The 55 Cancri system reassessed Bourrier, V.; Dumusque, X.; Dorn, C. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
11/2018, Letnik:
619
Journal Article
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Orbiting a bright, nearby star the 55 Cnc system offers a rare opportunity to study a multiplanet system that has a wide range of planetary masses and orbital distances. Using two decades of ...photometry and spectroscopy data, we have measured the rotation of the host star and its solar-like magnetic cycle. Accounting for this cycle in our velocimetric analysis of the system allows us to revise the properties of the outermost giant planet and its four planetary companions. The innermost planet 55 Cnc e is an unusually close-in super-Earth, whose transits have allowed for detailed follow-up studies. Recent observations favor the presence of a substantial atmosphere yet its composition, and the nature of the planet, remain unknown. We combined our derived planet mass (Mp = 8.0 ± 0.3 MEarth) with refined measurement of its optical radius derived from HST/STIS observations (Rp = 1.88 ± 0.03 REarth over 530–750 nm) to revise the density of 55 Cnc e (ρ = 6.7 ± 0.4 g cm−3). Based on these revised properties we have characterized possible interiors of 55 Cnc e using a generalized Bayesian model. We confirm that the planet is likely surrounded by a heavyweight atmosphere, contributing a few percents of the planet radius. While we cannot exclude the presence of a water layer underneath the atmosphere, this scenario is unlikely given the observations of the planet across the entire spectrum and its strong irradiation. Follow-up observations of the system in photometry and in spectroscopy over different time-scales are needed to further investigate the nature and origin of this iconic super-Earth.
The present paper focuses on the local characterization of gas–liquid mass transfer in a straight millimetric square channel, as constituting the preliminary step required for performing gas–liquid ...reactions in such devices. For this purpose, a new colourimetric technique using an oxygen sensitive dye was developed. It was based on the reduction of a colourimetric indicator in presence of oxygen, this reduction being catalysed by sodium hydroxide and glucose. In this study, resazurin was selected as the colourimetric indicator as it offered various reduced forms, the colours of which ranged from colourless (without oxygen) to pink (when oxygen was present). Thus the mass transfer around bubbles flowing in a straight millimetric square channel could be visualized in space and time. Some pictures were recorded by a monochromatic CCD high speed camera and, after post-processing, the shape, size and velocity of the bubbles, and the grey-level maps around them were measured. A calculation method was also developed to determine the transferred oxygen fluxes around the bubbles and the associated liquid-side mass transfer coefficients. The results compared satisfactorily with global measurements made using oxygen microsensors (Roudet et al., 2011. Hydrodynamics and mass transfer in inertial gas–liquid flow regimes through straigth and meandering millimetric square channels. Chem. Eng. Sci. 66, 2974–2990). This study constitutes a striking example of how interesting a tool this new colourimetric method could be for investigating gas–liquid mass transfer in transparent fluids with a view to quick millireactor design.
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•New colourimetric technique using an oxygen sensitive dye.•Vizualization of mass transfer around bubbles in millimetric channel.•Calculation method to determine the transferred oxygen fluxes.•Tool for quick millireactor design.•New insight into the mechanism of bubble mass transfer.
The statistical validation of transiting exoplanets proved to be an efficient technique to secure the nature of small exoplanet signals which cannot be established by purely spectroscopic means. ...However, the spectroscopic diagnoses are providing us with useful constraints on the presence of blended stellar contaminants. In this paper, we present how a contaminating star affects the measurements of the various spectroscopic diagnoses as a function of the parameters of the target and contaminating stars using the model implemented into the pastis planet-validation software. We find particular cases for which a blend might produce a large radial velocity signal but no bisector variation. It might also produce a bisector variation anticorrelated with the radial velocity one, as in the case of stellar spots. In those cases, the full width at half-maximum variation provides complementary constraints. These results can be used to constrain blend scenarios for transiting planet candidates or radial velocity planets. We review all the spectroscopic diagnoses reported in the literature so far, especially the ones to monitor the line asymmetry. We estimate their uncertainty and compare their sensitivity to blends. Based on that, we recommend the use of BiGauss which is the most sensitive diagnosis to monitor line-profile asymmetry. In this paper, we also investigate the sensitivity of the radial velocities to constrain blend scenarios and develop a formalism to estimate the level of dilution of a blended signal. Finally, we apply our blend model to re-analyse the spectroscopic diagnoses of HD 16702, an unresolved face-on binary which exhibits bisector variations.
