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Transiting Extrasolar Planets: Detection And TRANSITING EXTRASOLAR PLANETS: DETECTION AND FOLLOW-UP Thesis submitted for the degree “doctor of philosophy” by Avi Shporer Submitted to the senate of Tel Aviv University October 2009 This work was carried out under the supervision of Professor Tsevi Mazeh To my parents Contents Abstract............................ III 1 Introduction 1 1.1 OverviewofExtrasolarPlanets . 4 1.1.1 ExtrasolarPlanetsDetection. 4 Barnard’sstar ................ 5 TheRadialVelocityMethod . 6 PulsarPlanets ................ 9 High-PrecisionRadial Velocity . 10 TheTransitMethod . 14 OtherTechniques . 23 Current Status and Future Prospects. 25 1.1.2 The Role of Observations in Developing Plan- etaryTheory .................. 29 TheSolarSystem . 30 Planetformationindisks . 30 Thecoreaccretiontheory . 31 The gravitational instability theory. 33 PlanetaryMigration . 34 Planetaryradius-mass relation . 38 Planetaryatmospheres . 41 Spin-orbitalignment. 43 Looking for a second planet in the system . 44 Themass-periodcorrelation. 45 1.2 StructureoftheThesis . 46 1.2.1 Searching for Transiting Extrasolar Planets . 47 I 1.2.2 Follow-up Observations of Known Transiting Planets...................... 49 WASP-1b................... 50 HAT-P-2b .................. 50 GJ436b ................... 51 2 The Papers 53 PaperI ............................ 53 PaperII............................ 60 PaperIII ........................... 64 PaperIV............................ 72 PaperV............................ 77 PaperVI............................ 82 3 Discussion 91 3.1 Papers I – III — Detection of Three New Transiting ExtrasolarPlanets . 91 3.1.1 PaperI—HAT-P-2b. 91 3.1.2 PaperII—HAT-P-5b . 96 3.1.3 PaperIII—HAT-P-9b. 97 3.2 Papers IV – VI — Follow-up Studies of Known Tran- sitingExtrasolarPlanets . 99 3.2.1 Paper IV — WASP-1b photometric follow-up 100 3.2.2 Paper V — HAT-P-2b spectroscopic follow-up 100 3.2.3 Paper VI — GJ 436b photometric follow-up campaign .................... 103 3.3 Summary ........................ 104 Bibliography 107 Acknowledgments 123 II Abstract This thesis, consisting of six published papers, includes the discovery of three new transiting extrasolar planets and follow-up studies of three known transiting planets. Papers I, II and III present the discovery of HAT-P-2b, HAT-P-5b and HAT-P-9b, respectively. The three planets were discovered as candidates by the Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HAT- Net), working in collaboration with the Israeli HAT telescope at the Wise Observatory (Wise-HAT, or WHAT), for which I am part of the operational group. The planetary nature of HAT-P-2b was confirmed spectroscop- ically at the Keck telescope, with the HIRES spectrograph. This planet is extraordinary as it is both massive (Mp =8.80 ± 0.16 MJ ) and residing in an eccentric orbit (e =0.5156 ± 0.0018). For HAT-P- 5b and HAT-P-9b, spectroscopic confirmation was done at the OHP 1.93-m telescope, with the SOPHIE spectrograph, in observations I carried out. I also carried out photometric observations of transits of these planets with the Wise Observatory 0.46-m and 1.0-m tele- scopes. HAT-P-5b is a close-in planet (P =2.788491±0.000025 days) similar to Jupiter in mass and radius (Mp = 1.06 ± 0.11 MJ , Rp = III 1.257 ± 0.053 RJ ), and HAT-P-9b is a low-density planet (ρp = −3 0.35 ± 0.06 g cm = 0.28 ± 0.05ρJ ), belonging to a small group of inflated planets. Papers IV, V and VI present three follow-up studies of known transiting planets, WASP-1b, HAT-P-2b and GJ 436b, respectively. Each of these planets has some unique characteristics and the three studies were carried out right after the announcement of the planet discovery. WASP-1b was observed with the Wise Observatory 1.0-m tele- scope and using the two transit light curves obtained we were able to refine the system parameters, especially the planetary and stellar radii, confirming the planet’s inflated nature (Rp =1.40 ± 0.06 RJ ). The massive and eccentric planet HAT-P-2b was followed-up spectro- scopically at the OHP 1.93-m telescope, with the SOPHIE spectro- graph, leading to an improved orbital solution and the measurement of the spin-orbit alignment (λ =0.2 ± 12.5◦). GJ 436b was the first planet detected in the Neptune-mass range, and its eccentric orbit made it even more interesting. Immediately after the discovery of its transiting nature (in a work I was part of), it was followed-up photometrically from three observatories worldwide, allowing us to IV obtain refined light curve parameters, look for transit timing varia- tion (TTV) and variation in the transit impact parameter. Although no significant variation was found, we could not rule out a small TTV, of the order of a minute, and a long-term modulation of the impact parameter, of the order of +0.2 yr−1. The contribution of this work, as a whole, to the exciting field of transiting planets, is the study of transiting exoplanets positioned in several key areas