DOCSLIB.ORG

Detection of a Transit of the Super-Earth 55 Cancri E with Warm Spitzer .” A&A 533 (September 2011): A114

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Detection of a Transit of the Super-Earth 55 Cancri E with Warm Spitzer .” A&A 533 (September 2011): A114 Detection of a transit of the super- Earth 55Cancrie with warm Spitzer The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Demory, B.-O., M. Gillon, D. Deming, D. Valencia, S. Seager, B. Benneke, C. Lovis, et al. “ Detection of a Transit of the Super-Earth 55 Cancri e with Warm Spitzer .” A&A 533 (September 2011): A114. © ESO, 2011 As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117178 Publisher EDP Sciences Version Final published version Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/86109 Terms of Use Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. A&A 533, A114 (2011) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201117178 & c ESO 2011 Astrophysics Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e with warm Spitzer B.-O. Demory1, M. Gillon2,D.Deming3, D. Valencia1, S. Seager1,B.Benneke1,C.Lovis4, P. Cubillos5, J. Harrington5,K.B.Stevenson5, M. Mayor4,F.Pepe4,D.Queloz4, D. Ségransan4,andS.Udry4 1 Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA e-mail: [email protected] 2 Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août 17, Bat. B5C, 4000 Liège, Belgium 3 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421, USA 4 Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland 5 Planetary Science Group, Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-2385, USA Received 3 May 2011 / Accepted 31 July 2011 ABSTRACT We report on the detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e with warm Spitzer in IRAC’s 4.5 μm band. Our MCMC analysis includes an extensive modeling of the systematic effects affecting warm Spitzer photometry, and yields a transit depth of 410±63 ppm, +0.16 +0.58 which translates to a planetary radius of 2.08−0.17 R⊕ as measured in IRAC 4.5 μm channel. A planetary mass of 7.81−0.53 M⊕ is derived +1.31 −3 from an extensive set of radial-velocity data, yielding a mean planetary density of 4.78−1.20 gcm . Thanks to the brightness of its host star (V = 6, K = 4), 55 Cnc e is a unique target for the thorough characterization of a super-Earth orbiting around a solar-type star. Key words. binaries: eclipsing – planetary systems – stars: individual: 55 Cnc – techniques: photometric 1. Introduction (Borucki et al. 2010b), are similar to Neptune and GJ 436 b. Kepler-11 c (Lissauer et al. 2011) seems to be a smaller version Radial velocity (RV), microlensing and transit surveys have re- of Neptune, while HAT-P-26 b (Hartman et al. 2010)hasamuch vealed the existence in our Galaxy of a large population of plan- ± −3 −3 ∼ lower density (0.4 0.10 g cm vs. 1.64 g cm for Neptune) ets with a mass of a few to 20 Earth masses (Lovis et al. 2009; that is consistent with a significantly larger H/He fraction. The Sumi et al. 2010; Borucki et al. 2011). Based on their mass super-Earths CoRoT-7 b (Léger et al. 2009; Hatzes et al. 2010) (or minimum mass for RV planets), these planets are loosely ≤ and Kepler-10 b (Batalha et al. 2011) are probably massive rocky classified as “super-Earths” (Mp 10 M⊕) and “Neptunes” planets formed in the inner part of their protoplanetary disks. (Mp > 10 M⊕). This classification is based on the theoretical The super-Earth GJ 1214 b (Charbonneau et al. 2009) is still limit for gravitational capture of H/He, ∼10 M⊕ (e.g., Rafikov mysterious in nature. Its large radius (R = 2.44±0.21R⊕,Carter 2006), and thus implicitly assumes that Neptunes are predomi- p / et al. 2011) suggests a significant gaseous envelope that could nantly ice giants with a significant H He envelope, and that most originate from the outgassing of the rocky/icy surface material of super-Earths are massive terrestrial planets. Still, the diversity of a terrestrial planet or that could be of primordial origin, making it this planetary population is probably much larger than sketched a kind of “mini-Neptune” (Rogers & Seager 2010). Recent tran- by this simple division, as we can expect from the