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- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(author)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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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.
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- Cabrera, J., et al.
(author)
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Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission: XXVII. CoRoT-28b, a planet orbiting an evolved star, and CoRoT-29b, a planet showing an asymmetric transit
- 2015
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 579
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- © ESO, 2015. Context. We present the discovery of two transiting extrasolar planets by the satellite CoRoT. Aims. We aim at a characterization of the planetary bulk parameters, which allow us to further investigate the formation and evolution of the planetary systems and the main properties of the host stars. Methods. We used the transit light curve to characterize the planetary parameters relative to the stellar parameters. The analysis of HARPS spectra established the planetary nature of the detections, providing their masses. Further photometric and spectroscopic ground-based observations provided stellar parameters (log g, Teff, vsini) to characterize the host stars. Our model takes the geometry of the transit to constrain the stellar density into account, which when linked to stellar evolutionary models, determines the bulk parameters of the star. Because of the asymmetric shape of the light curve of one of the planets, we had to include the possibility in our model that the stellar surface was not strictly spherical. Results. We present the planetary parameters of CoRoT-28b, a Jupiter-sized planet (mass 0.484 ± 0.087 MJup; radius 0.955 ± 0.066 RJup) orbiting an evolved star with an orbital period of 5.208 51 ± 0.000 38 days, and CoRoT-29b, another Jupiter-sized planet (mass 0.85 ± 0.20 MJup; radius 0.90 ± 0.16 RJup) orbiting an oblate star with an orbital period of 2.850 570 ± 0.000 006 days. The reason behind the asymmetry of the transit shape is not understood at this point. Conclusions. These two new planetary systems have very interesting properties and deserve further study, particularly in the case of the star CoRoT-29.
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- Csizmadia, S., et al.
(author)
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Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission XXVIII. CoRoT-33b, an object in the brown dwarf desert with 2:3 commensurability with its host star
- 2015
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 584
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the detection of a rare transiting brown dwarf with a mass of 59 M-Jup and radius of 1.1 R-Jup around the metal-rich, [Fe/H] = +0.44, G9V star CoRoT-33. The orbit is eccentric (e = 0.07) with a period of 5.82 d. The companion, CoRoT-33b, is thus a new member in the so-called brown dwarf desert. The orbital period is within 3% to a 3:2 resonance with the rotational period of the star. CoRoT-33b may be an important test case for tidal evolution studies. The true frequency of brown dwarfs close to their host stars (P
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- Deleuil, M., et al.
(author)
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Planets, candidates, and binaries from the CoRoT/Exoplanet programme: The CoRoT transit catalogue
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 619
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The CoRoT space mission observed 163 665 stars over 26 stellar fields in the faint star channel. The exoplanet teams detected a total of 4123 transit-like features in the 177 454 light curves. We present the complete re-analysis of all these detections carried out with the same softwares so that to ensure their homogeneous analysis. Although the vetting process involves some human evaluation, it also involves a simple binary flag system over basic tests: Detection significance, presence of a secondary, difference between odd and even depths, colour dependence, V-shape transit, and duration of the transit. We also gathered the information from the large accompanying ground-based programme carried out on the planet candidates and checked how useful the flag system could have been at the vetting stage of the candidates. From the initial list of transit-like features, we identified and separated 824 false alarms of various kind, 2269 eclipsing binaries among which 616 are contact binaries and 1653 are detached ones, 37 planets and brown dwarfs, and 557 planet candidates. We provide the catalogue of all these transit-like features, including false alarms. For the planet candidates, the catalogue gives not only their transit parameters but also the products of their light curve modelling: Reduced radius, reduced semi-major axis, and impact parameter, together with a summary of the outcome of follow-up observations when carried out and their current status. For the detached eclipsing binaries, the catalogue provides, in addition to their transit parameters, a simple visual classification. Among the planet candidates whose nature remains unresolved, we estimate that eight (within an error of three) planets are still to be identified. After correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, we derived planet and brown dwarf occurrences and confirm disagreements with Kepler estimates, as previously reported by other authors from the analysis of the first runs: Small-size planets with orbital period less than ten days are underabundant by a factor of three in the CoRoT fields whereas giant planets are overabundant by a factor of two. These preliminary results would however deserve further investigations using the recently released CoRoT light curves that are corrected of the various instrumental effects and a homogeneous analysis of the stellar populations observed by the two missions.
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5. |
- Zlotea, C., et al.
(author)
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Hydrogen sorption in TiZrNbHfTa high entropy alloy
- 2019
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In: Journal of Alloys and Compounds. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0925-8388 .- 1873-4669. ; 775, s. 667-674
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High Entropy Alloys (HEA), where five or more elements are mixed together in near equiatomic ratios offer promising properties as hydrogen storage materials due to their ability to crystallize in simple cubic structures in the presence of large lattice strain originating from the different sizes of the atoms. In this work, the hydrogen absorption and desorption as well as the cycling properties of the TiZrNbHfTa HEA have been studied by in situ Synchrotron X-Ray diffraction, Pressure-Composition-Isotherm, Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry. The alloy crystallizes in a cubic bcc phase and undergoes a two-stage hydrogen absorption reaction to a fcc dihydride phase with an intermediate tetragonal monohydride, very similar to the V-H system. The hydrogen absorption/desorption in TiZrNbHfTa is completely reversible and the activation energy of desorption could be calculated. Furthermore, we have observed an interesting macrostructure following parallel planes after the formation of the dihydride phase, which is retained after desorption.
