Related papers: Rocky Extrasolar Planetary Compositions Derived fr…
We present a series of systematic abundance measurements for a group of hot DA white dwarfs in the temperature range 20,000-75,000K, based on far-UV spectroscopy with STIS on HST, IUE and FUSE. Using our latest heavy element blanketed…
We calculate detailed chemical abundance profiles for a variety of brown dwarf and extrasolar giant planet atmosphere models, focusing in particular on Gliese 229B, and derive the systematics of the changes in the dominant reservoirs of the…
We report Spitzer Space Telescope photometry of eleven externally-polluted white dwarfs. Of the nine stars for which we have IRAC photometry, we find that GD 40, GD 133 and PG 1015+161 each has an infrared excess that can be understood as…
Abundances of about 18 elements including the heavy elements Y and Zr are determined from Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph ultraviolet spectra of seven extreme helium stars (EHes): LSE 78, BD+10 2179, V1920 Cyg,…
M dwarfs are prominent targets of planet search projects, and their chemical composition is crucial to understanding the formation process or interior of orbiting exoplanets. However, measurements of elemental abundances of M dwarfs have…
Relative to calcium, both strontium and barium are markedly enriched in Earth's continental crust compared to the basaltic crusts of other differentiated rocky bodies within the solar system. Here, we both re-examine available archived Keck…
Spectroscopic observations of white dwarfs reveal that many of them are polluted by exoplanetary material, whose bulk composition can be uniquely probed this way. We present a spectroscopic and photometric analysis of the DA white dwarf…
Motivated by recent detection of transiting high-density super-Earths, we explore the detectability of hot rocky super-Earths orbiting very close to their host stars. In the environment hot enough for their rocky surfaces to be molten, they…
A non negligible fraction of white dwarf stars show the presence of heavy elements in their atmospheres. The most accepted explanation for this contamination is the accretion of material coming from tidally disrupted planetesimals, which…
Recent dynamical analysis based on Gaia data have revealed major accretion events in Milky Way's history. Nevertheless, our understanding of the primordial Galaxy is hindered because the bona fide identification of the most metal-poor and…
The results of new spectroscopic analyses of 20 recently reported extrasolar planet parent stars are presented. The companion of one of these stars, HD 10697, has recently been shown to have a mass in the brown dwarf regime; we find [Fe/H]…
We use integrated-light spectroscopic observations to measure metallicities and chemical abundances for two extragalactic young massive star clusters (NGC1313-379 and NGC1705-1). The spectra were obtained with the X-Shooter spectrograph on…
The giant planet-metallicity correlation revealed that planetary formation depends on the stellar properties. There is growing evidence that it is also valid for smaller hot planets, but it is not clear whether elements other than iron also…
The composition of rocky planets is strongly driven by the primordial materials in the protoplanetary disk, which can be inferred from the abundances of the host star. Understanding this compositional link is crucial for characterizing…
The bulk chemical composition and interior structure of rocky exoplanets are of fundamental importance to understanding their long-term evolution and potential habitability. Observations of the chemical compositions of the solar system…
The present sample of nearby bulgelike dwarf stars has kinematics and metallicities characteristic of a probable inner disk or bulge origin. Ages derived by using isochrones give 10-11 Gyr for these stars and metallicities are in the range…
Low- and intermediate-mass ($\rm 0.8~M_\odot < M < 8~M_\odot$) stars that evolve into planetary nebulae (PNe) play an important role in tracing and driving Galactic chemical evolution. Spectroscopy of PNe enables access to both the initial…
Observations of heavy metal pollution in white dwarf stars indicate that metal-rich planetesimals are frequently scattered into star-grazing orbits, tidally disrupted, and accreted onto the white dwarf surface, offering direct insight into…
Nearly all known white dwarf planetary systems contain detectable rocky debris in the stellar photosphere. A glaring exception is the young and still evolving white dwarf WD J0914+1914, which instead harbours a giant planet and a disc of…
We report three new barium (Ba) dwarfs lying in Sirius-like systems, which provides direct evidence that Ba dwarfs are companions to white dwarfs (WDs). Atmospheric parameters, stellar masses, and chemical abundances of 25 elements,…