DOCSLIB.ORG

Earth Finder Report 20190314 Gv Ajb

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Earth Finder Report 20190314 Gv Ajb EarthFinder Probe Mission Concept Study Characterizing nearby stellar exoplanet systems with Earth- mass analogs for future direct imaging March 2019 NASA Aeronautics and Space Administration PI: Peter Plavchan George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia Co-I: Gautam Vasisht Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 1 EarthFinder Mission Concept 2019 Probe Study Report This research was carried out at George Mason University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. © 2019. All rights reserved. i EarthFinder Mission Concept 2019 Probe Study Report Team Members Peter Plavchan (PI, George Mason University) Richard Hall (University of Cambridge) Gautam Vasisht (Co-I, Instrument team lead, Sam Halverson (MIT) NASA Jet Propulsion Lab) Bahaa Hamze (George Mason University) Chas Beichman (Instrument team lead, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute) Enrique Herrero Casas (CSIC-IEEC) Heather Cegla (Stellar Activity team lead, U. Andrew Howard (Caltech) Geneva) Eliza Kempton (U Maryland) Xavier Dumusque (Stellar Activity team lead, Natasha Latouf (George Mason University) U Geneva) Stephanie Leifer (NASA Jet Propulsion Lab) Sharon Wang (Telluric team lead, Carnegie DTM) Paul Lightsey (Ball Aerospace) Peter Gao (Ancillary Science team lead, UC Casey Lisse (JHU/APL) Berkeley) Emily Martin (UCLA) Courtney Dressing (Ancillary Science Team Lead, UC Berkeley) William Matzko (George Mason University) Fabienne Bastien (Penn State University) Dimitri Mawet (Caltech) Sarbani Basu (Yale) Andrew Mayo (Technical University of Denmark) Thomas Beatty (Penn State) Simon Murphy (University of Sydney) Andrew Bechter (Notre Dame) Patrick Newman (George Mason University) Eric Bechter (Notre Dame) Scott Papp (NIST) Cullen Blake (U Penn) Benjamin Pope (New York University) Vincent Bourrier (University of Geneva) Bill Purcell (Ball Aerospace) Bryson Cale (George Mason University) Sam Quinn (Harvard University) David Ciardi (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute) Ignasi Ribas (CSIC-IEEC) Jonathan Crass (Notre Dame) Albert Rosich (CSIC-IEEE) Justin Crepp (Notre Dame) Sophia Sanchez-Maes (Yale University) Katherine de Kleer (Caltech/MIT) Angelle Tanner (Mississippi State) Scott Diddams (NIST) Samantha Thompson (Univ. of Cambridge) Jason Eastman (Harvard) Kerry Vahala (Caltech) Debra Fischer (Yale) Ji Wang (Ohio State) Jonathan Gagné (U Montreal) Peter Williams (Northern Virginia Community College) Scott Gaudi (Ohio State) Alex Wise (University of Delaware) Catherine Grier (Penn State) Jason Wright (Penn State) ii EarthFinder Mission Concept 2019 Probe Study Report Table of Contents 1 SCIENCE .......................................................................................................................................................... 1-1 1.1 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1-1 1.1.1 Study Findings................................................................................................................... 1-1 1.1.2 Study Recommendations ................................................................................................. 1-2 1.2 State of the Field ................................................................................................................................ 1-4 1.2.1 Scope of Study .................................................................................................................. 1-4 1.2.2 EarthFinder Overview ..................................................................................................... 1-5 1.2.3 Mission Yield ..................................................................................................................... 1-6 1.3 EarthFinder Eliminates Telluric Contamination .......................................................................... 1-9 1.3.1 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 1-10 1.3.2 Errors Induced by Tellurics vs. Wavelength .............................................................. 1-12 1.3.3 Tellurics’ Contribution to the RV Error Budget ....................................................... 1-12 1.3.4 Additional Limitations Set by Tellurics ....................................................................... 1-13 1.4 EarthFinder Can Uniquely Mitigate Stellar Jitter ........................................................................ 1-14 1.4.1 Stellar signals ................................................................................................................... 1-14 1.4.2 The Advantage of High Cadence in Planet Discovery and Mitigation of Stellar Activity ............................................................................................................................. 1-16 1.4.3 The Radial Velocity Color Advantage of EarthFinder ............................................. 1-18 1.4.4 High SNR, high resolution & line by line analysis .................................................... 1-21 1.4.5 Continuum determination ............................................................................................. 1-23 1.5 General Astrophysics with EarthFinder? ..................................................................................... 