stochastic na- sit transmission spectrophotometric measurements for GJ 1214 b ture of planetary formation. seem to rule out a cloud-free atmosphere composed primarily of The first transit of one of these low-mass planets, GJ 436 b, hydrogen (Bean et al. 2010;Désertetal.2011), but more atmo- was detected in 2007 (Gillon et al. 2007). Thanks to its transit- spheric measurements are needed to determine the exact nature ing nature, the actual mass (Mp = 23.2 ± 0.8 M⊕) and radius = ± of its envelope. The case of GJ 1214 b shows nicely that under- (Rp 4.22 0.10 R⊕) of GJ 436 b could be accurately deter- standing the true nature of a low-mass exoplanet could require mined (Torres 2007), indicating for this “hot Neptune” a mass, not only precise measurements of its mass and radius, but also a radius and density indeed very similar to the ice giant plan- study of its atmospheric properties. ets Uranus and Neptune. More recently, several other transit- ing low-mass planets were detected. While many more planet Among all the low-mass transiting exoplanets detected so candidates detected by the Kepler mission are waiting for con- far, only GJ 1214 b and GJ 436 b, and to a lesser extent HAT- firmation (Borucki et al. 2011), the first confirmed low-mass P-11 b and HAT-P-26 b, orbit around stars small enough and transiting planets already show a large diversity. Some of these bright enough in the infrared to make possible a thorough at- planets, like HAT-P-11b (Bakos et al. 2010) and Kepler-4 b mospheric characterization with existing or future facilities like The photometric time series used in this work are only avail- JWST (e.g., Shabram et al. 2011). Improving our understand- able at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr ing of the low-mass planet population orbiting around solar-type (130.79.128.5) or via stars requires that such planets are detected in transit in front of http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/533/A114 much nearer/brighter host stars than the targets of surveys like Article published by EDP Sciences A114, page 1 of 7 A&A 533, A114 (2011) CoRoT (Barge et al. 2008)orKepler (Borucki et al. 2010a). This In addition to some basic parameters for the host star, the ori- is the main goal of two ambitious space mission projects in de- gin of the RVs used as input data, and a description of our warm velopment: PLATO (Catala et al. 2010) and TESS (Ricker et al. Spitzer observations, Table 1 provides the most relevant results 2010). Still, another and more straightforward possibility exists. of our MCMC analysis for 55 Cnc e. The large transit probabil- Doppler surveys target bright nearby stars, and they have now ity, ∼29%, and the very well constrained transit ephemeris (1σ detected enough nearby low-mass planets to make highly proba- error <1 h in 2011) of this super-Earth (Mp = 7.8±0.6 M⊕)made ble that a few of them transit their parent stars. This motivated us it an extremely interesting target for our transit search program. to search with Spitzer for transits of low-mass Doppler planets having the highest transit probability. In a previous paper (Gillon et al. 2010, hereafer G10), we described the reasons that have 3. Data analysis led us to conclude that Spitzer and its Infra-Red Array Camera (IRAC, Fazio et al. 2004) were the best instrumental choice for 3.1. Data description this transit search, and presented the results of our Spitzer cycle 55 Cnc was observed by Spitzer on 6 January 2011 from 9h41 5 program targeting HD 40307 b (Mayor et al. 2009). The rest of to 14h39 UT. The data consist of 5240 sets of 64 individ- our program consist of a cycle 6 DDT program (ID 60027) of ual subarray images obtained by the IRAC detector at 4.5 μm 100 h that targeted ten other low-mass planets. Spitzer’s cryogen with an integration time of 0.01s, and calibrated by the Spitzer was depleted at the end of cycle 5, and these observations were pipeline version S18.18.0. They are available on the Spitzer thus carried out in non-cryogenic mode (“warm Spitzer”). Heritage Archive database1 under the form of 5240 basic cal- The recent announcement of 55 Cnc e transits detection by ibrated data (BCD) files. We