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

    • Rotationally resolved spectroscopy of (20000) Varuna in the near-infrared
      Context. Models of the escape and retention of volatiles by minor icy objects exclude any presence of volatile ices on the surface of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) smaller than ~1000 km in diameter at the typical temperature in this region of the solar system, whereas the same models show that water ice is stable on the surface of objects over a
      Emery, J. P. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2014
      Citations
      8
    • Simultaneous optical and near-infrared linear spectropolarimetry of the earthshine
      Aims: We aim to extend our current observational understanding of the integrated planet Earth spectropolarimetry from the optical to the near-infrared wavelengths. Major biomarkers like O2 and water vapor are strong flux absorbents in the Earth's atmosphere, and some linear polarization of the reflected stellar light is expected to occur at these
      Pallé, E. et al.

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      2
      2014
      Citations
      20
    • Intermittent Dust Mass Loss from Activated Asteroid P/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS)
      We present observations and models of the dust environment of activated asteroid P/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS). The object displayed a complex morphology during the observations, with the presence of multiple tails. We combined our own observations, all made with instrumentation attached to the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma, with previously
      Pozuelos, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2014
      Citations
      20
    • Observational results for eight long-period comets observed far from the Sun
      Context. With this work we start a systematic analysis of the distant activity of several long-period comets in order to investigate the evolution of activity throughout the solar system and explore differences between comets that pass their perihelion at far or very close distances from the Sun. Aims: We present observational data for eight long
      Dall'Ora, M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2014
      Citations
      20
    • Thermophysical properties of near-Earth asteroid (341843) 2008 EV5 from WISE data
      Aims: We derive the thermal inertia of 2008 EV5, the baseline target for the Marco Polo-R mission proposal, and infer information about the size of the particles on its surface. Methods: Values of thermal inertia were obtained by fitting an asteroid thermophysical model to NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) infrared data. Grain size
      Delbo, M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2014
      Citations
      31
    • Characterizing the Purple Earth: Modeling the Globally Integrated Spectral Variability of the Archean Earth
      Ongoing searches for exoplanetary systems have revealed a wealth of planets with diverse physical properties. Planets even smaller than the Earth have already been detected and the efforts of future missions are aimed at the discovery, and perhaps characterization, of small rocky exoplanets within the habitable zone of their stars. Clearly, what we
      Montañés-Rodríguez, P. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2014
      Citations
      18
    • A deep WISE search for very late type objects and the discovery of two halo/thick-disc T dwarfs: WISE 0013+0634 and WISE 0833+0052
      A method is defined for identifying late-T and Y dwarfs in WISE down to low values of signal-to-noise. This requires a WISE detection only in the W2-band and uses the statistical properties of the WISE multiframe measurements and profile fit photometry to reject contamination resulting from non-point-like objects, variables and moving sources. To
      Lucas, P. W. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2014
      Citations
      36
    • Uncovering the Deeply Embedded Active Galactic Nucleus Activity in the Nuclear Regions of the Interacting Galaxy Arp 299
      We present mid-infrared (MIR) 8-13 μm spectroscopy of the nuclear regions of the interacting galaxy Arp 299 (IC 694+NGC 3690) obtained with CanariCam (CC) on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). The high angular resolution (~0.''3-0.''6) of the data allows us to probe nuclear physical scales between 60 and 120 pc, which is a factor of 10
      Alonso-Herrero, A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2013
      Citations
      27
    • Does the diurnal temperature range respond to changes in the cosmic ray flux?}
      Recent studies have suggested that measurements of the diurnal temperature range (DTR) over Europe may provide evidence of a long-hypothesized link between the cosmic ray (CR) flux and cloud cover. Such propositions are interesting, as previous investigations of CR–cloud links are limited by data issues including long-term reliability and view
      Laken, B. A et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2013
    • Composite analysis with Monte Carlo methods: an example with cosmic rays and clouds
      The composite (superposed epoch) analysis technique has been frequently employed to examine a hypothesized link between solar activity and the Earth's atmosphere, often through an investigation of Forbush decrease (Fd) events (sudden high-magnitude decreases in the flux cosmic rays impinging on the upper-atmosphere lasting up to several days). This
      Laken, B. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      9
      2013
      Citations
      40
    • Earthshine observations at high spectral resolution: exploring and detecting metal lines in the Earth's upper atmosphere
      Observations of the Earth as a planet using the earthshine technique (i.e. looking at the light reflected from the dark side of the Moon) have been used for climate and astrobiology studies. They provide information about the planetary albedo, a fundamental parameter of the Earth's energy balance. Here we present, for the first time, observations
      González-Merino, B. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2013
      Citations
      4
    • Kepler-77b: a very low albedo, Saturn-mass transiting planet around a metal-rich solar-like star⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆
      We report the discovery of Kepler-77b (alias KOI-127.01), a Saturn-mass transiting planet in a 3.6-day orbit around a metal-rich solar-like star. We combined the publicly available Kepler photometry (quarters 1-13) with high-resolution spectroscopy from the Sandiford at McDonald and FIES at NOT spectrographs. We derived the system parameters via a
      Gandolfi, D. et al.

