Publications (109)
Atmospheric processes affecting methane on Mars
John Lee Grenfell, Fabian Wunderlich, Miriam Sinnhuber +6
It is currently uncertain as to whether methane exists on Mars. Data from the Curiosity Rover suggests a background methane concentration of a few tenths parts per billion whereas…
The habitability of stagnant-lid Earths around dwarf stars
Mareike Godolt, Nicola Tosi, Barbara Stracke +4
The habitability of a planet depends on various factors, such as delivery of water during the formation, the co-evolution of the interior and the atmosphere, as well as the stellar…
Exoplanet Biosignatures: Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment
Victoria S. Meadows, Christopher T. Reinhard, Giada N. Arney +13
Here we review how environmental context can be used to interpret whether O2 is a biosignature in extrasolar planetary observations. This paper builds on the overview of current bi…
Exoplanets around Low-mass Stars Unveiled by K2
Teruyuki Hirano, Fei Dai, Davide Gandolfi +38
We present the detection and follow-up observations of planetary candidates around low-mass stars observed by the K2 mission. Based on light-curve analysis, adaptive-optics imaging…
K2-264: A transiting multi-planet system in the Praesepe open cluster
John H. Livingston, Fei Dai, Teruyuki Hirano +31
Planet host stars with well-constrained ages provide a rare window to the time domain of planet formation and evolution. The NASA K2 mission has enabled the discovery of the vast m…
Probing the atmosphere of a sub-Jovian planet orbiting a cool dwarf
Elyar Sedaghati, Henri. M. J. Boffin, Laetitia Delrez +4
We derive the 0.01 m binned transmission spectrum, between 0.74 and 1.0 m, of WASP-80b from low resolution spectra obtained with the FORS2 instrument attached to ESO's Very…
On the Mass of CoRoT-7b
Artie P. Hatzes, Malcolm Fridlund, Gil Nachmani +25
The mass of CoRoT-7b, the first transiting superearth exoplanet, is still a subject of debate. A wide range of masses have been reported in the literature ranging from as high as 8…
Possible Atmospheric Diversity of Low Mass Exoplanets, some Central Aspects
John Lee Grenfell, Jeremy Leconte, François Forget +9
Exoplanetary science continues to excite and surprise with its rich diversity. We discuss here some key aspects potentially influencing the range of exoplanetary terrestrial-type a…
NGTS-8b and NGTS-9b: two non-inflated hot-Jupiters
Jean C. Costes, Christopher A. Watson, Claudia Belardi +35
We report the discovery, by the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), of two hot-Jupiters NGTS-8b and NGTS-9b. These orbit a V = 13.68 K0V star (Teff = 5241 +/- 50 K) with a perio…
Directly imaged exoplanets in reflected starlight. The importance of knowing the planet radius
Ãscar Carrión-González, Antonio GarcÃa Muñoz, Juan Cabrera +3
We have investigated the information content in reflected-starlight spectra of exoplanets. We specify our analysis to Barnard's Star b candidate super-Earth, for which we assume a…
GJ 367b: A dense ultra-short period sub-Earth planet transiting a nearby red dwarf star
Kristine W. F. Lam, Szilárd Csizmadia, Nicola Astudillo-Defru +75
Ultra-short-period (USP) exoplanets have orbital periods shorter than one day. Precise masses and radii of USPs could provide constraints on their unknown formation and evolution p…
A New Model Suite to Determine the Influence of Cosmic Rays on (Exo)planetary Atmospheric Biosignatures -- Validation based on Modern Earth
Konstantin Herbst, John Lee Grenfell, Miriam Sinnhuber +8
The first opportunity to detect indications for life outside the Solar System may be provided already within the next decade with upcoming missions such as the James Webb Space Tel…
Three Small Planets Transiting a Hyades Star
John H. Livingston, Fei Dai, Teruyuki Hirano +33
We present the discovery of three small planets transiting K2-136 (LP 358 348, EPIC 247589423), a late K dwarf in the Hyades. The planets have orbital periods of $7.9757 \pm 0.0011…
Photophoretic separation of metals and silicates: the formation of Mercury like planets and metal depletion in chondrites
Gerhard Wurm, Mario Trieloff, Heike Rauer
Mercury's high uncompressed mass density suggests that the planet is largely composed of iron, either bound within metal (mainly Fe-Ni), or iron sulfide. Recent results from the ME…
Effect of mantle oxidation state and escape upon the evolution of Earth's magma ocean atmosphere
