Search results for "Exoplanet"
showing 10 items of 40 documents
Diving into exoplanets: Are water seas the most common?
2019
One of the basic tenets of exobiology is the need for a liquid substratum in which life can arise, evolve, and develop. The most common version of this idea involves the necessity of water to act as such a substratum, both because that is the case on Earth and because it seems to be the most viable liquid for chemical reactions that lead to life. Other liquid media that could harbor life, however, have occasionally been put forth. In this work, we investigate the relative probability of finding superficial seas on rocky worlds that could be composed of nine different, potentially abundant, liquids, including water. We study the phase space size of habitable zones defined for those substance…
A giant exoplanet orbiting a very-low-mass star challenges planet formation models
2019
Surveys 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 planet has a minimum mass of 0.46 Jupiter masses, very high for such a small host star, and an eccentric 204-day orbit. Dynamical models show that the high eccentricity is most likely due to planet-planet interactions. We use simulations to demonstrate that the GJ 3512 planetary system challenges generally accepted formation theories, and that it puts con…
Could CoRoT-7b and Kepler-10b be remnants of evaporated gas or ice giants?
2009
We present thermal mass loss calculations over evolutionary time scales for the investigation if the smallest transiting rocky exoplanets CoRoT-7b (∼1.68REarth) and Kepler-10b (∼1.416REarth) could be remnants of an initially more massive hydrogen-rich gas giant or a hot Neptune-class exoplanet. We apply a thermal mass loss formula which yields results that are comparable to hydrodynamic loss models. Our approach considers the effect of the Roche lobe, realistic heating efficiencies and a radius scaling law derived from observations of hot Jupiters. We study the influence of the mean planetary density on the thermal mass loss by placing hypothetical exoplanets with the characteristics of Jup…
ARES. III. Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3
2020
We present the analysis of the hot-Jupiter KELT-7b using transmission and emission spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), both taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Our study uncovers a rich transmission spectrum which is consistent with a cloud-free atmosphere and suggests the presence of H2O and H-. In contrast, the extracted emission spectrum does not contain strong absorption features and, although it is not consistent with a simple blackbody, it can be explained by a varying temperature-pressure profile, collision induced absorption (CIA) and H-. KELT-7 b had also been studied with other space-based instruments and we explore the effects of introducing these additiona…
The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG: . Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and improved parameters of KELT-9b
2019
In the framework of the GAPS project, we observed the planet-hosting star KELT-9 (A-type star, VsinI$\sim$110 km/s) with the HARPS-N spectrograph at the TNG. In this work we analyse the spectra and the extracted radial velocities (RVs), to constrain the physical parameters of the system and to detect the planetary atmosphere of KELT-9b. We extracted from the high-resolution optical spectra the mean stellar line profiles with an analysis based on the Least Square Deconvolution technique. Then, we computed the stellar RVs with a method optimized for fast rotators, by fitting the mean stellar line profile with a purely rotational profile instead of using a Gaussian function. The new spectra an…
Development of processes, qualification, and de-risking for the Ariel primary mirror
2022
The work carried out in the Ph.D. program focused on developing the optics design of the Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey (Ariel) telescope, an optical/infrared mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), whose primary mirror is an off-axis paraboloid mirror measuring 1.2 · 0.7m. The novelty of the telescope is that both the mirrors and the telescope structure will be made of aluminium, and the primary mirror will be made of bare aluminium without a thick hard coating. The choice is mainly due to the thermo-mechanical properties of the material, and the usage of the same material for the whole structure will allow better heat exchange between the mirror and the opt…
Activity and accretion in {gamma} Vel and Cha I
2015
We use the fundamental parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, lithium abundance, and radial velocity) delivered by the GES consortium in the first internal data release to select the members of Gamma Vel and Cha I among the UVES and GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations. A total of 140 Gamma Vel members and 74 Cha I members were studied. The procedure adopted by the GES to derive stellar fundamental parameters provided also measures of the projected rotational velocity (vsini). We calculated stellar luminosities through spectral energy distributions, while stellar masses were derived by comparison with evolutionary tracks. The spectral subtraction of low-activity and slowly rotati…
VLT/Flames spectroscopic data of NGC 6530
2007
Mechanisms regulating the evolution of pre-main sequence stars can be understood by studying stellar properties such as rotation, disk accretion, internal mixing and binarity. To investigate such properties, we studied a sample of 332 candidate members of the massive and populous star forming region NGC 6530. We want to select cluster members by using different membership criteria, to study the properties of pre-main sequence stars with or without circumstellar disks. We use intermediate resolution spectra including the LiI6707.8{AA} line to derive radial and rotational velocities, binarity and to measure the Equivalent Width of the lithium line; these results are combined with X-ray data t…
Abundance signature of M dwarf stars
2020
Most of our current knowledge on planet formation is still based on the analysis of main-sequence, solar-type stars. Conversely, detailed chemical studies of large samples of M-dwarf planet hosts are still missing. We aim to test whether the correlations between the metallicity, individual chemical abundances, and mass of the star and the presence of different type of planets found for FGK stars still holds for the less massive M dwarf stars. Methods to determine in a consistent way stellar abundances of M dwarfs from high-resolution optical spectra are still missing. The present work is a first attempt to fill this gap. We analyse in a coherent and homogeneous way a large sample of M dwarf…
ARES I: WASP-76 b, A Tale of Two HST Spectra
2020
We analyse the transmission and emission spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-76b, observed with the G141 grism of the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). We reduce and fit the raw data for each observation using the open-source software Iraclis before performing a fully Bayesian retrieval using the publicly available analysis suite TauRex 3. Previous studies of the WFC3 transmission spectra of WASP-76 b found hints of titanium oxide (TiO) and vanadium oxide (VO) or non-grey clouds. Accounting for a fainter stellar companion to WASP-76, we reanalyse this data and show that removing the effects of this background star changes the slope of the spectrum, resulting in these vi…