Related papers: Testing the Rate of False Planetary Transits due t…
Microlensing events are usually selected among single-peaked non-repeating light curves in order to avoid confusion with variable stars. However, a microlensing event may exhibit a second microlensing brightening episode when the source…
We present results of a study on identifying circumbinary planet candidates that produce multiple transits during one conjunction with eclipsing binary systems. The occurrence of these transits enables us to estimate the candidates' orbital…
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…
Published measurements of distances to detached eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud combine stellar surface areas (in absolute units) determined from photometric light and radial velocity curves with surface brightnesses from…
We present a framework to conservatively estimate the probability that any particular planet-like transit signal observed by the Kepler mission is in fact a planet, prior to any ground-based follow-up efforts. We use Monte Carlo methods…
The Wide Field Camera Transit Survey is a pioneer program aimed to search for extra-solar planets in the near-infrared. The standard data reduction pipeline of the program uses aperture photometry to construct the light curves. We…
The detection of transits is an efficient technique to uncover faint companions around stars. The full characterisation of the companions (M-type stars, brown dwarfs or exoplanets) requires high-resolution spectroscopy to measure properly…
Compared to bright star searches, surveys for transiting planets against fainter (V=12-18) stars have the advantage of much higher sky densities of dwarf star primaries, which afford easier detection of small transiting bodies. Furthermore,…
The fundamental properties of detached eclipsing binary stars can be measured very accurately, which could make them important objects for constraining the treatment of convection in theoretical stellar models. However, only four or five…
We consider the effects of mutual transits by extrasolar planet-companion systems (in a true binary or a planet-satellite system) on light curves. We show that induced changes in light curves depend strongly on a ratio between a…
One of the biggest challenges facing large transit surveys is the elimination of false-positives from the vast number of transit candidates. We investigate to what extent information from the lightcurves can identify blend scenarios and…
As a result of a careful selection of eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud using the OGLE-II photometric database, we present a list of 98 systems that are suitable targets for spectroscopic observations that would lead to the…
Stellar models of massive single stars are still plagued by major uncertainties. Testing and calibrating against observations is essential for their reliability. For this purpose one preferably uses observed stars that have never…
I derive the physical properties of 30 transiting extrasolar planetary systems using a homogeneous analysis of published data. The light curves are modelled with the JKTEBOP code, with attention paid to limb darkening and eccentricity. The…
The Kepler space mission is devoted to finding Earth-size planets in habitable zones orbiting other stars. Its large, 105-deg field-of-view features over 156,000 stars that are observed continuously to detect and characterize planet…
The list of 127 eclipsing stars in optical coincidence with star clusters from the SMC is presented. It was prepared using the catalogs of eclipsing systems and star clusters from the SMC based on observations collected during the OGLE-II…
We present a new sample of 4634 eclipsing binary stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), expanding on a previous sample of 611 objects and a new sample of 1509 eclipsing binary stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), that were…
Wide-field searches for transiting extra-solar giant planets face the difficult challenge of separating true transit events from the numerous false positives caused by isolated or blended eclipsing binary systems. We describe here the…
Progress in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae (PN) has been restricted by a paucity of well-determined central star masses. To address this deficiency we aim to (i) significantly increase the number of known…
The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey used transit photometry to discover nearly 200 gas-giant exoplanets and derive their planetary and stellar parameters. Reliable determination of the planetary density depends on accurate…