Related papers: Obliquity Constraints for the Extremely Eccentric …
The direct detection of new extrasolar planets from high-precision photometry data is commonly based on the observation of the transit signal of the planet as it passes in front of its star. Close-in planets, however, leave additional…
We present Kepler observations of the bright (V=8.3), oscillating star HD 179070. The observations show transit-like events which reveal that the star is orbited every 2.8 days by a small, 1.6 R_Earth object. Seismic studies of HD 179070…
We recommend an intensive effort to survey and understand the obliquity distribution of small close-in extrasolar planets over the coming decade. The orbital obliquities of exoplanets--i.e., the relative orientation between the planetary…
Discovering and characterizing exoplanets at the outer edge of the transit method's sensitivity has proven challenging owing to geometric biases and the practical difficulties associated with acquiring long observational baselines.…
We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R_Earth planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with the…
We present photometry of 4 transits of the exoplanet WASP-4b, each with a precision of approximately 500 ppm and a time sampling of 40-60s. We have used the data to refine the estimates of the system parameters and ephemerides. During two…
An intriguing question in the context of dynamics arises: Could a moon possess a moon itself? Such a configuration does not exist in the Solar System, although this may be possible in theory. Kollmeier et al. (2019) determined the critical…
Measurements of exoplanetary orbital obliquity angles for different classes of planets are an essential tool in testing various planet formation theories. Measurements for those transiting planets on relatively large orbital periods…
We present simultaneous photometric and spectroscopic observations of HD 17156b spanning a transit on UT 2007 November 12. This system is of special interest because of its 21-day period (unusually long for a transiting planet) and its high…
We present the first spectroscopic transit results from the newly commissioned Keck Planet Finder on the Keck-I telescope at W. M. Keck Observatory. We observed a transit of KELT-18 b, an inflated ultra-hot Jupiter orbiting a hot star…
The obliquity of a star, or the angle between its spin axis and the average orbit normal of its companion planets, provides a unique constraint on that system's evolutionary history. Unlike the Solar System, where the Sun's equator is…
Compact multi-planet systems containing super-Earths or sub-Neptunes, commonly found around solar-type stars, may be surrounded by external giant planet or stellar companions, which can shape the architechture and observability of the inner…
Understanding the relationship between long-period giant planets and multiple smaller short-period planets is critical for formulating a complete picture of planet formation. This work characterizes three such systems. We present Kepler-65,…
Three transiting circumbinary planets (Kepler-16 b, Kepler-34 b, and Kepler-35 b) have recently been discovered from photometric data taken by the Kepler spacecraft. Their orbits are significantly non-Keplerian because of the large…
High eccentricity tidal migration (HEM) is a promising channel for the origins of hot Jupiters and hot Neptunes. In the typical HEM scenario, a planet forms beyond the ice line, but alternatively a planet can disk migrate or form warm and…
The Kepler mission and subsequent ground-based follow-up observations have revealed a number of exoplanet host stars with nearby stellar companions. This study presents speckle observations of 57 Kepler objects of interest (KOIs) that are…
The next generation of exoplanet space photometry missions proposed by both NASA and ESA promise to discover small transiting planets around the nearest and brightest main-sequence stars. The physical and rotational properties of these…
The discovery of terrestrial exoplanets is uncovering increasingly diverse architectures. Of particular interest are those systems that contain exoplanets at a variety of star-planet separations, allowing direct comparison of exoplanet…
The stellar obliquity of a transiting planetary system can be constrained by combining measurements of the star's rotation period, radius, and projected rotational velocity. Here we present a hierarchical Bayesian technique for recovering…
Exomoons are a missing piece of exoplanetary science. Recently, two promising candidates were proposed, Kepler-1625 b-I and Kepler-1708 b-I. While the latter still lacks a dynamical analysis of its stability, Kepler-1625 b-I has already…