Start year
2013
Organizational Unit
Organizing institutions
Grants related:
General
Description
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable information about its physical properties, but also allowing to constrain the properties of the Solar system's planets within a more global context. The field is approaching to the important discovery of the first potentially habitable planets and encouraging more detailed studies of them. With the launching of upcoming related satellites like JWST, CHEOPS, TESS, ARIEL and PLATO, the exoplanets field faces a bright future.
It is for this reason that this field is aid of, and at the same time promotes, the development of increasingly sensitive and stable instrumentation for both, ground-based telescopes and space missions. Our group is particularly prepared for these two fronts. On the one hand, during the last years we have developed observational and reduction techniques of exoplanet transits data for the ORM telescopes, ours being one of the most productive groups in the exploitation of GTC. On the other hand, all ESA space missions (present and future) related to exoplanets have one or more components of the project as CoIs. Within the frame of this project, we intend that IAC researchers maintain an advantageous position regarding the operation of OSIRIS and CanariCam, first light
GTC's instruments, and participate in the construction, commissioning and operation of new instruments such as the high resolution optical spectrograph HORUS at GTC. The exploitation of the photometry and spectroscopy of transits with LIRIS at WHT is also one of our principal interests, especially in preparation for the installation in 2015 of EMIR on the GTC .
To summarize, the project "Exoplanets and Astrobiology" will focus on these four action lines:
1) The characterization of atmospheric and physical properties of exoplanets (GTC, WHT, ARIEL, HARPSN, CARMENES, ESPRESSO, etc. ..)
2) The search and confirmation of exoplanets by transits techniques (CoRoT, Kepler, K2, CHEOPS, XO, LCOGT, W FC, DISH, etc. ..)
3) The search and confirmation of exoplanet by radial velocity techniques (HARPSN, HORUS, LCOGT, SONG, CARMENES)
4) Astrobiology
Members
Principal investigator
Enric
Pallé Bago
Project staff
Hans Jörg
Deeg Deeg
Nicolas Cédric
Lodieu
Javier Andrés
Licandro Goldaracena
Víctor Javier
Sánchez Bejar
Juan Antonio
Belmonte Avilés
Roi
Alonso Sobrino
Grzegorz
Nowak
Patricia
Chinchilla Gallego
A. L. Cabrera Lavers
Felipe Andrés
Murgas Alcaino
Hannu
Parviainen
Collaborators
Dr.
Paulo Miles Paez
Dr.
Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio
Dr.
M. Mas Hesse
Dr.
M. Deleuil
Dr.
D. Gandolfi
Dr.
M. Fridlund
Dr.
L. Doyle
Dr.
H. Rauer
Dr.
J. Cabrera
Dr.
Sz. Csizmadia
Dr.
D. Pollacco
Dr.
A. Hatzes
Dr.
T. Mazeh
Dr.
T. Boyajian
Dr.
B. Tingley
Dr.
D. Martin
Dr.
A Triaud
Dr.
D. Fabrycky
Antonio Cabrera Lavers
Results
- Detection of He in the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the ground, published in Science
- Detection of a super-earth around Barnard star, published in Nature
- Detection of the first TESS planets, with several papers of high relevance
- Discovery of Na and Halpha features in the spectrum of KELT-20b with TNG
- Publication of the Handbook of Exoplanets, the most extensive work of reference in the field of exoplanets. The Handbook was edited by members of our group, and includes contributions by about 300 experts worldwide, including 12 members of IAC.
Scientific activity
Related publications
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It Takes Two Planets in Resonance to Tango around K2-146K2-146 is a cool, 0.358 ${M}_{\odot }$ dwarf that was found to host a mini-Neptune with a 2.67 day period. The planet exhibited strong transit timing variations (TTVs) of greater than 30 minutes, indicative of the presence of an additional object in the system. Here we report the discovery of the previously undetected outer planet in the system, K2Lam, Kristine W. F. et al.
