| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(author)
-
The EChO science case
- 2015
-
In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
|
|
| 2. |
- Marconi, A., et al.
(author)
-
ANDES, the high resolution spectrograph for the ELT : science case, baseline design and path to construction
- 2022
-
In: GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY IX. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9781510653504 - 9781510653498
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The first generation of ELT instruments includes an optical-infrared high resolution spectrograph, indicated as ELT-HIRES and recently christened ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph). ANDES consists of three fibre-fed spectrographs (UBV, RIZ, YJH) providing a spectral resolution of similar to 100,000 with a minimum simultaneous wavelength coverage of 0.4-1.8 mu m with the goal of extending it to 0.35-2.4 mu m with the addition of a K band spectrograph. It operates both in seeing- and diffraction-limited conditions and the fibre-feeding allows several, interchangeable observing modes including a single conjugated adaptive optics module and a small diffraction-limited integral field unit in the NIR. Its modularity will ensure that ANDES can be placed entirely on the ELT Nasmyth platform, if enough mass and volume is available, or partly in the Coude room. ANDES has a wide range of groundbreaking science cases spanning nearly all areas of research in astrophysics and even fundamental physics. Among the top science cases there are the detection of biosignatures from exoplanet atmospheres, finding the fingerprints of the first generation of stars, tests on the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. The ANDES project is carried forward by a large international consortium, composed of 35 Institutes from 13 countries, forming a team of more than 200 scientists and engineers which represent the majority of the scientific and technical expertise in the field among ESO member states.
|
|
| 3. |
- Marconi, A., et al.
(author)
-
EELT-HIRES the high-resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT
- 2016
-
In: GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY VI. - : SPIE. - 9781510601963
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The first generation of E-ELT instruments will include an optical infrared High Resolution Spectrograph, conventionally indicated as EELT-HIRES, which will be capable of providing unique breakthroughs in the fields of exoplanets, star and planet formation, physics and evolution of stars and galaxies, cosmology and fundamental physics. A 2-year long phase A study for EELT-HIRES has just started and will be performed by a consortium composed of institutes and organisations from Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. In this paper we describe the science goals and the preliminary technical concept for EELT-HIRES which will be developed during the phase A, as well as its planned development and consortium organisation during the study.
|
|
| 4. |
- Knudstrup, E., et al.
(author)
-
Radial velocity confirmation of a hot super-Neptune discovered by TESS with a warm Saturn-mass companion
- 2023
-
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 519:4, s. 5637-5655
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery and confirmation of the planetary system TOI-1288. This late G dwarf harbours two planets: TOI-1288 b and TOI-1288 c. We combine TESS space-borne and ground-based transit photometry with HARPS-N and HIRES high-precision Doppler measurements, which we use to constrain the masses of both planets in the system and the radius of planet b. TOI-1288 b has a period of 2.699835(-0.000003)(+0.000004) d, a radius of 5.24 +/- 0.09 R-circle plus, and a mass of 42 +/- 3 M-circle plus, making this planet a hot transiting super-Neptune situated right in the Neptunian desert. This desert refers to a paucity of Neptune-sized planets on short period orbits. Our 2.4-yr-long Doppler monitoring of TOI-1288 revealed the presence of a Saturn-mass planet on a moderately eccentric orbit (0.13(-0.09)(+0.07)) with a minimum mass of 84 +/- 7 M-circle plus and a period of 443(-13)(+11) d. The five sectors worth of TESS data do not cover our expected mid-transit time for TOI-1288 c, and we do not detect a transit for this planet in these sectors.
|
|
| 5. |
- Tuson, A., et al.
(author)
-
TESS and CHEOPS discover two warm sub-Neptunes transiting the bright K-dwarf HD 15906
- 2023
-
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 523:2, s. 3090-3118
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of two warm sub-Neptunes transiting the bright (G = 9.5 mag) K-dwarf HD 15906 (TOI 461, TIC 4646810). This star was observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in sectors 4 and 31, revealing two small transiting planets. The inner planet, HD 15906 b, was detected with an unambiguous period but the outer planet, HD 15906 c, showed only two transits separated by ∼ 734 d, leading to 36 possible values of its period. We performed follow-up observations with the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) to confirm the true period of HD 15906 c and improve the radius precision of the two planets. From TESS, CHEOPS, and additional ground-based photometry, we find that HD 15906 b has a radius of 2.24 ± 0.08 R and a period of 10.924709 ± 0.000032 d, whilst HD 15906 c has a radius of 2.93+−000607 R and a period of 21.583298+−00000055000052 d. Assuming zero bond albedo and full day-night heat redistribution, the inner and outer planet have equilibrium temperatures of 668 ± 13 K and 532 ± 10 K, respectively. The HD 15906 system has become one of only six multiplanet systems with two warm (700 K) sub-Neptune sized planets transiting a bright star (G ≤ 10 mag). It is an excellent target for detailed characterization studies to constrain the composition of sub-Neptune planets and test theories of planet formation and evolution.
|
|
| 6. |
- Osborn, H. P., et al.
