19 pages, 8 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the Les Houches Winter School "Physics and Astrophysics of Planetary Systems", (EDP Sciences: EAS Publications Series)
The characteristics of irradiated solar system planetary atmospheres have been studied for decades, consequently modern planetary science benefits from an exhaustive body of ground- and space-based data. The study of extrasolar planetary atmospheres, by contrast, is still in its infancy and currently rests on a few score of datapoints, mostly of the transiting planets. This short survey aims not to review this dynamic field but rather stresses the importance of a few theoretical concepts and processes for our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres. Topics covered include atmospheric structure and dynamics, cloud processes and photochemistry of planetary atmospheres. Influences on the albedos, spectra, and colors of extrasolar planets are reviewed and caution is urged in the interpretation of exoplanet colors.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) detection of an extrasolar planet atmosphere in 2001 was a landmark step forward for the characterization of extrasolar planets. HST detected the trace element sodium, via the neutral atomic resonance doublet at 593 nm, in the transiting extrasolar giant planet HD209458b. In this paper I discuss the significance of this first ever extrasolar planet atmosphere detection. I explain how the sodium measurement can be used as a constraint on HD209458b atmosphere models and review recent interpretations of the lower-than-expected sodium line strength.
Jupiter and Saturn have extended, nearly toroidal atmospheres composed of material ejected from their moons or rings. Here we suggest that similar atmospheres must exist around giant extrasolar planets and might be observable in a transit of the parent star. Observation of such an atmosphere would be a marker for the presence of orbiting debris in the form of rings or moons that might otherwise be too small to be detected.
The next generation of high-contrast imaging instruments will provide the first unresolved image of an extrasolar planet. While the emitted infrared light from the planet in thermal equilibrium should show almost no phase effect, the reflected visible light will vary with the orbital phase angle. We study the photometric variation of the reflected light with orbital phase of a ringed extrasolar planet. We show that a ring around an extrasolar planet, both obviously unresolved, can be detected by its specific photometric signature. Keywords: Stars: planetary systems -- Planets: rings -- Extraso…
We have entered the phase of extrasolar planets characterization, probing their atmospheres for molecules, constraining their horizontal and vertical temperature profiles and estimating the contribution of clouds and hazes. We report here a short review of the current situation using ground based and space based observations, and present the transmission spectra of HD189733b in the spectral range 0.5-24 microns.
Clouds and hazes are important throughout our solar system and in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. Among the brown dwarfs, clouds control the colors and spectra of the L-dwarfs; the disappearance of clouds helps herald the arrival of the T-dwarfs. The structure and composition of clouds will be among the first remote-sensing results from the direct detection of extrasolar giant planets.
Atomic hydrogen escaping from the extrasolar giant planet HD209458b provides the largest observational signature ever detected for an extrasolar planet atmosphere. In fact, the upper atmosphere of this planet is evaporating. Observational evidences and interpretations coming from various models are reviewed. Implications for exoplanetology are discussed.
We report the detection of 3 new planetary companions orbiting the solar-type stars GJ 3021, HD 52265 and HD 169830 using radial-velocity measurements taken with the CORALIE echelle spectrograph. All these planetary companions have longer orbital periods than the 51 Peg-like objects. The orbits are fairly eccentric. The minimum masses of these planets range from 1 to 3.3 M_Jup. The stars have spectral types from F8V to G6V. They are metal-rich. We also present our radial-velocity measurements for three solar-type stars known to host planetary companions iota Hor (HD 17051), HD 210277 and HD 21…
We point out some advantages of making observations of extrasolar planets in linearly polarized (LP) light. Older cool stars have quite low levels (~ 10^-4 to 10^-5) of fractional LP, while extrasolar planets can have relatively high fractional LP (~0.1). Observations in LP light can therefore significantly enhance contrast between the planet and its parent star. Data on LP as a function of planetary orbital phase can be used to diagnose the properties (e.g., composition, size, and shape) of the scatterers in the planetary atmosphere. We discuss the feasibility of LP observations of extrasolar…
We investigate the improved detection of extrasolar planets around eclipsing binaries using eclipse minima timing, and extrasolar moons around transiting planets using transit timing, offered by the upcoming COROT (ESA, 2005), Kepler (NASA, 2007), and Eddington (ESA 2008) spacecraft missions. Hundreds of circum-binary planets should be discovered, and a thorough survey of moons around transiting planets will be accomplished by these missions.
