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The GJ 436 planetary system is an extraordinary system. The Neptune-size planet that orbits the M3 dwarf revealed in the Ly$\alpha$ line an extended neutral hydrogen atmosphere. This material fills a comet-like tail that obscures the…
We report the discovery of GJ 2126 b, a highly eccentric (e = 0.85) Jupiter-like planet orbiting its host star every 272.7 days. The planet was detected and characterized using 112 radial velocity (RV) measurements from HARPS (High Accuracy…
Barnard's star is a primary target within the ESPRESSO guaranteed time observations (GTO) as it is the second closest neighbour to our Sun after the $\alpha$ Centauri stellar system. We present here a large set of 156 ESPRESSO observations…
We present observations of the 1.35+/-0.07 Earth-radius planet L 98-59 c, collected using Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. L 98-59 is a nearby (10.6 pc), bright (H=7.4 mag), M3V star that harbors three small, transiting…
Some highly irradiated close-in exoplanets orbit stars showing anomalously low stellar chromospheric emission. We attribute this to absorption by circumstellar gas replenished by mass loss from ablating planets. Here we report statistics…
Royal Society Discussion Meeting (2013) `Characterizing exoplanets'. Of the 900+ confirmed exoplanets discovered since 1995 for which we have constraints on their mass (i.e., not including Kepler candidates), 75% have masses larger than…
A small percentage of normal stars harbor giant planets that orbit within a few tenths of an astronomical unit. At such distances the potential exists for significant tidal and magnetic field interaction resulting in energy dissipation that…
A primary science goal for JWST is to detect and characterize the atmospheres of terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarfs (M-Earths). The existence of atmospheres on M-Earths is highly uncertain because their host stars' extended history of…
We report high precision, high cadence photometric measurements of the star HD 209458, which is known from radial velocity measurements to have a planetary mass companion in a close orbit. We detect two separate transit events at times that…
Short-period planets provide ideal laboratories for testing star-planet interaction. Planets that are smaller than $\sim$2$R_\oplus$ are considered to be largely rocky either having been stripped of or never having acquired the gaseous…
We describe the discovery of a massive transiting hot Jupiter with a very short orbital period (1.30619 d), which we name TrES-3. From spectroscopy of the host star GSC 03089-00929, we measure T_eff = 5720 +- 150 K, logg=4.6 +- 0.3, and…
Many of the multi-planet systems discovered to date have been notable for their compactness, with neighbouring planets closer together than any in the Solar System. Interestingly, planet-hosting stars have a wide range of ages, suggesting…
Exoplanets with radii between those of Earth and Neptune have stronger surface gravity than Earth, and can retain a sizable hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. In contrast to gas giant planets, we call these planets gas dwarf planets. The James…
We report the discovery of a third planetary mass companion to the G0 star HD 74156. High precision radial velocity measurements made with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope aided the detection of this object. The best fit triple Keplerian model to…
Since low-mass stars have low luminosities, orbits at which liquid water can exist on Earth-sized planets are relatively close-in, which produces Doppler signals that are detectable using state-of-the-art Doppler spectroscopy. GJ 667C is…
Theoretical models of low-mass stars continue to be discrepant with observations when used to examine the mass-radius relationship and other physical parameters of individual stars. High-resolution spectroscopy that leads to dynamical…
X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation impacting on a gas produce a variety of effects that, depending on the electron content, may provide a significant heating of the illuminated region. In a planetary atmosphere of solar composition,…
With improvements in exoplanet detection techniques, the number of multiple planet systems discovered is increasing, while the detection of potentially habitable Earth-mass planets remains complicated and thus requires new search…
The GJ 436 system contains a transiting planet GJ 436 b which is a hot analogue of Neptune on an eccentric orbit. Recently, two additional transiting sub-Earth planets have been postulated in the literature. We observed three transits of GJ…
Since the first discovery of an extrasolar planetary system more than a decade ago, hundreds more have been discovered. Surprisingly, many of these systems harbor Jupiter-class gas giants located close to the central star, at distances of…