We report the discovery of TOI-172 b from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, a massive hot Jupiter transiting a slightly evolved G star with a 9.48-day orbital period. This is ...the first planet to be confirmed from analysis of only the TESS full frame images, because the host star was not chosen as a two-minute cadence target. From a global analysis of the TESS photometry and follow-up observations carried out by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program Working Group, TOI-172 (TIC 29857954) is a slightly evolved star with an effective temperature of Teff = 5645 50 K, a mass of M = M , radius of R = R , a surface gravity of log g = , and an age of . Its planetary companion (TOI-172 b) has a radius of RP = RJ, a mass of MP = MJ, and is on an eccentric orbit ( ). TOI-172 b is one of the few known massive giant planets on a highly eccentric short-period orbit. Future study of the atmosphere of this planet and its system architecture offer opportunities to understand the formation and evolution of similar systems.
Abstract
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to start the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in early to mid-2025. This multiband wide-field synoptic survey will transform our view of the ...solar system, with the discovery and monitoring of over five million small bodies. The final survey strategy chosen for LSST has direct implications on the discoverability and characterization of solar system minor planets and passing interstellar objects. Creating an inventory of the solar system is one of the four main LSST science drivers. The LSST observing cadence is a complex optimization problem that must balance the priorities and needs of all the key LSST science areas. To design the best LSST survey strategy, a series of operation simulations using the Rubin Observatory scheduler have been generated to explore the various options for tuning observing parameters and prioritizations. We explore the impact of the various simulated LSST observing strategies on studying the solar system’s small body reservoirs. We examine what are the best observing scenarios and review what are the important considerations for maximizing LSST solar system science. In general, most of the LSST cadence simulations produce ±5% or less variations in our chosen key metrics, but a subset of the simulations significantly hinder science returns with much larger losses in the discovery and light-curve metrics.
Abstract
The TESS mission produces a large amount of time series data, only a small fraction of which contain detectable exoplanetary transit signals. Deep-learning techniques such as neural networks ...have proved effective at differentiating promising astrophysical eclipsing candidates from other phenomena such as stellar variability and systematic instrumental effects in an efficient, unbiased, and sustainable manner. This paper presents a high-quality data set containing light curves from the Primary Mission and 1st Extended Mission full-frame images and periodic signals detected via box least-squares. The data set was curated using a thorough manual review process then used to train a neural network called
Astronet-Triage-v2
. On our test set, for transiting/eclipsing events, we achieve a 99.6% recall (true positives over all data with positive labels) at a precision of 75.7% (true positives over all predicted positives). Since 90% of our training data is from the Primary Mission, we also test our ability to generalize on held-out 1st Extended Mission data. Here, we find an area under the precision-recall curve of 0.965, a 4% improvement over
Astronet-Triage
. On the TESS object of interest (TOI) Catalog through 2022 April, a shortlist of planets and planet candidates,
Astronet-Triage-v2
is able to recover 3577 out of 4140 TOIs, while
Astronet-Triage
only recovers 3349 targets at an equal level of precision. In other words, upgrading to
Astronet-Triage-v2
helps save at least 200 planet candidates from being lost. The new model is currently used for planet candidate triage in the Quick-Look Pipeline.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) exoplanet-hunting mission detected the rising and decaying optical afterglow of GRB 191016A, a long gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by Swift-BAT but ...without prompt XRT or UVOT follow-up due to proximity to the Moon. The afterglow has a late peak at least 1000 s after the BAT trigger, with a brightest-detected TESS data point at 2589.7 s post-trigger. The burst was not detected by Fermi-LAT, but was detected by Fermi-GBM without triggering, possibly due to the gradual nature of the rising light curve. Using ground-based photometry, we estimate a photometric redshift of z(sub phot) = 3.29 ± 0.40. Combined with the high-energy emission and optical peak time derived from TESS, estimates of the bulk Lorentz factor Γ(sub BL) range from 90 to 133. The burst is relatively bright, with a peak optical magnitude in ground-based follow-up of R = 15.1 mag. Using published distributions of GRB afterglows and considering the TESS sensitivity and sampling, we estimate that TESS is likely to detect ∼1 GRB afterglow per year above its magnitude limit.
Abstract
Observational data from astronomical imaging surveys contain information about a variety of source populations and environments, and their complexity will increase substantially as ...telescopes become more sensitive. Even for existing observations, measuring the correlations between pointlike and diffuse emission can be crucial to correctly inferring the properties of any individual component. For this task, information is typically lost, because of conservative data cuts, aggressive filtering, or incomplete treatment of contaminated data. We present the code
PCAT-DE
, an extension of probabilistic cataloging, designed to simultaneously model pointlike and diffuse signals. This work incorporates both explicit spatial templates and a set of nonparametric Fourier component templates into a forward model of astronomical images, reducing the number of processing steps applied to the observed data. Using synthetic Herschel-SPIRE multiband observations, we demonstrate that point-source and diffuse emission can be reliably separated and measured. We present two applications of this model. For the first, we perform point-source detection/photometry in the presence of galactic cirrus and demonstrate that cosmic infrared background galaxy counts can be recovered in cases of significant contamination. In the second, we show that the spatially extended thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect signal can be reliably measured even when it is subdominant to the pointlike emission from individual galaxies.
