Extrasolar Planets: April 2020

High contrast direct imaging of exoplanets can provide many important observables, including measurements of the orbit, spectra that probe the lower layers of the atmosphere, and phase variations of the planet, but cannot directly measure planet radius or mass.

With the upcoming launch of space telescopes dedicated to the study of exoplanets, the Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a new era is opening in the exoplanetary atmospheric explorations.

Stellar variability due to magnetic activity and flows at different spatial scales strongly impacts radial velocities. This variability is seen as oscillations, granulation, supergranulation, and meridional flows.

We report the detection of the first circumbinary planet found by TESS. The target, a known eclipsing binary, was observed in sectors 1 through 12 at 30-minute cadence and in sectors 4 through 12 at two-minute cadence.

A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star's habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water.

Sulfur gases significantly affect the photochemistry of planetary atmospheres in our Solar System, and are expected to be important components in exoplanet atmospheres.