1-25 1.5.1 Instrument Capabilities .................................................................................................. 1-25 1.5.2 Stellar Astrophysics ........................................................................................................ 1-26 1.5.3 Exoplanet and Disk Science Applications .................................................................. 1-27 1.5.4 Extragalactic Science ...................................................................................................... 1-28 2 ENGINEERING, INSTRUMENT, & MISSION DESCRIPTION..................................................... 2-1 2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 2-1 2.1.1 The Top-Level Requirements......................................................................................... 2-1 2.2 Spacecraft ............................................................................................................................................ 2-4 2.2.1 Science Observing Profile................................................................................................. 2-5 2.2.2 Doppler Spectrograph Requirements............................................................................ 2-6 2.2.3 PAYLOAD Details .......................................................................................................... 2-7 2.3 Wavelength Calibration ................................................................................................................... 2-11 2.3.1 Spectrograph Calibration Options ............................................................................... 2-11 2.3.2 Optical Frequency Combs as Spectral Rulers - Astrocombs .................................. 2-15 2.3.3 Options for Flight Astrocombs ................................................................................... 2-16 2.3.4 Flight Comb Requirements and Architecture ............................................................ 2-18 2.3.5 Path Forward – Technology Roadmap ....................................................................... 2-19 3 SPECTROGRAPH THERMAL EVALUATION .................................................................................... 3-1 4 COST, RISK, HERITAGE ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................... 4-1 4.1 Cost Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 4-1 5 References .......................................................................................................................................................... 5-1 A. Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................... A-1 iii EarthFinder Mission Concept 2019 Probe Study Report Table of Tables Table 1-1: The PRV method remains the best technique for measuring planet masses, and the second best for planet discovery after the transit method (only a small fraction of planets, 1-10%, transit their host star). ..................................................................................................................................................... 1-4 Table 1-2: HabEx Target Catalog used for EarthFinder survey simulations ........................................... 1-6 Table 1-3: Summary of RV rms precision lower limits for different instrument using different RV extraction methods. EFE stands for EarthFinder Equivalent on the ground............................................................... 1-13 Table 1-4: Known sources of stellar signal, that EarthFinder can model and mitigate, with their typical timescales
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lurking in the Shadows: Wide-Separation Gas Giants As Tracers of Planet Formation
    Lurking in the Shadows: Wide-Separation Gas Giants as Tracers of Planet Formation Thesis by Marta Levesque Bryan In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California 2018 Defended May 1, 2018 ii © 2018 Marta Levesque Bryan ORCID: [0000-0002-6076-5967] All rights reserved iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank Heather Knutson, who I had the great privilege of working with as my thesis advisor. Her encouragement, guidance, and perspective helped me navigate many a challenging problem, and my conversations with her were a consistent source of positivity and learning throughout my time at Caltech. I leave graduate school a better scientist and person for having her as a role model. Heather fostered a wonderfully positive and supportive environment for her students, giving us the space to explore and grow - I could not have asked for a better advisor or research experience. I would also like to thank Konstantin Batygin for enthusiastic and illuminating discussions that always left me more excited to explore the result at hand. Thank you as well to Dimitri Mawet for providing both expertise and contagious optimism for some of my latest direct imaging endeavors. Thank you to the rest of my thesis committee, namely Geoff Blake, Evan Kirby, and Chuck Steidel for their support, helpful conversations, and insightful questions. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Brendan Bowler. His talk at Caltech my second year of graduate school introduced me to an unexpected population of massive wide-separation planetary-mass companions, and lead to a long-running collaboration from which several of my thesis projects were born.