Nisha Katyal, Gianluigi Ortenzi, John Lee Grenfell +7
The magma ocean period was a critical phase determining how Earth atmosphere developed into habitability. However there are major uncertainties in the role of key processes such as…
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)
Peter J. Wheatley, Richard G. West, Michael R. Goad +43
We describe the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), which is a ground-based project searching for transiting exoplanets orbiting bright stars. NGTS builds on the legacy of previ…
Biomarker Response to Galactic Cosmic Ray-Induced NOx and the Methane Greenhouse Effect in the Atmosphere of an Earthlike Planet Orbiting an M-Dwarf Star
John Lee Grenfell, Jean-Mathias Griessmeier, Beate Patzer +6
Planets orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of M-Dwarf stars are subject to high levels of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) which produce nitrogen oxides in earthlike atmospheres. We in…
Transit detection of the long-period volatile-rich super-Earth Lupi d with
Laetitia Delrez, David Ehrenreich, Yann Alibert +75
Exoplanets transiting bright nearby stars are key objects for advancing our knowledge of planetary formation and evolution. The wealth of photons from the host star gives detailed…
What factors affect the duration and outgassing of the terrestrial magma ocean?
Athanasia Nikolaou, Nisha Katyal, Nicola Tosi +3
The magma ocean (MO) is a crucial stage in the build-up of terrestrial planets. Its solidification and the accompanying outgassing of volatiles set the conditions for important pro…
Detection of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter
Elyar Sedaghati, Henri M. J. Boffin, Ryan J. MacDonald +6
As an exoplanet transits its host star, some of the light from the star is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the planet's atmosphere, causing the planet to seem bigger; plotti…
K2-60b and epic 216468514b. A sub-jovian and a jovian planet from the k2 mission
Philipp Eigmüller, Davide Gandolfi, Carina M. Persson +20
We report the characterization and independant detection of K2-60b, as well as the detection and characterization of EPIC 216468514b, two transiting hot gaseous planets from the K2…
The Response of Atmospheric Chemistry on Earthlike Planets around F, G and K Stars to Small Variations in Orbital Distance
John Lee Grenfell, Barbara Stracke, Philip von Paris +4
One of the prime goals of future investigations of extrasolar planets is to search for life as we know it. The Earth's biosphere is adapted to current conditions. How would the atm…
Prospects of long-time-series observations from Dome C for transit search
Heike Rauer, Thomas Fruth, Anders Erikson
The detection of transiting extrasolar planets requires high-photometric quality and long-duration photometric stellar time-series. In this paper, we investigate the advantages pro…
TESS and CHEOPS Discover Two Warm Sub-Neptunes Transiting the Bright K-dwarf HD 15906
Amy Tuson, Didier Queloz, Hugh P. Osborn +119
We report the discovery of two warm sub-Neptunes transiting the bright (G = 9.5 mag) K-dwarf HD 15906 (TOI 461, TIC 4646810). This star was observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Sur…
Atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets in the mid-infrared: biosignatures, habitability & diversity
Sascha P. Quanz, Olivier Absil, Daniel Angerhausen +45
Exoplanet science is one of the most thriving fields of modern astrophysics. A major goal is the atmospheric characterization of dozens of small, terrestrial exoplanets in order to…
The SARS algorithm: detrending CoRoT light curves with Sysrem using simultaneous external parameters
Aviv Ofir, Roi Alonso, Aldo Stefano Bonomo +31
Surveys for exoplanetary transits are usually limited not by photon noise but rather by the amount of red noise in their data. In particular, although the CoRoT spacebased survey d…
Unveiling shrouded oceans on temperate sub-Neptunes via transit signatures of solubility equilibria vs. gas thermochemistry
Renyu Hu, Mario Damiano, Markus Scheucher +3
The recent discovery and initial characterization of sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets that receive stellar irradiance of approximately Earth's raised the prospect of finding habitable…
Potential of Ozone Formation by the Smog Mechanism to shield the surface of the Early Earth from UV radiation?
