Exoplanets and Astrobiology

    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

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    1. Detection of He in the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the ground, published in Science
    2. Detection of a super-earth around Barnard star, published in Nature
    3. Detection of the first TESS planets, with several papers of high relevance
    4. Discovery of Na and Halpha features in the spectrum of KELT-20b with TNG
    5. 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.

    Related publications

    • Ground-based search for lightning in Jupiter with GTC/OSIRIS fast photometry and tunable filters
      Context. Lightning flashes in Jupiter have been observed by spacecraft orbiting the planet, but so far, they have escaped optical detection from Earth. However, theoretical estimations suggest that these flashes may be detectable by a large telescope if they can be distinguished from the much more intense background of reflected sunlight from the
      Luque, A. et al.

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      5
      2015
      Citations
      6
    • Discovery of a Young Planetary Mass Companion to the Nearby M Dwarf VHS J125601.92-125723.9
      In a search for common proper motion companions using the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and the 2MASS catalogs we have identified a very red (J-{{K}s}=2.47 mag) late-L dwarf companion of a previously unrecognized M dwarf VHS J125601.92-125723.9 (hereafter VHS 1256-1257), located at a projected angular separation of 8.″ 06 ± 0.″ 03. In this work we
      Gauza, B. et al.

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      5
      2015
      Citations
      127
    • Transits and starspots in the WASP-6 planetary system
      We present updates to PRISM, a photometric transit-starspot model, and GEMC, a hybrid optimization code combining MCMC and a genetic algorithm. We then present high-precision photometry of four transits in the WASP-6 planetary system, two of which contain a starspot anomaly. All four transits were modelled using PRISM and GEMC, and the physical
      Tregloan-Reed, J. et al.

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      6
      2015
      Citations
      54
    • Discovery of Two New Thermally Bloated Low-Mass White Dwarfs Among the Kepler Binaries
      We report the discovery of two new low-mass, thermally bloated, hot white dwarfs among the Kepler sample of eclipsing binaries. These are KIC 9164561 and KIC 10727668 with orbital periods of 1.2670 and 2.3058 days, respectively. The current primary in both systems is an A star of about 2 {{M}ȯ }. This brings the number of similar binaries among the
      Rappaport, S. et al.

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      4
      2015
      Citations
      50
    • Liverpool telescope 2: a new robotic facility for rapid transient follow-up
      The Liverpool Telescope is one of the world's premier facilities for time domain astronomy. The time domain landscape is set to radically change in the coming decade, with synoptic all-sky surveys such as LSST providing huge numbers of transient detections on a nightly basis; transient detections across the electromagnetic spectrum from other major
      Copperwheat, C. M. et al.

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      3
      2015
      Citations
      13
    • Three Red Giants With Substellar-Mass Companions
      We present three giant stars from the ongoing Penn State–Toruń Planet Search with the Hobby–Eberly Telescope, which exhibit radial velocity (RV) variations that point to the presence of planetary-mass companions around them. BD+49 828 is a M=1.52+/- 0.22 {{M}ȯ } K0 giant with a m sin i=1.6-0.2+0.4 {{M}J} minimum mass companion in a = 4.2+0.32‑0.2
      Niedzielski, A. et al.

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      4
      2015
      Citations
      19
    • Kepler-423b: a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting a very old solar-like star
      We report the spectroscopic confirmation of the Kepler object of interest KOI-183.01 (Kepler-423b), a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting an old solar-like star every 2.7 days. Our analysis is the first to combine the full Kepler photometry (quarters 1-17) with high-precision radial velocity measurements taken with the FIES spectrograph at the
      Gandolfi, D. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2015
      Citations
      45
    • High-resolution transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere-seeing Earth as an exoplanet using a lunar eclipse
      With the rapid developments in the exoplanet field, more and more terrestrial exoplanets are being detected. Characterizing their atmospheres using transit observations will become a key datum in the quest for detecting an Earth-like exoplanet. The atmospheric transmission spectrum of our Earth will be an ideal template for comparison with future
      Yan, F. et al.