    [Show full text]
  • Prospects of Detecting the Polarimetric Signature of the Earth-Mass Planet Α Centauri B B with SPHERE/ZIMPOL
    A&A 556, A64 (2013) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201321881 & c ESO 2013 Astrophysics Prospects of detecting the polarimetric signature of the Earth-mass planet α Centauri B b with SPHERE/ZIMPOL J. Milli1,2, D. Mouillet1,D.Mawet2,H.M.Schmid3, A. Bazzon3, J. H. Girard2,K.Dohlen4, and R. Roelfsema3 1 Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), University Joseph Fourier, CNRS, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble, France e-mail: [email protected] 2 European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile 3 Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland 4 Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM),13388 Marseille, France Received 12 May 2013 / Accepted 4 June 2013 ABSTRACT Context. Over the past five years, radial-velocity and transit techniques have revealed a new population of Earth-like planets with masses of a few Earth masses. Their very close orbit around their host star requires an exquisite inner working angle to be detected in direct imaging and sets a challenge for direct imagers that work in the visible range, such as SPHERE/ZIMPOL. Aims. Among all known exoplanets with less than 25 Earth masses we first predict the best candidate for direct imaging. Our primary objective is then to provide the best instrument setup and observing strategy for detecting such a peculiar object with ZIMPOL. As a second step, we aim at predicting its detectivity. Methods. Using exoplanet properties constrained by radial velocity measurements, polarimetric models and the diffraction propaga- tion code CAOS, we estimate the detection sensitivity of ZIMPOL for such a planet in different observing modes of the instrument.
    [Show full text]
  • 2-6-NASA Exoplanet Archive
    The NASA Exoplanet Archive Rachel Akeson NASA Exoplanet Science Ins5tute (NExScI) September 29, 2016 NASA Big Data Task Force Overview: Dat a NASA Exoplanet Archive supports both the exoplanet science community and NASA exoplanet missions (Kepler, K2, TESS, WFIRST) • Data • Confirmed exoplanets from the literature • Over 80,000 planetary and stellar parameter values for 3388 exoplanets • Updated weekly • Kepler stellar proper5es, planet candidate, data valida5on and occurrence rate products • MAST is archive for pixel and light curve data • Addi5onal space (CoRoT) and ground-based transit surveys (~20 million light curves) • Transit spectroscopy data • Auto-updated exoplanet plots and movies Big Data Task Force: Exoplanet Archive Overview: Tool s Example: Kepler 14 Time Series Viewer • Interac5ve tables and ploZng for data • Includes light curve normaliza5on • Periodogram calcula5ons • Searches for periodic signals in archive or user-supplied light curves • Transit predic5ons • Uses value from archive to predict future planet transits for observa5on and mission planning • URL-based queries Aliases • Calcula5on of observable proper5es Planet orbital period • Web-based service to collect follow-up observa5ons of planet candidates for Kepler, K2 and TESS (ExoFOP) Stellar ac5vity • Includes user-supplied data, file and notes Big Data Task Force: Exoplanet Archive Data Challenges and Technical Approach (1) • Challenges with Exoplanet Archive are not currently about data volume but about providing CPU resources and data complexity • CPU challenge
    [Show full text]
  • An Upper Boundary in the Mass-Metallicity Plane of Exo-Neptunes
    MNRAS 000, 1{8 (2016) Preprint 8 November 2018 Compiled using MNRAS LATEX style file v3.0 An upper boundary in the mass-metallicity plane of exo-Neptunes Bastien Courcol,1? Fran¸cois Bouchy,1 and Magali Deleuil1 1Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille cedex 13, France Accepted XXX. Received YYY; in original form ZZZ ABSTRACT With the progress of detection techniques, the number of low-mass and small-size exo- planets is increasing rapidly. However their characteristics and formation mechanisms are not yet fully understood. The metallicity of the host star is a critical parameter in such processes and can impact the occurence rate or physical properties of these plan- ets. While a frequency-metallicity correlation has been found for giant planets, this is still an ongoing debate for their smaller counterparts. Using the published parameters of a sample of 157 exoplanets lighter than 40 M⊕, we explore the mass-metallicity space of Neptunes and Super-Earths. We show the existence of a maximal mass that increases with metallicity, that also depends on the period of these planets. This seems to favor in situ formation or alternatively a metallicity-driven migration mechanism. It also suggests that the frequency of Neptunes (between 10 and 40 M⊕) is, like giant planets, correlated with the host star metallicity, whereas no correlation is found for Super-Earths (<10 M⊕). Key words: Planetary Systems, planets and satellites: terrestrial planets { Plan- etary Systems, methods: statistical { Astronomical instrumentation, methods, and techniques 1 INTRODUCTION lation was not observed (.e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2105.11583V2 [Astro-Ph.EP] 2 Jul 2021 Keck-HIRES, APF-Levy, and Lick-Hamilton Spectrographs
