Start year
2013
Organizational Unit
Organizing institutions
Grants related:
General
Description
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable information about its physical properties, but also allowing to constrain the properties of the Solar system's planets within a more global context. The field is approaching to the important discovery of the first potentially habitable planets and encouraging more detailed studies of them. With the launching of upcoming related satellites like JWST, CHEOPS, TESS, ARIEL and PLATO, the exoplanets field faces a bright future.
It is for this reason that this field is aid of, and at the same time promotes, the development of increasingly sensitive and stable instrumentation for both, ground-based telescopes and space missions. Our group is particularly prepared for these two fronts. On the one hand, during the last years we have developed observational and reduction techniques of exoplanet transits data for the ORM telescopes, ours being one of the most productive groups in the exploitation of GTC. On the other hand, all ESA space missions (present and future) related to exoplanets have one or more components of the project as CoIs. Within the frame of this project, we intend that IAC researchers maintain an advantageous position regarding the operation of OSIRIS and CanariCam, first light
GTC's instruments, and participate in the construction, commissioning and operation of new instruments such as the high resolution optical spectrograph HORUS at GTC. The exploitation of the photometry and spectroscopy of transits with LIRIS at WHT is also one of our principal interests, especially in preparation for the installation in 2015 of EMIR on the GTC .
To summarize, the project "Exoplanets and Astrobiology" will focus on these four action lines:
1) The characterization of atmospheric and physical properties of exoplanets (GTC, WHT, ARIEL, HARPSN, CARMENES, ESPRESSO, etc. ..)
2) The search and confirmation of exoplanets by transits techniques (CoRoT, Kepler, K2, CHEOPS, XO, LCOGT, W FC, DISH, etc. ..)
3) The search and confirmation of exoplanet by radial velocity techniques (HARPSN, HORUS, LCOGT, SONG, CARMENES)
4) Astrobiology
Members
Principal investigator
Enric
Pallé Bago
Project staff
Hans Jörg
Deeg Deeg
Nicolas Cédric
Lodieu
Javier Andrés
Licandro Goldaracena
Víctor Javier
Sánchez Bejar
Juan Antonio
Belmonte Avilés
Roi
Alonso Sobrino
Grzegorz
Nowak
Patricia
Chinchilla Gallego
A. L. Cabrera Lavers
Felipe Andrés
Murgas Alcaino
Hannu
Parviainen
Collaborators
Dr.
Paulo Miles Paez
Dr.
Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio
Dr.
M. Mas Hesse
Dr.
M. Deleuil
Dr.
D. Gandolfi
Dr.
M. Fridlund
Dr.
L. Doyle
Dr.
H. Rauer
Dr.
J. Cabrera
Dr.
Sz. Csizmadia
Dr.
D. Pollacco
Dr.
A. Hatzes
Dr.
T. Mazeh
Dr.
T. Boyajian
Dr.
B. Tingley
Dr.
D. Martin
Dr.
A Triaud
Dr.
D. Fabrycky
Antonio Cabrera Lavers
Results
- Detection of He in the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the ground, published in Science
- Detection of a super-earth around Barnard star, published in Nature
- Detection of the first TESS planets, with several papers of high relevance
- Discovery of Na and Halpha features in the spectrum of KELT-20b with TNG
- Publication of the Handbook of Exoplanets, the most extensive work of reference in the field of exoplanets. The Handbook was edited by members of our group, and includes contributions by about 300 experts worldwide, including 12 members of IAC.
Scientific activity
Related publications
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TESS's first planet. A super-Earth transiting the naked-eye star π MensaeWe report on the confirmation and mass determination of π Men c, the first transiting planet discovered by NASA's TESS space mission. π Men is a naked-eye (V = 5.65 mag), quiet G0 V star that was previously known to host a sub-stellar companion (π Men b) on a longperiod (Porb = 2091 days), eccentric (e = 0.64) orbit. Using TESS time-seriesGandolfi, D. et al.
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112018 -
A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIELThousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbitalTinetti, Giovanna et al.
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112018 -
A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard's starBarnard's star is a red dwarf, and has the largest proper motion (apparent motion across the sky) of all known stars. At a distance of 1.8 parsecs1, it is the closest single star to the Sun; only the three stars in the α Centauri system are closer. Barnard's star is also among the least magnetically active red dwarfs known2,3 and has an estimatedRibas, I. et al.
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112018 -
TESS Discovery of a Transiting Super-Earth in the pi Mensae SystemWe report the detection of a transiting planet around π Men (HD 39091), using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The solar-type host star is unusually bright (V = 5.7) and was already known to host a Jovian planet on a highly eccentric, 5.7 yr orbit. The newly discovered planet has a size of 2.04 ± 0.05 R ⊕ and an orbitalHuang, Chelsea X. et al.
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122018 -
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Nine new double-line spectroscopic binary starsContext. The CARMENES spectrograph is surveying ˜300 M dwarf stars in search for exoplanets. Among the target stars, spectroscopic binary systems have been discovered, which can be used to measure fundamental properties of stars. Aims: Using spectroscopic observations, we determine the orbital and physical properties of nine new double-lineBaroch, D. et al.
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112018 -
First light with HiPERCAM on the GTCHiPERCAM is a quintuple-beam imager that saw first light on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in October 2017 and on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in February 2018. The instrument uses re- imaging optics and 4 dichroic beamsplitters to record ugriz (300-1000 nm) images simultaneously on its five CCD cameras. The detectors inDhillon, Vik et al.
