Exoplanets and Astrobiology

    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

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    1. Detection of He in the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the ground, published in Science
    2. Detection of a super-earth around Barnard star, published in Nature
    3. Detection of the first TESS planets, with several papers of high relevance
    4. Discovery of Na and Halpha features in the spectrum of KELT-20b with TNG
    5. 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.

    Related publications

    • The geometric albedo of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b measured with CHEOPS

      Context. Measurements of the occultation of an exoplanet at visible wavelengths allow us to determine the reflective properties of a planetary atmosphere. The observed occultation depth can be translated into a geometric albedo. This in turn aids in characterising the structure and composition of an atmosphere by providing additional information on

      Krenn, A. F. et al.

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      4
      2023
      Citations
      6
    • A puffy polar planet. The low density, hot Jupiter TOI-640 b is on a polar orbit

      TOI-640 b is a hot, puffy Jupiter with a mass of 0.57 ± 0.02 MJ and radius of 1.72 ± 0.05 RJ, orbiting a slightly evolved F-type star with a separation of 6.33−0.06+0.07 R⋆. Through spectroscopic in-transit observations made with the HARPS spectrograph, we measured the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, analysing both in-transit radial velocities and the

      Knudstrup, Emil et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      2
    • Glancing through the debris disk: Photometric analysis of DE Boo with CHEOPS

      Aims: DE Boo is a unique system, with an edge-on view through the debris disk around the star. The disk, which is analogous to the Kuiper belt in the Solar System, was reported to extend from 74 to 84 AU from the central star. The high photometric precision of the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) provided an exceptional opportunity to

      Rando, N. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      0
    • A full transit of v<SUP>2</SUP> Lupi d and the search for an exomoon in its Hill sphere with CHEOPS

      The planetary system around the naked-eye star v2 Lupi (HD 136352; TOI-2011) is composed of three exoplanets with masses of 4.7, 11.2, and 8.6 Earth masses (M⊕). The TESS and CHEOPS missions revealed that all three planets are transiting and have radii straddling the radius gap separating volatile-rich and volatile-poor super-earths. Only a partial

      Barrado, D. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      5
    • TOI-3235 b: A Transiting Giant Planet around an M4 Dwarf Star

      We present the discovery of TOI-3235 b, a short-period Jupiter orbiting an M dwarf with a stellar mass close to the critical mass at which stars transition from partially to fully convective. TOI-3235 b was first identified as a candidate from TESS photometry and confirmed with radial velocities from ESPRESSO and ground-based photometry from

      Winn, Joshua N. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      9
    • Dynamical masses of two young transiting sub-Neptunes orbiting HD 63433

      Context. Although the number of exoplanets reported in the literature exceeds 5000 so far, only a few dozen of them are young planets (≤900 Myr). However, a complete characterization of these young planets is key to understanding the current properties of the entire population. Hence, it is necessary to constrain the planetary formation processes

      Zechmeister, M. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      2
    • TOI-836: A super-Earth and mini-Neptune transiting a nearby K-dwarf

      We present the discovery of two exoplanets transiting TOI-836 (TIC 440887364) using data from TESS Sector 11 and Sector 38. TOI-836 is a bright (T = 8.5 mag), high proper motion (~200 mas yr-1), low metallicity ([Fe/H]≈-0.28) K-dwarf with a mass of 0.68 ± 0.05 M⊙ and a radius of 0.67 ± 0.01 R⊙. We obtain photometric follow-up observations with a

      Hawthorn, Faith et al.

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      4
      2023
      Citations
      5
    • Temporal albedo variability in the phase curve of KELT-1b

      The dayside brightness spectrum of a highly irradiated transiting brown dwarf KELT-1b is challenging to explain based on current brown dwarf atmosphere models. The spectrum has been measured from observations spanning ten years and covering high-precision secondary eclipses and phase curves from space in blue-visible (CHaracterising ExOPlanet

      Parviainen, H.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      1
    • TOI-1055 b: Neptunian planet characterised with HARPS, TESS, and CHEOPS

      Context. TOI-1055 is a Sun-like star known to host a transiting Neptune-sized planet on a 17.5-day orbit (TOI-1055 b). Radial velocity (RV) analyses carried out by two independent groups using nearly the same set of HARPS spectra have provided measurements of planetary masses that differ by ∼2σ. Aims: Our aim in this work is to solve the

