Related papers: The 55 Cancri System: Fundamental Stellar Paramete…
The atmospheres of hot rocky exoplanets (HREs), should they persist, are products of interactions with underlying magma oceans. Spectra collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) hint at a CO/CO$_2$-rich atmosphere on the HRE 55…
Spectra that cover wavelengths from 0.6 to 1.1um are used to examine the behavior of emission and absorption features in a contiguous 22 x 300 arcsec region centered on the nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 55. Based on the relative strengths of…
We directly measured the angular diameters for 11 exoplanet host stars using Georgia State University's CHARA Array interferometer and calculated their linear radii and effective temperatures. The sample tends towards evolving or evolved…
One of the key goals of exoplanet science is the atmospheric characterisation of super-Earths. Atmospheric abundances provide insight on the formation and evolution of those planets and help to put our own rocky planets in context.…
M dwarf stars, which have masses less than 60 per cent that of the Sun, make up 75 per cent of the population of the stars in the Galaxy [1]. The atmospheres of orbiting Earth-sized planets are observationally accessible via transmission…
In an attempt to select stars that can host planets with characteristics similar to our own, we selected seven solar-type stars known to host planets in the habitable zone and for which spectroscopic stellar parameters are available. For…
We present 44 days of high duty cycle, ultra precise photometry of the 13th magnitude star Kepler-5 (KIC 8191672, Teff=6300 K, logg=4.1), which exhibits periodic transits with a depth of 0.7%. Detailed modeling of the transit is consistent…
The conditions that a planet must fulfill to be habitable are not precisely known. However, it is comparatively easier to define conditions under which a planet is very likely not habitable. Finding such conditions is important as it can…
Using Georgia State University's CHARA Array interferometer, we measured angular diameters for 25 giant stars, six of which host exoplanets. The combination of these measurements and Hipparcos parallaxes produce physical linear radii for…
Of the over 450 exoplanets known to date, more than 420 of them have been discovered using radial velocity studies, a method that tells nothing about the inclination of the planet's orbit. Because it is more likely that the companion is a…
In order to understand the exoplanet, you need to understand its parent star. Astrophysical parameters of extrasolar planets are directly and indirectly dependent on the properties of their respective host stars. These host stars are very…
Exoplanetary science is among the fastest evolving fields of today's astronomical research. Ground-based planet-hunting surveys alongside dedicated space missions (Kepler, CoRoT) are delivering an ever-increasing number of exoplanets, now…
The detection and atmospheric characterization of super-Earths is one of the major frontiers of exoplanetary science. Currently, extensive efforts are underway to detect molecules, particularly H2O, in super-Earth atmospheres. In the…
Recent results have shown that many of the known extrasolar planetary systems contain regions which are stable for both Earth-mass and Saturn-mass planets. Here we simulate the formation of terrestrial planets in four planetary systems --…
We present very sensitive polarimetry of 55 Cnc and tau Boo in an attempt to detect the partially polarised reflected light from the planets orbiting these two stars. 55 Cnc is orbited by a hot Neptune planet (55 Cnc e) at 0.038 AU, a hot…
We present a reanalysis of five transit and eight eclipse observations of the ultra-short period super-Earth 55 Cancri e observed using the Spitzer Space Telescope during 2011-2013. We use pixel-level decorrelation to derive accurate…
The bright M dwarf K2-18 at 34 pc is known to host a transiting super-Earth-sized planet orbiting within the star's habitable zone; K2-18b. Given the superlative nature of this system for studying an exoplanetary atmosphere receiving…
The enigmatic nature of 55 Cancri e has defied theoretical explanation. Any explanation needs to account for the observed variability of its secondary eclipse depth, which is at times consistent with zero in the visible/optical range of…
The nature of the close-in rocky planet 55 Cnc e is puzzling despite having been observed extensively. Its optical and infrared occultation depths show temporal variability, in addition to a phase curve variability observed in the optical.…
Alpha Centauri is a triple stellar system, and it contains the closest star to Earth (Proxima Centauri). Over the last decades, the stars in Alpha Cen and their orbits have been investigated in great detail. However, the possible scenarios…