimated for cool stars, whose rotations have therefore been systematically overestimated. [abridged]Publisher PDFPeer reviewe