first converted fluxes from the the MOST satellite (Winn et al. 2011) motivated the publica- Spitzer units of specific intensity (MJy/sr) to photon counts, then tion of this paper. Our initial analysis of the warm Spitzer data performed aperture photometry on each subarray image with taken in last January concluded a transit detection but also that the IRAF/DAOPHOT2 software (Stetson 1987). We tested differ- several sources of instrumental effects needed to be fully charac- ent aperture radii and background annuli, the best result being terized before securing the detection. We only recently obtained obtained with an aperture radius of 3 pixels and a background a satisfactory instrumental model for warm Spitzer photometry, annulus extending from 11 to 15.5 pixels from the point-spread through a global analysis of calibration data and of all the ob- function (PSF) center.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Radio and IR Interferometry of Sio Maser Stars
    Cosmic Masers - from OH to H0 Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 287, 2012 c International Astronomical Union 2012 R.S. Booth, E.M.L. Humphreys & W.H.T. Vlemmings, eds. doi:10.1017/S1743921312006989 Radio and IR interferometry of SiO maser stars Markus Wittkowski1, David A. Boboltz2,MalcolmD.Gray3, Elizabeth M. L. Humphreys1 Iva Karovicova4, and Michael Scholz5,6 1 ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei M¨unchen, Germany 2 US Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20392-5420, USA 3 Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK 4 Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Astronomie, K¨onigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 5 Zentrum f¨ur Astronomie der Universit¨at Heidelberg (ZAH), Institut f¨ur Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str. 2, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany 6 Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia Abstract. Radio and infrared interferometry of SiO maser stars provide complementary infor- mation on the atmosphere and circumstellar environment at comparable spatial resolution. Here, we present the latest results on the atmospheric structure and the dust condensation region of AGB stars based on our recent infrared spectro-interferometric observations, which represent the environment of SiO masers. We discuss, as an example, new results from simultaneous VLTI and VLBA observations of the Mira variable AGB star R Cnc, including VLTI near- and mid- infrared interferometry, as well as VLBA observations of the SiO maser emission toward this source. We present preliminary results from a monitoring campaign of high-frequency SiO maser emission toward evolved stars obtained with the APEX telescope, which also serves as a pre- cursor of ALMA images of the SiO emitting region.
    [Show full text]
  • 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]
  • Evidence for Very Extended Gaseous Layers Around O-Rich Mira Variables and M Giants B
    The Astrophysical Journal, 579:446–454, 2002 November 1 # 2002. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. EVIDENCE FOR VERY EXTENDED GASEOUS LAYERS AROUND O-RICH MIRA VARIABLES AND M GIANTS B. Mennesson,1 G. Perrin,2 G. Chagnon,2 V. Coude du Foresto,2 S. Ridgway,3 A. Merand,2 P. Salome,2 P. Borde,2 W. Cotton,4 S. Morel,5 P. Kervella,5 W. Traub,6 and M. Lacasse6 Received 2002 March 15; accepted 2002 July 3 ABSTRACT Nine bright O-rich Mira stars and five semiregular variable cool M giants have been observed with the Infrared and Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) interferometer in both K0 (2.15 lm) and L0 (3.8 lm) broad- band filters, in most cases at very close variability phases. All of the sample Mira stars and four of the semire- gular M giants show strong increases, from ’20% to ’100%, in measured uniform-disk (UD) diameters between the K0 and L0 bands. (A selection of hotter M stars does not show such a large increase.) There is no evidence that K0 and L0 broadband visibility measurements should be dominated by strong molecular bands, and cool expanding dust shells already detected around some of these objects are also found to be poor candi- dates for producing these large apparent diameter increases. Therefore, we propose that this must be a con- tinuum or pseudocontinuum opacity effect. Such an apparent enlargement can be reproduced using a simple two-component model consisting of a warm (1500–2000 K), extended (up to ’3 stellar radii), optically thin ( ’ 0:5) layer located above the classical photosphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Phase Variations of the 55 Cancri System
