PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA’s M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars.
Stellar Cartography
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
From Super-Earths to Sub-Neptunes: Observational Constraints and Connections to Theoretical Models
We update the PlanetS catalog of transiting planets with precise and robust mass and radius measurements and use this comprehensive catalog to explore Mass-Radius (M-R) diagrams.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
CHEOPS in-flight Performance: A Comprehensive Look At The First 3.5 Years Of Operations
CHEOPS is a space telescope specifically designed to monitor transiting exoplanets orbiting bright stars. In September 2023, CHEOPS completed its nominal mission and remains in excellent operational conditions. The mission […]
![The [Fe/H] versus C/O distribution for this work sample, as well as other M dwarfs studied by Souto et al. (2017), Souto et al. (2018), Souto et al. (2020). The orange circles represent the results for the four JWST targets studied here; Results for M dwarfs from our previous studies (all based on the same methodology as here) are also shown: orange triangles are M dwarfs with exoplanets detected, while the gray squares are M dwarfs without exoplanets detected so far. We also present results for FGK dwarfs from Nissen (2013) (green triangles; all with detected exoplanets), Teske et al. (2014) with (light blue diamonds) detected exoplanets, and Delgado Mena et al. (2021) with (pink circles), and without detected exoplanets (yellow cross). Additionally, four curves represent the linear regressions of the [Fe/H] vs. C/O distribution for M dwarfs with planet detected (solid orange line), M dwarfs without planet detected (solid gray line), FGK dwarfs with detected planets (dashed orange line), and FGK dwarfs without detected planets (dashed gray line). -- astro-ph.SR](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Stellar-Characterization-and.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Stellar Characterization and Chemical Abundances of Exoplanet Hosting M dwarfs from APOGEE Spectra: Future JWST Targets
Exoplanets hosting M dwarfs are the best targets to characterize Earth-like or super-Earth planetary atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We determine detailed stellar parameters (Teff, logg, and […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
HST SHEL: Enabling Comparative Exoplanetology with HST/STIS
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been our most prolific tool to study exoplanet atmospheres. As the age of JWST begins, there is a wealth of HST archival data that […]
![Left: C/O as a function of projected separation or semi-major axis for the eight companions in this study. The points are sized by companion mass, using the mass legend in the right panel. The blue line and region show the solar C/O value from Asplund et al. (2021). Right: In color: 1σ contours of C/O and [C/H] for the eight companions, which are all consistent with solar composition (intersection of dashed gray lines) to the 2σ level. In § 6.4.1, we justify that their host stars likely have solar composition as well. We overplot hot Jupiters which have abundance measurements for at least one oxygen-bearing and one carbon-bearing species from JWST or high-resolution spectroscopy as black points (Alderson et al. 2023; August et al. 2023; Bean et al. 2023; Bell et al. 2023; Brogi et al. 2023; Finnerty et al. 2024; Xue et al. 2024), which are also sized by mass. The hot Jupiters show considerable scatter and super-solar (and super-stellar) metallicities except for one planet, unlike our companions which cluster around solar (and stellar) composition. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Are-These-Planets.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Are These Planets Or Brown Dwarfs?
Using Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) high-resolution (R~35000) spectroscopy from 2.29-2.49 μm, we present uniform atmospheric retrievals for eight young substellar companions with masses of ~10-30 MJup, orbital separations […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Webb Telescope Observes Organic Astrochemistry In Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449
Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. This galaxy, also known as Caldwell 21, resides roughly 12.5 million light-years […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Stellar Cartography: New Ultralow-noise Superconducting Camera for Exoplanet Searches
When imaging faint objects such as distant stars or exoplanets, capturing every last bit of light is crucial to get the most out of a scientific mission.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
The TESS-Keck Survey XX: 15 New TESS Planets and a Uniform RV Analysis of all Survey Targets
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered hundreds of new worlds, with TESS planet candidates now outnumbering the total number of confirmed planets from Kepler.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Photo-dynamical Characterisation Of The TOI-178 Resonant Chain
The TOI-178 system consists of a nearby late K-dwarf transited by six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune regime, with radii ranging from 1.2 to 2.9 earth radius and orbital […]