Start year
2000
Organizational Unit
Organizing institutions
General
Description
The principal objectives of this project are: 1) to study the structure and dynamics of the solar interior, 2) to extend this study to other stars, 3) to search for extrasolar planets using photometric methods (primarily by transits of their host stars) and their characterization (using radial velocity information) and 4) the study of the planetary atmospheres.
To reach our first objective, we use Global Helioseismology (analysis of the solar oscillation eigenmodes) and Local Helioseismology (that uses travel waves). Solar seismology allows to accurately infer information about the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun,. This project covers the various necessary aspects to attain the aforementioned objectives: instrumental, observational, reduction, analysis and interpretation of data and, finally, theoretical developments of inversion techniques and development of structure and evolution models.
On the other hand, the Astroseismology aims to obtain a similar knowledge of other stars. Thanks to the huge number of stars observed by CoRoT, Kepler and TESS space missions it is possible to extract seismic global parameters of hundreds of stars; both solar type and red giants. Furthermore, the recent deployment and beginning of observations with the high precision spectrographs of the SONG (Stellar Observations Network Group) ground-based telescopes will substantially improve the characterization of the eigenmodes spectrum in bright stars.
The strategy of using planetary transits to discover new planets around other stars consists of the photometric detection of the dimming of the light of the star when one of its planets passes, or ‘transits’ in front of it. Currently this method is the preferred one for the study of small planets, not only due to its sensitivity, but also because this method allows a more detailed investigation of the planets found (e.g. Planetary atmospheres). This technique is similar to the one that is used for helio- and asteroseismology and so some of its methods are a logical extension from that. However, it is also important to develop new algorithms and observing methods for the unequivocal detection and analysis of planets and to be able to distinguish them from false alarms.
The current horizon for studies of exoplanets with space missions involves new missions, beginning with the launch of CHEOPS, followed by TESS, JWST and in 2026, PLATO. Thus, there is presently a window of opportunity for ground-based facilities, and we are pursuing observations using mainly TNG, NOT y GTC.
Members
Principal investigator
Savita
Mathur
Project staff
Juan Antonio
Belmonte Avilés
Hans Jörg
Deeg Deeg
Roi
Alonso Sobrino
Pere Lluís
Pallé Manzano
Fernando
Pérez Hernández
Teodoro
Roca Cortés
Savita
Mathur
Antonio
Jiménez Mancebo
Collaborators
Dr.
A. Eff-Darwich
Dr.
R. García
Dr.
Mads F. Anderson
Dr.
J. Christensen Dalsgaard
Dr.
F. Grundahl
Dr.
H. Kjeldsen
Dr.
Enrico Corsaro
Dr.
M. Cunha
Dr.
G. Davies
Dr.
T. Metcalfe
Dr.
T. Bedding
Dr.
D. Chou
Dr.
J. Fernández
Dr.
F. Hill
Dr.
S. Korzennik
Dr.
M. Deleuil
Dr.
D. Gandolfi
Dr.
M. Fridlund
Dr.
L. Doyle
Dr.
H. Rauer
Dr.
V. Kozhevnikov
Dr.
A. Hatzes
Dr.
T. Mazeh
Dr.
D. Queloz
Dr.
J. Ballot
Dr.
O. Creevey
Dr.
T. Boyajian
Results
Milestones
- Members of the team (P. G. Beck, H. Deeg, S. Mathur, F. H. Perez, C. Regulo) were involved in the discovery and characterization of a warm Saturn transiting a slightly evolved solar-like star (HD 89345) observed with the NASA K2 mission and confirmed with RV measurements. The seismic analysis of the star led to precise estimates of the stellar parameters.
- P.G.Beck lead two papers on binary systems hosting red-giant binaries, using asteroseismic techniques and data from the Kepler space telescope. Beck et al (2018a,b) allow a better understanding of the stellar structure of the stellar components, and the tidal interaction in binary systems. The internal mixing was investigated through measurements lithium.
- S. Mathur participated in the analysis of the first planet discovered with the NASA TESS mission, orbiting the star Pi Men. The seismic analysis led to a very marginal detection but gave a hint of the asteroseismic potential with the TESS data (Gandolfi et al. 2018).
- Project "Solar-SONG". For the first time, stellar instrumentation (SONG spectrograph) has been used to obtain precise measurements of the radial velocity of the Sun with high temporal cadence (4 sec.) and long duration (57 consecutive days) to allow the detailed study of the spectrum of oscillations ( p-modes) and obtain their global parameters
- The researchers Hans J. Deeg and Juan Antonio Belmonte coordinated the edition of the "Handbook of Exoplanets", four volumes with 160 articles by more than 300 specialists in exoplanetology. Three years of intensive work have resulted in a complete documentation on the state of the art of the studies of the planets beyond the Solar System.