John Lee Grenfell, Barbara Stracke, Beate Patzer +2
We propose that the photochemical smog mechanism produced substantial ozone (O3) in the troposphere during the Proterozoic, which contributed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation shieldin…
Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XIV. Finding terrestrial protoplanets in the galactic neighborhood
Lorenzo Cesario, Tim Lichtenberg, Eleonora Alei +62
The increased brightness temperature of young rocky protoplanets during their magma ocean epoch makes them potentially amenable to atmospheric characterization to distances from th…
Detectability of biosignatures on LHS 1140 b
Fabian Wunderlich, Markus Scheucher, John Lee Grenfell +4
Terrestrial extrasolar planets around low-mass stars are prime targets when searching for atmospheric biosignatures with current and near-future telescopes. The habitable-zone Supe…
The transiting multi-planet system HD3167: a 5.7 MEarth Super-Earth and a 8.3 MEarth mini-Neptune
Davide Gandolfi, Oscar Barragán, Artie P. Hatzes +42
HD3167 is a bright (V=8.9 mag) K0V star observed by the NASA's K2 space mission during its Campaign 8. It has been recently found to host two small transiting planets, namely, HD31…
NGTS-11 b / TOI-1847 b: A transiting warm Saturn recovered from a TESS single-transit event
Samuel Gill, Peter J. Wheatley, Benjamin F. Cooke +37
We report the discovery of NGTS-11 b (=TOI-1847 b), a transiting Saturn in a 35.46-day orbit around a mid K-type star (Teff=5050 K). We initially identified the system from a singl…
Evolution and Spectral Response of a Steam Atmosphere for Early Earth with a coupled climate-interior model
Nisha Katyal, Athanasia Nikolaou, Mareike Godolt +4
The evolution of Earth's early atmosphere and the emergence of habitable conditions on our planet are intricately coupled with the development and duration of the magma ocean phase…
Centroid vetting of transiting planet candidates from the Next Generation Transit Survey
Maximilian N. Günther, Didier Queloz, Edward Gillen +25
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), operating in Paranal since 2016, is a wide-field survey to detect Neptunes and super-Earths transiting bright stars, which are suitable f…
TOI-836: A super-Earth and mini-Neptune transiting a nearby K-dwarf
Faith Hawthorn, Daniel Bayliss, Thomas G. Wilson +137
We present the discovery of two exoplanets transiting TOI-836 (TIC 440887364) using data from TESS Sector 11 and Sector 38. TOI-836 is a bright ( mag), high proper motion…
Shallow transit follow-up from NGTS: simultaneous observations of HD106315 with 11 identical telescopes
Alexis M. S. Smith, Philipp Eigmüller, Ramanathan Gurumoorthy +15
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a photometric survey for transiting exoplanets, consisting of twelve identical 0.2-m telescopes. We report a measurement of the transit…
Catalogue of exoplanets accessible in reflected starlight to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. A population study and prospects for phase-curve measurements
Ãscar Carrión-González, Antonio GarcÃa Muñoz, Juan Cabrera +3
Reflected starlight measurements will open a new path in the characterization of directly imaged exoplanets. However, we still lack a population study of known targets amenable to…
The CHEOPS mission
Willy Benz, Christopher Broeg, Andrea Fortier +107
The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) was selected in 2012, as the first small mission in the ESA Science Programme and successfully launched in December 2019. CHEOPS is…
ASTEP South: An Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets around the celestial South pole
Nicolas Crouzet, Tristan Guillot, Karim Agabi +19
ASTEP South is the first phase of the ASTEP project (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets). The instrument is a fixed 10 cm refractor with a 4kx4k CCD camera in a thermalized…