Advertised on:
32020 -
GJ 1252 b: A 1.2 R<SUB>⊕</SUB> Planet Transiting an M3 Dwarf at 20.4 pcWe report the discovery of GJ 1252 b, a planet with a radius of 1.193 ± 0.074 ${R}_{\oplus }$ and an orbital period of 0.52 days around an M3-type star (0.381 ± 0.019 ${M}_{\odot }$ , 0.391 ± 0.020 ${R}_{\odot }$ ) located 20.385 ± 0.019 pc away. We use Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, ground-based photometry and spectroscopyShporer, Avi et al.
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22020 -
Mass determinations of the three mini-Neptunes transiting TOI-125The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, is currently carrying out an all-sky search for small planets transiting bright stars. In the first year of the TESS survey, a steady progress was made in achieving the mission's primary science goal of establishing bulk densities for 50 planets smaller than Neptune. During that year, the TESS'sNielsen, L. D. et al.
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32020 -
USco1621 B and USco1556 B: Two wide companions at the deuterium-burning mass limit in Upper ScorpiusAims: Our objective is to identify analogues of gas giant planets, but located as companions at wide separations of very young stars. The main purpose is to characterise the binarity frequency and the properties of these substellar objects, and to elucidate their early evolutionary stages. Methods: To identify these objects, we cross correlated theChinchilla, Patricia et al.
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12020 -
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. The He I triplet at 10830 Å across the M dwarf sequenceThe He I infrared (IR) triplet at 10 830 Å is an important activity indicator for the Sun and in solar-type stars, however, it has rarely been studied in relation to M dwarfs to date. In this study, we use the time-averaged spectra of 319 single stars with spectral types ranging from M0.0 V to M9.0 V obtained with the CARMENES high resolutionFuhrmeister, B. et al.
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122019 -
Precise radial velocities of giant stars. XIII. A second Jupiter orbiting in 4:3 resonance in the 7 CMa systemWe report the discovery of a second planet orbiting the K giant star 7 CMa based on 166 high-precision radial velocities obtained with Lick, HARPS, UCLES, and SONG. The periodogram analysis reveals two periodic signals of approximately 745 and 980 d, associated with planetary companions. A double-Keplerian orbital fit of the data reveals twoLuque, R. et al.
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112019 -
Three Red Suns in the Sky: A Transiting, Terrestrial Planet in a Triple M-dwarf System at 6.9 pcWe present the discovery from Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data of LTT 1445Ab. At a distance of 6.9 pc, it is the second nearest transiting exoplanet system found to date, and the closest one known for which the primary is an M dwarf. The host stellar system consists of three mid-to-late M dwarfs in a hierarchical configurationWinters, Jennifer G. et al.
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102019 -
He I λ 10 830 Å in the transmission spectrum of HD209458 bContext. Recently, the He I triplet at 10 830 Å was rediscovered as an excellent probe of the extended and possibly evaporating atmospheres of close-in transiting planets. This has already resulted in detections of this triplet in the atmospheres of a handful of planets, both from space and from the ground. However, while a strong signal isAlonso-Floriano, F. J. et al.
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92019 -
A super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes transiting the nearby and quiet M dwarf TOI-270One of the primary goals of exoplanetary science is to detect small, temperate planets passing (transiting) in front of bright and quiet host stars. This enables the characterization of planetary sizes, orbits, bulk compositions, atmospheres and formation histories. These studies are facilitated by small and cool M dwarf host stars. Here we reportGünther, Maximilian N. et al.
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72019 -
Ionized calcium in the atmospheres of two ultra-hot exoplanets WASP-33b and KELT-9bUltra-hot Jupiters are emerging as a new class of exoplanets. Studying their chemical compositions and temperature structures will improve our understanding of their mass loss rate as well as their formation and evolution. We present the detection of ionized calcium in the two hottest giant exoplanets - KELT-9b and WASP-33b. By using transitYan, F. et al.
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122019 -
Spectral library of age-benchmark low-mass stars and brown dwmarfsIn recent years, some extremely red brown dwarfs have been discovered. They were believed to have a low surface gravity, but many of their spectral characteristics are similar to those of high-surface-gravity brown dwarfs, showing that the spectral characteristics of young brown dwarfs are poorly understood. We aim to test surface-gravityManjavacas, E. et al.
