On the Inclination and Habitability of the HD 10180 System

There are numerous multi-planet systems that have now been detected via a variety of techniques. These systems exhibit a range of both planetary properties and orbital configurations. For those systems without detected planetary transits, a significant unknown factor is the orbital inclination. This produces an uncertainty in the mass of the planets and their related properties, such as atmospheric scale height. Here we investigate the HD~10180 system which was discovered using the radial velocity technique. We provide a new orbital solution for the system which allows for eccentric orbits for all planets. We show how the inclination of the system affects the mass/radius properties of the planets and how the detection of phase signatures may resolve the inclination ambiguity. We finally evaluate the Habitable Zone properties of the system and show that the g planet spends 100\% of an eccentric orbit within the Habitable Zone.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Phase Curves of the Kepler-11 Multi-Planet System

The Kepler mission has allowed the detection of numerous multi-planet exosystems where the planetary orbits are relatively compact. The first such system detected was Kepler-11 which has six known planets at the present time. These kinds of systems offer unique opportunities to study constraints on planetary albedos by taking advantage of both the precision timing and photometry provided by Kepler data to monitor possible phase variations. Here we present a case study of the Kepler-11 system in which we investigate the phase modulation of the system as the planets orbit the host star. We provide predictions of maximum phase modulation where the planets are simultaneously close to superior conjunction. We use corrected Kepler data for Q1-Q17 to determine the significance of these phase peaks. We find that data quarters where maximum phase peaks occur are better fit by a phase model than a "null hypothesis" model.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap