Observing exoplanets from the planet Earth: how our revolution around the Sun affects the detection of 1-year periods

We analysed a selected sample of exoplanets with orbital periods close to 1 year to study the effects of the spectral window on the data, affected by the 1 cycle/year aliasing due to the Earth motion around the Sun. We pointed out a few cases where a further observational effort would largely improve the reliability of the orbital solutions.Comment: Contribution to the Focus Point on "Highlights of Planetary Science in Italy" edited by P. Cerroni, E. Dotto, P. Paolicch

Stellar masks and bisector's shape for M-type stars observed in the GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG

The HARPS/HARPS-N Data Reduction Software (DRS) relies on the cross-correlation between the observed spectra and a suitable stellar mask to compute a cross-correlation function (CCF) to be used both for the radial velocity (RV) computation and as an indicator of stellar lines asymmetry, induced for example by the stellar activity. Unfortunately the M2 mask currently used by the HARPS/HARPS-N DRS for M-type stars results in heavily distorted CCFs. We created several new stellar masks in order to decrease the errors in the RVs and to improve the reliability of the activity indicators as the bisector's span. We obtained very good results with a stellar mask created from the theoretical line list provided by the VALD3 database for an early M-type star (T$_{\mathrm{eff}}$=3500~K and $\log{g}=4.5$). The CCF's shape and relative activity indicators improved and the RV time-series allowed us to recover known exoplanets with periods and amplitudes compatible with the results obtained with HARPS-TERRA.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom

Gofio

GOFIO is a DRS written for the GIANO-B infrared spectra. It is installed at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and it is part of the online reduction pipeline running at the telescope, but it can work also as a standalone offline DRS without a graphical interface, which allows to reduce the ramp-processed raw files available in the TNG archive. GOFIO processes all the calibration and scientific images, observed both in the nodding and stare mode. The reduction process includes bad pixel and cosmic removal, flat-field and blaze correction, optimal extraction, wavelength calibration with U-Ne lamps, nodding or stare group processing. A logfile of the whole reduction process is created and stored in the reduction directory. In the offline mode, the reduction process can be completely customized, but it is suggested to use only the command line options, unless having a great familiarity with the instrument and its settings

GAPS: F6 mask for the HARPS-N pipeline

This document will present the new mask created to be used with the HARPS-N reduction pipeline. Four new masks were created for the F6V star Tau Bootis, two of them derived from the G2 mask, following the work done by R. Gratton for HIP11952, and other two created using theoretical line lists. They were subsequently tested in YABI, and the best one was selected and permanently add to the YABI workflow

Report on the second run of the ESO LP 185.D-0056 ([email protected])

The ESO Large Programme 185.D-0056 ([email protected]) continued with the second run. The log of the observations performed in December 2010 and January 2011, a tip on the preparation of the Observing Blocks, and the situation of the publications are given

SpaceInn Work Package 3.3 Accompanying report on the deliverables D3.8 due for April 30: reduced HARPS spectra with indicators

In the framework of the SpaceInn project, the ground-based CoRoT complementary archive (Work Package 3.3) will contain 7103 spectra of the 261 stars observed with the HARPS spectrograph, mostly as complementary observations to the photometric light curves of many of the asteroseismological targets of the CoRoT satellite. A certain number of the archived spectra pertain to other, non-CoRoT targets: these objects were observed in order to better characterize the variability classes of the CoRoT targets. Our tasks until now have been the following: • the spectra have been reduced, normalized, and converted in VO-compliant fits files; • the mean line profile has been computed for each spectrum; • the radial velocity, vsin i, a binarity flag, a CaHK activity index, and an Hα emission index have been computed for each spectrum. In the case of double or multiple systems, the radial velocities and vsin i have been computed, if possible, for all the components; • the physical parameters Teff , log g, and [Fe/H] have been computed for each target

SpaceInn Work Package 3.3 Accompanying report on the deliverables D3.10 due for 2016 June 30: interface query

The archive Spectroscopic Indicators in a SeisMic Archive (SISMA) has been successfully created in the framework of the SpaceInn project (Work Package 3.3). SISMA contains both HARPS spectra and CoRoT light curves of 71 CoRoT asteroseismic targets, and additional HARPS spectra of other 190 variable stars observed in order to better characterize the variability classes of the CoRoT targets. In total there are 7103 spectra and 90 light curves (some CoRoT targets were observed in more than one run). The spectra were collected during two Large Programmes (LP 182.D-0356 and LP 185.D-0056) spanning over nine semesters, from December 2008 to January 2013. After the work already done, and detailed in the reports D3.8 and D3.9, we now have finalized the archive, and built and user-friendly interface. As a result, the SISMA archive is now online and running

The spectroscopic observations of CoRoT asteroseismic targets with HARPS

CoRoT photometric measurements of asteroseismic targets need complementary ground-based spectroscopic observations. We are using the planet-hunter HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6m-ESO telescope in the framework of two consecutive Large Programmes. We discuss its use to study line-profile variations and we report on a specific result obtained for the Delta Sct star HD 170699.Comment: Proceedings of the 20th Stellar Pulsation Conference Series: "Impact of new instrumentation & new insights in stellar pulsations", 5-9 September 2011, Granada, Spai