53 research outputs found
Spectroscopic Transit Search: a self-calibrating method for detecting planets around bright stars
We search for transiting exoplanets around the star Pictoris using
high resolution spectroscopy and Doppler imaging that removes the need for
standard star observations. These data were obtained on the VLT with UVES
during the course of an observing campaign throughout 2017 that monitored the
Hill sphere transit of the exoplanet Pictoris b. We utilize line
profile tomography as a method for the discovery of transiting exoplanets. By
measuring the exoplanet distortion of the stellar line profile, we remove the
need for reference star measurements. We demonstrate the method with white
noise simulations, and then look at the case of Pictoris, which is a
Scuti pulsator. We describe a method to remove the stellar pulsations
and perform a search for any transiting exoplanets in the resultant data set.
We inject fake planet transits with varying orbital periods and planet radii
into the spectra and determine the recovery fraction. In the photon noise
limited case we can recover planets down to a Neptune radius with an 80%
success rate, using an 8 m telescope with a spectrograph and 20
minutes of observations per night. The pulsations of Pictoris limit our
sensitivity to Jupiter-sized planets, but a pulsation removal algorithm
improves this limit to Saturn-sized planets. We present two planet candidates,
but argue that their signals are most likely caused by other phenomena. We have
demonstrated a method for searching for transiting exoplanets that (i) does not
require ancillary calibration observations, (ii) can work on any star whose
rotational broadening can be resolved with a high spectral dispersion
spectrograph and (iii) provides the lowest limits so far on the radii of
transiting Jupiter-sized exoplanets around Pictoris with orbital
periods from 15 days to 200 days with >50% coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 8 pages, 8 figures. The Github
repository can be found at
https://github.com/lennartvansluijs/Spectroscopic-Transit-Searc
HATNet Field G205: Follow-Up Observations of 28 Transiting-Planet candidates and Confirmation of the Planet HAT-P-8b
We report the identification of 32 transiting-planet candidates in HATNet
field G205. We describe the procedures that we have used to follow up these
candidates with spectroscopic and photometric observations, and we present a
status report on our interpretation of the 28 candidates for which we have
follow-up observations. Eight are eclipsing binaries with orbital solutions
whose periods are consistent with their photometric ephemerides; two of these
spectroscopic orbits are singled-lined and six are double-lined. For one of the
candidates, a nearby but fainter eclipsing binary proved to be the source for
the HATNet light curve, due to blending in the HATNet images. Four of the
candidates were found to be rotating more rapidly than vsini = 50 km/s and were
not pursued further. Thirteen of the candidates showed no significant velocity
variation at the level of 0.5 to 1.0 km/s . Seven of these were eventually
withdrawn as photometric false alarms based on an independent reanalysis using
more sophisticated tools. Of the remaining six, one was put aside because a
close visual companion proved to be a spectroscopic binary, and two were not
followed up because the host stars were judged to be too large. Two of the
remaining candidates are members of a visual binary, one of which was
previously confirmed as the first HATNet transiting planet, HAT-P-1b. In this
paper we confirm that the last of this set of candidates is also a a transiting
planet, which we designate HAT-P-8b, with mass Mp = 1.52 +/- 0.18/0.16 Mjup,
radius Rp = 1.50 +/- 0.08/0.06 Rjup, and photometric period P = 3.076320 +/-
0.000004 days. HAT-P-8b has an inflated radius for its mass, and a large mass
for its period. The host star is a solar-metallicity F dwarf, with mass M* =
1.28 +/- 0.04 Msun and Rp = 1.58 +/- 0.08/0.06 Rsun.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 13 table
Refined stellar, orbital and planetary parameters of the eccentric HAT-P-2 planetary system
We present refined parameters for the extrasolar planetary system HAT-P-2
(also known as HD 147506), based on new radial velocity and photometric data.
