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We explore the possibility that the transit signature of an Earth-size planet can be detected in spectroscopic velocity shifts via the Rossiter effect. Under optimistic but not unrealistic conditions, it should be possible to detect a large…
Stellar micro-variability poses a serious threat to the capacities of space-based planet-finding missions such as Kepler or Eddington. The solar lightcurves obtained by the VIRGO PMO6 and SPM instruments on board SoHO from 1996 to 2001 have…
Modern theoretical estimates show that with the help of real equipment we are able to detect large satellites of exoplanets (about the size of the Ganymede), although, numerical attempts of direct exomoon detection were unsuccessful. Lots…
Sun-like stellar oscillations are excited by turbulent convection and have been discovered in some 500 main sequence and sub-giant stars and in more than 12,000 red giant stars. When such stars are near gravitational wave sources, low-order…
Transits of bright stars offer a unique opportunity to study detailed properties of extrasolar planets that cannot be determined through radial-velocity observations. We propose a new technique to find such systems using all-sky…
The search for extrasolar planets is strongly motivated by the goal of characterizing how frequent habitable worlds and life may be within the Galaxy. Whilst much effort has been spent on searching for Earth-like planets, large moons may…
Short-period planets suffer from extreme tidal forces from their parent stars causing them to deform and attain non-spherical shapes. The planet shapes, modeled here as triaxial ellipsoids, can have an impact on the observed transit light…
Transits of exoplanets across cool stars contain blended information about structures on the stellar surface and about the planetary body and atmosphere. To advance understanding of how this information is entangled, a surface-flux…
Astronomy is a discipline primarily reliant on visual data. However, alternative data representation techniques are being explored, in particular ''sonification'', namely, the representation of data into sound. While there is increasing…
We present the results of an extensive study of the detectability of Earth-sized planets and super-Earths in the habitable zones of cool and low-mass stars using transit timing variation method. We have considered a system consisting of a…
From its discovery, the low density transiting Neptune HAT-P-26b showed a 2.1-sigma detection drift in its spectroscopic data, while photometric data showed a weak curvature in the timing residuals that required further follow-up…
Tens of thousands of solar-like oscillating stars have been observed by space missions. Their photometric variability in the Fourier domain can be parameterized by a sum of two super-Lorentizian functions for granulation and a…
Tidal interactions between short-period exoplanets and their host stars drive orbital decay and have likely led to engulfment of planets by their stars. Precise transit timing surveys, with baselines now spanning decades for some planets,…
The goal of this study is to assess the impact of the stellar spots on the extraction of the planetary transmission spectra observed by ARIEL. We develop a method to model the stellar spectrum of a star in the presence of spots by using the…
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…
Phase curves, or the change in observed illumination of the planet as it orbits around its host star, help us to characterize their atmospheres. However, the variability of the host star can make their detection challenging: the presence of…
We present the discovery of a candidate multiply-transiting system, the first one found in the CoRoT mission. Two transit-like features with periods of 5.11 and 11.76d are detected in the CoRoT light curve, around a main sequence K1V star…
The detection of massive planets orbiting nearby stars has become almost routine, but current techniques are as yet unable to detect terrestrial planets with masses comparable to the Earth's. Future space-based observatories to detect…
In this PhD dissertation, I discuss issues of the Radial Velocities (RV) and transit methods. These techniques allow us to derive the mass and radius of an exoplanet, necessary to model its bulk structure and to have insight on its…
Searching for transits provides a very promising technique for finding close-in extra-solar planets. Transiting planets present the advantage of allowing one to determine physical properties such as mass and radius unambiguously. The…