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      4
      2015
      Citations
      28
    • Jupiter as an Exoplanet: UV to NIR Transmission Spectrum Reveals Hazes, a Na Layer, and Possibly Stratospheric H2O-ice Clouds
      Currently, the analysis of transmission spectra is the most successful technique to probe the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. However, the accuracy of these measurements is constrained by observational limitations and the diversity of possible atmospheric compositions. Here, we show the UV–VIS–IR transmission spectrum of Jupiter as
      Montañés-Rodríguez, P. et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2015
      Citations
      11
    • The centre-to-limb variations of solar Fraunhofer lines imprinted upon lunar eclipse spectra. Implications for exoplanet transit observations
      The atmospheres of exoplanets are commonly studied by observing the transit of the planet passing in front of its parent star. The obscuration of part of the stellar disk during a transit will reveal aspects of its surface structure resulting from general centre-to-limb variations (CLVs). These become apparent when forming the ratio between the
      Yan, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2015
      Citations
      31
    • Characterization of the known T-type dwarfs towards the σ Orionis cluster
      Aims: The detailed study of T-type candidate members of the young σ Orionis cluster (~3 Myr, ~352 pc, solar metallicity) is fundamental to properly assess the objects' cluster membership and their contribution to the definition of the substellar mass function. Methods: A total of three T-type candidates (S Ori 70, S Ori 73, and S Ori J053804.65
      Peña Ramírez, K. et al.

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      2
      2015
      Citations
      13
    • The HU Aqr planetary system hypothesis revisited
      We study the mid-egress eclipse timing data gathered for the cataclysmic binary HU Aquarii during the years 1993-2014. The (O-C) residuals were previously attributed to a single ˜7 Jupiter mass companion in ˜5 au orbit or to a stable two-planet system with an unconstrained outermost orbit. We present 22 new observations gathered between 2011 June
      Kubicki, D. et al.

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      4
      2015
      Citations
      36
    • On the GJ 436 Planetary System
      The GJ 436 system contains a transiting planet GJ 436 b which is a hot analogue of Neptune on an eccentric orbit. Recently, two additional transiting sub-Earth planets have been postulated in the literature. We observed three transits of GJ 436 b over the course of three years using two-meter class telescopes, each with a photometric precision
      Maciejewski, G. et al.

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      12
      2014
      Citations
      19
    • Kepler-432 b: a massive warm Jupiter in a 52-day eccentric orbit transiting a giant star
      We study the Kepler object Kepler-432, an evolved star ascending the red giant branch. By deriving precise radial velocities from multi-epoch high-resolution spectra of Kepler-432 taken with the CAFE spectrograph at the 2.2 m telescope of Calar Alto Observatory and the FIES spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope of Roque de Los Muchachos
      Ortiz, M. et al.

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      1
      2015
      Citations
      31
    • Tracking Advanced Planetary Systems (TAPAS) with HARPS-N . I. A multiple planetary system around the red giant star TYC 1422-614-1
      Context. Stars that have evolved off the main sequence are crucial for expanding the frontiers of knowledge on exoplanets toward higher stellar masses and for constraining star-planet interaction mechanisms. These stars have an intrinsic activity, however, which complicates the interpretation of precise radial velocity (RV) measurements, and
      Niedzielski, A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2015
      Citations
      33
    • Very low-luminosity Class I/flat outflow sources in σ Orionis
      We present an optical to submillimetre multiwavelength study of two very low-luminosity Class I/flat systems, Mayrit 1701117 and Mayrit 1082188, in the σ Orionis cluster. We performed moderate-resolution (R ˜ 1000) optical (˜0.4-0.9 μm) spectroscopy with the Cassegrain Twin Spectrograph (TWIN) spectrograph at the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope. The
      Riaz, B. et al.

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      1
      2015
      Citations
      17
    • The PLATO 1.0 mission
      PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets
      Rauer, H. et al.

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      11
      2014
      Citations
      1000
    • The EBLM project. II. A very hot, low-mass M dwarf in an eccentric and long-period, eclipsing binary system from the SuperWASP Survey
      In this paper, we derive the fundamental properties of 1SWASPJ011351.29+314909.7 (J0113+31), a metal-poor (-0.40 ± 0.04 dex), eclipsing binary in an eccentric orbit (~0.3) with an orbital period of ~14.277 d. Eclipsing M dwarfs that orbit solar-type stars (EBLMs), like J0113+31, have been identified from their light curves and follow-up
      Gómez Maqueo Chew, Y. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2014
      Citations
      37
    • Spectroscopic follow-up of L- and T-type proper-motion member candidates in the Pleiades
      We report on the near-infrared (JHK-bands) low-resolution spectroscopy and red optical (Z-band) photometry of seven proper-motion, very low-mass substellar member candidates of the Pleiades cluster with magnitudes in the interval J = 17.5-20.8 and K = 16.1-18.5 mag. Spectra were acquired for six objects with the LIRIS and NIRSPEC instruments
      Zapatero Osorio, M. R. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2014
      Citations
      18
    • Saharan mineral dust outbreaks observed over the North Atlantic island of La Palma in summertime between 1984 and 2012
      We estimate the frequency of Saharan mineral dust outbreak events observed over the North Atlantic island of La Palma based on in situ nightly atmospheric extinction measurements recorded almost continuously since 1984 by the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory. The outbreak frequency shows a well-defined seasonal
      Laken, B. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2014
      Citations
      9

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