Related papers: Stellar Activity and its Implications for Exoplane…
We report the detection of a planetary companion with a minimum mass of m sin i = 0.0771 M_Jup = 24.5 M_Earth to the nearby (d = 9.4 pc) M2.5V star GJ 176. The star was observed as part of our M dwarf planet search at the Hobby-Eberly…
Barnard's star is among the most studied stars given its proximity to the Sun. It is often considered $the$ Radial Velocity (RV) standard for fully convective stars due to its RV stability and equatorial declination. Recently, an $M \sin i…
Using light curves obtained by the K2 mission, we study the relation between stellar rotation and magnetic activity with special focus on stellar flares. Our sample comprises 56 bright and nearby M dwarfs observed by K2 during campaigns…
The census of planets around M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood meets two challenges: detecting the best targets for the future characterisation of planets with ELTs, and studying the statistics of planet occurrence that are crucial to…
We present first results of our planet search program using the 9.2 meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory to detect planets around M-type dwarf stars via high-precision radial velocity (RV) measurements. Although more…
Stellar ultraviolet (UV) radiation drives photochemistry, and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation drives mass loss in exoplanet atmospheres. However, the UV flux is partly unobservable due to interstellar absorption, particularly in the EUV…
Transmission spectroscopy allows us to detect molecules in planetary atmospheres, but is subject to contamination from inhomogeneities on the stellar surface. Quantifying the extent of this contamination is essential for accurate…
In this paper, we carry out simulations of radial velocity (RV) measurements of the mass of the 8-11 Myr Neptune-sized planet K2-33b using high-precision near infrared velocimeters like SPIRou at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We…
The spectral and temporal behavior of exoplanet host stars is a critical input to models of the chemistry and evolution of planetary atmospheres. At present, little observational or theoretical basis exists for understanding the ultraviolet…
Context: How planet properties depend on stellar mass is a key diagnostic of planetary formation mechanisms. Aims: This motivates planet searches around stars which are significantly more massive or less massive than the Sun, and in…
We present an analysis of the photometric variability of M dwarfs in the WFCAM Transit Survey. Although periodic lightcurve variability in low mass stars is generally dominated by photospheric star spot activity, M dwarf variability in the…
Stellar magnetic activity induces both distortions and Doppler-shifts in the absorption line profiles of Sun-like stars. Those effects produce apparent radial velocity (RV) signals which greatly hamper the search for potentially habitable,…
We present results from the volume-complete spectroscopic survey of 0.1-0.3M$_\odot$ M dwarfs within 15pc. This work discusses the active sample without close binary companions, providing a comprehensive picture of these 123 stars with…
Exoplanet host star activity, in the form of unocculted star spots or faculae, alters the observed transmission and emission spectra of the exoplanet. This effect can be exacerbated when combining data from different epochs if the stellar…
We investigate the effect of stellar activity and flares on short-term radial velocity measurements in the mid-M flare star CN Leo. Radial velocity variations are calculated from 181 UVES spectra obtained during three nights. We searched…
The CoRoT satellite has recently discovered the transits of a telluric planet across the disc of a late-type magnetically active star dubbed CoRoT-7, while a second planet has been detected after filtering out the radial velocity (hereafter…
The late-type dwarf GJ 436 is known to host a transiting Neptune-mass planet in a 2.6-day orbit. We present results of our interferometric measurements to directly determine the stellar diameter ($R_{\star} = 0.455 \pm 0.018 R_{\odot}$) and…
The results from a spectro-polarimetric study of the planet-hosting Sun-like star, HD 147513 (G5V), are presented here. Robust detections of Zeeman signatures at all observed epochs indicate a surface magnetic field, with longitudinal…
Context. Planetary companions of a fixed mass induce larger amplitude reflex motions around lower-mass stars, which helps make M dwarfs excellent targets for extra-solar planet searches. State of the art velocimeters with $\sim$1m/s…
The measurement of exoplanet masses using the radial velocity (RV) technique is currently limited by stellar activity, which introduces quasiperiodic variability signals that must be modeled and removed to enhance the sensitivity of the RV…