English
Related papers

Related papers: A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exopla…

200 papers

Infrared (IR) excess emission around white dwarfs (WDs) is commonly attributed to circumstellar debris disks and/or low-mass companions, providing a unique window into the evolution of planetary systems and binary evolution after the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-14 Ke-Yi Wang , Qiong Liu

Observing exoplanets through transmission spectroscopy supplies detailed information on their atmospheric composition, physics, and chemistry. Prior to JWST, these observations were limited to a narrow wavelength range across the…

White dwarfs are one of the few types of stellar objects for which we know almost nothing about the possible existence of companion planets. Recent evidence for metal contaminated atmospheres, circumstellar debris disks and transiting…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-05-15 Jorge Cortes , David M. Kipping

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided the first opportunity to study the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets and estimate their surface conditions. Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars are currently inaccessible with…

We report the detection of thermal emission from and confirm the planetary nature of WD 1856+534b, the first transiting planet known to orbit a white dwarf star. Observations with JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveal excess…

Terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarfs may soon be observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to characterize their atmospheric composition and search for signs of habitability or life. These planets may undergo significant…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-06-25 Andrew P. Lincowski , Jacob Lustig-Yaeger , Victoria S. Meadows

The search for signs of life in the Universe has entered a new phase with the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Detecting biosignature gases via exoplanet atmosphere transmission spectroscopy is in principle within JWST's…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-09-24 Sara Seager , Luis Welbanks , Lucas Ellerbroek , William Bains , Janusz J. Petkowski

In order to directly image an extrasolar planet, the large contrast between a star and a companion planet must be overcome. White Dwarfs (WDs) are the remnants of stars > 1 M_sun and are orders of magnitude dimmer, making searches for…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 John H. Debes , Steinn Sigurdsson , Bruce E. Woodgate

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), currently scheduled to launch in 2021, will dramatically advance our understanding of exoplanetary systems with its ability to directly image and characterise planetary-mass companions at wide…

Located at the bottom of the main sequence, ultracool dwarf stars are widespread in the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, their extremely low luminosity has left their planetary population largely unexplored, and only one of them,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-06-04 Michaël Gillon , Peter P. Pedersen , Benjamin V. Rackham , Georgina Dransfield , Elsa Ducrot , Khalid Barkaoui , Artem Y. Burdanov , Urs Schroffenegger , Yilen Gómez Maqueo Chew , Susan M. Lederer , Roi Alonso , Adam J. Burgasser , Steve B. Howell , Norio Narita , Julien de Wit , Brice-Olivier Demory , Didier Queloz , Amaury H. M. J. Triaud , Laetitia Delrez , Emmanuël Jehin , Matthew J. Hooton , Lionel J. Garcia , Clàudia Jano Muñoz , Catriona A. Murray , Francisco J. Pozuelos , Daniel Sebastian , Mathilde Timmermans , Samantha J. Thompson , Sebastián Zúñiga-Fernández 1 , Jesús Aceituno , Christian Aganze , Pedro J. Amado , Thomas Baycroft , Zouhair Benkhaldoun , David Berardo , Emeline Bolmont , Catherine A. Clark , Yasmin T. Davis , Fatemeh Davoudi , Zoë L. de Beurs , Jerome P. de Leon , Masahiro Ikoma , Kai Ikuta , Keisuke Isogai , Izuru Fukuda , Akihiko Fukui , Roman Gerasimov , Mourad Ghachoui , Maximilian N. Günther , Samantha Hasler , Yuya Hayashi , Kevin Heng , Renyu Hu , Taiki Kagetani , Yugo Kawai , Kiyoe Kawauchi , Daniel Kitzmann , Daniel D. B. Koll , Monika Lendl , John H. Livingston , Xintong Lyu , Erik A. Meier Valdés , Mayuko Mori , James J. McCormac , Felipe Murgas , Prajwal Niraula , Enric Pallé , Ilse Plauchu-Frayn , Rafael Rebolo , Laurence Sabin , Yannick Schackey , Nicole Schanche , Franck Selsis , Alfredo Sota , Manu Stalport , Matthew R. Standing , Keivan G. Stassun , Motohide Tamura , Christopher A. Theissen , Martin Turbet , Valérie Van Grootel , Roberto Varas , Noriharu Watanabe , Francis Zong Lang

This letter reports 12 novel spectroscopic detections of warm circumstellar dust orbiting polluted white dwarfs using JWST MIRI. The disks span two orders of magnitude in fractional infrared brightness and more than double the number of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-01-31 J. Farihi , K. Y. L. Su , C. Melis , S. J. Kenyon , A. Swan , S. Redfield , M. C. Wyatt , J. H. Debes

We have entered the era of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We use the first JWST transmission spectrum of the hot Saturn-mass exoplanet, WASP-39 b, obtained with the NIRSpec instrument in the 3-5 $\mu$m range to investigate (a) what…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-02-08 Savvas Constantinou , Nikku Madhusudhan , Siddharth Gandhi

The study of the atmosphere of exoplanets orbiting white dwarfs is a largely unexplored field. With WD\,0806-661\,b, we present the first deep dive into the atmospheric physics and chemistry of a cold exoplanet around a white dwarf. We…

White dwarfs with metal pollution are caused by the accretion of rocky dust from tidally disrupted minor bodies and are signposts for planetary systems. These minor bodies are perturbed by planets that have survived post-main sequence…

Transmission spectroscopy is the most widely used technique for studying exoplanet atmospheres. Since the planetary nightside faces the observer during a transit, highly irradiated giant exoplanets with warm nightsides emit thermal…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-08-16 John A. Kappelmeier , Ryan J. MacDonald , Nikole K. Lewis

White dwarfs with infrared excess emission provide a window into the late stages of stellar evolution and the dynamics of circumstellar environments. Using data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), we…

The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) means that we will soon have the capability to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. However, it is still unknown whether such planets orbiting close to M dwarf stars…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-08 Megan Mansfield , Edwin S. Kite , Renyu Hu , Daniel D. B. Koll , Matej Malik , Jacob L. Bean , Eliza. M. -R. Kempton

We report the tentative detection of the near-infrared emission of the Hot Jupiter WASP-12b with the low-resolution prism on IRTF/SpeX. We find a K-H contrast color of 0.137% +/- 0.054%, corresponding to a blackbody of temperature 2400…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2012-04-12 Ian J. M. Crossfield , Brad M. S. Hansen , Travis Barman

JWST promises to be the most versatile infrared observatory for the next two decades. The Near Infrared and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument, when used in the Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) mode, will provide an unparalleled…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-12-21 Shrishmoy Ray , Sasha Hinkley , Steph Sallum , Mariangela Bonavita , Vito Squicciarini , Aarynn L. Carter , Cecilia Lazzoni