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7. |
- Bonomo, A. S., et al.
(author)
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A deeper view of the CoRoT-9 planetary system A small non-zero eccentricity for CoRoT-9b likely generated by planet-planet scattering
- 2017
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 603, s. A43-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- CoRoT-9b is one of the rare long-period (P = 95 : 3 days) transiting giant planets with a measured mass known to date. We present a new analysis of the CoRoT-9 system based on five years of radial-velocity (RV) monitoring with HARPS and three new space-based transits observed with CoRoT and Spitzer. Combining our new data with already published measurements we redetermine the CoRoT-9 system parameters and find good agreement with the published values. We uncover a higher significance for the small but non-zero eccentricity of CoRoT-9b (e = 0 : 133(-0.037)(+0.042)) and find no evidence for additional planets in the system. We use simulations of planet-planet scattering to show that the eccentricity of CoRoT-9b may have been generated by an instability in which a similar to 50 M-circle plus planet was ejected from the system. This scattering would not have produced a spin-orbit misalignment, so we predict that the CoRoT-9b orbit should lie within a few degrees of the initial plane of the protoplanetary disk. As a consequence, any significant stellar obliquity would indicate that the disk was primordially tilted.
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11. |
- Morbidelli, A., et al.
(author)
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Fossilized condensation lines in the Solar System protoplanetary disk
- 2016
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In: Icarus. - : Elsevier BV. - 0019-1035. ; 267, s. 368-376
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The terrestrial planets and the asteroids dominant in the inner asteroid belt are water poor. However, in the protoplanetary disk the temperature should have decreased below water-condensation level well before the disk was photo-evaporated. Thus, the global water depletion of the inner Solar System is puzzling. We show that, even if the inner disk becomes cold, there cannot be direct condensation of water. This is because the snowline moves towards the Sun more slowly than the gas itself. Thus the gas in the vicinity of the snowline always comes from farther out, where it should have already condensed, and therefore it should be dry. The appearance of ice in a range of heliocentric distances swept by the snowline can only be due to the radial drift of icy particles from the outer disk. However, if a planet with a mass larger than 20 Earth mass is present, the radial drift of particles is interrupted, because such a planet gives the disk a super-Keplerian rotation just outside of its own orbit. From this result, we propose that the precursor of Jupiter achieved this threshold mass when the snowline was still around 3 AU. This effectively fossilized the snowline at that location. In fact, even if it cooled later, the disk inside of Jupiter's orbit remained ice-depleted because the flow of icy particles from the outer system was intercepted by the planet. This scenario predicts that planetary systems without giant planets should be much more rich in water in their inner regions than our system. We also show that the inner edge of the planetesimal disk at 0.7 AU, required in terrestrial planet formation models to explain the small mass of Mercury and the absence of planets inside of its orbit, could be due to the silicate condensation line, fossilized at the end of the phase of streaming instability that generated the planetesimal seeds. Thus, when the disk cooled, silicate particles started to drift inwards of 0.7. AU without being sublimated, but they could not be accreted by any pre-existing planetesimals.
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12. |
- Rey, J., et al.
(author)
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Brown dwarf companion with a period of 4.6 yr interacting with the hot Jupiter CoRoT-20b
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 619
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of an additional substellar companion in the CoRoT-20 system based on six years of HARPS and SOPHIE radial velocity follow-up. CoRoT-20 c has a minimum mass of 17 ± 1 MJup and orbits the host star in 4.59 ± 0.05 yr, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.60 ± 0.03. This is the first identified system with an eccentric hot Jupiter and an eccentric massive companion. The discovery of the latter might be an indication of the migration mechanism of the hot Jupiter, via the Lidov-Kozai effect. We explore the parameter space to determine which configurations would trigger this type of interactions.
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- Shoaie, Saeed, 1985, et al.
(author)
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Quantifying Diet-Induced Metabolic Changes of the Human Gut Microbiome
- 2015
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In: Cell Metabolism. - : Elsevier BV. - 1550-4131 .- 1932-7420. ; 22:2, s. 320-331
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The human gut microbiome is known to be associated with various human disorders, but a major challenge is to go beyond association studies and elucidate causalities. Mathematical modeling of the human gut microbiome at a genome scale is a useful tool to decipher microbe-microbe, diet-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Here, we describe the CASINO (Community And Systems-level INteractive Optimization) toolbox, a comprehensive computational platform for analysis of microbial communities through metabolic modeling. We first validated the toolbox by simulating and testing the performance of single bacteria and whole communities in vitro. Focusing on metabolic interactions between the diet, gut microbiota, and host metabolism, we demonstrated the predictive power of the toolbox in a diet-intervention study of 45 obese and overweight individuals and validated our predictions by fecal and blood metabolomics data. Thus, modeling could quantitatively describe altered fecal and serum amino acid levels in response to diet intervention.
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14. |
- Watts, Anna L., et al.
(author)
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Dense matter with eXTP
- 2019
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In: Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy. - : Science Press. - 1674-7348 .- 1869-1927. ; 62:2
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this White Paper we present the potential of the Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for determining the nature of dense matter; neutron star cores host an extreme density regime which cannot be replicated in a terrestrial laboratory. The tightest statistical constraints on the dense matter equation of state will come from pulse profile modelling of accretion-powered pulsars, burst oscillation sources, and rotation-powered pulsars. Additional constraints will derive from spin measurements, burst spectra, and properties of the accretion flows in the vicinity of the neutron star. Under development by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s.
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