Related papers: Transit Search from Antarctica and Chile - Compari…
Among the group of extrasolar planets, transiting planets provide a great opportunity to obtain direct measurements for the basic physical properties, such as mass and radius of these objects. These planets are therefore highly important in…
Dome A on the Antarctic plateau is likely one of the best observing sites on Earth thanks to the excellent atmospheric conditions present at the site during the long polar winter night. We present high-cadence time-series aperture…
Temporal fluctuations of the atmospheric piston are critical for interferometers as they determine their sensitivity. We characterize an instrumental set-up, termed the piston scope, that aims at measuring the atmospheric time constant,…
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…
The idea of finding extrasolar planets (ESPs) through observations of drops in stellar brightness due to transiting objects has been around for decades. It has only been in the last ten years, however, that any serious attempts to find ESPs…
Proxima Centauri is known as the closest star from the Sun. Recently, radial velocity observations revealed the existence of an Earth-mass planet around it. With an orbital period of ~11 days, the surface of Proxima Centauri b is temperate…
Consistently superb observing conditions are crucial for achieving the scientific objectives of a telescope. Submillimeter astronomy is possible only at a few exceptionally dry sites, notably Mauna Kea, the Antarctic plateau, and the…
AST3-2 is the second of the three Antarctic Survey Telescopes, aimed at wide-field time-domain optical astronomy. It is located at Dome A, Antarctica, which is by many measures the best optical astronomy site on the Earth's surface. Here we…
The search for double transit planetary systems opens new possibilities for the transit searches and for studies of orbital stability, stellar irradiation, and migration scenarios, among others. We explore the OGLE lightcurves of stars with…
Beating the Earth's day-night cycle is mandatory for long and continuous time-series photometry and had been achieved with either large ground-based networks of observatories at different geographic longitudes or when conducted from space.…
During the months when the galactic bulge is visible from the southern hemisphere, there are typically about 8 to 10 on-going microlensing events at any given time. If the lensing stars have planets around them, then the signature of the…
Earth-like extra-solar planets may be detected with 1-2m class telescopes using the gravitational microlensing technique. The essential requirement is the ability to be able to carry out continuous observations of the galactic bulge. A…
In this study we describe an innovative method to determine potential sites for optical and infrared astronomical observations in the Andes region of northern South America. The method computes the Clear sky fraction (CSF) from…
We analyze the properties of searches devoted to finding planetary transits by observing simple stellar systems, such as globular clusters, open clusters, and the Galactic bulge. We develop the analytic tools necessary to predict the number…
The era of exoplanet characterization is upon us. For a subset of exoplanets -- the transiting planets -- physical properties can be measured, including mass, radius, and atmosphere characteristics. Indeed, measuring the atmospheres of a…
Many ground-based photometric surveys are now under way, and five of them have been successful at detecting transiting exoplanets. Nevertheless, detecting transiting planets has turned out to be much more challenging than initially…
The class of transiting cold Jupiters, orbiting at $\gtrsim0.5-1.0$ au, is to-date underpopulated. Probing their atmospheric composition and physical characteristics is particularly valuable, as it allows for direct comparisons with the…
In 2008 January the 24th Chinese expedition team successfully deployed the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) to DomeA, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau. CSTAR consists of four 14.5cm optical telescopes, each with a different…
We present summer site testing results based on DIMM data obtained at Dome C, Antarctica. These data have been collected on the bright star Canopus during two 3-months summer campaigns in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. We performed continuous…
Small Solar system bodies serve as pristine records that have been minimally altered since their formation. Their observations provide valuable information regarding the formation and evolution of our Solar system. Interstellar objects…