The photometric method of detecting other planetary systems

Borucki, W. J.; Summers, Audrey L.

doi:10.1016/0019-1035(84)90102-7

Cited by 208 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Here ρ is the space density of stars of the class under consideration, n = 1/p, where p is the probability of a transit, and p = R s /a p , with R s the radius of the star and a p the semimajor axis of the planet (Borucki & Summers 1984).…”

Section: Estimating the Distance Of The Most Likely Transiting Starmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Kaltenegger

Traub

2009

ApJ

332

388

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Transmission spectroscopy of Earth-like exoplanets is a potential tool for habitability screening. Transiting planets are present-day "Rosetta Stones" for understanding extrasolar planets because they offer the possibility to characterize giant planet atmospheres and should provide an access to biomarkers in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets, once they are detected. Using the Earth itself as a proxy we show the potential and limits of the transiting technique to detect biomarkers on an Earth-analog exoplanet in transit. We quantify the Earth's cross section as a function of wavelength, and show the effect of each atmospheric species, aerosol, and Rayleigh scattering. Clouds do not significantly affect this picture because the opacity of the lower atmosphere from aerosol and Rayleigh losses dominates over cloud losses. We calculate the optimum signal-tonoise ratio for spectral features in the primary eclipse spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet around a Sun-like star and also M stars, for a 6.5 m telescope in space. We find that the signal-to-noise values for all important spectral features are on the order of unity or less per transit-except for the closest stars-making it difficult to detect such features in one single transit, and implying that coadding of many transits will be essential.

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Section: Estimating the Distance Of The Most Likely Transiting Starmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Kaltenegger

Traub

2009

ApJ

332

388

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“…Astronomers have contemplated their existence and characteristics even before the birth of exoplanet discoveries. Borucki & Summers (1984) noted that photometric searches around eclipsing binaries would have enhanced transit probabilities, which was later expanded upon by Schneider & Chevreton (1990) and Schneider (1994). After the unambiguous discovery of the first transiting circumbinary planet Kepler-16 (Doyle et al 2011) the field has flourished, leading to an additional ten transiting discoveries (the latest being Kepler-1647 by Kostov et al 2016) and a wealth of related studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Circumbinary planets – II. When transits come and go

Martin¹

2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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Circumbinary planets are generally more likely to transit than equivalent single-star planets, but practically the geometry and orbital dynamics of circumbinary planets make the chance of observing a transit inherently time-dependent. In this follow-up paper to Martin & Triaud (2015), the time-dependence is probed deeper by analytically calculating when and for how long the binary and planet orbits overlap, allowing for transits to occur. The derived equations are applied to the known transiting circumbinary planets found by Kepler to predict when future transits will occur, and whether they will be observable by upcoming space telescopes TESS, CHEOPS and PLATO. The majority of these planets spend less than 50% of their time in a transiting configuration, some less than 20%. From this it is calculated that the known Kepler eclipsing binaries likely host an additional ∼ 17 − 30 circumbinary planets that are similar to the ten published discoveries, and they will ultimately transit some day, potentially during the TESS and PLATO surveys.

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“…The exoplanet blocks some of the starlight during the transit and creates a periodic dip in the brightness of the star. The amount of light reduction is typically ∼1%, 0.1%, and, 0.01% for Jupiter-, Neptuneand Earth-like planets, respectively (Borucki & Summers 1984). This depends on the size ratio of the star and planet and on the duration of the transit, which, in turn, depends on the distance of the planet from the host star and on the stellar mass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New view on exoplanet transits

Chiavassa

Pere

Faurobert

et al. 2015

A&A

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Context. An important benchmark for current observational techniques and theoretical modeling of exoplanet atmospheres is the transit of Venus (ToV). Stellar activity and, in particular, convection-related surface structures, potentially cause fluctuations that can affect the transit light curves. Surface convection simulations can help interpreting the ToV as well as other transits outside our solar system. Aims. We used the realistic three-dimensional (3D) radiative hydrodynamical (RHD) simulation of the Sun from the Stagger-grid and synthetic images computed with the radiative transfer code Optim3D to predict the transit of Venus (ToV) in 2004 that was observed by the satellite ACRIMSAT. Methods. We computed intensity maps from the RHD simulation of the Sun and produced a synthetic stellar disk image as an observer would see, accounting for the center-to-limb variations. The contribution of the solar granulation was considered during the ToV. We computed the light curve and compared it to the ACRIMSAT observations as well as to light curves obtained with solar surface representations carried out using radial profiles with different limb-darkening laws. We also applied the same spherical tile imaging method as used for RHD simulation to the observations of center-to-limb solar granulation with Hinode. Results. We explain ACRIMSAT observations of 2004 ToV and show that the granulation pattern causes fluctuations in the transit light curve. We compared different limb-darkening models to the RHD simulation and evaluated the contribution of the granulation to the ToV. We showed that the granulation pattern can partially explain the observed discrepancies between models and data. Moreover, we found that the overall agreement between real and RHD solar granulation is good, either in terms of depth or ingress/egress slopes of the transit curve. This confirms that the limb-darkening and granulation pattern simulated in 3D RHD of the Sun represent well what is imaged by Hinode. In the end, we found that the contribution of the Venusean aureole during ToV is ∼10 −6 times less intense than the solar photosphere, and thus, accurate measurements of this phenomena are extremely challenging. Conclusions. The prospects for planet detection and characterization with transiting methods are excellent with access to large a amount of data for stars. Being able to consistently explain the data of 2004 ToV is a new step forward for 3D RHD simulations, which are becoming essential for detecting and characterizing exoplanets. They show that granulation has to be considered as an intrinsic uncertainty (as a result of stellar variability) on precise measurements of exoplanet transits of, most likely, planets with small diameters. In this context, it is mandatory to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the host star, including a detailed study of the stellar surface convection.

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The photometric method of detecting other planetary systems

Cited by 208 publications

References 13 publications

Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Circumbinary planets – II. When transits come and go

New view on exoplanet transits

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