We report the results of the transit timing variation (TTV) analysis of the extra-solar planet Qatar-1b using thirty eight light curves. Our analysis combines thirty five previously available transit light curves with three new transits observed by us between June 2016 and September 2016 using the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (Hanle, India). From these transit data, the physical and orbital parameters of the Qatar-1 system are determined. In addition to this, the ephemeris for the orbital period and mid-transit time are refined to investigate the possible TTV. We find that the null-TTV model provides the better fit to the (O-C) data. This indicates that there is no evidence for TTVs to confirm the presence of additional planets in the Qatar-1 system. The use of the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) operated by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES, Nainital, India) could improve the photometric precision to examine the signature of TTVs in this system with a greater accuracy than in the present work.
WASP-12b and Qatar-1b are transiting Hot Jupiters for which previous works have suggested the presence of transit timing variations (TTVs) indicative of additional bodies in these systems - an Earth-mass planet in WASP-12 and a brown-dwarf mass object in Qatar-1. Here, we present 23 new WASP-12b and 18 new Qatar-1b complete (or nearly complete) transit observations. We perform global system fits to all of our light curves for each system, plus RV and stellar spectroscopic parameters from the literature. The global fits provide refined system parameters and uncertainties for each system, includ…
Variations in the timing of transiting exoplanets provide a powerful tool detecting additional planets in the system. Thus, the aim of this paper is to discuss the plausibility of transit timing variations on the Qatar-1 system by means of primary transit light curves analysis. Furthermore, we provide an interpretation of the timing variation. We observed Qatar-1 between March 2011 and October 2012 using the 1.2 m OLT telescope in Germany and the 0.6 m PTST telescope in Spain. We present 26 primary transits of the hot Jupiter Qatar-1b. In total, our light curves cover a baseline of 18 months. …
New photometric follow-up observations of exoplanet transits of 'hot Jupiters' TrES-3b and Qatar-1b are presented. Weighted mean values of the solutions of light curves in R-fiter for both planetary systems are reported and compared with the previous results. The transit light curves were analysed using the WINFITTER code. The physical properties of the planets were estimated. The planet radii are found to be $R_p = 1.381 \pm 0.033 R_J$ for TrES-3b and $R_p = 1.142 \pm 0.025 R_J$ for Qatar-1b. Transit times and their uncertainties were also determined and a new linear ephemeris was computed fo…
We report the discovery of Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b, three new transiting planets identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES). The three planets belong to the hot Jupiter family, with orbital periods of $P_{Q3b}$=2.50792 days, $P_{Q4b}$=1.80539 days, and $P_{Q5b}$=2.87923 days. Follow-up spectroscopic observations reveal the masses of the planets to be $M_{Q3b}$=4.31$\pm0.47$ $M_{\rm J}$, $M_{Q4b}$=6.10$ \pm0.54$ $M_{\rm J}$, and $M_{Q5b}$ = 4.32$ \pm0.18$ $M_{\rm J}$, while model fits to the transit light curves yield radii of $R_{Q3b}$ = 1.096$ \pm0.14$ $R_{\rm J}$, $R_{Q4b}$ = 1.…
We present and analyze 58 transit light curves of TrES-3b and 98 transit light curves of Qatar-1b observed by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), plus two transit light curves of Qatar-1b observed by us using a ground-based 1.23\,m telescope. These light curves are combined with the best-quality light curves taken from the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) and literature. The precisely determined mid-transit times from these light curves enable us to obtain the refined orbital ephemerides with improved precision for both hot Jupiters. From the timing analysis, we find an indication fo…
We report the discovery of Qatar-6b, a new transiting planet identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES). The planet orbits a relatively bright (V=11.44), early-K main-sequence star at an orbital period of P~3.506 days. An SED fit to available multi-band photometry, ranging from the near-UV to the mid-IR, yields a distance of d = 101 +/- 6 pc to the system. From a global fit to follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations, we calculate the mass and radius of the planet to be Mp = 0.67 +/- 0.07 Mjup and Rp = 1.06 +/- 0.07 Rjup, respectively. We use multi-color photometric light curve…