    Draft version July 6, 2021 Typeset using LATEX twocolumn style in AASTeX63 The California Legacy Survey I. A Catalog of 178 Planets from Precision Radial Velocity Monitoring of 719 Nearby Stars over Three Decades Lee J. Rosenthal,1 Benjamin J. Fulton,1, 2 Lea A. Hirsch,3 Howard T. Isaacson,4 Andrew W. Howard,1 Cayla M. Dedrick,5, 6 Ilya A. Sherstyuk,1 Sarah C. Blunt,1, 7 Erik A. Petigura,8 Heather A. Knutson,9 Aida Behmard,9, 7 Ashley Chontos,10, 7 Justin R. Crepp,11 Ian J. M. Crossfield,12 Paul A. Dalba,13, 14 Debra A. Fischer,15 Gregory W. Henry,16 Stephen R. Kane,13 Molly Kosiarek,17, 7 Geoffrey W. Marcy,1, 7 Ryan A. Rubenzahl,1, 7 Lauren M. Weiss,10 and Jason T. Wright18, 19, 20 1Cahill Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 2IPAC-NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 3Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA 4Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA 5Cahill Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 6Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA 7NSF Graduate Research Fellow 8Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA 9Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 10Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai`i,
    [Show full text]
  • Exep Science Plan Appendix (SPA) (This Document)
    ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 1 of 61 Created By: David A. Breda Date Program TDEM System Engineer Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Dr. Nick Siegler Date Program Chief Technologist Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Concurred By: Dr. Gary Blackwood Date Program Manager Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology EXOPDr.LANET Douglas Hudgins E XPLORATION PROGRAMDate Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program ScienceScience Plan Mission DirectorateAppendix NASA Headquarters Karl Stapelfeldt, Program Chief Scientist Eric Mamajek, Deputy Program Chief Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program JPL CL#19-0790 JPL Document No: 1735632 ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 2 of 61 Approved by: Dr. Gary Blackwood Date Program Manager, Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Dr. Douglas Hudgins Date Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters Created by: Dr. Karl Stapelfeldt Chief Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Dr. Eric Mamajek Deputy Program Chief Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2018 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. Exoplanet Exploration Program JPL CL#19-0790 ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 3 of 61 Table of Contents 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Correlations Between the Stellar, Planetary, and Debris Components of Exoplanet Systems Observed by Herschel⋆
    A&A 565, A15 (2014) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201323058 & c ESO 2014 Astrophysics Correlations between the stellar, planetary, and debris components of exoplanet systems observed by Herschel J. P. Marshall1,2, A. Moro-Martín3,4, C. Eiroa1, G. Kennedy5,A.Mora6, B. Sibthorpe7, J.-F. Lestrade8, J. Maldonado1,9, J. Sanz-Forcada10,M.C.Wyatt5,B.Matthews11,12,J.Horner2,13,14, B. Montesinos10,G.Bryden15, C. del Burgo16,J.S.Greaves17,R.J.Ivison18,19, G. Meeus1, G. Olofsson20, G. L. Pilbratt21, and G. J. White22,23 (Affiliations can be found after the references) Received 15 November 2013 / Accepted 6 March 2014 ABSTRACT Context. Stars form surrounded by gas- and dust-rich protoplanetary discs. Generally, these discs dissipate over a few (3–10) Myr, leaving a faint tenuous debris disc composed of second-generation dust produced by the attrition of larger bodies formed in the protoplanetary disc. Giant planets detected in radial velocity and transit surveys of main-sequence stars also form within the protoplanetary disc, whilst super-Earths now detectable may form