I present two catalogs. The first one contains the observed and infered data of all of 133 stars wich harbor confirmed extrasolar planets. For these 133 stars I report the following data: stellar mass; spectral type; luminosity class; stellar rotation period; stellar metalicity, [Fe/H]; absolute luminosity; stellar radius; stellar temperature; age and number of planets host by the star. The second catalogue lists data for 156 confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting around the 133 stars. This catalogue contains the following extrasolar planet data: minimum mass and orbital elements; inclinations;…
The known extrasolar planets exhibit many interesting and surprising features--extremely short-period orbits, high-eccentricity orbits, mean-motion and secular resonances, etc.--and have dramatically expanded our appreciation of the diversity of possible planetary systems. In this review we summarize the orbital properties of extrasolar planets. One of the most remarkable features of extrasolar planets is their high eccentricities, far larger than seen in the solar system. We review theoretical explanations for large eccentricities and point out the successes and shortcomings of existing theor…
During orbital migration of a giant extrasolar planet via ejection of planetesimals (Murray et al.~1998), inner mean motion resonances can be strong enough to cause planetesimals to graze or impact the star. We integrate numerically the motions of particles which pass through the 3:1 or 4:1 mean motion resonances of a migrating Jupiter mass planet. We find that many particles can be trapped in the 3:1 or 4:1 resonances and pumped to high enough eccentricities that they impact the star. This implies that for a planet migrating a substantial fraction of its semi major axis, a significant fractio…
More than 100 extrasolar planets have been discovered since 1990s. Different from the solar system, these planets' orbital eccentricities cover a huge range from 0 to 0.7. Incidently, the first Kuiper Belt Object was discovered in 1992. Thus, an interesting and important question will be whether extrasolar planetary systems could have structures like Kuiper Belt or asteroid belt. We investigate the stability of these planetary systems with different orbital eccentricities by the similar procedures in Rabl & Dvorak (1988) and Holman & Wiegert (1999). We claim that most extrasolar planetary syst…
The key to understanding an extrasolar giant planet's spectrum--and hence its detectability and evolution--lies with its atmosphere. Now that direct observations of thermal emission from extrasolar giant planets are in hand, atmosphere models can be used to constrain atmospheric composition, thermal structure, and ultimately the formation and evolution of detected planets. We review the important physical processes that influence the atmospheric structure and evolution of extrasolar giant planets and consider what has already been learned from the first generation of observations and modeling.…
Recently the Spitzer Space Telescope observed the transiting extrasolar planets, TrES-1 and HD209458b. These observations have provided the first estimates of the day side thermal flux from two extrasolar planets orbiting Sun-like stars. In this paper, synthetic spectra from atmospheric models are compared to these observations. The day-night temperature difference is explored and phase-dependent flux densities are predicted for both planets. For HD209458b and TrES-1, models with significant day-to-night energy redistribution are required to reproduce the observations. However, the observation…
Theoretical studies predict that Trojans are likely a frequent byproduct of planet formation and evolution. We examine the sensitivity of transit timing observations for detecting Trojan companions to transiting extrasolar planets. We demonstrate that this method offers the potential to detect terrestrial-mass Trojans using existing ground-based observatories. We compare the transit timing variation (TTV) method with other techniques for detecting extrasolar Trojans and outline the future prospects for this method.
The physical bases of the detection and characterisation of extrasolar planets in the reflected light and thermal emission regimes are reviewed. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, including artefacts, in the determination of planet physical parameters (mass, size, albedo, surface and atmospheric conditions etc. A special attention is paid for Earth-like planets and new perspectives for these different aspects are also presented.
We investigate a new approach to the detection of companions to extrasolar planets beyond the transit method. We discuss the possibility of the existence of binary planets. We develop a method based on the imaging of a planet-companion as an unresolved system (but resolved from its parent star). It makes use of planet-companion mutual phenomena, namely mutual transits and mutual shadows. We show that companions can be detected and their radius measured down to lunar sizes.