    The Astrophysical Journal, 740:61 (7pp), 2011 October 20 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/740/2/61 C 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. PLANETARY PHASE VARIATIONS OF THE 55 CANCRI SYSTEM Stephen R. Kane1, Dawn M. Gelino1, David R. Ciardi1, Diana Dragomir1,2, and Kaspar von Braun1 1 NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech, MS 100-22, 770 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; [email protected] 2 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z1, Canada Received 2011 May 6; accepted 2011 July 21; published 2011 September 29 ABSTRACT Characterization of the composition, surface properties, and atmospheric conditions of exoplanets is a rapidly progressing field as the data to study such aspects become more accessible. Bright targets, such as the multi-planet 55 Cancri system, allow an opportunity to achieve high signal-to-noise for the detection of photometric phase variations to constrain the planetary albedos. The recent discovery that innermost planet, 55 Cancri e, transits the host star introduces new prospects for studying this system. Here we calculate photometric phase curves at optical wavelengths for the system with varying assumptions for the surface and atmospheric properties of 55 Cancri e. We show that the large differences in geometric albedo allows one to distinguish between various surface models, that the scattering phase function cannot be constrained with foreseeable data, and that planet b will contribute significantly to the phase variation, depending upon the surface of planet e. We discuss detection limits and how these models may be used with future instrumentation to further characterize these planets and distinguish between various assumptions regarding surface conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Interior Dynamics of Super-Earth 55 Cancri E Constrained by General Circulation Models
    Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 21, EGU2019-4167, 2019 EGU General Assembly 2019 © Author(s) 2019. CC Attribution 4.0 license. Interior dynamics of super-Earth 55 Cancri e constrained by general circulation models Tobias Meier (1), Dan J. Bower (1), Tim Lichtenberg (2), and Mark Hammond (2) (1) Center for Space and Habitability, Universität Bern , Bern, Switzerland , (2) Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom Close-in and tidally-locked super-Earths feature a day-side that always faces the host star and are thus subject to intense insolation. The thermal phase curve of 55 Cancri e, one of the best studied super-Earths, reveals a hotspot shift (offset of the maximum temperature from the substellar point) and a large day-night temperature contrast. Recent general circulation models (GCMs) aiming to explain these observations determine the spatial variability of the surface temperature of 55 Cnc e for different atmospheric masses and compositions. Here, we use constraints from the GCMs to infer the planet’s interior dynamics using a numerical geodynamic model of mantle flow. The geodynamic model is devised to be relatively simple due to uncertainties in the interior composition and structure of 55 Cnc e (and super-Earths in general), which preclude a detailed treatment of thermophysical parameters or rheology. We focus on several end-member models inspired by the GCM results to map the variety of interior regimes relevant to understand the present-state and evolution of 55 Cnc e. In particular, we investigate differences in heat transport and convective style between the day- and night-sides, and find that the thermal structure close to the surface and core-mantle boundary exhibits the largest deviations.