once the gas has dissipated. Our own solar system, with its eight planets and two debris belts, is a prime example of an end state of this process. Aims. The Herschel DEBRIS, DUNES, and GT programmes observed 37 exoplanet host stars within 25 pc at 70, 100, and 160 μm with the sensitiv- ity to detect far-infrared excess emission at flux density levels only an order of magnitude greater than that of the solar system’s Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. Here we present an analysis of that sample, using it to more accurately determine the (possible) level of dust emission from these exoplanet host stars and thereafter determine the links between the various components of these exoplanetary systems through statistical analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Observing Exoplanets
    Observing Exoplanets Olivier Guyon University of Arizona Astrobiology Center, National Institutes for Natural Sciences (NINS) Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes for Natural Sciences (NINS) Nov 29, 2017 My Background Astronomer / Optical scientist at University of Arizona and Subaru Telescope (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Telescope located in Hawaii) I develop instrumentation to find and study exoplanet, for ground-based telescopes and space missions My interest is focused on habitable planets and search for life outside our solar system At Subaru Telescope, I lead the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument. 2 ALL known Planets until 1989 Approximately 10% of stars have a potentially habitable planet 200 billion stars in our galaxy → approximately 20 billion habitable planets Imagine 200 explorers, each spending 20s on each habitable planet, 24hr a day, 7 days a week. It would take >60yr to explore all habitable planets in our galaxy alone. x 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe Habitable planets Potentially habitable planet : – Planet mass sufficiently large to retain atmosphere, but sufficiently low to avoid becoming gaseous giant – Planet distance to star allows surface temperature suitable for liquid water (habitable zone) Habitable zone = zone within which Earth-like planet could harbor life Location of habitable zone is function of star luminosity L. For constant stellar flux, distance to star scales as L1/2 Examples: Sun → habitable zone is at ~1 AU Rigel (B type star) Proxima Centauri (M type star) Habitable planets Potentially habitable planet : – Planet mass sufficiently large to retain atmosphere, but sufficiently low to avoid becoming gaseous giant – Planet distance to star allows surface temperature suitable for liquid water (habitable zone) Habitable zone = zone within which Earth-like planet could harbor life Location of habitable zone is function of star luminosity L.
    [Show full text]
  • An Early Detection of Blue Luminescence by Neutral Pahs in the Direction of the Yellow Hypergiant HR 5171A?
    A&A 583, A98 (2015) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201526392 & c ESO 2015 Astrophysics An early detection of blue luminescence by neutral PAHs in the direction of the yellow hypergiant HR 5171A? A. M. van Genderen1, H. Nieuwenhuijzen2, and A. Lobel3 1 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Postbus 9513, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] 2 SRON Laboratory for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands 3 Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, 1180 Brussels, Belgium Received 23 April 2015 / Accepted 23 August 2015 ABSTRACT Aims. We re-examined photometry (VBLUW, UBV, uvby) of the yellow hypergiant HR 5171A made a few decades ago. In that study no proper explanation could be given for the enigmatic brightness excesses in the L band (VBLUW system, λeff = 3838 Å). In the present paper, we suggest that this might have been caused by blue luminescence (BL), an emission feature of neutral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules (PAHs), discovered in 2004. It is a fact that the highest emission peaks of the BL lie in the L band. Our goals were to investigate other possible causes, and to derive the fluxes of the emission. Methods. We used two-colour diagrams based on atmosphere models, spectral energy distributions, and different extinctions and extinction laws, depending on the location of the supposed BL source: either in Gum48d on the background or in the envelope of HR 5171A. Results. False L–excess sources, such as a hot companion, a nearby star, or some instrumental effect, could be excluded. Also, emission features from a hot chromosphere are not plausible.
