The magnetic cataclysmic variables (MCVs) present a wealth of observational diagnostics for studying accretion flows interacting with a magnetosphere. Spin-period pulsations from the rotation of the ...white dwarf are seen in optical light, in the UV and X-ray bands, and in polarimetry, and modelling these can constrain the size and location of the accretion footprints on the white-dwarf surface. Tracing these back along field line scan tell us about the transition region between the stream or disk and the magnetosphere. Further, optical emission lines give us velocity information, while analysis of eclipses gives spatial information. I discuss MCVs (particularly FO Aqr, V405 Aur, XY Ari and EX Hya, but also mentioning PQ Gem, GK Per, V2400 Oph, HT Cam, TX Col, AO Psc, AE Aqr, WZ Sge, V1223 Sgr and DQ Her), reviewing what observations tell us about the disk-magnetosphere boundary. The spin-period variations are caused by a mixture of geometric effects and absorption by the accretion flow, and appear to show that the accretion disk feeds onto field lines differently in different systems, being sometimes along field lines ahead of the magnetic pole and sometimes behind the pole. During outbursts, when the accretion flow increases by orders of magnitude, the disk pushes the magnetosphere inwards, and appears to feed field lines over a much greater range of magnetic azimuth. The non-equilibrium outburst behaviour shows an even richer phenomenology than in quiescence, adding DNOs and QPOs into the mix.
Young exoplanets are snapshots of the planetary evolution process. Planets that orbit stars in young associations are particularly important because the age of the planetary system is well ...constrained. We present the discovery of a transiting planet larger than Neptune but smaller than Saturn in the 45 Myr Tucana-Horologium young moving group. The host star is a visual binary, and our follow-up observations demonstrate that the planet orbits the G6V primary component, DS Tuc A (HD 222259A, TIC 410214986). We first identified transits using photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS; alerted as TOI 200.01). We validated the planet and improved the stellar parameters using a suite of new and archival data, including spectra from Southern Astrophysical Research/Goodman, South African Extremely Large Telescope/High Resolution Spectrograph and Las Cumbres Observatories/Network of Robotic Echelle Spectrographs; transit photometry from Spitzer; and deep adaptive optics imaging from Gemini/Gemini Planet Imager. No additional stellar or planetary signals are seen in the data. We measured the planetary parameters by simultaneously modeling the photometry with a transit model and a Gaussian process to account for stellar variability. We determined that the planetary radius is 5.70 0.17 R⊕ and that the orbital period is 8.1 days. The inclination angles of the host star's spin axis, the planet's orbital axis, and the visual binary's orbital axis are aligned within 15° to within the uncertainties of the relevant data. DS Tuc Ab is bright enough (V = 8.5) for detailed characterization using radial velocities and transmission spectroscopy.
We report the discovery of two intermediate-mass transiting brown dwarfs (BDs), TOI-569b and TOI-1406b, from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. TOI-569b has an orbital period of P ...= 6.55604 0.00016 days, a mass of Mb = 64.1 1.9 , and a radius of Rb = 0.75 0.02 . Its host star, TOI-569, has a mass of M = 1.21 0.05 , a radius of R = 1.47 0.03 , dex, and an effective temperature of Teff = 5768 110 K. TOI-1406b has an orbital period of P = 10.57415 0.00063 days, a mass of Mb = 46.0 2.7 , and a radius of Rb = 0.86 0.03 . The host star for this BD has a mass of M = 1.18 0.09 , a radius of R = 1.35 0.03 , dex, and an effective temperature of Teff = 6290 100 K. Both BDs are in circular orbits around their host stars and are older than 3 Gyr based on stellar isochrone models of the stars. TOI-569 is one of two slightly evolved stars known to host a transiting BD (the other being KOI-415). TOI-1406b is one of three known transiting BDs to occupy the mass range of 40-50 and one of two to have a circular orbit at a period near 10 days (with the first being KOI-205b). Both BDs have reliable ages from stellar isochrones, in addition to their well-constrained masses and radii, making them particularly valuable as tests for substellar isochrones in the BD mass-radius diagram.
We report the discovery of GJ 1252 b, a planet with a radius of 1.193 0.074 and an orbital period of 0.52 days around an M3-type star (0.381 0.019 , 0.391 0.020 ) located 20.385 0.019 pc away. We use ...Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, ground-based photometry and spectroscopy, Gaia astrometry, and high angular resolution imaging to show that the transit signal seen in the TESS data must originate from a transiting planet. We do so by ruling out all false-positive scenarios that attempt to explain the transit signal as originating from an eclipsing stellar binary. Precise Doppler monitoring also leads to a tentative mass measurement of 2.09 0.56 M⊕. The host star proximity, brightness (V = 12.19 mag, K = 7.92 mag), low stellar activity, and the system's short orbital period make this planet an attractive target for detailed characterization, including precise mass measurement, looking for other objects in the system, and planet atmosphere characterization.
The carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) in a planet provides critical information about its primordial origins and subsequent evolution. A primordial C/O greater than 0.8 causes a carbide-dominated ...interior, as opposed to the silicate-dominated composition found on Earth; the atmosphere can also differ from those in the Solar System. The solar C/O is 0.54 (ref. 3). Here we report an analysis of dayside multi-wavelength photometry of the transiting hot-Jupiter WASP-12b (ref. 6) that reveals C/O ≥ 1 in its atmosphere. The atmosphere is abundant in CO. It is depleted in water vapour and enhanced in methane, each by more than two orders of magnitude compared to a solar-abundance chemical-equilibrium model at the expected temperatures. We also find that the extremely irradiated atmosphere (T > 2,500 K) of WASP-12b lacks a prominent thermal inversion (or stratosphere) and has very efficient day-night energy circulation. The absence of a strong thermal inversion is in stark contrast to theoretical predictions for the most highly irradiated hot-Jupiter atmospheres.
