Related papers: No Conclusive Evidence for Transits of Proxima b i…
Exoplanetary systems closest to the Sun, with the brightest host stars, provide the most favorable opportunities for characterization studies of the host star and their planet(s). The Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey uses…
The detection and characterization of the first transiting super-Earth, CoRoT-7 b, has required an unprecedented effort in terms of telescope time and analysis. Although the star does display a radial velocity signal at the period of the…
We present an analysis of the publicly available HARPS radial velocity (RV) measurements for Alpha Cen B, a star hosting an Earth-mass planet candidate in a 3.24 day orbit. The goal is to devise robust ways of extracting low-amplitude RV…
The precision of radial velocity (RV) measurements to detect indirectly planetary companions of nearby stars has improved to enable the discovery of extrasolar planets in the Neptune and Super-Earth mass range. Discoveries of Earth-like…
Four years (2010-2014) of semiannual pointings by Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on nearby Alpha Centauri have yielded a detailed time history of far-ultraviolet emissions of the solar-like primary (A: G2V) and the…
We present the discovery of an extreme flaring event from Proxima Cen by ASKAP, ALMA, HST, TESS, and the du Pont Telescope that occurred on 2019 May 1. In the millimeter and FUV, this flare is the brightest ever detected, brightening by a…
Interstellar communications are achievable with gram-scale spacecraft using swarm techniques introduced herein if an adequate energy source, clocks and a suitable communications protocol exist. The essence of our approach to the…
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…
Through photometric monitoring of the extended transit window of HD 97658b with the MOST space telescope, we have found that this exoplanet transits with an ephemeris consistent with that predicted from radial velocity measurements. The…
Proxima b is a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of the nearest star system and a key test case in the search for extraterrestrial life. Here, we investigate the characterization of a potential Earth-like atmosphere around Proxima b in…
Over the past five years, radial-velocity and transit techniques have revealed a new population of Earth-like planets with masses of a few Earth masses. Their very close orbit around their host star requires an exquisite inner working angle…
We present a new algorithm for precision radial velocity (pRV) measurements, a line-by-line (LBL) approach designed to handle outlying spectral information in a simple but efficient manner. The effectiveness of the LBL method is…
We report on the measurement of transit times for the HD 209458 planetary system from photometry obtained with the MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space telescope. Deviations from a constant orbital period can indicate the…
Recent dynamical studies indicate that the possibility of an Earth-like planet around $\alpha\;$Cen A or B should be taken seriously. Such a planet, if it exists, would perturb the orbital astrometry by $<10 \ {\mu}\rm as$, which is…
We present millimeter, optical, and soft X-ray observations of a stellar flare with an energy squarely in the regime of typical X1 solar flares. The flare was observed from Proxima Cen on 2019 May 6 as part of a larger multi-wavelength…
Three periastron passages of the PSR B1259$-$63/LS 2883 binary system, consisting of a 48 ms rotation-powered pulsar and a $\sim30$ M$_{\odot}$ Be star, have been observed by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space…
Recent studies regarding the habitability, observability, and possible orbital evolution of the indirectly detected exoplanet Proxima b have mostly assumed a planet with $M \sim 1.3$ $M_\oplus$, a rocky composition, and an Earth-like…
We report the discovery of a super-Earth candidate orbiting the nearby mid M dwarf Gl\,725A using the radial velocity (RV) method. The planetary signal has been independently identified using high-precision RVs from the SOPHIE and SPIRou…
Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown. Here we present $\alpha$ Centauri as a case study of the delivery of interstellar material to our Solar System.…
The recent discovery of an earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri has drawn much attention to this star and its environment. We performed a series of observations of Proxima Centauri using SPHERE, the planet finder instrument installed…