    [Show full text]
  • Occurrence and Core-Envelope Structure of 1–4× Earth-Size Planets Around Sun-Like Stars
    Occurrence and core-envelope structure of 1–4× SPECIAL FEATURE Earth-size planets around Sun-like stars Geoffrey W. Marcya,1, Lauren M. Weissa, Erik A. Petiguraa, Howard Isaacsona, Andrew W. Howardb, and Lars A. Buchhavec aDepartment of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; bInstitute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and cHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 Edited by Adam S. Burrows, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and accepted by the Editorial Board April 16, 2014 (received for review January 24, 2014) Small planets, 1–4× the size of Earth, are extremely common planets. The Doppler reflex velocity of an Earth-size planet − around Sun-like stars, and surprisingly so, as they are missing in orbiting at 0.3 AU is only 0.2 m s 1, difficult to detect with an − our solar system. Recent detections have yielded enough informa- observational precision of 1 m s 1. However, such Earth-size tion about this class of exoplanets to begin characterizing their planets show up as a ∼10-sigma dimming of the host star after occurrence rates, orbits, masses, densities, and internal structures. coadding the brightness measurements from each transit. The Kepler mission finds the smallest planets to be most common, The occurrence rate of Earth-size planets is a major goal of as 26% of Sun-like stars have small, 1–2 R⊕ planets with orbital exoplanet science. With three years of Kepler photometry in periods under 100 d, and 11% have 1–2 R⊕ planets that receive 1–4× hand, two groups worked to account for the detection biases in the incident stellar flux that warms our Earth.
    [Show full text]
  • 10. Scientific Programme 10.1
    10. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME 10.1. OVERVIEW (a) Invited Discourses Plenary Hall B 18:00-19:30 ID1 “The Zoo of Galaxies” Karen Masters, University of Portsmouth, UK Monday, 20 August ID2 “Supernovae, the Accelerating Cosmos, and Dark Energy” Brian Schmidt, ANU, Australia Wednesday, 22 August ID3 “The Herschel View of Star Formation” Philippe André, CEA Saclay, France Wednesday, 29 August ID4 “Past, Present and Future of Chinese Astronomy” Cheng Fang, Nanjing University, China Nanjing Thursday, 30 August (b) Plenary Symposium Review Talks Plenary Hall B (B) 8:30-10:00 Or Rooms 309A+B (3) IAUS 288 Astrophysics from Antarctica John Storey (3) Mon. 20 IAUS 289 The Cosmic Distance Scale: Past, Present and Future Wendy Freedman (3) Mon. 27 IAUS 290 Probing General Relativity using Accreting Black Holes Andy Fabian (B) Wed. 22 IAUS 291 Pulsars are Cool – seriously Scott Ransom (3) Thu. 23 Magnetars: neutron stars with magnetic storms Nanda Rea (3) Thu. 23 Probing Gravitation with Pulsars Michael Kremer (3) Thu. 23 IAUS 292 From Gas to Stars over Cosmic Time Mordacai-Mark Mac Low (B) Tue. 21 IAUS 293 The Kepler Mission: NASA’s ExoEarth Census Natalie Batalha (3) Tue. 28 IAUS 294 The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism Bryan Gaensler (B) Wed. 29 IAUS 295 Black Holes in Galaxies John Kormendy (B) Thu. 30 (c) Symposia - Week 1 IAUS 288 Astrophysics from Antartica IAUS 290 Accretion on all scales IAUS 291 Neutron Stars and Pulsars IAUS 292 Molecular gas, Dust, and Star Formation in Galaxies (d) Symposia –Week 2 IAUS 289 Advancing the Physics of Cosmic
    [Show full text]
  • Cfa in the News ~ Week Ending 3 January 2010
    Wolbach Library: CfA in the News ~ Week ending 3 January 2010 1. New social science research from G. Sonnert and co-researchers described, Science Letter, p40, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 2. 2009 in science and medicine, ROGER SCHLUETER, Belleville News Democrat (IL), Sunday, January 3, 2010 3. 'Science, celestial bodies have always inspired humankind', Staff Correspondent, Hindu (India), Tuesday, December 29, 2009 4. Why is Carpenter defending scientists?, The Morning Call, Morning Call (Allentown, PA), FIRST ed, pA25, Sunday, December 27, 2009 5. CORRECTIONS, OPINION BY RYAN FINLEY, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Arizona Daily Star (AZ), FINAL ed, pA2, Saturday, December 19, 2009 6. We see a 'Super-Earth', TOM BEAL; TOM BEAL, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Arizona Daily Star, (AZ), FINAL ed, pA1, Thursday, December 17, 2009 Record - 1 DIALOG(R) New social science research from G. Sonnert and co-researchers described, Science Letter, p40, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 TEXT: "In this paper we report on testing the 'rolen model' and 'opportunity-structure' hypotheses about the parents whom scientists