We present a comprehensive theory of the spectra and atmospheres of irradiated extrasolar giant planets. We explore the dependences on stellar type, orbital distance, cloud characteristics, planet mass, and surface gravity. Phase-averaged spectra for specific known extrasolar giant planets that span a wide range of the relevant parameters are calculated, plotted, and discussed. The connection between atmospheric composition and emergent spectrum is explored in detail. Furthermore, we calculate the effect of stellar insolation on brown dwarfs. We review a variety of representative observational…
A unique analytical solution of planet and star parameters can be derived from an extrasolar planet transit light curve under a number of assumptions. This analytical solution can be used to choose the best planet transit candidates for radial velocity follow-up measurements, with or without a known spectral type. In practice, high photometric precision (< 0.005 mag) and high time sampling (< 5 minutes) are needed for this method. See Seager & Mallen-Ornelas (2002) for full details.
We are setting up a new search for transiting extrasolar planets using the 0.5m Automated Patrol Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. We will begin regular observations in September 2002. We expect to find ~7 new planets per year.
We have developed a perturbative approach to microlensing due to an extrasolar planetary lens. In particular, we have found analytic formulae for triple images. We have used the formulae to investigate the astrometric microlensing due to the extrasolar planetary lens, in expectation of dramatic improvements in the precision of the future astrometric measurements. For a weak lensing case, we have shown how the maximum angular size and the typical time scale of the anomalous shift of the lightcentroid are dependent on the mass ratio and angular separation between the star and the planet.
Gaussian aperture pupil masks (GAPMs) can in theory achieve the contrast requisite for directly imaging an extrasolar planet. We use lab tests and simulations to further study their possible place as a high contrast imaging technique. We present lab comparisons with traditional Lyot coronagraphs and simulations of GAPMs and other high contrast imaging techniques on HST.
In addition to fitting the data of 233 extra-solar planets with power laws, we construct a correlated mass-period distribution function of extrasolar planets, as the first time in this field. The algorithm to generate a pair of positively correlated beta-distributed random variables is introduced and used for the construction of correlated distribution functions. We investigate the mass-period correlations of extrasolar planets both in the linear and logarithm spaces, determine the confidence intervals of the correlation coefficients, and confirm that there is a positive mass-period correlatio…
It is expected that the next generation of high-contrast imaging instruments will deliver the first unresolved image of an extrasolar planet. The emitted thermal infrared light from the planet should show no phase effect assuming the planet is in thermal equilibrium. But the reflected visible light will vary versus the phase angle. Here, we study the photometric variation of the reflected light versus the orbital phase of a ringed extrasolar planet. We show that a ring around an extrasolar planet, both obviously unresolved, can be detected by its specific photometric signature. A simple quanti…
Ambitious studies of Earth-like extrasolar planets are outlined in the context of an exploration initiative for a return to the Earth's Moon. Two mechanism for linearly polarizing light reflected from Earth-like planets are discussed: 1) Rayleigh-scattering from a planet's clear atmosphere, and 2) specular reflection from a planet's ocean. Both have physically simple and predictable polarized phase functions. The exoplanetary diurnal variation of the polarized light reflected from a ocean but not from a land surface has the potential to enable reconstruction of the continental boundaries on an…
We present an analysis of precision radial velocity measurements for 580 stars from the Keck survey. We first discuss the detection threshold of the survey, and then describe a Bayesian approach to constrain the distribution of extrasolar planet orbital parameters using both detections and upper limits.
Atmospheres of transiting extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) such as HD 209458 b must impose features on the spectra of their parent stars during transits; these features contain information about the physical conditions and chemical composition of the atmospheres. The most convenient observational index showing these features is the ``spectrum ratio'', defined as the wavelength-dependent ratio of spectra taken in and out of transit. I describe a model that estimates this ratio and its dependence upon parameters of the planetary atmosphere, including its cloud structure, temperature, chemical com…
We present a new analysis of the expected magnetospheric radio emission from extrasolar giant planets for a distance limited sample of the nearest known extrasolar planets. Using recent results on the correlation between stellar X-ray flux and mass-loss rates from nearby stars, we estimate the expected mass-loss rates of the host stars of extrasolar planets that lie within 20pc of the Earth. We find that some of the host stars have mass-loss rates that are more than 100 times that of the Sun, and given the expected dependence of the planetary magnetospheric radio flux on stellar wind propertie…