We present an analysis of the Qatar-1 and TrES-5 transiting exoplanetary systems, which contain Jupiter-like planets on short-period orbits around K-dwarf stars. Our data comprise a total of 20 transit light curves obtained using five medium-class telescopes, operated using the defocussing technique. The average precision we reach in all our data is $RMS_{Q} = 1.1$ mmag for Qatar-1 ($V = 12.8$) and $RMS_{T} = 1.0$ mmag for TrES-5 ($V = 13.7$). We use these data to refine the orbital ephemeris, photometric parameters, and measured physical properties of the two systems. One transit event for ea…
The transiting hot Jupiter planet Qatar-1 b was presented to exhibit variations in transit times that could be of perturbative nature. A hot Jupiter with a planetary companion on a nearby orbit would constitute an unprecedented planetary configuration, important for theories of formation and evolution of planetary systems. We performed a photometric follow-up campaign to confirm or refute transit timing variations. We extend the baseline of transit observations by acquiring 18 new transit light curves acquired with 0.6-2.0 m telescopes. These photometric time series, together with data availab…
Motivated by the unsettled conclusion on whether there are any transit timing variations (TTVs) for the exoplanet Qatar-1b, 10 new transit light curves are presented and the TTV analysis with a baseline of 1400 epochs are performed. Because the linear model provides a good fitting with reduced chi-square = 2.59 and the false-alarm probabilities of possible TTV frequencies are as large as 35 %, our results are consistent with a null-TTV model. Nevertheless, a new ephemeris with the reference time T_0 = 2455647.63360\pm 0.00008 (BJD) and the period P= 1.4200236\pm 0.0000001 (day) is obtained. In…
Till date, only a handful exo-atmospheres have been well characterized, mostly by means of the transit method. Data show exoplanet atmospheres to be diverse. However, this is based on a small number of cases. Here we focus our study on the exo-atmosphere of Qatar-1b, an exoplanet that looks much like HD 189733b regarding its host star activity level, their surface gravity, scale height, equilibrium temperature and transit parameters. Thus, our motivation relied on carrying out a comparative study of their atmospheres, and assess if these are regulated by their environment. In this work we pres…
We announce the detection of recurring sets of recurring starspot occultation events in the short-cadence K2 lightcurve of Qatar-2, a K dwarf star transited every 1.34 d by a hot Jupiter. In total we detect 34 individual starspot occultation events, caused by five different starspots, occulted in up to five consecutive transits or after a full stellar rotation. The longest recurring set of recurring starspot occultations spans over three stellar rotations, setting a lower limit for the longest starspot lifetime of 58 d. Starspot analysis provided a robust stellar rotational period measurement …
We report the discovery and initial characterisation of Qatar-1b, a hot Jupiter orbiting a metal-rich K dwarf star, the first planet discovered by the Alsubai Project exoplanet transit survey. We describe the strategy used to select candidate transiting planets from photometry generated by the Alsubai Project instrument. We examine the rate of astrophysical and other false positives found during the spectroscopic reconnaissance of the initial batch of candidates. A simultaneous fit to the follow-up radial velocities and photometry of Qatar-1b yield a planetary mass of 1.09+/-0.08 Mjup and a ra…
Origins of giant planets on tight orbits, so called hot Jupiters, are a long-lasting question in the planetary formation and evolution theory. The answer seems to be hidden in architectures of those systems that remain only partially understood. Using multi-sector time-series photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, we searched for additional planets in the KELT-18, KELT-23, KELT-24, Qatar-8, WASP-62, WASP-100, WASP-119, and WASP-126 planetary systems using both the transit technique and transit timing method. Our homogenous analysis has eliminated the presence of transiting …
We present seventeen high-precision light curves of five transits of the planet Qatar-2b, obtained from four defocussed 2m-class telescopes. Three of the transits were observed simultaneously in the SDSS griz passbands using the seven-beam GROND imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope. A fourth was observed simultaneously in Gunn grz using the CAHA 2.2-m telescope with BUSCA, and in r using the Cassini 1.52-m telescope. Every light curve shows small anomalies due to the passage of the planetary shadow over a cool spot on the surface of the host star. We fit the light curves with the prism+gemc m…
Ephemeris Refinement for Qatar-4 b, HAT-P-18 b, and CoRoT-1 b with Small Telescope and TESS Observations
Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory (Code 667)（NASA戈达德太空飞行中心系外行星与恒星天体物理学实验室）
