We assess broadband color filters for the two fast cameras on the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations (PLATO) of stars space mission with respect to exoplanetary atmospheric characterization. We focus on Ultra Hot Jupiters and Hot Jupiters placed 25pc and 100pc away from the Earth and low mass low density planets placed 10pc and 25pc away. Our analysis takes as input literature values for the difference in transit depth between the broadband lower (500 to 675nm) wavelength interval (hereafter referred to as blue) and the upper (675-1125nm) broadband wavelength interval (hereafter referred to as red) for transmission, occultation and phase curve analyses. Planets orbiting main sequence central stars with stellar classes F, G, K and M are investigated. We calculate the signal-to-noise ratio with respect to photon and instrument noise for detecting the difference in transit depth between the two spectral intervals. Results suggest that bulk atmospheric composition and planetary geometric albedos could be detected for (Ultra) Hot Jupiters up to about 100pc (about 25pc) with strong (moderate) Rayleigh extinction. Phase curve information could be extracted for Ultra Hot Jupiters orbiting K and G dwarf stars up to 25pc away. For low mass low density planets, basic atmospheric types (primary and water-dominated) and the presence of sub-micron hazes in the upper atmosphere could be distinguished for up to a handful of cases up to about 10pc.
In its long-duration observation phase, the PLATO satellite will observe two non-overlapping fields for a total of 4 yr. The exact duration of each pointing will be determined 2 yr before launch. Previous estimates of PLATO's yield of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones (HZs) around solar-type stars ranged between 6 and 280. We use the PLATO Solar-like Light curve Simulator (PSLS) to simulate light curves with transiting planets around bright (m_V > 11) Sun-like stars at a cadence of 25 s, roughly representative of the >15,000 targets in PLATO's high-priority P1 sample (mostly F5-K7 dwa…
One of the main science motivations for the ESA PLAnetary Transit and Oscillations (PLATO) mission is to measure exoplanet transit radii with 3% precision. In addition to flares and starspots, stellar oscillations and granulation will enforce fundamental noise floors for transiting exoplanet radius measurements. We simulate light curves of Earth-sized exoplanets transiting continuum intensity images of the Sun taken by the HMI instrument aboard SDO to investigate the uncertainties introduced on the exoplanet radius measurements by stellar granulation and oscillations. After modeling the solar …
PlatoSim: An end-to-end PLATO camera simulator for modelling high-precision space-based photometry
KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；German Aerospace Center（德国航空航天中心）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CNRS（巴黎天文台、巴黎文理研究大学、索邦大学、巴黎西岱大学、法国国家科学研究中心）
Performance of AutoRegressive Planet Search methodology on simulated PLATO lightcurves
Penn State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所，帕多瓦天文台）；INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所，卡塔尼亚天文台）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）
Recently, we introduced PLanetary Atmospheric Tool for Observer Noobs (PLATON), a Python package that calculates model transmission spectra for exoplanets and retrieves atmospheric characteristics based on observed spectra. We now expand its capabilities to include the ability to compute secondary eclipse depths. We have also added the option to calculate models using the correlated-$k$ method for radiative transfer, which improves accuracy without sacrificing speed. Additionally, we update the opacities in PLATON--many of which were generated using old or proprietary line lists--using the mos…
We release the first grid of stellar limb-darkening coefficients (LDCs) and intensity profiles (IPs) computed by the consortium of the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), the next medium-class (M3) mission under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) to be launched in 2026. We have performed spectral synthesis with \texttt{TurboSpectrum} on a grid of \texttt{MARCS} model atmospheres. Finally, we adopted \texttt{ExoTETHyS} to convolve the high-resolution spectra ($R=2\times10^5$) with the state-of-the-art response functions for all the PLATO cameras, and computed the L…
Detecting transiting exoplanets in simulated PLATO data: A comparison of light curve filter and transit search algorithms
University of Oxford（牛津大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所帕多瓦天文台）；Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所计算天体物理学中心）
The PLATO field selection process III. Selection of the Prime Sample for the LOPS2 field
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所帕多瓦天文台）；Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo” (CISAS), Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学空间研究与活动中心（CISAS））；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利雷物理与天文系）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台）；SSDC-ASI（ASI SSDC）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所卡塔尼亚天文台）；Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Weltraumforschung（德国航空航天中心空间研究所）
Following up the Kepler field with PLATO: Transit Timing Performance
University of Warwick（华威大学）；Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick（华威大学系外行星与宜居性中心）；Centre for Space Domain Awareness, University of Warwick（华威大学太空领域感知中心）；LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台、PSL大学、索邦大学、巴黎西岱大学、CY塞尔吉巴黎大学、法国国家科学研究中心LIRA实验室）；Institute for Astronomy, KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学天文学研究所）；Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes（艾萨克·牛顿望远镜组）
