Related papers: A Search for Transit Duration Variations in M dwar…
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…
Planet formation theories predict a large but still undetected population of short-period terrestrial planets orbiting brown dwarfs. Should specimens of this population be discovered transiting relatively bright and nearby brown dwarfs, the…
While various indirect methods are used to detect exoplanets, one of the most effective and accurate methods is the transit method, which measures the brightness of a given star for periodic dips when an exoplanet is passing in front of the…
AU Mic is a very active M dwarf with an edge-on debris disk and two transiting sub-Neptunes with a possible third planetary companion. The two transiting planets exhibit significant transit-timing variations (TTVs) that are caused by the…
The near-term search for life beyond the solar system currently focuses on transiting planets orbiting small M dwarfs, and the challenges of detecting signs of life in their atmospheres. However, planets orbiting white dwarfs (WDs) would…
The most abundant stars in the Galaxy, M dwarfs, are very commonly hosts to diverse systems of low-mass planets. Their abundancy implies that the general occurrence rate of planets is dominated by their occurrence rate around such M dwarfs.…
We report the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite discovery of three small planets transiting one of the nearest and brightest M dwarf hosts to date, TOI-270 (TIC 259377017; K-mag 8.3; 22.5 parsec). The M3V-type star is transited by the…
The discovery of seven ~Earth-mass planets, orbiting the 0.09 solar mass M-Dwarf TRAPPIST-1 captivated the public and sparked a proliferation of investigations into the system's origins. Among other properties, the resonant architecture of…
Terrestrial planets are more likely to be detected if they orbit M dwarfs due to the favorable planet/star size and mass ratios. However, M dwarf habitable zones are significantly closer to the star than the one around our Sun, which leads…
We identify a set of planetary systems observed by Kepler that merit transit timing variation (TTV) analysis given the orbital periods of transiting planets, the uncertainties for their transit times and the number of transits observed…
The atmospheres of late M stars represent a significant challenge in the characterization of any transiting exoplanets due to the presence of strong molecular features in the stellar atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool dwarf, host to…
The TOI-178 system consists of a nearby late K-dwarf transited by six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune regime, with orbital periods between 1.9 and 20.7 days. All planets but the innermost one form a chain of Laplace resonances.…
We report on precise Doppler measurements of L231-32 (TOI-270), a nearby M dwarf ($d=22$ pc, $M_\star = 0.39$ M$_\odot$, $R_\star = 0.38$ R$_\odot$), which hosts three transiting planets that were recently discovered using data from the…
Few planetary systems have measured mutual inclinations, and even less are found to be non-coplanar. Observing the gravitational interactions between exoplanets is an effective tool to detect non-transiting companions to transiting planets.…
We present a statistical analysis of the Kepler M dwarf planet hosts, with a particular focus on the fractional number of systems hosting multiple transiting planets. We manufacture synthetic planetary systems within a range of planet…
White dwarfs offer a unique opportunity to search nearby stellar systems for signs of life, but the habitable zone around these stars is still poorly understood. Since white dwarfs are compact stars with low luminosity, any planets in their…
It is still unclear whether exoplanets in compact multiplanet systems such as TRAPPIST-1 are able to accrete large quantities of volatiles, grow to sufficient mass, and maintain robust atmospheres and hydrospheres. Previous estimates of…
Discoveries from the prime Kepler mission demonstrated that small planets (< 3 Earth-radii) are common outcomes of planet formation. While Kepler detected many such planets, all but a handful orbit faint, distant stars and are not amenable…
The orbital architectures of short-period exoplanet systems are shaped by tidal dissipation in their host stars. For low-mass M-dwarfs whose dynamical tidal response comprises a dense spectrum of inertial modes at low frequencies, resolving…
The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is a favorable target for the atmospheric characterization of temperate earth-sized exoplanets by means of transmission spectroscopy with the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A possible obstacle…