An Ultra-Short Period Super-Earth and a Sub-Neptune Orbiting the K dwarf TOI-4311
Yoshi Nike Emilia Eschen, Thomas G. Wilson, Andrew Collier Cameron +95
We report the discovery and characterisation of the multi-planetary system around TOI-4311, a K dwarf kinematically between the Galactic thick disk and Hercules stream. TOI-4311 ho…
Dynamical modeling of the Deep Impact dust ejecta cloud
Tanyu Bonev, Nancy Ageorges, Stefano Bagnulo +17
The collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 generated a bright cloud of dust which dissipated during several days after the impact. The brightness variations of this cloud…
NGTS-10b: The shortest period hot Jupiter yet discovered
James McCormac, Edward Gillen, James A. G. Jackman +44
We report the discovery of a new ultra-short period transiting hot Jupiter from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). NGTS-10b has a mass and radius of $2.162\,^{+0.092}_{-0.1…
EPIC 210894022b - A short period super-Earth transiting a metal poor, evolved old star
Malcolm Fridlund, Eric Gaidos, Oscar Barragán +31
The star EPIC 210894022 has been identified from a light curve acquired through the K2 space mission as possibly orbited by a transiting planet. Our aim is to confirm the planetary…
Uncovering the true periods of the young sub-Neptunes orbiting TOI-2076
Hugh P. Osborn, Andrea Bonfanti, Davide Gandolfi +93
Context: TOI-2076 is a transiting three-planet system of sub-Neptunes orbiting a bright (G = 8.9 mag), young ( Myr) K-type star. Although a validated planetary system, th…
The PLATO Science Calibration and Validation Plan: Targets for the First Long-pointing Field
Konstanze Zwintz, Conny Aerts, Andrew Tkachenko +56
In order to meet the science goals of the PLATO space mission, an extensive science calibration and validation plan has been designed. This paper describes this plan, as well as th…
The multi-planet system TOI-421 -- A warm Neptune and a super puffy mini-Neptune transiting a G9 V star in a visual binary
Ilaria Carleo, Davide Gandolfi, Oscar Barragán +110
We report the discovery of a warm Neptune and a hot sub-Neptune transiting TOI-421 (BD-14 1137, TIC 94986319), a bright (V=9.9) G9 dwarf star in a visual binary system observed by…
HST/STIS capability for Love number measurement of WASP-121b
Hugo Hellard, Szilárd Csizmadia, Sebastiano Padovan +2
Data from transit light curves, radial velocity and transit timing observations can be used to probe the interiors of exoplanets beyond the mean density, by measuring the Love numb…
A pair of Sub-Neptunes transiting the bright K-dwarf TOI-1064 characterised with CHEOPS
Thomas G. Wilson, Elisa Goffo, Yann Alibert +132
We report the discovery and characterisation of a pair of sub-Neptunes transiting the bright K-dwarf TOI-1064 (TIC 79748331), initially detected in TESS photometry. To characterise…
NGTS-6b: An Ultra Short Period Hot-Jupiter Orbiting an Old K Dwarf
Jose I. Vines, James S. Jenkins, Jack S. Acton +37
We report the discovery of a new ultra-short period hot Jupiter from the Next Generation Transit Survey. NGTS-6b orbits its star with a period of 21.17~h, and has a mass and radius…
The Transiting Multi-planet System HD15337: Two Nearly Equal-mass Planets Straddling the Radius Gap
Davide Gandolfi, Luca Fossati, John H. Livingston +53
We report the discovery of a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune transiting the star HD 15337 (TOI-402, TIC 120896927), a bright (V=9) K1 dwarf observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Surve…
Atmospheric constraints for the CO2 partial pressure on terrestrial planets near the outer edge of the habitable zone
Philip von Paris, J. Lee Grenfell, Pascal Hedelt +3
In recent years, several potentially habitable, probably terrestrial exoplanets and exoplanet candidates have been discovered. The amount of CO2 in their atmosphere is of great imp…
