Exoplanet discoveries with the CoRoT space observatory

Lammer, H.; Dvorak, R.; Deleuil, M.; Barge, P.; Deeg, H. J.; Moutou, C.; Erikson, A.; Csizmadia, Sz.; Tingley, B.; Bruntt, H.; Havel, M.; Aigrain, S.; Almenara, J. M.; Alonso, R.; Auvergne, M.; Baglin, A.; Barbieri, M.; Benz, W.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bordé, P.; Bouchy, F.; Cabrera, J.; Carone, L.; Carpano, S.; Ciardi, D.; Ferraz-Mello, S.; Fridlund, M.; Gandolfi, D.; Gazzano, J.-C.; Gillon, M.; Gondoin, P.; Guenther, E.; Guillot, T.; den Hartog, R.; Hasiba, J.; Hatzes, A.; Hidas, M.; Hébrard, G.; Jorda, L.; Kabath, P.; Léger, A.; Lister, T.; Llebaria, A.; Lovis, C.; Mayor, M.; Mazeh, T.; Mura, A.; Ollivier, M.; Ottacher, H.; Pätzold, M.; Pepe, F.; Pont, F.; Queloz, D.; Rabus, M.; Rauer, H.; Rouan, D.; Samuel, B.; Schneider, J.; Shporer, A.; Stecklum, B.; Steller, M.; Street, R.; Udry, S.; Weingrill, J.; Wuchterl, G.
Bibliographical reference

Solar System Research, Volume 44, Issue 6, pp.520-526

Advertised on:
12
2010
Number of authors
65
IAC number of authors
4
Citations
4
Refereed citations
2
Description
The CoRoT space observatory is a project which is led by the French space agency CNES and leading space research institutes in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Germany and Spain and also the European Space Agency ESA. CoRoT observed since its launch in December 27, 2006 about 100 000 stars for the exoplanet channel, during 150 days uninterrupted high-precision photometry. Since the The CoRoT-team has several exoplanet candidates which are currently analyzed under its study, we report here the discoveries of nine exoplanets which were observed by CoRoT. Discovered exoplanets such as CoRoT-3b populate the brown dwarf desert and close the gap of measured physical properties between usual gas giants and very low mass stars. CoRoT discoveries extended the known range of planet masses down to about 4.8 Earth-masses (CoRoT-7b) and up to 21 Jupiter masses (CoRoT-3b), the radii to about 1.68 × 0.09 R Earth (CoRoT-7b) and up to the most inflated hot Jupiter with 1.49 × 0.09 R Earth found so far (CoRoT-1b), and the transiting exoplanet with the longest period of 95.274 days (CoRoT-9b). Giant exoplanets have been detected at low metallicity, rapidly rotating and active, spotted stars. Two CoRoT planets have host stars with the lowest content of heavy elements known to show a transit hinting towards a different planethost-star-metallicity relation then the one found by radial-velocity search programs. Finally the properties of the CoRoT-7b prove that rocky planets with a density close to Earth exist outside the Solar System. Finally the detection of the secondary transit of CoRoT-1b at a sensitivity level of 10-5 and the very clear detection of the "super-Earth" CoRoT-7b at 3.5 × 10-4 relative flux are promising evidence that the space observatory is being able to detect even smaller exoplanets with the size of the Earth.
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Helio and Astero-Seismology and Exoplanets Search
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
Savita
Mathur