Microlensing has recently proven to be a valuable tool to search for extrasolar planets of Neptune- to super-Earth-mass planets at orbits of few AU. Since planetary signals are of very short duration, an intense and continuous monitoring is required, which is achieved by PLANET : ``Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork''. Up to now the detection number amounts to four, one of them being OGLE 2005-BLG-390Lb, an extrasolar planet of only ~5.5 M_earth orbiting its M-dwarf host star at ~2.6 AU. For non-planetary microlensing events observed from 1995 to 2006, we compute detection efficiency diagrams w…
The Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) is a proposed Discovery mission that will complete the first census of extrasolar planets with sensitivity to planets like those in our own solar system. MPF will employ a 1.1m aperture telescope, which images a 1.3 sq. deg. field-of-view in the near-IR, in order to detect extrasolar planets with the gravitational microlensing effect. MPF's sensitivity extends down to planets of 0.1 Earth masses, and MPF can detect Earth-like planets at all separations from 0.7AU to infinity. MPF's extrasolar planet census will provide critical information needed to underst…
Future surveys for transiting extrasolar planets, including the space-based mission Kepler (Borucki et al 2003), are expected to detect hundreds of Jovian mass planets and tens of terrestrial mass planets. For many of these newly discovered planets, the intervals between successive transits will be measured with an accuracy of 0.1--100 minutes. We show that these timing measurements will allow for the detection of additional planets in the system (not necessarily transiting), via their gravitational interaction with the transiting planet. The transit time variations depend on the mass of the a…
We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the planet/star contrast ratios at the secondary eclipse,their wavelength dependences, and, importantly, the day-night flux contrast during a planetary orbit. The presence of the thermal inversion/stratosphere seems to roughly correlate with the stellar flux at the planet. Such temperature inversions might caused by an upper-atmosphere absorber whose exact nature is still…
Specularly reflected light, or glint, from an ocean surface may provide a useful observational tool for studying extrasolar terrestrial planets. Detection of sea-surface glints would differentiate ocean-bearing terrestrial planets, i.e. those similar to Earth, from other terrestrial extrasolar planets. The brightness and degree of polarization of both sea-surface glints and atmospheric Rayleigh scattering are strong functions of the phase angle of the extrasolar planet. We modify analytic expressions for the bi-directional reflectances previously validated by satellite imagery of the Earth to …
I review the characteristics of planetary systems accessible to imaging. I show that, beyond the basic angular resolution and dynamics performances of an optical ``architecture'', other performances such as photometric precision, spectral range or timing are necessary to access some physical characteristics of the planets.
Most observed extrasolar planets have masses similar to, but orbits very different from, the gas giants of our solar system. Many are much closer to their parent stars than would have been expected and their orbits are often rather eccentric. We show that some of these planets might have formed in systems much like our solar system, i.e. in systems where the gas giants were originally on orbits with a semi-major axis of several au, but where the masses of the gas giants were all rather similar. If such a system is perturbed by another star, strong planet-planet interactions follow, causing the…
Orbits of known extrasolar planets that are located outside the tidal circularization regions of their parent stars are often substantially eccentric. By contrast, planetary orbits in our Solar System are approximately circular, reflecting planet formation within a nearly axisymmetric, circumsolar disk. We propose that orbital eccentricities may be generated by divergent orbital migration of two planets in a viscously accreting circumstellar disk. The migration is divergent in the sense that the ratio of the orbital period of the outer planet to that of the inner planet grows. As the period ra…
We report on a possible correlation between the masses and periods of the extrasolar planets, manifested as a paucity of massive planets with short orbital periods. Monte-Carlo simulations show the effect is significant, and is not solely due to an observational selection effect. We also show the effect is stronger than the one already implied by published models that assumed independent power-law distributions for the masses and periods of the extrasolar planets. Planets found in binary stellar systems may have an opposite correlation. The difference is highly significant despite the small nu…
In this paper we present the guidelines for an extrasolar planet taxonomy. The discovery of an increasing number of extrasolar planets showing a vast variety of planetary parameters, like Keplerian orbital elements and environmental parameters, like stellar masses, spectral types, metallicity etc., prompts the development of a planetary taxonomy. In this work via principal component analysis followed by hierarchical clustering analysis, we report the definition of five robust groups of planets. We also discuss the physical relevance of such analysis, which may provide a valid basis for disenta…
The host stars of extrasolar planets tend to be metal-rich. We have examined the data for these stars for evidence of trends in other galactic parameters, without success. However, several ESP hosts are likely to be members of the thick disk population, indicating that planet formation has occurred throughout the full lifetime of the Galactic disk. We briefly consider the radial metallicity gradient and age-metallicity relation of the Galactic disk, and complete a back-of-the envelope estimate of the likely number of solar-type stars with planetary companions with 6 < R < 10 kpc.