mentioned as career influencers. According to the role-model hypothesis, the gender match between scientist and influencer is paramount (for example, women scientists would disproportionately often mention their mothers as career influencers)," scientists writing in the journal Social Studies of Science report (see also ). "According to the opportunity-structure hypothesis, the parent's educational level predicts his/her probability of being mentioned as a career influencer (that ism parents with higher educational levels would be more likely to be named). The examination of a sample of American scientists who had received prestigious postdoctoral fellowships resulted in rejecting the role-model hypothesis and corroborating the opportunity-structure hypothesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Hint of a Transiting Extended Atmosphere on 55 Cancri B? D
    Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. article © ESO 2018 October 29, 2018 Hint of a transiting extended atmosphere on 55 Cancri b? D. Ehrenreich1;2, V. Bourrier3, X. Bonfils2, A. Lecavelier des Etangs3, G. Hebrard´ 3;4, D. K. Sing5, P. J. Wheatley6, A. Vidal-Madjar3, X. Delfosse2, S. Udry1, T. Forveille2 & C. Moutou7 1 Observatoire astronomique de l’Universite´ de Geneve,` Sauverny, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] 2 UJF-Grenoble 1 / CNRS-INSU, Institut de Planetologie´ et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) UMR 5274, Grenoble, France 3 Institut d’astrophysique de Paris, Universite´ Pierre & Marie Curie, CNRS (UMR 7095), Paris, France 4 Observatoire de Haute-Provence, CNRS (USR 2217), Saint-Michel-l’Observatoire, France 5 Astrophysics Group, School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 6 Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK 7 Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille, Universite´ de Provence, CNRS (UMR 6110), Marseille, France ABSTRACT The naked-eye star 55 Cancri hosts a planetary system with five known planets, including a hot super-Earth (55 Cnc e) extremely close to its star and a farther out giant planet (55 Cnc b), found in milder irradiation conditions with respect to other known hot Jupiters. This system raises important questions on the evolution of atmospheres for close-in exoplanets, and the dependence with planetary mass and irradiation. These questions can be addressed by Lyman-α transit observations of the extended hydrogen planetary atmospheres, complemented by contemporaneous measurements of the stellar X-ray flux. In fact, planet ‘e’ has been detected in transit, suggesting the system is seen nearly edge-on.
    [Show full text]
  • IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report
    IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report Eric Mamajek (chair, USA) WG Members: Juan Antonio Belmote Avilés (Spain), Sze-leung Cheung (Thailand), Beatriz García (Argentina), Steven Gullberg (USA), Duane Hamacher (Australia), Susanne M. Hoffmann (Germany), Alejandro López (Argentina), Javier Mejuto (Honduras), Thierry Montmerle (France), Jay Pasachoff (USA), Ian Ridpath (UK), Clive Ruggles (UK), B.S. Shylaja (India), Robert van Gent (Netherlands), Hitoshi Yamaoka (Japan) WG Associates: Danielle Adams (USA), Yunli Shi (China), Doris Vickers (Austria) WGSN Website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ ​ WGSN Email: [email protected] ​ The Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) consists of an international group of astronomers with expertise in stellar astronomy, astronomical history, and cultural astronomy who research and catalog proper names for stars for use by the international astronomical community, and also to aid the recognition and preservation of intangible astronomical heritage. The Terms of Reference and membership for WG Star Names (WGSN) are provided at the IAU website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/. ​ ​ ​ WGSN was re-proposed to Division C and was approved in April 2019 as a functional WG whose scope extends beyond the normal 3-year cycle of IAU working groups. The WGSN was specifically called out on p. 22 of IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030: “The IAU serves as the ​ internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and their surface features. To do so, the IAU has a number of Working Groups on various topics, most notably on the nomenclature of small bodies in the Solar System and planetary systems under Division F and on Star Names under Division C.” WGSN continues its long term activity of researching cultural astronomy literature for star names, and researching etymologies with the goal of adding this information to the WGSN’s online materials.