We report the first discovery of a thick-disk planet, LHS 1815b (TOI-704b, TIC 260004324), detected in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) survey. LHS 1815b transits a bright (V = 12.19 ...mag, K = 7.99 mag) and quiet M dwarf located 29.87 0.02 pc away with a mass of 0.502 0.015 M and a radius of 0.501 0.030 R . We validate the planet by combining space- and ground-based photometry, spectroscopy, and imaging. The planet has a radius of 1.088 0.064 R⊕ with a 3 mass upper limit of 8.7 M⊕. We analyze the galactic kinematics and orbit of the host star LHS 1815 and find that it has a large probability (Pthick/Pthin = 6482) to be in the thick disk with a much higher expected maximal height (Zmax = 1.8 kpc) above the Galactic plane compared with other TESS planet host stars. Future studies of the interior structure and atmospheric properties of planets in such systems using, for example, the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, can investigate the differences in formation efficiency and evolution for planetary systems between different Galactic components (thick disks, thin disks, and halo).
Abstract
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission was designed to find transiting planets around bright, nearby stars. Here, we present the detection and mass measurement of a small, ...short-period (≈4 days) transiting planet around the bright (
V
= 7.9), solar-type star HD 86226 (TOI-652, TIC 22221375), previously known to host a long-period (∼1600 days) giant planet. HD 86226c (TOI-652.01) has a radius of 2.16 ± 0.08
R
⊕
and a mass of
M
⊕
, based on archival and new radial velocity data. We also update the parameters of the longer-period, not-known-to-transit planet, and find it to be less eccentric and less massive than previously reported. The density of the transiting planet is 3.97 g cm
−3
, which is low enough to suggest that the planet has at least a small volatile envelope, but the mass fractions of rock, iron, and water are not well-constrained. Given the host star brightness, planet period, and location of the planet near both the “radius gap” and the “hot Neptune desert,” HD 86226c is an interesting candidate for transmission spectroscopy to further refine its composition.
ABSTRACT
The chemical abundances of exoplanet atmospheres may provide valuable information about the bulk compositions, formation pathways, and evolutionary histories of planets. Exoplanets with ...large, relatively cloud-free atmospheres, and which orbit bright stars provide the best opportunities for accurate abundance measurements. For this reason, we measured the transmission spectrum of the bright (V ∼ 10.2), large (1.37 RJ), sub-Saturn mass (0.19 MJ) exoplanet WASP-127b across the near-UV to near-infrared wavelength range (0.3–5 μm), using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Our results show a feature-rich transmission spectrum, with absorption from Na, H2O, and CO2, and wavelength-dependent scattering from small-particle condensates. We ran two types of atmospheric retrieval models: one enforcing chemical equilibrium, and the other which fit the abundances freely. Our retrieved abundances at chemical equilibrium for Na, O, and C are all supersolar, with abundances relative to solar values of 9$^{+15}_{-6}$, 16$^{+7}_{-5}$, and 26$^{+12}_{-9}$, respectively. Despite giving conflicting C/O ratios, both retrievals gave supersolar CO2 volume mixing ratios, which adds to the likelihood that WASP-127b’s bulk metallicity is supersolar, since CO2 abundance is highly sensitive to atmospheric metallicity. We detect water at a significance of 13.7σ. Our detection of Na is in agreement with previous ground-based detections, though we find a much lower abundance, and we also do not find evidence for Li or K despite increased sensitivity. In the future, spectroscopy with James Webb Space Telescope will be able to constrain WASP-127b’s C/O ratio, and may reveal the formation history of this metal-enriched, highly observable exoplanet.
Abstract
We present seven new transiting hot Jupiters from the WASP-South survey. The planets are all typical hot Jupiters orbiting stars from F4 to K0 with magnitudes of V = 10.3-12.5. The orbital ...periods are all in the range of 3.9-4.6 d, the planetary masses range from 0.4 to 2.3 M
Jup and the radii from 1.1 to 1.4 R
Jup. In line with known hot Jupiters, the planetary densities range from Jupiter-like to inflated (ρ = 0.13-1.07ρJup). We use the increasing numbers of known hot Jupiters to investigate the distribution of their orbital periods and the 3-4 d 'pile-up'.
Abstract
Large-scale exoplanet surveys like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission are powerful tools for discovering large numbers of exoplanet candidates. Single-transit events ...are commonplace within the resulting candidate list due to the unavoidable limitation of the observing baseline. These single-transit planets often remain unverified due to their unknown orbital periods and consequent difficulty in scheduling follow-up observations. In some cases, radial velocity (RV) follow up can constrain the period enough to enable a future targeted transit detection. We present the confirmation of one such planet: TOI-2010 b. Nearly three years of RV coverage determined the period to a level where a broad window search could be undertaken with the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, detecting an additional transit. An additional detection in a much later TESS sector solidified our final parameter estimation. We find TOI-2010 b to be a Jovian planet (
M
P
= 1.29
M
Jup
,
R
P
= 1.05
R
Jup
) on a mildly eccentric orbit (
e
= 0.21) with a period of
P
= 141.83403 days. Assuming a simple model with no albedo and perfect heat redistribution, the equilibrium temperature ranges from about 360 to 450 K from apastron to periastron. Its wide orbit and bright host star (
V
= 9.85) make TOI-2010 b a valuable test bed for future low-insolation atmospheric analysis.
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