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72018 -
CARMENES: high-resolution spectra and precise radial velocities in the red and infraredThe design and construction of CARMENES has been presented at previous SPIE conferences. It is a next-generation radial-velocity instrument at the 3.5m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory, which was built by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. CARMENES consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelengthQuirrenbach, A. et al.
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72018 -
ELT-HIRES, the high resolution spectrograph for the ELT: results from the Phase A studyWe present the results from the phase A study of ELT-HIRES, an optical-infrared High Resolution Spectrograph for ELT, which has just been completed by a consortium of 30 institutes from 12 countries forming a team of about 200 scientists and engineers. The top science cases of ELT-HIRES will be the detection of life signatures from exoplanetMarconi, A. et al.
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72018 -
Spitzer's Search for Proxima Centauri b TransitsProxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun, hosts a habitable-zone planet (Anglada-Escude' et al. 2016 Nature 536, 437). Several teams have sought Proxima b's transits using ground-based photometry, and have reported tentative transit detections (Liu et al. 2018 AJ 155, 12; Blank et al. 2018 AJ 155, 228; others). Proxima, a modest-sized M-dwarfHarrington, Joseph et al.
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102018 -
Super-Earth of 8 M⊕ in a 2.2-day orbit around the K5V star K2-216Context. Although thousands of exoplanets have been discovered to date, far fewer have been fully characterised, in particular super-Earths. The KESPRINT consortium identified K2-216 as a planetary candidate host star in the K2 space mission Campaign 8 field with a transiting super-Earth. The planet has recently been validated as well. Aims: OurPersson, C. M. et al.
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102018 -
Kepler Object of Interest Network. II. Photodynamical modelling of Kepler-9 over 8 years of transit observationsContext. The Kepler Object of Interest Network (KOINet) is a multi-site network of telescopes around the globe organised to follow up transiting planet-candidate Kepler objects of interest (KOIs) with large transit timing variations (TTVs). Its main goal is to complete their TTV curves, as the Kepler telescope no longer observes the original KeplerFreudenthal, J. et al.
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102018 -
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. A Neptune-mass planet traversing the habitable zone around HD 180617Despite their activity, low-mass stars are of particular importance for the search of exoplanets by the means of Doppler spectroscopy, as planets with lower masses become detectable. We report on the discovery of a planetary companion around HD 180617, a bright (J = 5.58 mag), low-mass (M = 0.45M⊙) star of spectral type M2.5 V. The star, located atKaminski, A. et al.
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102018 -
Mass determination of the 1:3:5 near-resonant planets transiting GJ 9827 (K2-135)Context. Multiplanet systems are excellent laboratories to test planet formation models as all planets are formed under the same initial conditions. In this context, systems transiting bright stars can play a key role, since planetary masses, radii, and bulk densities can be measured. Aims: GJ 9827 (K2-135) has recently been found to host a tightlyPrieto-Arranz, J. et al.
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102018 -
Radial velocity follow-up of GJ1132 with HARPS. A precise mass for planet b and the discovery of a second planetThe source GJ1132 is a nearby red dwarf known to host a transiting Earth-size planet. After its initial detection, we pursued an intense follow-up with the HARPS velocimeter. We now confirm the detection of GJ1132b with radial velocities alone. We refined its orbital parameters, and in particular, its mass (mb = 1.66 ± 0.23 M⊕), density (ρb = 6.3 ±Bonfils, X. et al.
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102018 -
Aerosols and Water Ice in Jupiter’s Stratosphere from UV-NIR Ground-based ObservationsJupiter’s atmosphere has been sounded in transmission from the UV to the IR, as if it were a transiting exoplanet, by observing Ganymede while passing through Jupiter’s shadow. The spectra show strong extinction due to the presence of aerosols and haze in Jupiter’s atmosphere and strong absorption features of methane. Here, we report a new detailedLópez-Puertas, Manuel et al.
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102018 -
A Large Ground-based Observing Campaign of the Disintegrating Planet K2-22bWe present 45 ground-based photometric observations of the K2-22 system collected between 2016 December and 2017 May, which we use to investigate the evolution of the transit of the disintegrating planet K2-22b. Last observed in early 2015, in these new observations we recover the transit at multiple epochs and measure a typical depth ofColón, Knicole D. et al.
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The Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program for JWSTThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presents the opportunity to transform our understanding of planets and the origins of life by revealing the atmospheric compositions, structures, and dynamics of transiting exoplanets in unprecedented detail. However, the high-precision, timeseries observations required for such investigations have uniqueBean, Jacob L. et al.
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A Framework for Prioritizing the TESS Planetary Candidates Most Amenable to Atmospheric CharacterizationA key legacy of the recently launched the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission will be to provide the astronomical community with many of the best transiting exoplanet targets for atmospheric characterization. However, time is of the essence to take full advantage of this opportunity. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), althoughKempton, E. M.-R. et al.
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112018 -
SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfsWe present here SPECULOOS, a new exoplanet transit search based on a network of 1m-class robotic telescopes targeting the 1200 ultracool (spectral type M7 and later) dwarfs bright enough in the infrared (K-magDelrez, Laetitia et al.
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72018 -
The 1989 and 2015 outbursts of V404 Cygni: a global study of wind-related optical featuresThe black hole transient V404 Cygni exhibited a bright outburst in June 2015 that was intensively followed over a wide range of wavelengths. Our team obtained high time resolution optical spectroscopy (! ˜ ! 90 s), which included a detailed coverage of the most active phase of the event. We present a data base consisting of 651 optical spectraMata Sánchez, D. et al.
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122018
![Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_square_2_2_to_320px/public/images/project/imagen_web.jpg?itok=fsBmV9CO "Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).")
