Related papers: Making FORS2 fit for exoplanet observations (again…
At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected light from the host star - several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult observational…
We developed a dedicated statistical test for a massive detection of spot- and facula-crossing anomalies in multiple exoplanetary transit lightcurves, based on the frequentist $p$-value thresholding. This test was used to augment our…
Exoplanets orbiting close to their host star are expected to support a large ionosphere, which extends to larger pressures than witnessed in our Solar System. These ionospheres can be investigated with ground-based transit observations of…
A space telescope capable of high-contrast imaging has been recognized as the avenue toward finding terrestrial planets around nearby Sun-like stars and characterizing their potential habitability. It is thus essential to quantify the…
We propose that the presence of additional planets in extrasolar planetary systems can be detected by long-term transit timing studies. If a transiting planet is on an eccentric orbit then the presence of another planet causes a secular…
The ultra-high contrast capability required to form images of other solar systems is arguably the highest-profile challenge in astronomy today. The current high-contrast imaging efforts all require background subtraction to separate the…
We present accurate photometric redshifts in the 2-deg2 COSMOS field. The redshifts are computed with 30 broad, intermediate, and narrow bands covering the UV (GALEX), Visible-NIR (Subaru, CFHT, UKIRT and NOAO) and mid-IR (Spitzer/IRAC). A…
Most detected transiting planets have orbits which would fit within the one of Mercury, exposing them to intense stellar irradiation and interactions that significantly alter their properties. In contrast, colder planets with longer orbital…
The off-axis location of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is the chief (but not sole) cause of strong geometric distortion in all detectors: the Wide Field Camera (WFC), High Resolution Camera (HRC), and Solar Blind Camera (SBC).…
Direct exoplanet spectroscopy aims to measure the spectrum of an exoplanet while simultaneously minimizing the light collected from its host star. Isolating the planet light from the starlight improves the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) per…
We present a ground-based optical transmission spectrum for the warm Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-110b from two transit observations made with the FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The spectrum covers…
Broadband flux measurements centred around [3.6 $\mu$m] and [4.5 $\mu$m] obtained with Spitzer during the occultation of seven extrasolar planets by their host stars have been combined with parallax measurements to compute the absolute…
Direct imaging of exoplanets requires very high contrast levels, which are obtained using coronagraphs. But residual quasi-static aberrations create speckles in the focal plane downstream of the coronagraph which mask the planet. This…
It is possible to learn a great deal about exoplanet atmospheres even when we cannot spatially resolve the planets from their host stars. In this chapter, we overview the basic techniques used to characterize transiting exoplanets -…
Precision wavefront control on future segmented-aperture space telescopes presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of high-contrast exoplanet direct imaging. We present a new wavefront control architecture that…
Our interpretation of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheric spectra will always be limited by the accuracy of the data we use as input in our forward and retrieval models. Ultraviolet molecular absorption cross sections are one category of…
Spatially resolved maps of Jupiter's far-infrared 17-37 $\mu$m hydrogen-helium collision-induced spectrum were acquired by the FORCAST instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) in May 2014. Spectral scans in…
With the aim of paving the road for future accurate astrometry with MICADO at the European-ELT, we performed an astrometric study using two different but complementary approaches to investigate two critical components that contribute to the…
This work shows details of an evaluation of an observational system comprising a CMOS detector, 60-cm telescope, and filter complement. The system's photometric precision and differential photometric precision, and extinction coefficients…
Imaging rocky planets in reflected light, a key focus of future NASA missions and ELTs, requires advanced wavefront control to maintain a deep, temporally correlated null of stellar halo at just several diffraction beam widths. We discuss…