The space mission PLATO will usher in a new era of exoplanetary science by expanding our current inventory of transiting systems and constraining host star ages, which are currently highly uncertain. This capability might allow PLATO to detect changes in planetary system architecture with time, particularly because planetary scattering due to Lagrange instability may be triggered long after the system was formed. Here, we utilize previously published instability timescale prescriptions to determine PLATO's capability to detect a trend of decreasing planet frequency with age for systems with eq…
Panopticon: a novel deep learning model to detect single transit events with no prior data filtering in PLATO light curves
Aix Marseille Univ（艾克斯-马赛大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；CNES（法国国家空间研究中心）；Institut Origines（起源研究所）；LAM（马赛天体物理实验室）；Institute for Astronomy, KU Leuven（鲁汶大学天文学研究所）；AIM（AIM研究所）；CEA（法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎-萨克雷大学）；Université Paris Diderot（巴黎狄德罗大学）；Sorbonne Paris Cité（巴黎城市大学）
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is an ESA M-class satellite planned for launch by end 2026 and dedicated to the wide-field search of transiting planets around bright and nearby stars, with a strong focus on discovering habitable rocky planets hosted by solar-like stars. The choice of the fields to be pointed at is a crucial task since it has a direct impact on the scientific return of the mission. In this paper we describe and discuss the formal requirements and the key scientific prioritization criteria that have to be taken into account in the Long-duration Observation P…
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is focusing on relatively bright stars and has found thousands of planet candidates. However, mainly because of the low spatial resolution of its cameras ($\approx$ 21 arcsec/pixel), TESS is expected to detect several false positives (FPs); hence, vetting needs to be done. Here, we present a follow-up program of TESS candidates orbiting solar-analogue stars that are in the all-sky PLATO input catalogue. Using Gaia photometry and astrometry we built an absolute colour-magnitude diagram and isolated solar-analogue candidates' hosts. We performed a…
Context. The ESA PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission will search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-type stars. Because of telemetry limitations, PLATO targets need to be pre-selected. Aims. In this paper, we present an all sky catalogue that will be fundamental to selecting the best PLATO fields and the most promising target stars, deriving their basic parameters, analysing the instrumental performances, and then planing and optimising follow-up observations. This catalogue also represents a valuable resource for the general definition of stellar s…
For the upcoming PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars (PLATO) satellite mission, a large number of target stars are required to yield a statistically significant number of planet transits. Locating the centres of the long duration observational phase (LOP) fields closer to the Galactic plane will increase the target star numbers but also the astrophysical false positives (FPs) from blended eclipsing binary systems. We utilise the Binary Stellar Evolution and Population Synthesis (BiSEPS) code, to create a complete synthetic stellar and planetary population for the proposed southern LOP …
Variability classification of TESS targets in LOPS2, the first long-term pointing field of PLATO. Version 1 of the public variability catalogue
KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院卡弗里天体物理与空间研究所）；Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院天文研究所）；Newcastle University（纽卡斯尔大学）；University of Southern Queensland（南昆士兰大学）
The PLATO Input Catalogue of targets (tPIC) for the first Long Pointing Field
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所-卡塔尼亚天文台）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利雷物理与天文系）；Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所-帕多瓦天文台）；Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所-罗马天文台）；Space Science Data Center - ASI（ASI空间数据中心）；Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo（意大利国家天体物理研究所-巴勒莫天文台）；Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo” (CISAS), Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学朱塞佩·科洛莫太空研究与活动中心）；Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)（德国航空航天中心）
The ESA PLATO space mission is devoted to unveiling and characterizing new extrasolar planets and their host stars. This mission will encompass a very large field of view, granting it the potential to survey up to one million stars depending on the final observation strategy. The telemetry budget of the spacecraft cannot handle transmitting individual images for such a huge stellar sample at the right cadence, so the development of an appropriate strategy to perform on-board data reduction is mandatory. We employ aperture photometry to produce stellar light curves in flight. Our aim is thus to…
The PLATO Science Calibration and Validation Plan: Targets for the First Long-pointing Field
Universität Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学）；KU Leuven（鲁汶大学）；Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt（德国航空航天中心）；Université Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸大学）；Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸天文台）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Laboratoire Lagrange（拉格朗日实验室）；Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research（马克斯·普朗克太阳系研究所）；Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）；INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所卡塔尼亚天文台）；Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)（意大利国家天体物理研究所）；Keele University（基尔大学）
