Related papers: Towards Extremely Precise Radial Velocities: I. Si…
The radial velocity method is one of the most successful techniques for detecting exoplanets. It works by detecting the velocity of a host star induced by the gravitational effect of an orbiting planet, specifically the velocity along our…
The discovery of many Earth-like planets has renewed interest in whether life and technological civilizations exist elsewhere. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) seeks evidence for technological civilizations via…
Cool main-sequence, sub-giant and red-giant stars all show solar-like oscillations, pulsations that are excited and intrinsically damped by near-surface convection. Many overtones are typically excited to observable amplitudes, giving a…
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
For much of human history we have wondered how our solar system formed, and whether there are any other planets like ours around other stars. Only in the last 20 years have we had direct evidence for the existence of exoplanets, with the…
Radial velocity surveys are beginning to reach the time baselines required to detect Jupiter analogs, as well as sub-Saturn mass planets in close orbits. Therefore it is important to understand the sensitivity of these surveys at long…
One of the most promising methods of discovering nearby, low-mass planets in the habitable zones of stars is the precision radial velocity technique. However, there are many challenges that must be overcome to efficiently detect…
Exoplanet detection with precise radial velocity (RV) observations is currently limited by spurious RV signals introduced by stellar activity. We show that machine learning techniques such as linear regression and neural networks can…
Circumbinary planets - planets that orbit both stars in a binary system - offer the opportunity to study planet formation and orbital migration in a different environment compare to single stars. However, despite the fact that > 90% of…
We provide formulae for the calculation of precise Doppler velocities of sunlight, in both the case of direct observations of the Sun and in reflection from the surfaces of solar system objects such as the Moon or asteroids. We discuss the…
The search for exoplanets is an active field in astronomy, with direct imaging as one of the most challenging methods due to faint exoplanet signals buried within stronger residual starlight. Successful detection requires advanced image…
We describe a global parametric model for the observed power spectra of solar oscillations of intermediate and low degree. A physically motivated parameterization is used as a substitute for a direct description of mode excitation and…
Radial velocity observations of stars are entering the sub-m/s domain revealing fundamental barriers for Doppler precision experiments. Observations of the Sun as a star can easily overcome the m/s photon limit but face other obstacles. We…
The detection and characterisation of Earth-like planets with Doppler signals of the order of 1 m/s currently represent one of the greatest challenge for extrasolar-planet hunters. As results for such findings are often controversial, it is…
Under certain conditions, stellar radial velocities can be determined from astrometry, without any use of spectroscopy. This enables us to identify phenomena, other than the Doppler effect, that are displacing spectral lines. The change of…
Very high precision seismic space missions such as CoRoT and Kepler provide the means for testing the modelling of transport processes in stellar interiors. For some stars, such as $\delta$ Scuti $\gamma$ Doradus and Be stars, for instance,…
The ultra-precise photometric space satellite MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars) will provide the first opportunity to measure the albedos and scattered light curves from known short-period extrasolar planets. Due to the…
Stellar activity induced by active structures (eg, spots, faculae) is known to strongly impact the radial velocity time series. It then limits the detection of small planetary RV signals (eg, an Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a…
The upcoming space missions that will characterize exoplanets, such as PLATO and Ariel, will collect huge amounts of data that will need to be complemented with ground-based observations. The aim of the PLATOSpec project is to perform…
We outline the important role that ground-based, Doppler monitoring of exoplanetary systems will play in advancing our theories of planet formation and dynamical evolution. A census of planetary systems requires a well designed survey to be…