      Bonfanti, A. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      0
    • Hint of an exocomet transit in the CHEOPS light curve of HD 172555

      HD 172555 is a young (~20 Myr) A7V star surrounded by a 10 au wide debris disk suspected to be replenished partly by collisions between large planetesimals. Small evaporating transiting bodies, that is exocomets, have also been detected in this system by spectroscopy. After β Pictoris, this is another example of a system possibly witnessing a phase

      Kiefer, F. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      1
    • The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. A long-period planet around GJ 1151 measured with CARMENES and HARPS-N data

      Context. Detecting a planetary companion in a short-period orbit through radio emission from the interaction with its host star is a new prospect in exoplanet science. Recently, a tantalising signal was found close to the low-mass stellar system GJ 1151 using LOFAR observations. Aims: We studied spectroscopic time-series data of GJ 1151 in order to

      Blanco-Pozo, J. et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      7
    • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam

      Measuring the metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio in exoplanet atmospheres is a fundamental step towards constraining the dominant chemical processes at work and, if in equilibrium, revealing planet formation histories. Transmission spectroscopy (for example, refs. 1,2) provides the necessary means by constraining the abundances of oxygen-

      Ahrer, Eva-Maria et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      51
    • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec G395H

      Measuring the abundances of carbon and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres is considered a crucial avenue for unlocking the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems1,2. Access to the chemical inventory of an exoplanet requires high-precision observations, often inferred from individual molecular detections with low-resolution space-based3-5 and

      Alderson, Lili et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      67
    • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRISS

      The Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b has been the subject of extensive efforts to determine its atmospheric properties using transmission spectroscopy1-4. However, these efforts have been hampered by modelling degeneracies between composition and cloud properties that are caused by limited data quality5-9. Here we present the transmission spectrum of

      Feinstein, Adina D. et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      54
    • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec PRISM

      Transmission spectroscopy1-3 of exoplanets has revealed signatures of water vapour, aerosols and alkali metals in a few dozen exoplanet atmospheres4,5. However, these previous inferences with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes were hindered by the observations' relatively narrow wavelength range and spectral resolving power, which precluded

      Rustamkulov, Z. et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      77
    • Characterization of a Set of Small Planets with TESS and CHEOPS and an Analysis of Photometric Performance

      The radius valley carries implications for how the atmospheres of small planets form and evolve, but this feature is visible only with highly precise characterizations of many small planets. We present the characterization of nine planets and one planet candidate with both NASA TESS and ESA CHEOPS observations, which adds to the overall population

      Oddo, Dominic et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      2
    • An Earth-sized Planet around an M5 Dwarf Star at 22 pc

      We report on the discovery of an Earth-sized transiting planet (R p = 1.015 ± 0.051 R ⊕) in a P = 4.02 day orbit around K2-415 (EPIC 211414619), an M5V star at 22 pc. The planet candidate was first identified by analyzing the light-curve data obtained by the K2 mission, and it is here shown to exist in the most recent data from TESS. Combining the

      Narita, Norio et al.

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      3
      2023
      Citations
      1
    • The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Guaranteed time observations Data Release 1 (2016-2020)

      Context. The CARMENES instrument, installed at the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, Spain, was conceived to deliver high-accuracy radial velocity (RV) measurements with long-term stability to search for temperate rocky planets around a sample of nearby cool stars. Moreover, the broad wavelength coverage was designed to

      Ribas, I. et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      17
    • The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Variability on long timescales as seen in chromospheric indicators

      It is clearly established that the Sun has an 11-yr cycle that is caused by its internal magnetic field. Such a cycle is also observed in a sample of M dwarfs. In the framework of exoplanet detection or atmospheric characterisation of exoplanets, the activity status of the host star plays a crucial role, and inactive states are preferable for such

      Fuhrmeister, B. et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      9
    • The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Wolf 1069 b: Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a nearby, very low-mass star

      We present the discovery of an Earth-mass planet (Mb sin i = 1.26 ± 0.21 M⊕) on a 15.6 d orbit of a relatively nearby (d ~ 9.6 pc) and low-mass (0.167 ± 0.011 M⊙) M5.0 V star, Wolf 1069. Sitting at a separation of 0.0672 ± 0.0014 au away from the host star puts Wolf 1069 b in the habitable zone (HZ), receiving an incident flux of S = 0.652 ± 0.029

      Kossakowski, D. et al.

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      2
      2023
      Citations
      12

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