Scientific activity
Related publications
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The young HD 73583 (TOI-560) planetary system: two 10-M<SUB>⊕</SUB> mini-Neptunes transiting a 500-Myr-old, bright, and active K dwarfWe present the discovery and characterization of two transiting planets observed by TESS in the light curves of the young and bright (V = 9.67) star HD73583 (TOI-560). We perform an intensive spectroscopic and photometric space- and ground-based follow-up in order to confirm and characterize the system. We found that HD73583 is a young (~500 Myr)Barragán, O. et al.
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82022 -
TOI-2046b, TOI-1181b, and TOI-1516b, three new hot Jupiters from TESS: planets orbiting a young star, a subgiant, and a normal starWe present the confirmation and characterization of three hot Jupiters, TOI-1181b, TOI-1516b, and TOI-2046b, discovered by the TESS space mission. The reported hot Jupiters have orbital periods between 1.4 and 2.05 d. The masses of the three planets are 1.18 ± 0.14 M J, 3.16 ± 0.12 M J, and 2.30 ± 0.28 M J, for TOI-1181b, TOI-1516b, and TOI-2046bKabáth, Petr et al.
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72022 -
The TESS-Keck Survey. XI. Mass Measurements for Four Transiting Sub-Neptunes Orbiting K Dwarf TOI-1246Multiplanet systems are valuable arenas for investigating exoplanet architectures and comparing planetary siblings. TOI-1246 is one such system, with a moderately bright K dwarf (V = 11.6, K = 9.9) and four transiting sub-Neptunes identified by TESS with orbital periods of 4.31, 5.90, 18.66, and 37.92 days. We collected 130 radial velocityTurtelboom, Emma V. et al.
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62022 -
TOI-1670 b and c: An Inner Sub-Neptune with an Outer Warm Jupiter Unlikely to Have Originated from High-eccentricity MigrationWe report the discovery of two transiting planets around the bright (V = 9.9 mag) main-sequence F7 star TOI-1670 by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. TOI-1670 b is a sub-Neptune ( ${R}_{{\rm{b}}}={2.06}_{-0.15}^{+0.19}$ R ⊕) on a 10.9 day orbit, and TOI-1670 c is a warm Jupiter ( ${R}_{{\rm{c}}}={0.987}_{-0.025}^{+0.025}$ R Jup) on a 40.7Tran, Quang H. et al.
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52022 -
A Radial Velocity Study of the Planetary System of π Mensae: Improved Planet Parameters for π Mensae c and a Third Planet on a 125 Day Orbitπ Men hosts a transiting planet detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite space mission and an outer planet in a 5.7 yr orbit discovered by radial velocity (RV) surveys. We studied this system using new RV measurements taken with the HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6 m telescope, as well as archival data. We constrain the stellar RVHatzes, Artie P. et al.
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52022 -
TESS asteroseismology of the Kepler red giantsRed giant asteroseismology can provide valuable information for studying the Galaxy as demonstrated by space missions like CoRoT and Kepler. However, previous observations have been limited to small data sets and fields of view. The TESS mission provides far larger samples and, for the first time, the opportunity to perform asteroseimic inferenceStello, Dennis et al.
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52022 -
The Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: Complete Release of MaNGA, MaStar, and APOGEE-2 DataThis paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete releaseAbdurro'uf et al.
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42022 -
The K2 Galactic Archaeology Program Data Release 3: Age-abundance Patterns in C1-C8 and C10-C18We present the third and final data release of the K2 Galactic Archaeology Program (K2 GAP) for Campaigns C1-C8 and C10-C18. We provide asteroseismic radius and mass coefficients, κ R and κ M , for ~19,000 red giant stars, which translate directly to radius and mass given a temperature. As such, K2 GAP DR3 represents the largest asteroseismicZinn, Joel C. et al.
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22022 -
Parameters of the eclipsing binary α Draconis observed by TESS and SONGWe present an analysis of the eclipsing single-lined spectroscopic binary system α Dra based on photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and newly acquired spectroscopic measurements. Recently discovered to have eclipses in the TESS data, at a magnitude of V = 3.7, α Dra is now one of the brightest detached eclipsingHey, Daniel R. et al.
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42022 -
TESS Giants Transiting Giants. II. The Hottest Jupiters Orbiting Evolved StarsGiant planets on short-period orbits are predicted to be inflated and eventually engulfed by their host stars. However, the detailed timescales and stages of these processes are not well known. Here, we present the discovery of three hot Jupiters (P < 10 days) orbiting evolved, intermediate-mass stars (M ⋆ ≍ 1.5 M ⊙, 2 R ⊙ < R ⋆ < 5 R ⊙). ByGrunblatt, Samuel K. et al.