Abstract
We study the red-optical photometry of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121 b as observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and model its atmosphere through a radiative transfer ...simulation. Given its short orbital period of ∼1.275 days, inflated state, and bright host star, WASP-121 b is exceptionally favorable for detailed atmospheric characterization. Toward this purpose, we use
allesfitter
to characterize its full red-optical phase curve, including the planetary phase modulation and secondary eclipse. We measure the day- and nightside brightness temperatures in the TESS passband as
and
K, respectively, and do not find a statistically significant phase shift between the brightest and substellar points. This is consistent with inefficient heat recirculation on the planet. We then perform an atmospheric retrieval analysis to infer the dayside atmospheric properties of WASP-121 b, such as its bulk composition, albedo, and heat recirculation. We confirm the temperature inversion in the atmosphere and suggest H
−
, TiO, and VO as potential causes of the inversion, absorbing heat at optical wavelengths at low pressures. Future Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope observations of WASP-121 b will benefit from its first full phase curve measured by TESS.
Abstract
The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of planetary evolution by providing ...new opportunities to discover young exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and Fürnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called “Group-X” by the former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this association, and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members using TESS data. The clear color–period sequence indicates that the association is the same age as the 300 ± 50 Myr old NGC 3532. We obtained optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically validate TOI 2048 b, which is a 2.1 ± 0.2
R
⊕
radius planet on a 13.8-day orbit around its 300 Myr old host star.
Abstract
We present 307 type Ia supernova (SN) light curves from the first 4 yr of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. We use this sample to characterize the shapes of the early-time ...light curves, measure the rise times from first light to peak, and search for companion star interactions. Using simulations, we show that light curves must have noise <10% of the peak flux to avoid biases in the early-time light-curve shape, restricting our quantitative analysis to 74 light curves. We find that the mean power-law index
t
β
1
of the early-time light curves is
β
1
= 1.93 ± 0.57, and the mean rise time to peak is 15.7 ± 3.5 days. The underlying population distribution for
β
1
may instead consist of a Gaussian component with mean 2.29, width 0.34, and a long tail extending to values less than 1.0. We find that the data can rarely distinguish between models with and without companion interaction models. Nevertheless, we find three high-quality light curves that tentatively prefer the addition of a companion interaction model, but the statistical evidence for the companion interactions is not robust. We also find two SNe that disfavor the addition of a companion interaction model to a curved power-law model. Taking the 74 SNe together, we calculate 3
σ
upper limits on the presence of companion signatures to control for orientation effects that can hide companions in individual light curves. Our results rule out common progenitor systems with companions having Roche lobe radii >31
R
⊙
(separations >5.7 × 10
12
cm, 99.9% confidence level) and disfavor companions having Roche lobe radii >10
R
⊙
(separations >1.9 × 10
12
cm, 95% confidence level). Lastly, we discuss the implications of our results for the intrinsic fraction of single degenerate progenitor systems.
We report the discovery of a transiting, temperate, Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the nearby (d = 27.5 pc), M3V star TOI-1231 (NLTT 24399, L 248-27, 2MASS J10265947-5228099). The planet was ...detected using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and followed up with observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory and the Antarctica Search for Transiting ExoPlanets program. Combining the photometric data sets, we find that the newly discovered planet has a radius of 3.65(+0.16,-0.15)Rꚛ and an orbital period of 24.246 days. Radial velocity measurements obtained with the Planet Finder Spectrograph on the Magellan Clay telescope confirm the existence of the planet and lead to a mass measurement of 15.5 ± 3.3 Mꚛ. With an equilibrium temperature of just 330 K, TOI-1231 b is one of the coolest small planets accessible for atmospheric studies thus far, and its host star's bright near-infrared brightness (J = 8.88, Ks = 8.07) makes it an exciting target for the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. Future atmospheric observations would enable the first comparative planetology efforts in the 250–350 K temperature regime via comparisons with K2-18 b. Furthermore, TOI-1231's high systemic radial velocity (70.5 km/s) may allow for the detection of low-velocity hydrogen atoms escaping the planet by Doppler, shifting the H i Lyα stellar emission away from the geocoronal and interstellar medium absorption features.
We report the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite detection of a multi-planet system orbiting the V = 10.9 K0 dwarf TOI-125. We find evidence for up to five planets, with varying confidence. Three ...transit signals with high signal-to-noise ratio correspond to sub-Neptune-sized planets (2.76, 2.79, and 2.94 R⊕), and we statistically validate the planetary nature of the two inner planets (Pb = 4.65 days, Pc = 9.15 days). With only two transits observed, we report the outer object (P.03 = 19.98 days) as a planet candidate with high signal-to-noise ratio. We also detect a candidate transiting super-Earth (1.4 R⊕) with an orbital period of only 12.7 hr and a candidate Neptune-sized planet (4.2 R⊕) with a period of 13.28 days, both at low signal-to-noise ratio. This system is amenable to mass determination via radial velocities and transit-timing variations, and provides an opportunity to study planets of similar size while controlling for age and environment. The ratio of orbital periods between TOI-125 b and c (Pc/Pb = 1.97) is slightly lower than an exact 2:1 commensurability and is atypical of multiple planet systems from Kepler, which show a preference for period ratios just wide of first-order period ratios. A dynamical analysis refines the allowed parameter space through stability arguments and suggests that despite the nearly commensurate periods, the system is unlikely to be in resonance.
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