Sensitivity of Biomarkers to Changes in Chemical Emissions in the Earth's Proterozoic Atmosphere
John Lee Grenfell, Stefanie Gebauer, Philip von Paris +5
The search for life beyond the Solar System is a major activity in exoplanet science. However, even if an Earth-like planet were to be found, it is unlikely to be at a similar stag…
Is pi Men c's atmosphere hydrogen-dominated? Insights from a non-detecton of Hy Ly-alpha absorption
Antonio GarcÃa Muñoz, Allison Youngblood, Luca Fossati +3
Constraining the composition of super-Earth-to-sub-Neptune-size planets is a priority to understand the processes of planetary formation and evolution. pi Men c represents a unique…
In-situ observations of resident space objects with the CHEOPS space telescope
Nicolas Billot, Stephan Hellmich, Willy Benz +80
The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a partnership between the European Space Agency and Switzerland with important contributions by 10 additional ESA member States.…
Atmospheric Characterization via Broadband Color Filters on the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) Mission
John Lee Grenfell, Mareike Godolt, Juan Cabrera +5
We assess broadband color filters for the two fast cameras on the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations (PLATO) of stars space mission with respect to exoplanetary atmospheric charac…
TOI-503: The first known brown dwarf-Am star binary from the TESS mission
Ján Šubjak, Rishikesh Sharma, Theron W. Carmichael +76
We report the discovery of an intermediate-mass transiting brown dwarf, TOI-503b, from the TESS mission. TOI-503b is the first brown dwarf discovered by TESS and orbits a metallic-…
Influence of Biomass Emissions upon Habitability, Biosignatures and Detectability in Earth-like Atmospheres
Stefanie Gebauer, Iva ViloviÄ, John Lee Grenfell +3
We investigate atmospheric responses of modeled hypothetical Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of the M-dwarf AD Leonis to reduced oxygen (O2), removed biomass (dead Earth),…
Assessment of PLATO Science Performance
Juan Cabrera, Heike Rauer, Reza Samadi +121
The PLATO mission is scheduled for launch early 2027. In this paper we present an overview of the performance drivers for the mission at the time where all flight models of the cam…
An Ultra-Short Period Super-Earth and Sub-Neptune Spanning the Radius Valley Orbiting the Kinematic Thick Disk Star TOI-2345
Yoshi Nike Emilia Eschen, Thomas G. Wilson, Andrea Bonfanti +94
A crucial chemical link between stars and their orbiting exoplanets is thought to exist. If universal, this connection could affect the formation and evolution of all planets. Ther…
PLATO's signal and noise budget
Anko Börner, Carsten Paproth, Juan Cabrera +20
ESA's PLATO mission aims the detection and characterization of terrestrial planets around solar-type stars as well as the study of host star properties. The noise-to-signal ratio (…
Oxidation of CO on surface hematite in high CO2 atmospheres
John Lee Grenfell, Joachim W. Stock, A. Beate C. Patzer +2
We propose a mechanism for the oxidation of gaseous CO into CO2 occurring on the surface mineral hematite (Fe2O3(s)) in hot, CO2-rich planetary atmospheres, such as Venus. This mec…
K2-155: A Bright Metal-Poor M Dwarf with Three Transiting Super-Earths
Teruyuki Hirano, Fei Dai, John H. Livingston +32
We report on the discovery of three transiting super-Earths around K2-155 (EPIC 210897587), a relatively bright early M dwarf ( mag) observed during Campaign 13 of the NAS…
Spectral features of Earth-like planets and their detectability at different orbital distances around F, G, and K-type stars
Pascal Hedelt, Philip von Paris, Mareike Godolt +6