HAT-P-2b is a transiting extrasolar planet that exhibits an eccentric orbit. We
present a detailed analysis of the planetary and stellar parameters, yielding
consistent results for the mass and radius of the star, better constraints on
the orbital eccentricity, and refined planetary parameters. The improved
parameters for the host star are M_star = 1.36 +/- 0.04 M_sun and R_star = 1.64
+/- 0.08 R_sun, while the planet has a mass of M_p = 9.09 +/- 0.24 M_Jup and
radius of R_p = 1.16 +/- 0.08 R_Jup. The refined transit epoch and period for
the planet are E = 2,454,387.49375 +/- 0.00074 (BJD) and P = 5.6334729 +/-
0.0000061 (days), and the orbital eccentricity and argument of periastron are e
= 0.5171 +/- 0.0033 and omega = 185.22 +/- 0.95 degrees. These orbital elements
allow us to predict the timings of secondary eclipses with a reasonable
accuracy of ~15 minutes. We also discuss the effects of this significant
eccentricity including the characterization of the asymmetry in the transit
light curve. Simple formulae are presented for the above, and these, in turn,
can be used to constrain the orbital eccentricity using purely photometric
data. These will be particularly useful for very high precision, space-borne
observations of transiting planets.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 6
figure
astroplan: An Open Source Observation Planning Package in Python
We present astroplan - an open source, open development, Astropy affiliated package for ground-based observation planning and scheduling in Python. astroplan is designed to provide efficient access to common observational quantities such as celestial rise, set, and meridian transit times and simple transformations from sky coordinates to altitude-azimuth coordinates without requiring a detailed understanding of astropy's implementation of coordinate systems. astroplan provides convenience functions to generate common observational plots such as airmass and parallactic angle as a function of time, along with basic sky (finder) charts. Users can determine whether or not a target is observable given a variety of observing constraints, such as airmass limits, time ranges, Moon illumination/separation ranges, and more. A selection of observation schedulers are included which divide observing time among a list of targets, given observing constraints on those targets. Contributions to the source code from the community are welcome
Discovery and characterisation of detached M-dwarf eclipsing binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey
We report the discovery of 16 detached M-dwarf eclipsing binaries with J<16
mag and provide a detailed characterisation of three of them, using
high-precision infrared light curves from the WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS). Such
systems provide the most accurate and model-independent method for measuring
the fundamental parameters of these poorly understood yet numerous stars, which
currently lack sufficient observations to precisely calibrate stellar evolution
models. We fully solve for the masses and radii of three of the systems,
finding orbital periods in the range 1.5<P<4.9 days, with masses spanning
0.35-0.50 Msun and radii between 0.38-0.50 Rsun, with uncertainties of
~3.5-6.4% in mass and ~2.7-5.5% in radius. Close-companions in short-period
binaries are expected to be tidally-locked into fast rotational velocities,
resulting in high levels of magnetic activity. This is predicted to inflate
their radii by inhibiting convective flow and increasing star spot coverage.
The radii of the WTS systems are inflated above model predictions by ~3-12%, in
agreement with the observed trend, despite an expected lower systematic
contribution from star spots signals at infrared wavelengths. We searched for
correlation between the orbital period and radius inflation by combining our
results with all existing M-dwarf radius measurements of comparable precision,
but we found no statistically significant evidence for a decrease in radius
inflation for longer period, less active systems. Radius inflation continues to
exists in non-synchronised systems indicating that the problem remains even for
very low activity M-dwarfs. Resolving this issue is vital not only for
understanding the most populous stars in the Universe, but also for
characterising their planetary companions, which hold the best prospects for
finding Earth-like planets in the traditional habitable zone.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures, 16 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Gammapy: A Python package for gamma-ray astronomy
In this article, we present Gammapy, an open-source Python package for the
analysis of astronomical -ray data, and illustrate the functionalities
of its first long-term-support release, version 1.0. Built on the modern Python
scientific ecosystem, Gammapy provides a uniform platform for reducing and
modeling data from different -ray instruments for many analysis
scenarios. Gammapy complies with several well-established data conventions in
high-energy astrophysics, providing serialized data products that are
interoperable with other software packages. Starting from event lists and
instrument response functions, Gammapy provides functionalities to reduce these
data by binning them in energy and sky coordinates. Several techniques for
background estimation are implemented in the package to handle the residual
hadronic background affecting -ray instruments. After the data are
binned, the flux and morphology of one or more -ray sources can be
estimated using Poisson maximum likelihood fitting and assuming a variety of
spectral, temporal, and spatial models. Estimation of flux points, likelihood
profiles, and light curves is also supported. After describing the structure of
the package, we show, using publicly available -ray data, the
capabilities of Gammapy in multiple traditional and novel -ray analysis
scenarios, such as spectral and spectro-morphological modeling and estimations
of a spectral energy distribution and a light curve. Its flexibility and power
are displayed in a final multi-instrument example, where datasets from
different instruments, at different stages of data reduction, are
simultaneously fitted with an astrophysical flux model.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure
Early Ultraviolet Observations of Type IIn Supernovae Constrain the Asphericity of Their Circumstellar Material
We present a survey of the early evolution of 12 Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) at ultraviolet and visible light wavelengths. We use this survey to constrain the geometry of the circumstellar material (CSM) surrounding SN IIn explosions, which may shed light on their progenitor diversity. In order to distinguish between aspherical and spherical CSM, we estimate the blackbody radius temporal evolution of the SNe IIn of our sample, following the method introduced by Soumagnac et al. We find that higher-luminosity objects tend to show evidence for aspherical CSM. Depending on whether this correlation is due to physical reasons or to some selection bias, we derive a lower limit between 35% and 66% for the fraction of SNe IIn showing evidence for aspherical CSM. This result suggests that asphericity of the CSM surrounding SNe IIn is common—consistent with data from resolved images of stars undergoing considerable mass loss. It should be taken into account for more realistic modeling of these events
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