Terrestrial planetary systems may exist around nearby stars as the Earth-sized counterparts to the many giant planets already discovered within the solar neighborhood. In this chapter we first discuss the numerous techniques which have been suggested to search for extrasolar terrestrial planets. We then focus on the expected results from that technique in which an orbiting telescope or interferometer is used to obtain a visible or infrared spectrum of a planet, without contamination from the parent star. We show examples of such spectra for selected cases: the present Earth, the Neoproterozoic…
Water absorption is identified in the atmosphere of HD209458b by comparing models for the planet's transmitted spectrum to recent, multi-wavelength, eclipse-depth measurements (from 0.3 to 1 microns) published by Knutson et al. (2007). A cloud-free model which includes solar abundances, rainout of condensates, and photoionization of sodium and potassium is in good agreement with the entire set of eclipse-depth measurements from the ultraviolet to near-infrared. Constraints are placed on condensate removal by gravitational settling, the bulk metallicity, and the redistribution of absorbed stell…
We suggest that some extrasolar planets <~ 60 Earth masses will form substantially from silicon carbide and other carbon compounds. Pulsar planets and low-mass white dwarf planets are especially good candidate members of this new class of planets, but these objects could also conceivably form around stars like the Sun. This planet-formation pathway requires only a factor of two local enhancement of the protoplanetary disk's C/O ratio above solar, a condition that pileups of carbonaceous grains may create in ordinary protoplanetary disks. Hot, Neptune-mass carbon planets should show a significa…
The atmospheres of close-in extrasolar planets absorb most of the incident stellar radiation, advect this energy, then reradiate photons in preferential directions. Those photons carry away momentum, applying a force on the planet. Here we evaluate the resulting secular changes to the orbit, known as the Yarkovsky effect. For known transiting planets, typical fractional changes in semi-major axis are about 1% over their lifetime, but could be up to ~5% for close-in planets like OGLE-TR-56b or inflated planets like TrES-4. We discuss the origin of the correlation between semi-major axis and sur…
We investigate the stability regions of hypothetical terrestrial planets around the Lagrangian equilibrium points L4 and L5 in some specific extrasolar planetary systems. The problem of their stability can be treated in the framework of the restricted three body problem where the host star and a massive Jupiter-like planet are the primary bodies and the terrestrial planet is regarded as being massless. From these theoretical investigations one cannot determine the extension of the stable zones around the equilibrium points. Using numerical experiments we determined their largeness for three te…
We report the relative abundances of 17 elements in the atmosphere of the white dwarf star GD 362, material that, very probably, was contained previously in a large asteroid or asteroids with composition similar to the Earth/Moon system. The asteroid may have once been part of a larger parent body not unlike one of the terrestrial planets of our solar system.
Extrasolar planetary transits are powerful tools to probe their atmosphere and to extract key physical properties of planets, like their mean densities, chemical compositions, or atmospheric structures. Every 3.5 days, the transits of the gaseous planet orbiting HD209458 offer the opportunity to investigate the spectral features of its atmosphere. We present here NUV transmission spectroscopy of the transiting extrasolar planet HD209458b using HST/ACS. We show the data analysis of the seven HST orbits which were used to observe two transits of HD209458b. Due to various remaining systematics, t…
This paper compares the statistical features of the sample of discovered extrasolar planets with those of the secondaries in nearby spectroscopic binaries, in order to enable us to distinguish between the two populations. Based on 32 planet candidates discovered until March 2000, we find that their eccentricity and period distribution are surprisingly similar to those of the binary population, while their mass distribution is remarkably different. The mass distributions definitely support the idea of two distinct populations, suggesting the planet candidates are indeed extrasolar planets. The …
We present an overview of our ongoing systematic search for wide (sub)stellar companions around the stars known to host rad-vel planets. By using a relatively large field of view and going very deep, our survey can find all directly detectable stellar and massive brown dwarf companions (m>40 Mjup) within a 1000 AU orbit.
