The CoRoT Exoplanet program : status & results

The CoRoT satellite is the first instrument hunting for planets from space. We will review the status of the CoRoT/Exoplanet program. We will then present the CoRoT exoplanetary systems and how they widen the range of properties of the close-in population and contribute to our understanding of the properties of planets.Comment: 10 pages, Proceeding of Haute Provence Observatory Colloquium (23-27 August 2010

CoRoT: harvest of the exoplanet program

One of the objectives of the CoRoT mission is the search for transiting extrasolar planets using high-precision photometry, and the accurate characterization of their fundamental parameters. The CoRoT satellite consecutively observes crowded stellar fields since February 2007, in high-cadence precise photometry; periodic eclipses are detected and analysed in the stellar light curves. Then complementary observations using ground-based facilities allows establishing the nature of the transiting body and its mass. CoRoT has acquired more than 163,000 light curves and detected about 500 planet candidates. A fraction of them (5%) are confirmed planets whose masses are independently measured. Main highlights of the CoRoT discoveries are: i) the variety of internal structures in close-in giant planets, ii) the characterisation of the first known transiting rocky planet, CoRoT-7 b, iii) multiple constraints on the formation, evolution, role of tides in planetary systems.Comment: Icarus, in press, special issue on Exoplanet