    [Show full text]
  • Exoplanet Exploration Collaboration Initiative TP Exoplanets Final Report
    EXO Exoplanet Exploration Collaboration Initiative TP Exoplanets Final Report Ca Ca Ca H Ca Fe Fe Fe H Fe Mg Fe Na O2 H O2 The cover shows the transit of an Earth like planet passing in front of a Sun like star. When a planet transits its star in this way, it is possible to see through its thin layer of atmosphere and measure its spectrum. The lines at the bottom of the page show the absorption spectrum of the Earth in front of the Sun, the signature of life as we know it. Seeing our Earth as just one possibly habitable planet among many billions fundamentally changes the perception of our place among the stars. "The 2014 Space Studies Program of the International Space University was hosted by the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and the École des Hautes études commerciales (HEC), Montréal, Québec, Canada." While all care has been taken in the preparation of this report, ISU does not take any responsibility for the accuracy of its content. Electronic copies of the Final Report and the Executive Summary can be downloaded from the ISU Library website at http://isulibrary.isunet.edu/ International Space University Strasbourg Central Campus Parc d’Innovation 1 rue Jean-Dominique Cassini 67400 Illkirch-Graffenstaden Tel +33 (0)3 88 65 54 30 Fax +33 (0)3 88 65 54 47 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.isunet.edu France Unless otherwise credited, figures and images were created by TP Exoplanets. Exoplanets Final Report Page i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The International Space University Summer Session Program 2014 and the work on the
    [Show full text]
  • THE NASA-UC ETA-EARTH PROGRAM. III. a SUPER-EARTH ORBITING HD 97658 and a NEPTUNE-MASS PLANET ORBITING Gl 785∗
    The Astrophysical Journal, 730:10 (7pp), 2011 March 20 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/730/1/10 C 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. THE NASA-UC ETA-EARTH PROGRAM. III. A SUPER-EARTH ORBITING HD 97658 AND A NEPTUNE-MASS PLANET ORBITING Gl 785∗ Andrew W. Howard1,2, John Asher Johnson3, Geoffrey W. Marcy1, Debra A. Fischer4, Jason T. Wright5,6, Gregory W. Henry7, Howard Isaacson1, Jeff A. Valenti8, Jay Anderson8, and Nikolai E. Piskunov9 1 Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA 2 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 USA; [email protected] 3 Department of Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, MC 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 4 Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA 5 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA 6 Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA 7 Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd., Box 9501, Nashville, TN 37209, USA 8 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA 9 Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, Box 515, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden Received 2010 November 2; accepted 2010 December 30; published 2011 February 24 ABSTRACT We report the discovery of planets orbiting two bright, nearby early K dwarf stars, HD 97658 and Gl 785. These planets were detected by Keplerian modeling of radial velocities measured with Keck-HIRES for the NASA-UC Eta-Earth Survey.
    [Show full text]
  • BP Velorum, V392 Carinae and V752 Centauri
    Analysis of three close eclipsing binary systems: BP Velorum, V392 Carinae and V752 Centauri A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Hana Josephine Schumacher 2008 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand Abstract This thesis reports photometric and spectroscopic studies of three close binary systems; BP Velorum, V392 Carinae and V752 Centauri. BP Velorum, a W UMa-type binary, was observed photometrically in February 2007. The light curves in four filters were fitted simultaneously with a model generated in the eclipsing binary modeling software package PHOEBE. The best model was one with a cool star spot on the secondary larger component. The light curves showed additional cycle-to- cycle variations near the times of maximum light which may indicate the presence of star spots that vary in strength and/or location on a time scale comparable with the orbital period, (P = 0d.265). The system was confirmed to belong to the W-type subgroup of W UMa binaries for which the deeper primary minimum is due to an occultation. V392 Carinae, a detached binary with an orbital period of 3d.147, was observed pho- tometrically by Michael Snowden in 1997. These observations were reduced and com- bined with the published light curve from Debernardi and North (2001). High resolution spectroscopic images were taken using the University of Canterbury’s HERCULES spec- trograph. The radial velocities measured from these observations were combined with velocities from Debernardi and North (2001). The radial velocity and light curves were fit simultaneously, confirming that V392 Car is a detached system of two main sequence A stars with a mass-ratio of 0.95.
    [Show full text]