The ability for citizen scientists to analyze image data and search for exoplanets using images from small telescopes has the potential to greatly accelerate the search for exoplanets. Recent work on the Exoplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) enables the generation of high-quality light curves of exoplanet transits given such image data. However, on large image datasets, the photometric analysis of the data and fitting light curves can be a time-consuming process. In this work, we first optimize portions of the EXOTIC codebase to enable faster image processing and curve fitting. Specif…
In the framework of the GAPS project, we are conducting an observational programme aimed at the determination of the orbital obliquity of known transiting exoplanets. The targets are selected to probe the obliquity against a wide range of stellar and planetary physical parameters. We exploit high-precision radial velocity (RV) measurements, delivered by the HARPS-N spectrograph at the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect in RV time-series bracketing planet transits, and to refine the orbital parameters determinations with out-of-transit RV data. We …
The Qatar-2 transiting exoplanet system was recently observed by the {\it Kepler} telescope as part of {\it K2} Campaign 6. The photometric time series has one-minute time sampling and a precision of about 690~ppm, after filtering out artifacts and spurious trends. We identify dozens of starspot-crossing events, when the planet eclipsed a relatively dark region of the stellar photosphere. The observed patterns in the sequence of these events demonstrate that the planet always transits over the same range of stellar latitudes, and therefore that the stellar obliquity is less than about 10$^\cir…
We present DOHA, a new algorithm for cotrending photometric light curves obtained by transiting exoplanet surveys. The algorithm employs a novel approach to the traditional "differential photometry" technique, by selecting the most suitable comparison star for each target light curve, using a two-step correlation search. Extensive tests on real data reveal that DOHA corrects both intra-night variations and long-term systematics affecting the data. Statistical studies conducted on a sample of 9500 light curves from the Qatar Exoplanet Survey reveal that DOHA-corrected light curves show an RMS i…
Uninterrupted observations from space-borne telescopes provide the photometric precision that is required to detect shallow transits of small planets missed by ground-based surveys. We used data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for nearby planetary companions in 12 planetary systems with hot Jupiters: HD 2685, Qatar-10, WASP-4, WASP-48, WASP-58, WASP-91, WASP-120, WASP-121, WASP-122, WASP-140, XO-6, and XO-7. We also applied the transit timing method based on homogeneously determined mid-transit times in order to search for non-transiting companions that could gr…
Through the international collaborators, we recently established a network of existing and working meter-class telescopes to look for planetary transit events. As a first step, we focus on the TrES3 system, and conclude that there could be some level of transit timing variations.
We introduce a new transit search and vetting pipeline for observations from the K2 mission, and present the candidate transiting planets identified by this pipeline out of the targets in Campaigns 5 and 6. Our pipeline uses the Gaussian Process-based K2SC code to correct for the K2 pointing systematics and simultaneously model stellar variability. The systematics-corrected, variability-detrended light curves are searched for transits with the Box Least Squares method, and a period-dependent detection threshold is used to generate a preliminary candidate list. Two or three individuals vet each…
Images of the exoplanets TOI 717.01, Qatar-8 b, and HAT-P-3 b were requested in the w-filter from the Las Cumbres Observatory 0.4-meter telescopes. Of these requests, images were taken of TOI 717.01 and HAT-P-3b and were reduced using the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) software, as well as 6 photometric algorithms from the Our Solar Siblings pipeline. The transit midpoint for HAT-P-3 b was found to be 2458907.6205, which is 20.2 minutes different from its expected midpoint that night. For TOI 717.01, the transit was not discernible, likely due to its low transit depth of 0.1%. …
The transit timing variation technique (TTV) has been widely used to detect and characterize multiple planetary systems. Due to the observational biases imposed mainly by the photometric conditions and instrumentation and the high signal-to-noise required to produce primary transit observations, ground-based data acquired using small telescopes limit the technique to the follow-up of hot Jupiters. However, space-based missions such as Kepler and CoRoT have already revealed that hot Jupiters are mainly found in single systems. Thus, it is natural to question ourselves if we are properly using t…