Astrophysical false positives that mimic planetary transit are one of the main limitation to exoplanet transit surveys. In this proceeding, we review the issue of the false positive in transit survey and the possible complementary observations to constrain their presence. We also review the false-positive rate of both Kepler and CoRoT missions and present the basics of the planet-validation technique. Finally, we discuss the interest of observing bright stars, as PLATO 2.0 and TESS will do, in the context of the false positives. According to simulations with the Besançon galactic model, we fin…
Time-series transit photometry from the Kepler space telescope has allowed for the discovery of thousands of exoplanets. We explore the potential of yet improved future missions such as PLATO 2.0 in detecting solar system analogues. We use real-world solar data and end-to-end simulations to explore the stellar and instrumental noise properties. By injecting and retrieving planets, rings and moons of our own solar system, we show that the discovery of Venus- and Earth-analogues transiting G-dwarfs like our Sun is feasible at high S/N after collecting 6yrs of data, but Mars and Mercury will be d…
Exoplanet science is booming. In 20 years our knowledge has expanded considerably, from the first discovery of a Hot Jupiter, to the detection of a large population of Neptunes and super-Earths, to the first steps toward the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Between today and 2025, the field will evolve at an even faster pace with the advent of several space-based transit search missions, ground-based spectrographs, high-contrast imaging facilities, and the James Webb Space Telescope. Especially the ESA M-class PLATO mission will be a game changer in the field. From 2024 onwards, PLAT…
The detection of the first exoplanet paved the way into the era of transit photometry space missions with a revolutionary photometric precision that aim at discovering new exoplanetary systems around different types of stars. With this high precision, it is possible to derive very accurately the radii of exoplanets which is crucial for constraining their type and composition. However, it requires an accurate description of host stars, especially their center-to-limb variation of intensities (so called limb darkening) as it affects the planet-to-star radius ratio determination. We aim at improv…
We present new multi-broadband transit photometry of HD 189733b obtained at the Wyoming Infrared Observatory. Using an ensemble of five-band Sloan filter observations across multiple transits we have created an "ultra-low" resolution transmission spectrum to discern the nature of the exoplanet atmosphere. The observations were taken over three transit events and total 108 u', 120 g', 120 r', 110 i', and 116 z' images with an average exposure cadence of seven minutes for an entire series. The analysis was performed with a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo method assisted by a Gaussian processes regressi…
SPIRou, a near infrared spectropolarimeter, is a project of new instrument to be mounted at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope in 2017. One of the main objectives of SPIRou is to reach a radial velocity accuracy better than 1 m/s in the YJHK bands. SPIRou will make a cornerstone into the characterization of Earth-like planets, where the exoplanet statistics is very low. This is even more true for planets transiting M dwarfs, since only 3 low-mass planets have been secured so far to transit such stars. We present here all the synergies that SPIRou will provide to and benefit from photometric tr…
The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system represents an exceptional opportunity for the atmospheric characterization of temperate terrestrial exoplanets with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Assessing the potential impact of stellar contamination on the planets' transit transmission spectra is an essential precursor step to this characterization. Planetary transits themselves can be used to scan the stellar photosphere and to constrain its heterogeneity through transit depth variations in time and wavelength. In this context, we present our analysis of 169 transits observed in the optical…
We used WIRCam on CFHT to observe four transits of the super-Earth GJ 1214b in the near-infrared. For each transit we observed in two bands nearly-simultaneously by rapidly switching the WIRCam filter wheel back and forth for the duration of the observations. By combining all our J-band (~1.25 microns) observations we find a transit depth in this band of 1.338\pm0.013% - a value consistent with the optical transit depth reported by Charbonneau and collaborators. However, our best-fit combined Ks-band (~2.15 microns) transit depth is deeper: 1.438\pm0.019%. Formally our Ks-band transits are dee…
We present a comprehensive analysis of the 0.3--5\,$μ$m transit spectrum for the inflated hot Jupiter HAT-P-41b. The planet was observed in transit with Hubble STIS and WFC3 as part of the Hubble Panchromatic Comparative Exoplanet Treasury (PanCET) program, and we combine those data with warm \textit{Spitzer} transit observations. We extract transit depths from each of the data sets, presenting the STIS transit spectrum (0.29--0.93\,$μ$m) for the first time. We retrieve the transit spectrum both with a free-chemistry retrieval suite (AURA) and a complementary chemical equilibrium retrieval sui…
PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets? The PLATO 2.0 instrument consists of 34 small aperture telescopes (32 with 25 sec readout cadence and 2 with 2.5 sec candence) providing a wide field-of-view (2232 deg2) and a large photometric magnitude range (4-16 mag). It focusses on bright (4-1…