(author)
-
Two warm Neptunes transiting HIP 9618 revealed by TESS and Cheops
- 2023
-
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 523:2, s. 3069-3089
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- HIP 9618 (HD 12572, TOI-1471, TIC 306263608) is a bright (G = 9.0 mag) solar analogue. TESS photometry revealed the star to have two candidate planets with radii of 3.9 ± 0.044 R (HIP 9618 b) and 3.343 ± 0.039 R (HIP 9618 c). While the 20.77291 d period of HIP 9618 b was measured unambiguously, HIP 9618 c showed only two transits separated by a 680-d gap in the time series, leaving many possibilities for the period. To solve this issue, CHEOPS performed targeted photometry of period aliases to attempt to recover the true period of planet c, and successfully determined the true period to be 52.56349 d. High-resolution spectroscopy with HARPS-N, SOPHIE, and CAFE revealed a mass of 10.0 ± 3.1M for HIP 9618 b, which, according to our interior structure models, corresponds to a 6.8 ± 1.4 per cent gas fraction. HIP 9618 c appears to have a lower mass than HIP 9618 b, with a 3-sigma upper limit of <18M. Follow-up and archival RV measurements also reveal a clear long-term trend which, when combined with imaging and astrometric information, reveal a low-mass companion (0.08+−000512M☉) orbiting at 26.0+−111900 au. This detection makes HIP 9618 one of only five bright (K < 8 mag) transiting multiplanet systems known to host a planet with P > 50 d, opening the door for the atmospheric characterization of warm (Teq < 750 K) sub-Neptunes.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Johansson, Sandra, et al.
(author)
-
Efficient all solid-state continuous-wave yellow-orange light source
- 2005
-
In: Optics Express. - 1094-4087. ; 13, s. 1188-1192
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present highly efficient sum-frequency generation between two CWIR lasers using periodically poled KTP. The system is based on the 1064 and 1342 nm laser-lines of two Nd:YVO4 lasers. This is an all solid-state light source in the yellow-orange spectral range. The system is optimized in terms of efficiency as well as stability. We compare the performance of a singly and a doubly resonant system, and find that the stability of the singly resonant system is superior to that of the doubly resonant system. We find that the overall conversion efficiency of the single resonant system is higher than for the doubly resonant configuration.
|
|
| 9. |
- Alsubai, Khalid, et al.
(author)
-
Qatar Exoplanet Survey : Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b
- 2017
-
In: Astronomical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-6256 .- 1538-3881. ; 153:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b, three new transiting planets identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey. The three planets belong to the hot Jupiter family, with orbital periods of P-Q3b = 2.50792 days, P-Q4b = 1.80539 days, and P-Q5b = 2.87923 days. Follow-up spectroscopic observations reveal the masses of the planets to be M-Q3b = 4.31 +/- 0.47 M-J, M-Q4b = 6.10 +/- 0.54 M-J, and M-Q5b = 4.32 +/- 0.18 M-J, while model fits to the transit light curves yield radii of R-Q3b = 1.096 +/- 0.14 RJ, R-Q4b = 1.135 +/- 0.11 R-J, and R-Q5b = 1.107 +/- 0.064 R-J. The host stars are low-mass main sequence stars with masses and radii M-Q3 = 1.145 +/- 0.064 M circle dot, M-Q4 = 0.896 +/- 0.048 M circle dot, M-Q5 = 1.128 +/- 0.056 M circle dot and R-Q3 = 1.272 +/- 0.14 R circle dot, R-Q4 = 0.849 +/- 0.063 R circle dot, and R-Q5 = 1.076 +/- 0.051 R circle dot for Qatar-3, 4, and 5 respectively. The V magnitudes of the three host stars are V-Q3 = 12.88, V-Q4 = 13.60, and V-Q5 = 12.82. All three new planets can be classified as heavy hot Jupiters (M > 4 M-J).
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