    [Show full text]
  • GTO Keypad Manual, V5.001
    ASTRO-PHYSICS GTO KEYPAD Version v5.xxx Please read the manual even if you are familiar with previous keypad versions Flash RAM Updates Keypad Java updates can be accomplished through the Internet. Check our web site www.astro-physics.com/software-updates/ November 11, 2020 ASTRO-PHYSICS KEYPAD MANUAL FOR MACH2GTO Version 5.xxx November 11, 2020 ABOUT THIS MANUAL 4 REQUIREMENTS 5 What Mount Control Box Do I Need? 5 Can I Upgrade My Present Keypad? 5 GTO KEYPAD 6 Layout and Buttons of the Keypad 6 Vacuum Fluorescent Display 6 N-S-E-W Directional Buttons 6 STOP Button 6 <PREV and NEXT> Buttons 7 Number Buttons 7 GOTO Button 7 ± Button 7 MENU / ESC Button 7 RECAL and NEXT> Buttons Pressed Simultaneously 7 ENT Button 7 Retractable Hanger 7 Keypad Protector 8 Keypad Care and Warranty 8 Warranty 8 Keypad Battery for 512K Memory Boards 8 Cleaning Red Keypad Display 8 Temperature Ratings 8 Environmental Recommendation 8 GETTING STARTED – DO THIS AT HOME, IF POSSIBLE 9 Set Up your Mount and Cable Connections 9 Gather Basic Information 9 Enter Your Location, Time and Date 9 Set Up Your Mount in the Field 10 Polar Alignment 10 Mach2GTO Daytime Alignment Routine 10 KEYPAD START UP SEQUENCE FOR NEW SETUPS OR SETUP IN NEW LOCATION 11 Assemble Your Mount 11 Startup Sequence 11 Location 11 Select Existing Location 11 Set Up New Location 11 Date and Time 12 Additional Information 12 KEYPAD START UP SEQUENCE FOR MOUNTS USED AT THE SAME LOCATION WITHOUT A COMPUTER 13 KEYPAD START UP SEQUENCE FOR COMPUTER CONTROLLED MOUNTS 14 1 OBJECTS MENU – HAVE SOME FUN!
    [Show full text]
  • Space Viewer Template
    Space Viewer Template View Finder This goes on top of your two plates, and is glued to the paper towel tube. We recommend using cardboard for this. < Bottom Disc This gives your view finding disc structure, and is where you label the constellations. We recommend using card stock or lightweight cardboard for this. Constellation Plate > This disc is home to your constellations, and gets glued to the larger disc. We recommend using paper for this, so the holes are easier to punch. Use the punch guides on the next page to punch holes and add labels to your viewer. Orion Cancer Look for the middle star of Orions When you look at this constellation, look sword, that is an area of brighter nearby for 55 Cancri a star that has light, it’s actually a nebula! The five exoplanets orbiting it. One of those Orion Nebula is a gigantic cloud of plants (55 Cancri e) is a super hot dust and gas, where new stars are planet entirely covered in an ocean of being created. lava! Cygnus Andromeda This constellation is home to the This constellation is very close to the Kepler-186 system, including the Andromeda Galaxy (an enormous planet Kepler-186f. Seen by collection of gas, dust, and billions of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, stars and solar systems). This spiral this is the first Earth-sized planet galaxy is so bright, you can spot it with discovered that is in"habitable the naked eye! zone" of its star. Ursa Minor Cassiopeia Ursa Minor has two stars known While gazing at Cassiopeia look for with exoplanets orbiting them - the“Pacman Nebula” (It’s official name both are gas giants, that are much is NGC 281).
    [Show full text]