We investigate the spectral appearance of Earth-like exoplanets in the HZ of different main sequence stars at different orbital distances. We furthermore discuss for which of these…
Results from the Exoplanet Search Programmes with BEST and TEST
Jochen Eisloeffel, Artie P. Hatzes, Heike Rauer +4
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS) has started to operate a small dedicated telescope - the Tautenburg Exoplanet Search Telescope (TEST) - searching for transits of extra…
Geoscience for understanding habitability in the solar system and beyond
Veronique Dehant, Vinciane Debaille, Vera Dobos +15
This paper reviews habitability conditions for a terrestrial planet from the point of view of geosciences. It addresses how interactions between the interior of a planet or a moon…
K2-280b -- a low density warm sub-Saturn around a mildly evolved star
Grzegorz Nowak, Enric Palle, Davide Gandolfi +57
We present an independent discovery and detailed characterisation of K2-280b, a transiting low density warm sub-Saturn in a 19.9-day moderately eccentric orbit (e = 0.35_{-0.04}^{+…
Greening of the Brown Dwarf Desert. EPIC 212036875 b -- a 51 M object in a 5 day orbit around an F7 V star
Carina M. Persson, Szilárd Csizmadia, Alexander J. Mustill +55
Our aim is to investigate the nature and formation of brown dwarfs by adding a new well-characterised object to the small sample of less than 20 transiting brown dwarfs. One brown…
Characterizing WASP-43b's interior structure: unveiling tidal decay and apsidal motion
Lia Marta Bernabò, Szilárd Csizmadia, Alexis M. S. Smith +8
Context. Recent developments in exoplanetary research highlight the importance of Love numbers in understanding their internal dynamics, formation, migration history and their pote…
44 Validated Planets from K2 Campaign 10
John H. Livingston, Michael Endl, Fei Dai +31
We present 44 validated planets from the 10 observing campaign of the NASA mission, as well as high resolution spectroscopy and speckle imaging follow-up observa…
Distinguishing between wet and dry atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 e and f
Fabian Wunderlich, Markus Scheucher, Mareike Godolt +7
The nearby TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is an exciting target for characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial planets. The planets e, f and g lie in the circumstellar habitable zo…
Spitzer Infrared Observations and Independent Validation of the Transiting Super-Earth CoRoT-7b
Francois Fressin, Guillermo Torres, Frederic Pont +8
The detection and characterization of the first transiting super-Earth, CoRoT-7 b, has required an unprecedented effort in terms of telescope time and analysis. Although the star d…
Exoplanet Biosignatures: Observational Prospects
Yuka Fujii, Daniel Angerhausen, Russell Deitrick +9
Exoplanet hunting efforts have revealed the prevalence of exotic worlds with diverse properties, including Earth-sized bodies, which has fueled our endeavor to search for life beyo…
NGTS-4b: A sub-Neptune Transiting in the Desert
Richard G. West, Edward Gillen, Daniel Bayliss +48
We report the discovery of NGTS-4b, a sub-Neptune-sized planet transiting a 13th magnitude K-dwarf in a 1.34d orbit. NGTS-4b has a mass M=M_E and radius R=…
Gas-depleted planet formation occurred in the four-planet system around the red dwarf LHS 1903
Thomas G. Wilson, Anna M. Simpson, Andrew Collier Cameron +173
Small exoplanet radii show two populations, referred to as super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, separated by a gap known as the radius valley. This may be produced by the removal of atmo…
Sensitivity of Biosignatures on Earth-like Planets orbiting in the Habitable Zone of Cool M-Dwarf Stars to varying Stellar UV Radiation and Surface Biomass Emissions
John Lee Grenfell, Stefanie Gebauer, Philip von Paris +2
