Related papers: RISE: a fast-readout imager for exoplanet transit …
Transiting exoplanets provide detailed access to their atmospheres, as the planet's signal can be effectively separated from that of its host star. For transiting exoplanets three fundamental atmospheric measurements are possible:…
We used the 0.5-m robotic telescopes located at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences for monitoring two square degrees of the sky with the aim of detecting new exoplanets. A dimming of the visible…
Many of the planets discovered via the radial velocity technique are hot Jupiters in 3-5 day orbits with ~10$% chance of transiting their parent star. However, radial velocity surveys for extra-solar planets generally require substantial…
We update the ephemerides of 16 transiting exoplanets using our ground-based observations, new TESS data, and previously published observations including those of amateur astronomers. All these light curves were modeled by making use of a…
We have made a comprehensive transit search for exoplanets down to ~1.5 - 2 Earth radii in the HD 189733 system, based on 21-days of nearly uninterrupted broadband optical photometry obtained with the MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations…
The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect is the distortion of stellar spectral lines that occurs during eclipses or transits, due to stellar rotation. We assess the future prospects for using the RM effect to measure the alignment of planetary…
We investigate the possiblity to detect Earth-like planets, in the visible and the near infrared domains, with ground based Extremely Large Telescopes equipped with adaptive systems capable of providing high Strehl ratios. From a detailed…
We present the 3.5m SPICA space telescope, a proposed Japanese-led JAXA-ESA mission scheduled for launch around 2017. The actively cooled (<5 K), single aperture telescope and monolithic mirror will operate from ~3.5 to ~210 um and will…
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission is expected to discover hundreds of planets via single transits first identified in their light curves. Determining the orbital period of these single transit candidates typically…
We describe a project (transitsearch.org) currently attempting to discover transiting intermediate-period planets orbiting bright parent stars, and we simulate that project's performance. The discovery of such a transit would be an…
A planetary transit produces both a photometric signal and a spectroscopic signal. Precise observations of the transit light curve reveal the planetary radius and allow a search for timing anomalies caused by satellites or additional…
We recommend that the search for exoplanets around binary stars be extended to include X-ray binaries in which the accretor is a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole. We present a novel idea for detecting planets bound to such mass…
WASP-148 is a recently announced extra-solar system harbouring at least two giant planets. The inner planet transits its host star. The planets travel on eccentric orbits and are near the 4:1 mean-motion resonance, which implies significant…
We present theoretical predictions for photometric and spectroscopic signatures of rings around transiting extrasolar planets. On the basis of a general formulation for the transiting signature in the stellar light curve and the velocity…
Small planets are common around late-M dwarfs and can be detected through highly precise photometry by the transit method. Planets orbiting nearby stars are particularly important as they are often the best-suited for future follow-up…
The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has given us a new probe to study strong gravitational fields and to measure the physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a "next-generation" x-ray…
The Canadian MOST satellite is a unique platform for observations of bright transiting exoplanetary systems. Providing nearly continuous photometric observations for up to 8 weeks, MOST can produce important observational data to help us…
Observed properties of stars and planets in binary/multiple star systems provide clues to planet formation and evolution. We extended our survey for visual stellar companions to the hosts of transiting exoplanets by 21 stars, using the…
For much of human history we have wondered how our solar system formed, and whether there are any other planets like ours around other stars. Only in the last 20 years have we had direct evidence for the existence of exoplanets, with the…
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a medium-class mission belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA) Cosmic Vision programme. The mission payload is composed of 26 telescopes and cameras which will observe…