Related papers: The Observational Case for Jupiter Being a Typical…
All the giant planets in the solar system host a large number of natural satellites. Moons in extrasolar systems are difficult to detect, but a Neptune-sized exomoon candidate has been recently found around a Jupiter-sized planet in the…
We present the results of recent observations of phase-dependent variations in brightness designed to characterize the atmospheres of hot Jupiters. In particular, we focus on recent observations of the transiting planet HD 189733b at 8…
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.…
With the increasing number of detected exoplanet samples, the statistical properties of planetary systems have become much clearer. In this review, we summarize the major statistics that have been revealed mainly by radial velocity and…
Despite the existence of many short-period hot Jupiters, there is not one hot Neptune with an orbital period less than 2.5 days. Here we discuss a cluster analysis of the currently known 106 transiting exoplanets to investigate a possible…
In this thesis, I explore two topics in exoplanet science. The first is the prevalence of Earth-size planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. To determine the occurrence of planets having different sizes, orbital periods, and other properties, I…
Extrasolar planets abound in almost any possible configuration. However, until five years ago, there was a lack of planets orbiting closer than 0.5 au to giant or subgiant stars. Since then, recent detections have started to populated this…
Compared to planets around Sun-like stars, relatively little is known about the occurrence rate and orbital properties of planets around stars more massive than 1.3 Msun. The apparent deficit of planets around massive stars is due to a…
Currently, we have only limited means to probe the presence of planets at large orbital separations. Foreman-Mackey et al. searched for long-period transiting planets in the Kepler light curves using an automated pipeline. Here, we apply…
$\pi$ Men hosts a transiting super Earth ($P\approx6.27$ d, $m\approx4.82$ $M_{\oplus}$, $R\approx2.04$ $R_{\oplus}$) discovered by TESS and a cold Jupiter ($P\approx2093$ d, $m \sin I\approx10.02$ $M_{\rm{Jup}}$, $e\approx0.64$) discovered…
We construct a maximum-likelihood algorithm - MAXLIMA, to derive the mass distribution of the extrasolar planets when only the minimum masses are observed. The algorithm derives the distribution by solving a numerically stable set of…
In this paper we present the guidelines for an extrasolar planet taxonomy. The discovery of an increasing number of extrasolar planets showing a vast variety of planetary parameters, like Keplerian orbital elements and environmental…
Over the last few years, several close orbiting ($\sim 0.05$ AU) large mass planets ($M \sim M_{Jupiter}$) of nearby stars have been discovered. Their existence has been inferred from tiny doppler shifts in the light from the star. We…
More than 30 extra-solar Jupiter-like planets have shorter periods than the planet Mercury. It is generally accepted that they formed further out, and migrated inwards. In order to be driven by tidal torques from the gaseous disc, the disc…
In recent years a large number of Hot Jupiters orbiting in a very close orbit around the parent stars have been explored with the transit and doppler effect methods. Here in this work we study the gravitational microlensing effect of a…
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…
We fit a log-normal function to the M dwarf orbital surface density distribution of gas giant planets, over the mass range 1-10 times that of Jupiter, from 0.07-400 AU. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to explore the likelihoods…
Previously, planets have been detected only in the Milky Way galaxy. Here, we show that quasar microlensing provides a means to probe extragalactic planets in the lens galaxy, by studying the microlensing properties of emission close to the…
The recent discovery of a staggering diversity of planets beyond the Solar System has brought with it a greatly expanded search space for habitable worlds. The Kepler exoplanet survey has revealed that most planets in our interstellar…
If planetary systems are ubiquitous then a fraction of stars should possess a transiting planet when being microlensed. This paper presents a study of the influence of such planets on microlensing light curves. For the giant planets…