We find that variations in the UV emissions of cool M-dwarf stars have a potentially large impact upon atmospheric biosignatures in simulations of Earth-like exoplanets i.e. planet…
An Ultra-Hot Neptune in the Neptune desert
James S. Jenkins, MatÃas R. DÃaz, Nicolás T. Kurtovic +81
About one out of 200 Sun-like stars has a planet with an orbital period shorter than one day: an ultra-short-period planet (Sanchis-ojeda et al. 2014; Winn et al. 2018). All of the…
NGTS-5b: a highly inflated planet offering insights into the sub-Jovian desert
Philipp Eigmüller, Alexander Chaushev, Edward Gillen +32
Context: Planetary population analysis gives us insight into formation and evolution processes. For short-period planets, the subJovian desert has been discussed in recent years wi…
Automatic vetting of planet candidates from ground based surveys: Machine learning with NGTS
David J. Armstrong, Maximilian N. Günther, James McCormac +22
State of the art exoplanet transit surveys are producing ever increasing quantities of data. To make the best use of this resource, in detecting interesting planetary systems or in…
Earth-like Habitats in Planetary Systems
Jörg Fritz, Bertram Bitsch, Ekkehard Kührt +8
Understanding the concept of habitability is related to an evolutionary knowledge of the particular planet-in-question. Additional indications so-called "systemic aspects" of the p…
It takes two planets in resonance to tango around K2-146
Kristine W. F. Lam, Judith Korth, Kento Masuda +51
K2-146 is a cool, 0.358 M_sun dwarf that was found to host a mini-Neptune with a 2.67-days period. The planet exhibited strong transit timing variations (TTVs) of greater than 30 m…
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)
Peter J. Wheatley, Don L. Pollacco, Didier Queloz +19
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based sky survey designed to find transiting Neptunes and super-Earths. By covering at least sixteen times the sky area of…
Two Warm Neptunes transiting HIP 9618 revealed by TESS & Cheops
Hugh P. Osborn, Grzegorz Nowak, Guillaume Hébrard +126
HIP 9618 (HD 12572, TOI-1471, TIC 306263608) is a bright ( mag) solar analogue. TESS photometry revealed the star to have two candidate planets with radii of …
NGTS-2b: An inflated hot-Jupiter transiting a bright F-dwarf
Liam Raynard, Michael R. Goad, Edward Gillen +42
We report the discovery of NGTS-2b, an inflated hot-Jupiter transiting a bright F5V star (2MASS J14202949-3112074; = K), discovered as part of the Ne…
The effect of varying atmospheric pressure upon habitability and biosignatures of Earth-like planets
Engin Keles, John Lee Grenfell, Mareike Godolt +2
Understanding the possible climatic conditions on rocky extrasolar planets, and thereby their potential habitability, is one of the major subjects of exoplanet research. Determinin…
Two Hot Jupiters from K2 Campaign 4
Marshall C. Johnson, Davide Gandolfi, Malcolm Fridlund +20
We confirm the planetary nature of two transiting hot Jupiters discovered by the Kepler spacecraft's K2 extended mission in its Campaign 4, using precise radial velocity measuremen…
The discovery and mass measurement of a new ultra-short-period planet: EPIC~228732031b
Fei Dai, Joshua N. Winn, Davide Gandolfi +51
We report the discovery of a new ultra-short-period planet and summarize the properties of all such planets for which the mass and radius have been measured. The new planet, EPIC~2…
Potassium detection in the clear atmosphere of a hot-Jupiter: FORS2 transmission spectroscopy of WASP-17b
Elyar Sedaghati, Henri M J Boffin, Tereza JeÅabková +9
We present FORS2 (attached to ESO's Very Large Telescope) observations of the exoplanet WASP-17b during its primary transit, for the purpose of differential spectrophotometry analy…
Searching for GEMS: TOI-6383Ab, a giant planet transiting an M3-dwarf star in a binary system
Lia Marta Bernabò, Shubham Kanodia, Caleb I. Canas +22