      Advertised on:

      9
      2013
      Citations
      41
    • High angular resolution imaging and infrared spectroscopy of CoRoT candidates
      Context. Studies of transiting extrasolar planets are of key importance for understanding the nature of planets outside our solar system because their masses, diameters, and bulk densities can be measured. An important part of transit-search programmes is the removal of false-positives. In the case of the CoRoT space mission, the majority of the
      Guenther, E. W. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2013
      Citations
      13
    • Linear polarization of rapidly rotating ultracool dwarfs
      Aims: We aim to study the near-infrared linear polarization signal of rapidly rotating ultracool dwarfs with spectral types ranging from M7 through T2 and projected rotational velocities of v sin i ≳ 30 km s-1. These dwarfs are believed to have dusty atmospheres and oblate shapes, which is an appropriate scenario to produce measurable linear
      Miles-Páez, P. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2013
      Citations
      26
    • TraMoS project - III. Improved physical parameters, timing analysis and starspot modelling of the WASP-4b exoplanet system from 38 transit observations
      We report 12 new transit observations of the exoplanet WASP-4b from the Transit Monitoring in the South (TraMoS) project. These transits are combined with all previously published transit data for this planet to provide an improved radius measurement of Rp = 1.395 ± 0.022Rjup and improved transit ephemerides. In a new homogeneous analysis in search
      Hoyer, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      9
      2013
      Citations
      26
    • Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XXIV. CoRoT-25b and CoRoT-26b: two low-density giant planets
      We report the discovery of two transiting exoplanets, CoRoT-25b and CoRoT-26b, both of low density, one of which is in the Saturn mass-regime. For each star, ground-based complementary observations through optical photometry and radial velocity measurements secured the planetary nature of the transiting body and allowed us to fully characterize
      Almenara, J. M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2013
      Citations
      15
    • A sensitivity analysis of the WFCAM Transit Survey for short-period giant planets around M dwarfs
      The WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS) is a near-infrared transit survey running on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), designed to discover planets around M dwarfs. The WTS acts as a poor-seeing backup programme for the telescope, and represents the first dedicated wide-field near-infrared transit survey. Observations began in 2007 gathering J
      Kovács, Gábor et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2013
      Citations
      16
    • Two Super-Earths Orbiting the Solar Analog HD 41248 on the Edge of a 7:5 Mean Motion Resonance
      There are a growing number of multi-planet systems known to be orbiting their host stars with orbital periods that place them in mean motion resonances (MMRs). These systems are generally in first-order resonances and dynamical studies have focused their efforts on understanding the origin and evolution of such dynamically resonant
      Jenkins, J. S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2013
      Citations
      29
    • Searching for planetary transits around M dwarfs with telescope networks
      As of today, hundreds of extrasolar planets have been discoverd, and thousands of candidates are waiting for confirmation. Although we already have discovered dozens of the least massive planets (the so called super-Earths), only a few have been found to be orbiting low mass stars, and only one that actually transist a bright M star. Here, we
      Palle, E. et al.

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      4
      2013
      Citations
      0
    • CoRoT 101186644: A transiting low-mass dense M-dwarf on an eccentric 20.7-day period orbit around a late F-star. Discovered in the CoRoT lightcurves
      We present the study of the CoRoT transiting planet candidate 101186644, also named LRc01_E1_4780. Analysis of the CoRoT lightcurve and the HARPS spectroscopic follow-up observations of this faint (mV = 16) candidate revealed an eclipsing binary composed of a late F-type primary (Teff = 6090 ± 200 K) and a low-mass, dense late M-dwarf secondary on
      Tal-Or, L. et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2013
      Citations
      26

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