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22020 -
MuSCAT2 multicolour validation of TESS candidates: an ultra-short-period substellar object around an M dwarfContext. We report the discovery of TOI 263.01 (TIC 120916706), a transiting substellar object (R = 0.87 R Jup) orbiting a faint M3.5 V dwarf (V = 18.97) on a 0.56 d orbit. Aims: We setout to determine the nature of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) planet candidate TOI 263.01 using ground-based multicolour transit photometry. TheParviainen, H. et al.
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12020 -
The Habitability of GJ 357D: Possible Climate and ObservabilityThe GJ 357 system harbors three planets orbiting a bright, nearby M2.5V star at 9.44 pc. The innermost planet, GJ 357b (TOI-562.01), is a hot transiting Earth-sized planet with Earth-like density, which receives about 12 times the irradiation Earth receives from the Sun, and was detected using data from TESS. Radial velocities discovered two moreKaltenegger, L. et al.
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102019 -
Kojima-1Lb Is a Mildly Cold Neptune around the Brightest Microlensing Host StarWe report the analysis of additional multiband photometry and spectroscopy and new adaptive optics (AO) imaging of the nearby planetary microlensing event TCP J05074264+2447555 (Kojima-1), which was discovered toward the Galactic anticenter in 2017 (Nucita et al.). We confirm the planetary nature of the light-curve anomaly around the peak whileFukui, A. et al.
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112019 -
MASCARA-3b. A hot Jupiter transiting a bright F7 star in an aligned orbitWe report the discovery of MASCARA-3b, a hot Jupiter orbiting its bright (V = 8.33) late F-type host every 5.55149 ± 0.00001 days in an almost circular orbit (e = 0.050 -0.017 +0.020). This is the fourth exoplanet discovered with the Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA), and the first of these that orbits a late-type star. Follow-up spectroscopicHjorth, M. et al.
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112019 -
A giant exoplanet orbiting a very-low-mass star challenges planet formation modelsSurveys have shown that super-Earth and Neptune-mass exoplanets are more frequent than gas giants around low-mass stars, as predicted by the core accretion theory of planet formation. We report the discovery of a giant planet around the very-low-mass star GJ 3512, as determined by optical and near-infrared radial-velocity observations. The planetMorales, J. C. et al.
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92019 -
Near-resonance in a System of Sub-Neptunes from TESSWe report the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite detection of a multi-planet system orbiting the V = 10.9 K0 dwarf TOI-125. We find evidence for up to five planets, with varying confidence. Three transit signals with high signal-to-noise ratio correspond to sub-Neptune-sized planets (2.76, 2.79, and 2.94 R ⊕), and we statistically validate theQuinn, Samuel N. et al.
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112019 -
Radial velocity confirmation of K2-100b: a young, highly irradiated, and low-density transiting hot NeptuneWe present a detailed analysis of HARPS-N radial velocity observations of K2-100, a young and active star in the Praesepe cluster, which hosts a transiting planet with a period of 1.7 d. We model the activity-induced radial velocity variations of the host star with a multidimensional Gaussian Process framework and detect a planetary signal of 10.6Barragán, O. et al.
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112019 -
Two New HATNet Hot Jupiters around A Stars and the First Glimpse at the Occurrence Rate of Hot Jupiters from TESSWide-field surveys for transiting planets are well suited to searching diverse stellar populations, enabling a better understanding of the link between the properties of planets and their parent stars. We report the discovery of HAT-P-69 b (TOI 625.01) and HAT-P-70 b (TOI 624.01), two new hot Jupiters around A stars from the Hungarian-madeZhou, G. et al.
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102019 -
Water vapor detection in the transmission spectra of HD 209458 b with the CARMENES NIR channelAims: We aim at detecting water vapor in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HD 209458 b and perform a multi-band study in the near infrared with CARMENES. Methods: The water vapor absorption lines from the atmosphere of the planet are Doppler-shifted due to the large change in its radial velocity during transit. This shift is of the order of tens ofSánchez-López, A. et al.
Advertised on:
102019