The recent discoveries of giant planets around nearby stars have galvanized the planetary science community, astronomers, and the public at large. Since {\it direct} detection is now feasible, and is suggested by the recent acquisition of Gl229 B, it is crucial for the future of extrasolar planet searches that the fluxes, evolution, and physical structure of objects from Saturn's mass to 15 Juipter masses be theoretically investigated. We discuss our first attempts to explore the characteristics of extrasolar giant planets (EGPs), in aid of both NASA's and ESA's recent plans to search for such…
Light and cold extrasolar planets such as OGLE 2005-BLG-390Lb, a 5.5 Earth-mass planet detected via microlensing, could be frequent in the Galaxy according to some preliminary results from microlensing experiments. These planets can be frozen rocky- or ocean-planets, situated beyond the snow line and, therefore, beyond the habitable zone of their system. They can nonetheless host a layer of liquid water, heated by radiogenic energy, underneath an ice shell surface for billions of years, before freezing completely. These results suggest that oceans under ice, like those suspected to be present …
For extrasolar planets with orbital periods, P>10 days, radial velocity surveys find non-circular orbital eccentricities are common, <e>~0.3. Future surveys for extrasolar planets using the transit technique will also have sensitivity to detect these longer period planets. Orbital eccentricity affects the detection of extrasolar planets using the transit technique in two opposing ways: an enhancement in the probability for the planet to transit near pericenter and a reduction in the detectability of the transit due to a shorter transit duration. For an eccentricity distribution matching the cu…
The large eccentricities of many giant extrasolar planets may represent the endpoint of gravitational scattering in initially more crowded systems. If so, the early evolution of the giant planets is likely to be more restrictive of terrestrial planet formation than would be inferred from the current, dynamically quiescent, configurations. Here, we study statistically the extent of the anti-correlation between giant planets and terrestrial planets expected in a scattering model. We use marginally stable systems of three giant planets, with a realistic range of planetary masses, as a simple mode…
Instabilities and strong dynamical interactions between multiple giant planets have been proposed as a possible explanation for the surprising orbital properties of extrasolar planetary systems. In particular, dynamical instabilities seem to provide a natural mechanism for producing the highly eccentric orbits seen in many systems. Previously, we performed numerical integrations for the dynamical evolution of planetary systems containing two giant planets of equal masses initially in nearly circular orbits very close to the dynamical stability limit. We found the ratio of collisions to ejectio…
Of the over 200 known extrasolar planets, 14 exhibit transits in front of their parent stars as seen from Earth. Spectroscopic observations of the transiting planets can probe the physical conditions of their atmospheres. One such technique can be used to derive the planetary spectrum by subtracting the stellar spectrum measured during eclipse (planet hidden behind star) from the combined-light spectrum measured outside eclipse (star + planet). Although several attempts have been made from Earth-based observatories, no spectrum has yet been measured for any of the established extrasolar planet…
Microlensing has proven to be a valuable tool to search for extrasolar planets of Jovian- to Super-Earth-mass planets at orbits of a few AU. Since planetary signals are of very short duration, an intense and continuous monitoring is required. This is achieved by ground-based networks of telescopes (PLANET/RoboNET, microFUN) following up targets, which are identified as microlensing events by single dedicated telescopes (OGLE, MOA). Microlensing has led to four already published detections of extrasolar planets, one of them being OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a planet of only ~5.5 M_earth orbiting its M…
In the frame of the search for extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs around early-type stars, we present the results obtained on Beta-Pictoris, which is surrounded by a circumstellar disk that is warped by the presence of a planet. We used 97 spectra acquired with CORALIE and 230 spectra acquired with HARPS to characterize the radial velocity behavior of Beta-Pictoris and to infer constraints on the presence of a planet close to this star. With these data, we were able to exclude the presence of an inner giant planet (2 MJup at a distance to the star of 0.05 AU, 9 MJup at 1 AU). We also discuss …
We report the results of a prototype photometric search for transiting extrasolar planets using Subaru Suprime-Cam. Out of about 100,000 stars monitored around the Galactic plane (l=90 degree,b=0 degree), we find that 7,700 (27,000) stars show the photometric precision below 1% (3%) for 60 second exposures which is required to detect extrasolar planets by the transit method. Thus Suprime-Cam has the photometric stability and accuracy required for a transiting planet survey. During this observing run, we detected three transiting planetary candidates (i'-band magnitude around 18.5) which exhibi…
Coronagraphic imaging in combination with moderate to high spectral resolution may prove more effective in both detecting extrasolar planets and characterizing them than a standard coronagraphic imaging approach. We envisage an integral-field spectrograph coupled to a coronagraph to produce a 3D datacube. For the idealised case where the spectrum of the star is well-known and unchanging across the field, we discuss the utility of cross-correlation to seek the extrasolar planet signal, and describe a mathematical approach to completely eliminate stray light from the host star (although not its …
