Related papers: Simultaneous multicolour optical and near-IR trans…
GJ 1214b is one of the few known transiting super-Earth-sized exoplanets with a measured mass and radius. It orbits an M-dwarf, only 14.55 pc away, making it a favorable candidate for follow-up studies. However, the composition of GJ…
The super-earth planet GJ 1214b has recently been the focus of several studies, using the transit spectroscopy technique, trying to determine the nature of its atmosphere. Here we focus on the Halpha line as a tool to further restrict the…
We observed nine primary transits of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b in several optical photometric bands from March to August 2012, with the goal of constraining the short-wavelength slope of the spectrum of GJ 1214b. Our observations…
GJ 1214b is the most studied sub-Neptune exoplanet to date. Recent measurements have shown its near-infrared transmission spectrum to be flat, pointing to a high-altitude opacity source in the exoplanet's atmosphere, either equilibrium…
When the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was conceived and its first science cases defined, exoplanets had not been detected. Later studies, however, showed that optical and near-infrared photometric and…
We report recent ground-based photometry of the transiting super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b at several wavelengths, including the infrared near 1.25 microns (J-band). We observed a J-band transit with the FLAMINGOS infrared imager and the…
We present optical photometry of 16 transits of the super-Earth GJ 1214b, allowing us to refine the system parameters and search for additional planets via transit timing. Starspot-crossing events are detected in two light curves, and the…
We report observations of two consecutive transits of the warm super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the Infrared Array Camera instrument on-board the Spitzer Space Telescope. The two transit light curves allow for the…
The nearby star GJ 1214 hosts a planet intermediate in radius and mass between Earth and Neptune, resulting in some uncertainty as to its nature. We have observed this planet, GJ 1214b, during transit with the high-resolution, near-infrared…
High-precision eclipse spectrophotometry of transiting terrestrial exoplanets represents a promising path for the first atmospheric characterizations of habitable worlds and the search for life outside our solar system. The detection of…
GJ1214b is thought to be either a mini-Neptune with a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, or a planet with a composition dominated by water. In the case of a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, molecular absorption and scattering processes may result in…
GJ 1214 is a nearby M dwarf star that hosts a transiting super-Earth-size planet, making this system an excellent target for atmospheric studies. Most studies find that the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b is flat, which favors either a…
A decade ago, the detection of the first transiting extrasolar planet provided a direct constraint on its composition and opened the door to spectroscopic investigations of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. As such characterization studies…
Recent surveys have revealed that planets intermediate in size between Earth and Neptune ("super-Earths") are among the most common planets in the Galaxy. Atmospheric studies are the next step toward developing a comprehensive understanding…
The super-Earth GJ1214b transits a nearby M dwarf that exhibits 1% intrinsic variability in the near-infrared. Here, we analyze new observations to refine the physical properties of both the star and planet. We present three years of…
We present 5 new transit light curves of GJ 1214b taken in BJHKs-bands. Two transits were observed in B-band using the Suprime-Cam and the FOCAS instruments onboard the Subaru 8.2m telescope, and one transit was done in JHKs-bands…
The newly discovered planet GJ 1214b is the first known transiting super-Earth requiring a significant atmosphere to explain its observed mass and radius. Models for the structure of this planet predict that it likely possesses a H-He…
Because the planets of a system form in a flattened disk, they are expected to share similar orbital inclinations at the end of their formation. The high-precision photometric monitoring of stars known to host a transiting planet could thus…
We used WIRCam on CFHT to observe four transits of the super-Earth GJ 1214b in the near-infrared. For each transit we observed in two bands nearly-simultaneously by rapidly switching the WIRCam filter wheel back and forth for the duration…
We present an investigation of the transmission spectrum of the 6.5 M_earth planet GJ1214b based on new ground-based observations of transits of the planet in the optical and near-infrared, and on previously published data. Observations…