Exoplanetary Systems & Solar System (SEYSS)

The area of planetary and solar systems involves several research groups working on Exoplanets, Solar System and Cultural Astronomy. Our main objectives are:

  • The detection and characterization of giant and rocky planets around nearby stars using the most advanced instruments (CARMENES, ESPRESSO, HARPS Norte y Sur, SONG, LCO, MUSCAT2) and space missions (CoRoT, Kepler K2, CHEOPS, TESS and PLATO). The group is particularly interested in the study of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of their host stars where water can be in liquid form.
  • The characterization of the atmospheres of planets to know their structure and composition, both by transits and direct imaging, using ground-based telescopes such as GTC and space missions such as CHEOPS.
  • Investigate the formation of exoplanet systems by studying the chemical composition of planet host stars, and the dynamical evolution of exoplanets at their early stages of formation.
  • Study the physical properties of different families of minor bodies of the Solar System (asteroids, comets, trans-neptunian objects, etc.) to understand the origin and evolution of Solar System with GTC and space missions such as OSIRIS-REx.
  • The study of ancient cosmologies through cultural astronomy and the defense of cultural heritage through the astronomy.
  • Publication
    Life in the fast lane: a direct view of the dynamics, formation, and evolution of the Milky Way's bar
    Studies of the ages, abundances, and motions of individual stars in the Milky Way provide one of the best ways to study the evolution of disc galaxies over...
  • Publication
    Light and Shadows over Petra: Astronomy and Landscape in Nabataean Lands
    A statistical analysis of the orientation of Nabatean sacred monuments demonstrates that astronomical orientations were often part of an elaborated plan and...
  • Publication
    Light elements Na and Al in 58 bulge spheroid stars from APOGEE
    We identified a sample of 58 candidate stars with metallicity [Fe/H] ≲ -0.8 that likely belong to the old bulge spheroid stellar population, and analyse their...
  • Publication
    Light-curve analysis and shape models of NEAs 7335, 7822, 154244, and 159402
    In an attempt to further characterize the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population, we present 38 new light curves acquired between 2020 September and 2023 November...
  • Publication
    Light-curve classification with recurrent neural networks for GOTO: dealing with imbalanced data
    The advent of wide-field sky surveys has led to the growth of transient and variable source discoveries. The data deluge produced by these surveys has...
  • Publication
    Lightcurve analysis of near-Earth objects from the IMPACTON project: Evidence of binary systems and cohesion strength
    Rotations of asteroids have been set and altered by several processes since their formation. In the case of the near-Earth objects (NEOs), the rotational states...
  • Publication
    Lightcurve, Color and Phase Function Photometry of the OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroid (101955) Bennu
    The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission will retrieve a sample of the carbonaceous near-Earth Asteroid (101955) Bennu and return it to Earth in 2023. Photometry in the...
  • Publication
    Lightcurves of 6 Jupiter Trojan asteroids
    From the point of view of the intrinsic rotation, the Jupiter Trojans are not as well characterized as the main belt asteroids, primarily because the available...
  • Publication
    Limits on the Spin-Orbit Angle and Atmospheric Escape for the 22 Myr Old Planet AU Mic b
    We obtained spectra of the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii during a transit of its Neptune-sized planet to investigate its orbit and atmosphere. We used...