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32022 -
Study of chemically peculiar stars - I. High-resolution spectroscopy and K2 photometry of Am stars in the region of M44We present a study based on the high-resolution spectroscopy and K2 space photometry of five chemically peculiar stars in the region of the open cluster M44. The analysis of the high-precision photometric K2 data reveals that the light variations in HD 73045 and HD 76310 are rotational in nature and caused by spots or cloud-like co-rotatingJoshi, Santosh et al.
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32022 -
No swan song for Sun-as-a-star helioseismology: Performances of the Solar-SONG prototype for individual mode characterisationThe GOLF instrument on board SoHO has been in operation for almost 25 years, but the ageing of the instrument has now strongly affected its performance, especially in the low-frequency pressure-mode (p-mode) region. At the end of the SoHO mission, the ground-based network BiSON will remain the only facility able to perform Sun-integratedBreton, S. N. et al.
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22022 -
K2-99 revisited: a non-inflated warm Jupiter, and a temperate giant planet on a 522-d orbit around a subgiantWe report new photometric and spectroscopic observations of the K2-99 planetary system. Asteroseismic analysis of the short-cadence light curve from K2's Campaign 17 allows us to refine the stellar properties. We find K2-99 to be significantly smaller than previously thought, with R ⋆ = 2.55 ± 0.02 R ⊙. The new light curve also contains fourSmith, A. M. S. et al.
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32022 -
A 20 Second Cadence View of Solar-type Stars and Their Planets with TESS: Asteroseismology of Solar Analogs and a Recharacterization of π Men cWe present an analysis of the first 20 second cadence light curves obtained by the TESS space telescope during its extended mission. We find improved precision of 20 second data compared to 2 minute data for bright stars when binned to the same cadence (≍10%-25% better for T ≲ 8 mag, reaching equal precision at T ≍ 13 mag), consistent with preHuber, Daniel et al.
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22022 -
Detections of solar-like oscillations in dwarfs and subgiants with Kepler DR25 short-cadence dataDuring the survey phase of the Kepler mission, several thousand stars were observed in short cadence, allowing for the detection of solar-like oscillations in more than 500 main-sequence and subgiant stars. These detections showed the power of asteroseismology in determining fundamental stellar parameters. However, the Kepler Science OfficeMathur, S. et al.
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12022 -
Orbital period refinement of CoRoT planets with TESS observationsCoRoT was the first space mission dedicated to exoplanet detection. Operational between 2007 and 2012, this mission discovered 37 transiting planets, including CoRoT-7b, the first terrestrial exoplanet with a measured size. The precision of the published transit ephemeris of most of these planets has been limited by the relative short durations ofKlagyivik, Peter et al.
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122021 -
GJ 367b: A dense, ultrashort-period sub-Earth planet transiting a nearby red dwarf starUltrashort-period (USP) exoplanets have orbital periods shorter than 1 day. Precise masses and radii of USP exoplanets could provide constraints on their unknown formation and evolution processes. We report the detection and characterization of the USP planet GJ 367b using high-precision photometry and radial velocity observations. GJ 367b orbits aLam, Kristine W. F. et al.
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122021 -
TOI-1431b/MASCARA-5b: A Highly Irradiated Ultrahot Jupiter Orbiting One of the Hottest and Brightest Known Exoplanet Host StarsWe present the discovery of a highly irradiated and moderately inflated ultrahot Jupiter, TOI-1431b/MASCARA-5 b (HD 201033b), first detected by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission (TESS) and the Multi-site All-Sky Camera (MASCARA). The signal was established to be of planetary origin through radial velocity measurements obtainedAddison, Brett C. et al.
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122021 -
TESS Asteroseismology of α Mensae: Benchmark Ages for a G7 Dwarf and Its M Dwarf CompanionAsteroseismology of bright stars has become increasingly important as a method to determine the fundamental properties (in particular ages) of stars. The Kepler Space Telescope initiated a revolution by detecting oscillations in more than 500 main-sequence and subgiant stars. However, most Kepler stars are faint and therefore have limitedChontos, Ashley et al.
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122021 -
Magnetic and Rotational Evolution of ρ CrB from Asteroseismology with TESSDuring the first half of main-sequence lifetimes, the evolution of rotation and magnetic activity in solar-type stars appears to be strongly coupled. Recent observations suggest that rotation rates evolve much more slowly beyond middle age, while stellar activity continues to decline. We aim to characterize this midlife transition by combiningMetcalfe, Travis S. et al.
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