We present high-precision photometry of two transit events of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-5, obtained with the Danish 1.54-m telescope at European Southern Obseratory La Silla. In order to ...minimize both random and flat-fielding errors, we defocused the telescope so its point spread function approximated an annulus of diameter 40 pixel (16 arcsec). Data reduction was undertaken using standard aperture photometry plus an algorithm for optimally combining the ensemble of comparison stars. The resulting light curves have point-to-point scatters of 0.50 mmag for the first transit and 0.59 mmag for the second. We construct detailed signal-to-noise ratio calculations for defocused photometry, and apply them to our observations. We model the light curves with the jktebop code and combine the results with tabulated predictions from theoretical stellar evolutionary models to derive the physical properties of the WASP-5 system. We find that the planet has a mass of Mb= 1.637 ± 0.075 ± 0.033 MJup, a radius of Rb= 1.171 ± 0.056 ± 0.012 R Jup, a large surface gravity of gb= 29.6 ± 2.8 m s−2 and a density of ρb= 1.02 ± 0.14 ± 0.01 ρJup (statistical and systematic uncertainties). The planet's high equilibrium temperature of Teq= 1732 ± 80 K makes it a good candidate for detecting secondary eclipses.
Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search ...method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of ~0.71 and ~0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of ~2.3 and ~4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary star of mass ~0.50 solar mass at a distance of ~1.5 kiloparsecs. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only six confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.
ABSTRACT
Transits in the planetary system WASP-4 were recently found to occur 80 s earlier than expected in observations from the TESS satellite. We present 22 new times of mid-transit that confirm ...the existence of transit timing variations, and are well fitted by a quadratic ephemeris with period decay dP/dt = −9.2 ± 1.1 ms yr−1. We rule out instrumental issues, stellar activity, and the Applegate mechanism as possible causes. The light-time effect is also not favoured due to the non-detection of changes in the systemic velocity. Orbital decay and apsidal precession are plausible but unproven. WASP-4 b is only the third hot Jupiter known to show transit timing variations to high confidence. We discuss a variety of observations of this and other planetary systems that would be useful in improving our understanding of WASP-4 in particular and orbital decay in general.
We present the first measurement of the planet frequency beyond the "snow line," for the planet-to-star mass-ratio interval –4.5 < log q < –2, corresponding to the range of ice giants to gas giants. ...We find \endgraf\vbox{\begin{center}$\displaystyle{d^2 N{_{\rm pl}}\over d\log q\, d\log s} = (0.36\pm 0.15)\;{\rm dex}^{-2}$\end{center}}\noindentat the mean mass ratio q = 5 × 10 –4 with no discernible deviation from a flat (Öpik's law) distribution in log-projected separation s. The determination is based on a sample of six planets detected from intensive follow-up observations of high-magnification ( A>200) microlensing events during 2005-2008. The sampled host stars have a typical mass M host ~ 0.5 M sun
A major problem with calculating the uncertainties of measurements with weather satellites is the fact that a full characterization and calibration of their instruments can only be carried out before ...launch. The Moon, however, makes at least some of these activities possible in flight as well by providing a reliable flux reference at a well‐defined position. We used serendipitous observations of the Moon with AMSU‐B and MHS on eight different satellites to measure pointing accuracy, spectral channels coregistration, and beamwidth with unprecedented accuracy in flight. In addition, we compared these findings with the corresponding values obtained on ground. By analyzing more than a hundred Moon intrusions in the deep space view, we could determine the radiance of the Moon as a function of its phase angle and distance from the Sun. The difference in average brightness temperature of the lunar disk between perihelion and aphelion amounts to 4.4 ± 2.3 K at 183 GHz. We compare the measured brightness temperature of the Moon as a function of phase angle between −85° (waxing) and +76° (waning) with the predictions from two models and find that one of them reproduces the shape of this function very well.