Although technically challenging, detecting Earth-like planets around very low mass stars is in principle accessible to the existing velocimeters of highest radial-velocity (RV) precision. However, ...low-mass stars being active, they often feature dark spots and magnetic regions at their surfaces generating a noise level in RV curves (called activity jitter) that can severely limit our practical ability at detecting Earth-like planets. Whereas the impact of dark spots on RV data has been extensively studied in the literature, that of magnetic features only received little attention up to now. In this paper, we aim at quantifying the impact of magnetic fields (and the Zeeman broadening they induce) on line profiles, line bisectors and RV data. With a simple model, we quantitatively study the RV signals and bisector distortions that small magnetic regions or global magnetic dipoles can generate, especially at infrared wavelengths where the Zeeman broadening is much larger than that in the visible. We report in particular that the impact of magnetic features on line bisectors can be different from that of cool spots when the rotational broadening is comparable to or larger than the Zeeman broadening; more specifically, we find in this case that the top and bottom sections of the bisectors are anticorrelated, i.e. the opposite behaviour of what is observed for cool spots. We finally suggest new options to show and ultimately filter the impact of the magnetic activity on RV curves.
We present high-resolution near-infrared spectropolarimetric observations using the SPIRou instrument at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) during a transit of the recently detected young planet ...AU Mic b, with supporting spectroscopic data from iSHELL at NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility. We detect Zeeman signatures in the Stokes
V
profiles and measure a mean longitudinal magnetic field of ¯
B
ℓ
= 46.3 ± 0.7 G. Rotationally modulated magnetic spots likely cause long-term variations of the field with a slope of d
B
ℓ
/d
t
= −108.7 ± 7.7 G d
−1
. We apply the cross-correlation technique to measure line profiles and obtain radial velocities through CCF template matching. We find an empirical linear relationship between radial velocity and
B
ℓ
, which allows us to estimate the radial-velocity induced by stellar activity through rotational modulation of spots for the five hours of continuous monitoring of AU Mic with SPIRou. We model the corrected radial velocities for the classical Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, using MCMC to sample the posterior distribution of the model parameters. This analysis shows that the orbit of AU Mic b is prograde and aligned with the stellar rotation axis with a sky-projected spin-orbit obliquity of
λ
= 0°
−15°
+18°
. The aligned orbit of AU Mic b indicates that it formed in the protoplanetary disk that evolved into the current debris disk around AU Mic.
Atmospheric escape has been detected from the exoplanet HD 209458b through transit observations of the hydrogen Lyman-α line. Here we present spectrally resolved Lyman-α transit observations of the ...exoplanet HD 189733b at two different epochs. These HST/STIS observations show for the first time that there are significant temporal variations in the physical conditions of an evaporating planetary atmosphere. While atmospheric hydrogen is not detected in the first epoch observations, it is observed at the second epoch, producing a transit absorption depth of 14.4 ± 3.6% between velocities of −230 to −140 km s-1. Contrary to HD 209458b, these high velocities cannot arise from radiation pressure alone and require an additional acceleration mechanism, such as interactions with stellar wind protons. The observed absorption can be explained by an atmospheric escape rate of neutral hydrogen atoms of about 109 g s-1, a stellar wind with a velocity of 190 km s-1 and a temperature of ~105 K. An X-ray flare from the active star seen with Swift/XRT 8 h before the second-epoch observation supports the idea that the observed changes within the upper atmosphere of the planet can be caused by variations in the stellar wind properties, or by variations in the stellar energy input to the planetary escaping gas (or a mix of the two effects). These observations provide the first indication of interaction between the exoplanet’s atmosphere and stellar variations.
AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is a young, active star whose transiting planet was recently detected. Here, we report our analysis of its TESS light curve, where we modeled the BY Draconis type ...quasi-periodic rotational modulation by starspots simultaneously to the flaring activity and planetary transits. We measured a flare occurrence rate in AU Mic of 6.35 flares per day for flares with amplitudes in the range of 0.06% <
f
max
< 1.5% of the star flux. We employed a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to model the five transits of AU Mic b observed by TESS, improving the constraints on the planetary parameters. The measured planet-to-star effective radius ratio of
R
p
∕
R
⋆
= 0.0496 ± 0.0007 implies a physical radius of 4.07 ± 0.17
R
⊕
and a planet density of 1.4 ± 0.4 g cm
−3
, confirming that AU Mic b is a Neptune-size moderately inflated planet. While a single feature possibly due to a second planet was previously reported in the former TESS data, we report the detection of two additional transit-like events in the new TESS observations of July 2020. This represents substantial evidence for a second planet (AU Mic c) in the system. We analyzed its three available transits and obtained an orbital period of 18.859019 ± 0.000016 d and a planetary radius of 3.24 ± 0.16
R
⊕
, which defines AU Mic c as a warm Neptune-size planet with an expected mass in the range of 2.2
M
⊕
<
M
c
< 25.0
M
⊕
, estimated from the population of exoplanets of similar sizes. The two planets in the AU Mic system are in near 9:4 mean-motion resonance. We show that this configuration is dynamically stable and should produce transit-timing variations (TTV). Our non-detection of significant TTV in AU Mic b suggests an upper limit for the mass of AU Mic c of <7
M
⊕
, indicating that this planet is also likely to be inflated. As a young multi-planet system with at least two transiting planets, AU Mic becomes a key system for the study of atmospheres of infant planets and of planet-planet and planet-disk dynamics at the early stages of planetary evolution.
The young planetary system surrounding the star β Pictoris harbours active minor bodies. These asteroids and comets produce a large amount of dust and gas through collisions and evaporation, as ...happened early in the history of our Solar System. Spectroscopic observations of β Pictoris reveal a high rate of transits of small evaporating bodies, that is, exocomets. Here we report an analysis of more than 1,000 archival spectra gathered between 2003 and 2011, which provides a sample of about 6,000 variable absorption signatures arising from exocomets transiting the disk of the parent star. Statistical analysis of the observed properties of these exocomets allows us to identify two populations with different physical properties. One family consists of exocomets producing shallow absorption lines, which can be attributed to old exhausted (that is, strongly depleted in volatiles) comets trapped in a mean motion resonance with a massive planet. Another family consists of exocomets producing deep absorption lines, which may be related to the recent fragmentation of one or a few parent bodies. Our results show that the evaporating bodies observed for decades in the β Pictoris system are analogous to the comets in our own Solar System.
We present new measurements of the projected spin-orbit angle lambda for six WASP hot Jupiters, four of which are new to the literature (WASP-61, -62, -76, and -78), and two of which are new analyses ...of previously measured systems using new data (WASP-71, and -79). We use three different models based on two different techniques: radial velocity measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, and Doppler tomography. Our comparison of the different models reveals that they produce projected stellar rotation velocities (v sin I sub( s)) measurements often in disagreement with each other and with estimates obtained from spectral line broadening. The Boue model for the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect consistently underestimates the value of v sin I sub( s) compared to the Hirano model. Although v sin I sub( s) differed, the effect on lambda was small for our sample, with all three methods producing values in agreement with each other. Using Doppler tomography, we find that WASP-61 b ( lambda =4 degree . 0 +...), WASP-71 b ( lambda =-1 degree . 9 +...), and WASP-78 b ( lambda = -6. degree 4 plus or minus 5.9) are aligned. WASP-62 b ( lambda =19 degree . 4 +...) is found to be slightly misaligned, while WASP-79 b ( lambda =-95 degree .2 +...) is confirmed to be strongly misaligned and has a retrograde orbit. We explore a range of possibilities for the orbit of WASP-76 b, finding that the orbit is likely to be strongly misaligned in the positive lambda direction. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Since the start of the Wide-angle Search for Planets (WASP) program, more than 160 transiting exoplanets have been discovered in the WASP data. In the past, possible transit-like events identified by ...the WASP pipeline have been vetted by human inspection to eliminate false alarms and obvious false positives. The goal of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of machine learning as a fast, automated, and reliable means of performing the same functions on ground-based wide-field transit-survey data without human intervention. To this end, we have created training and test data sets made up of stellar light curves showing a variety of signal types including planetary transits, eclipsing binaries, variable stars, and non-periodic signals. We use a combination of machine-learning methods including Random Forest Classifiers (RFCs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to distinguish between the different types of signals. The final algorithms correctly identify planets in the test data ∼90 per cent of the time, although each method on its own has a significant fraction of false positives. We find that in practice, a combination of different methods offers the best approach to identifying the most promising exoplanet transit candidates in data from WASP, and by extension similar transit surveys.
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