We report on the discovery of a transiting giant planet around the 3500 K M3-dwarf star TOI-6383A located 172 pc from Earth. It was detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Sate…
Life Beyond the Solar System: Remotely Detectable Biosignatures
Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Nancy Y. Kiang, Niki Parenteau +38
For the first time in human history, we will soon be able to apply the scientific method to the question "Are We Alone?" The rapid advance of exoplanet discovery, planetary systems…
EPIC 219388192 b - an inhabitant of the brown dwarf desert in the Ruprecht 147 open cluster
Grzegorz Nowak, Enric Palle, Davide Gandolfi +32
We report the discovery of EPIC 219388192 b, a transiting brown dwarf in a 5.3-day orbit around a member star of Ruprecht-147, the oldest nearby open cluster association, which was…
Discovery of two warm mini-Neptunes with contrasting densities orbiting the young K3V star TOI-815
Angelica Psaridi, Hugh Osborn, François Bouchy +130
We present the discovery and characterization of two warm mini-Neptunes transiting the K3V star TOI-815 in a K-M binary system. Analysis of the spectra and rotation period reveal i…
Spectroscopic characterization of the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets: GL 581 d as a model case study
Philip von Paris, Juan Cabrera, Mareike Godolt +5
(abridged) The Super-Earth candidate GL 581 d is the first potentially habitable extrasolar planet. Therefore, GL 581 d is used to illustrate a hypothetical detailed spectroscopic…
Constraining the radius and atmospheric properties of directly imaged exoplanets through multi-phase observations
Ãscar Carrión-González, Antonio GarcÃa Muñoz, Nuno C. Santos +3
The theory of remote sensing shows that observing a planet at multiple phase angles () is a powerful strategy to characterize its atmosphere. Here, we analyse how the informati…
NGTS-12b: A sub-Saturn mass transiting exoplanet in a 7.53 day orbit
Edward M. Bryant, Daniel Bayliss, Louise D. Nielsen +35
We report the discovery of the transiting exoplanet NGTS-12b by the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The host star, NGTS-12, is a V=12.38 mag star with an effective temperatu…
The PLATO Mission
Heike Rauer, Conny Aerts, Juan Cabrera +842
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA's M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large numb…
Tidal interactions of close-in extrasolar planets: the OGLE cases
Martin Paetzold, Ludmila Carone, Heike Rauer
Close-in extrasolar planets experience extreme tidal interactions with their host stars. This may lead to a reduction of the planetary orbit and a spin-up of stellar rotation. Tida…
NGTS-1b: A hot Jupiter transiting an M-dwarf
Daniel Bayliss, Edward Gillen, Philipp Eigmuller +40
We present the discovery of NGTS-1b, a hot-Jupiter transiting an early M-dwarf host () in a P=2.674d orbit discovered as part of the Next Generation Tra…
Response of Atmospheric Biomarkers to NOx-induced Photochemistry Generated by Stellar Cosmic Rays for Earth-like Planets in the Habitable Zone of M-Dwarf Stars
John Lee Grenfell, Jean-Mathias Grriessmeier, Philip von Paris +6
Understanding whether M-dwarf stars may host habitable planets with Earth-like atmospheres and biospheres is a major goal in exoplanet research. If such planets exist, the question…
In situ Exploration of the Giant Planets
Olivier Mousis, David H. Atkinson, Richard Ambrosi +27
Remote sensing observations suffer significant limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. This impacts our knowledge…
Limitation of atmospheric composition by combustion-explosion in exoplanetary atmospheres
John Lee Grenfell, Stefanie Gebauer, Mareike Godolt +3
This work presents theoretical studies which combine aspects of combustion and explosion theory with exoplanetary atmospheric science. Super Earths could possess a large amount of…