of the planetary radius-mass parameter space. V Chapter 1 Introduction The discovery of planets orbiting other stars, similar to the Sun, at the end of the second millennium (Mayor & Queloz 1995) marks an important breakthrough in modern astrophysics. Further detections made since, including short period planets (e.g., Butler et al. 1997, 1998; Mazeh et al. 2000; Konacki et al. 2003) and planets on eccentric orbits (e.g., Marcy & Butler 1996; Cochran et al. 1997; Naef et al. 2001), revealed that the planet phenomenon is more diverse than expected from observations of the Solar System. The current sample, which is growing fast, includes 350 exoplanets1. Of those, about 60 cross the line-of-sight to their host star every orbital revolution. This selected group of transiting planets presents an opportunity for an 1Throughout this thesis data regarding the known sample of exoplanets is taken from the on-line Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (http://exoplanet.eu/). It is updated to July 1st, 2009, and includes published planets only. 1 in-depth study of the planet phenomenon, much more than non- transiting planets (e.g., Burrows et al. 2007; Guillot 2008; Johnson 2009). As described in more details in the following, only transiting planets allow the measurement of both the radius and exact mass, the study of their atmospheres and measuring the alignment between the stellar spin and the planetary orbit. All this makes them highly important astrophysical objects. In addition, some of the transiting planets discovered already show unusual characteristics, including (I) large planetary radius (e.g., WASP-1b, Cameron et al. 2007), larger than theoretical expecta- tions at the time of discovery (e.g., Burrows et al. 2007; Chabrier & Baraffe 2007), (II) high planetary mass (e.g., HAT-P-2b, Bakos et al. 2007a), which is vital for studying the mass-radius relation at this mass range (e.g., Baraffe et al. 2003, Chabrier et al. 2009), where objects are rare, and (III) short-period eccentric orbits (e.g., GJ 436b, Butler et al. 2004; Gillon et al. 2007), which are unexpected as the tidal circularization process is more efficient for close-in orbits (e.g., Mazeh 2008). These interesting discoveries call for follow-up observations, leading to better understanding. For example, looking for a second planet in a transiting planet system (e.g., Ballard et al. 2 2009), where the gravitational interaction between the two planets maintains the non-zero eccentricity (e.g., Adams & Laughlin 2006; Maness et al. 2007), or, a more accurate measurement of the orbital eccentricity for an inflated planet, to see if its orbit is circular or not, since tidal friction may be responsible for the large radius of a planet on an eccentric orbit (e.g., Bodenheimer et al. 2001; Miller et al. 2009; Ibgui & Burrows 2009). Transiting planets were the focus of my Ph.D. study. It included searching for new transiting planets, identified as candidates by WHAT (Shporer et al. 2006, 2007a, 2009b) and HATNet (Bakos et al. 2004), and follow-up observations of known transiting planets I carried out at the OHP 1.93-m telescope, with the SOPHIE spectrograph, and at the Wise Observatory 0.46-m (Brosch et al. 2008) and 1.0-m tele- scopes. This thesis consists of six published papers and is divided into two parts. The first part, including Papers I–III, presents the detection of three new transiting planets. In the second part, consisting of Papers IV-VI, three follow-up studies of known transiting planets are described. In Sec. 1.1 I give an historical overview of the field, from the early 3 discoveries to the modern ones. I also briefly describe the primary methods used and summarize the current theories. In Sec. 1.2 I describe the contents of the thesis. 1.1 Overview of Extrasolar Planets 1.1.1 Extrasolar Planets Detection The existence of planets, or worlds, orbiting other stars was discussed already in Ancient Greece. In the 4th century B.C.E. Aristotle pos- tulated his geocentric cosmology, which views the Earth as unique (Fraser 2006). As in other fields of science, the Aristotelean approach was well accepted for almost two millennia. In the 16th century C.E. Nicolaus Copernicus suggested that the Earth orbits the Sun, thereby starting the Copernican revolution (e.g., Blumenberg 1987). Soon af- ter, in 1584, Giordano Bruno took the Copernican approach a huge leap forward when he postulated in his book de l’infinito universo et mondi (on the infinite universe and worlds) that “There are innu- merable suns and an infinite number of planets which circle around those suns” (Singer 1950). Up until the 20th century the existence of planets orbiting other stars remained a theoretical question. That was mainly because the 4 detection of extrasolar planets was beyond the technological reach until then. The basic problem is identifying a very faint object — a planet — right next to a star, which can be up to 108 times more luminous.
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