Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids
arXiv:2002.10370 · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-38509-5_3
Abstract
Thousands of transiting exoplanets have been discovered to date, thanks in great part to the {\em Kepler} space mission. As in all populations, and certainly in the case of exoplanets, one finds unique objects with distinct characteristics. Here we will describe the properties and behaviour of a small group of `disintegrating' exoplanets discovered over the last few years (KIC 12557548b, K2-22b, and others). They evaporate, lose mass unraveling their naked cores, produce spectacular dusty comet-like tails, and feature highly variable asymmetric transits. Apart from these exoplanets, there is observational evidence for even smaller `exo-'objects orbiting other stars: exoasteroids and exocomets. Most probably, such objects are also behind the mystery of Boyajian's star. Ongoing and upcoming space missions such as {\em TESS} and PLATO will hopefully discover more objects of this kind, and a new era of the exploration of small extrasolar systems bodies will be upon us.
Accepted for publication in the book "Reviews in Frontiers of Modern Astrophysics: From Space Debris to Cosmology" (eds Kabath, Jones and Skarka; publisher Springer Nature) funded by the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant "Per Aspera Ad Astra Simul" 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035562
References in corpus (43)
- The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
- The K2 Mission: Characterization and Early results
- KEPLER's First Rocky Planet: Kepler-10b
- Sodium Absorption From the Exoplanetary Atmosphere of HD189733b Detected in the Optical Transmission Spectrum
- The frequency of planetary debris around young white dwarfs
- Spectrally resolved detection of sodium in the atmosphere of HD189733b with the HARPS spectrograph
- Ground-based detection of sodium in the transmission spectrum of exoplanet HD209458b
- Kepler-62: A five-planet system with planets of 1.4 and 1.6 Earth radii in the Habitable Zone
- An ancient extrasolar system with five sub-Earth-size planets
- Detection of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter
- Externally-polluted white dwarfs with dust disks
- Debris Disks Around White Dwarfs: The DAZ Connection
- Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres Resolved with Transit Spectroscopy (HEARTS) - II. A broadened sodium feature on the ultra-hot giant WASP-76b
- Detection of sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-69b
- Likely Transiting Exocomets Detected by Kepler
- TESS delivers its first Earth-sized planet and a warm sub-Neptune
- Multiwavelength Observations of the Candidate Disintegrating sub-Mercury KIC 12557548b
- Transiting exocomets detected in broadband light by TESS in the Pictoris system
- Evidence for the disintegration of KIC 12557548 b
- Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets. I. Constraints on the dust composition
- High-precision photometry by telescope defocussing. VII. The ultra-short period planet WASP-103
- Families of Plausible Solutions to the Puzzle of Boyajian's Star
- KIC 8462852 Faded Throughout the Kepler Mission
- Direct evidence for an evolving dust cloud from the exoplanet KIC 12557548 b
- The Relation between the Transit Depths of KIC 12557548b & the Stellar Rotation Period
- A dearth of small particles in the transiting material around the white dwarf WD 1145+017
- Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets. II. Physical modelling of the KIC 12557548b light curve
- WD 1145+017: Optical Activity During 2016-2017 and Limits on the X-Ray Flux
- Deep Long Asymmetric Occultation in EPIC 204376071
- Extinction and the Dimming of KIC 8462852
- The Random Transiter -- EPIC 249706694/HD 139139
- Photometric and astrometric vagaries of the enigma star KIC 8462852
- Detection of a repeated transit signature in the light curve of the enigma star KIC 8462852: a 928-day period?
- Shallow Ultraviolet Transits of WD 1145+017
- The GTC exoplanet transit spectroscopy survey X. Stellar spots versus Rayleigh scattering: the case of HAT-P-11b
- Is the Young Star RZ Piscium Consuming Its Own (Planetary) Offspring?
- On the Detection of Non-Transiting Exoplanets with Dusty Tails
- Sonneberg plate photometry for Boyajian's Star in two passbands
- Detection limits of exoplanetary atmospheres with 2-m class telescopes
- Exoplanet phase curves at large phase angles. Diagnostics for extended hazy atmospheres
- Monitoring of the D Doublet of Neutral Sodium during Transits of Two "Evaporating" Planets
- Optical Polarimetry of KIC 8462852 in May-August 2017
- High-resolution spectroscopy of Boyajian's star during optical dimming events