The study of exoplanets and especially their atmospheres can reveal key insights on their evolution by identifying specific atmospheric species. For such atmospheric investigations, high-resolution transmission spectroscopy has shown great success, especially for Jupiter-type planets. Towards the atmospheric characterization of smaller planets, the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cnc e is one of the most promising terrestrial exoplanets studied to date. Here, we present a high-resolution spectroscopic transit observation of this planet, acquired with the PEPSI instrument at the Large Binocular Telesc…
We present new photometric data of 11 hot Jupiter transiting exoplanets (CoRoT-12b, HAT-P-5b, HAT-P-12b, HAT-P-33b, HAT-P-37b, WASP-2b, WASP-24b, WASP-60b, WASP-80b, WASP-103b, XO-3b) in order to update their planetary parameters and to constrain information about their atmospheres. These observations of CoRoT-12b, HAT-P-37b and WASP-60b are the first follow-up data since their discovery. Additionally, the first near-UV transits of WASP-80b and WASP-103b are presented. We compare the results of our analysis with previous work to search for transit timing variations (TTVs) and a wavelength depe…
Spatially resolved polarized (sub-)mm emission has been observed for example in the protoplanetary disk around HL Tau. Magnetically aligned grains are commonly interpreted as the source of polarization. However, self-scattering by large dust grains with a high enough albedo is another polarization mechanism, becoming a compelling method independent of the spectral index to constrain the dust grain size in protoplanetary disks. We study the dust polarization at mm wavelength in the dust trapping scenario proposed for transition disks, when a giant planet opens a gap in the disk. We investigate …
A massive planet in a protoplanetary disc will open a gap in the disc material which acts as a transition between Type I and Type II planetary migration. Type II migration is slower than Type I migration, however it is still desirable to slow down Type II migration to allow gas giant planets with semi-major axis in the range 5 to 10AU to exist, similarly to our Solar system. We investigate a method of slowing down and reversing Type II migration by heating the outer gap edge due to incident radiation from the central star. Using an approximate vertically averaged heating method we find that Ty…
Investigating potential causes for high inferred intrinsic temperatures of warm transiting Neptune and Sub-Neptune planets
University of Texas, Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam（波茨坦莱布尼茨天体物理研究所）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）；The Open University of Israel（以色列开放大学）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Carnegie Institution for Science（卡内基科学学会）
From pre-transit to post-eclipse: investigating the impact of 3D temperature, chemistry, and dynamics on high-resolution emission spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-76b
Institut Trottier de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes, Université de Montréal（特罗提尔系外行星研究所，蒙特利尔大学）；Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange（蔚蓝海岸大学，蔚蓝海岸天文台，法国国家科学研究中心，拉格朗日实验室）；Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern（太空与宜居性中心，伯尔尼大学）
We carried out a Bayesian homogeneous determination of the orbital parameters of 231 transiting giant planets (TGPs) that are alone or have distant companions; we employed DE-MCMC methods to analyse radial-velocity (RV) data from the literature and 782 new high-accuracy RVs obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph for 45 systems over 3 years. Our work yields the largest sample of systems with a transiting giant exoplanet and coherently determined orbital, planetary, and stellar parameters. We found that the orbital parameters of TGPs in non-compact planetary systems are clearly shaped by tides r…
Determining the Host Stars of Planets in Binary Star Systems with Asterodensity Profiling: Investigating the Canonical Radius Gap
University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；University of California Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London（伦敦大学学院穆拉德空间科学实验室）
In this paper we develop a differential astrometric framework that is appropriate for a scanning space satellite such as Gaia. We apply it to the first of the GAREQ fields, which is the fruit of dedicated efforts within the Gaia project focused on measuring the relativistic deflection of light close to Jupiter's limb. This provides a preliminary assessment of: a) the observability of the relativistic deflection of light close to Jupiter, and, b) Gaia's astrometric capabilities under extremely difficult conditions such as those around a bright extended object. Inputs to our differential astrome…