Key Points
The quasi‐optical components of microwave sounders were characterized with appearances of the Moon
The disk‐integrated brightness temperature of the Moon was measured for perihelion and aphelion
Two different models of the lunar radiance were put to the test
We present and analyse light curves of four transits of the Southern hemisphere extrasolar planetary system WASP-4, obtained with a telescope defocused so the radius of each point spread function was ...17 arcsec (44 pixels). This approach minimizes both random and systematic errors, allowing us to achieve scatters of between 0.60 and 0.88 mmag per observation over complete transit events. The light curves are augmented by published observations and analysed using the jktebop code. The results of this process are combined with theoretical stellar model predictions to derive the physical properties of the WASP-4 system. We find that the mass and radius of the planet are Mb= 1.289+0.090−0.090+0.039−0.000 MJup and Rb= 1.371+0.032−0.035+0.021−0.000 RJup, respectively (statistical and systematic uncertainties). These quantities give a surface gravity and density of gb= 17.03+0.97−0.54 m s−2 and ρb= 0.500+0.032−0.021+0.000−0.008ρJup, and fit the trends for short-period extrasolar planets to have relatively high masses and surface gravities. WASP-4 is now one of the best-quantified transiting extrasolar planetary systems, and significant further progress requires improvements to our understanding of the physical properties of low-mass stars.
Aims. Our aim in this paper is to refine the orbital and physical parameters of the HATS-2 planetary system and study transit timing variations and atmospheric composition thanks to transit ...observations that span more than 10 yr and that were collected using different instruments and pass-band filters. We also investigate the orbital alignment of the system by studying the anomalies in the transit light curves induced by starspots on the photosphere of the parent star. Methods. We analysed new transit events from both ground-based telescopes and NASA’s TESS mission. Anomalies were detected in most of the light curves and modelled as starspots occulted by the planet during transit events. We fitted the clean and symmetric light curves with the JKTEBOP code and those affected by anomalies with the PRISM+GEMC codes to simultaneously model the photometric parameters of the transits and the position, size, and contrast of each starspot. Results. We found consistency between the values we found for the physical and orbital parameters and those from the discovery paper and ATLAS9 stellar atmospherical models. We identified different sets of consecutive starspot-crossing events that temporally occurred in less than five days. Under the hypothesis that we are dealing with the same starspots, occulted twice by the planet during two consecutive transits, we estimated the rotational period of the parent star and, in turn the projected and the true orbital obliquity of the planet. We find that the system is well aligned. We identified the possible presence of transit timing variations in the system, which can be caused by tidal orbital decay, and we derived a low-resolution transmission spectrum.
ABSTRACT
HATS-18 b is a transiting planet with a large mass and a short orbital period, and is one of the best candidates for the detection of orbital decay induced by tidal effects. We present ...extensive photometry of HATS-18 from which we measure 27 times of mid-transit. Two further transit times were measured from data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and three more taken from the literature. The transit timings were fitted with linear and quadratic ephemerides and an upper limit on orbital decay was determined. This corresponds to a lower limit on the modified stellar tidal quality factor of $Q_\star ^{\, \prime } \gt 10^{5.11 \pm 0.04}$. This is at the cusp of constraining the presence of enhanced tidal dissipation due to internal gravity waves. We also refine the measured physical properties of the HATS-18 system, place upper limits on the masses of third bodies, and compare the relative performance of TESS and the 1.54 m Danish Telescope in measuring transit times for this system.
We present the discovery of a Neptune-mass planet OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb with a planet-star mass ratio of q = 9.5 +- 2.1 x 10{sup -5} via gravitational microlensing. The planetary deviation was detected ...in real-time thanks to the high cadence of the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics survey, real-time light-curve monitoring and intensive follow-up observations. A Bayesian analysis returns the stellar mass and distance at M{sub l} = 0.64{sup +0.21}{sub -0.26} M{sub sun} and D{sub l} = 5.9{sup +0.9}{sub -1.4} kpc, respectively, so the mass and separation of the planet are M{sub p} = 20{sup +7}{sub -8} M{sub +} and a = 3.3{sup +1.4}{sub -0.8} AU, respectively. This discovery adds another cold Neptune-mass planet to the planetary sample discovered by microlensing, which now comprises four cold Neptune/super-Earths, five gas giant planets, and another sub-Saturn mass planet whose nature is unclear. The discovery of these 10 cold exoplanets by the microlensing method implies that the mass ratio function of cold exoplanets scales as dN{sub pl}/dlog q {proportional_to} q {sup -0.7+}-{sup 0.2} with a 95% confidence level upper limit of n < -0.35 (where dN{sub pl}/dlog q {proportional_to} q{sup n} ). As microlensing is most sensitive to planets beyond the snow-line, this implies that Neptune-mass planets are at least three times more common than Jupiters in this region at the 95% confidence level.
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