CHEOPS Archives

Artist’s impression of the hotspot in WASP-76 b (Credit: Tania Cunha (Planetário do Porto - Centro Ciência Viva)/Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço)

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço Paves The Way In The Field Of Exoclimatology

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2024September 6, 2024

Three papers about “hot jupiter” WASP-76 b, led by Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço researchers, will be the foundation for understanding the global climate of a giant exoplanet.

Observed and best-fit model light-curves (one transit event) for WASP-79 b, WASP-94A b, WASP-131 b and WASP-82 b. For each observed transit, Top: the unprocessed light-curve (cyan), light-curve after wavelet denoising (magenta), the best-fit transit model (blue). Middle: the residual after modelling without GP regression (magenta), the mean (blue) and 1-σ interval (cyan) of the best-fit GP regression model. Bottom: mean residual flux (blue). The mean residual flux corresponds to the residual flux considering the mean of the best fit GP regression model. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Precise Transit Photometry Using TESS II: Revisiting 28 Additional Transiting Systems With Updated Physical Properties

by Keith CowingAugust 13, 2024August 13, 2024

Precise physical properties of the known transiting exoplanets are essential for their precise atmospheric characterization using modern and upcoming instruments. Leveraging the large volume of high SNR photometric follow-up data […]

Mean−subtracted RV data plotted in gray dotted points for each of the HARPS (top panel), ESPRESSO (middle panel), and PFS (bottom panel) instruments, along with separate model curves for the planet model (blue solid line), the GP model (green solid line) and the full planet + GP model (magenta solid line). The error bars include the jitter component 𝜎 for each instrument, which was added in quadrature to the RV error for each data point. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

TOI-757 b: An Eccentric Transiting Mini-Neptune On Aa 17.5-d Orbit

by Keith CowingAugust 12, 2024August 10, 2024

We report the spectroscopic confirmation and fundamental properties of TOI-757 b, a mini-Neptune on a 17.5-day orbit transiting a bright star (V=9.7 mag) discovered by the TESS mission. We acquired […]

Radius-period distribution of the known young planet population. Planets are colored based on their ages, with darker purples representing the younger systems. TIC 434398831 b and c are denoted by the stars. We plot the distribution of the known exoplanet population in greyscale for reference. Both TIC 434398831 b and c lie above the mature exoplanet distribution. As they continue to evolve, both planets will likely evolve to lie in the Kepler distribution. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

A Transiting Multi-planet System In The 61 Million Year Old Association Theia 116

by Keith CowingJuly 30, 2024July 30, 2024

Observing and characterizing young planetary systems can aid in unveiling the evolutionary mechanisms that sculpt the mature exoplanet population.

Detrended TESS (top row) and CHEOPS (bottom row) light curves, phase-folded to the orbital periods of HIP 29442 b (left), c (middle) and d (right). The coloured points show the 30-min binned data, the solid black lines show the best-fit transit models. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Unveiling the Internal Structure And Formation History Of The Three Planets Transiting HIP 29442 (TOI-469) With CHEOPS

by Keith CowingJune 28, 2024June 28, 2024

Multiplanetary systems spanning the radius valley are ideal testing grounds for exploring the proposed explanations for the observed bimodality in the radius distribution of close-in exoplanets. One such system is […]

Mass-radius diagram for WASP-132c. The lines show the massradius relation for a pure water model (blue), an Earth-like model (green), and a pure-iron model (gray). The other exoplanets are taken from the PlanetS catalouge (Otegi et al. 2020). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Refining the WASP-132 Multi-planetary System: Discovery of a Cold Giant Planet and Mass Measurement of a hot Super-Earth

by Keith CowingJune 27, 2024June 27, 2024

Hot Jupiters generally do not have nearby planet companions, as they may have cleared out other planets during their inward migration from more distant orbits.

Phase folded TESS transit data with modeled allesfitter fit (grey), and residuals plot on the bottom. Also plotted are the phase folded points binned to 30 minutes (black). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

HD 21520 b: A Warm Sub-Neptune Transiting A Bright G Dwarf

by Keith CowingJune 17, 2024June 17, 2024

We report the discovery and validation of HD 21520 b, a transiting planet found with TESS and orbiting a bright G dwarf (V=9.2, Teff=5871±62 K, R⋆=1.04±0.02R⊙).

Evolution of the distribution of the dark current in hot pixels. The colours indicate the time when the dark M&C were taken. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & 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

by Keith CowingJune 5, 2024June 5, 2024

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 […]

Stability analysis of the TOI-421 planetary system. For fixed initial conditions (Table 6), the parameter space of the system was explored by varying the orbital period Pb and the eccentricity eb of planet-b (left panel) and the eccentricities of both planets (right panel). The step size was 10−3 day in orbital period and 0.0025 in eccentricity. For each initial condition, the system was integrated over 5000 yr and a stability indicator was calculated, which involved a frequency analysis of the mean longitude of the inner planet. The chaotic diffusion was measured by the variation in the frequency (see text). Red points correspond to highly unstable orbits, while blue points correspond to orbits which are likely to be stable on a billion-years timescale. The black dots show the values of the best fit solution (Table 6). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Characterisation Of The TOI-421 Planetary System Using CHEOPS, TESS, and Archival Radial Velocity Data

by Keith CowingApril 20, 2024

The TOI-421 planetary system contains two sub-Neptune-type planets and is a prime target to study the formation and evolution of planets and their atmospheres.

Phase-folded light curves from TESS (upper panels) and CHEOPS (lower panels) measurements. The best-fit model of the transit is plotted in black for HD 15337 b (left) and HD 15337 c (right). The bottom panels for each instrument show the residuals of the best-fit model. We over-plot the binned light curves and residuals with 20-min bins. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Precise Characterisation Of HD 15337 With CHEOPS: A Laboratory For Planet Formation And Evolution

by Keith CowingMarch 26, 2024March 26, 2024

We aim to constrain the internal structure and composition of HD 15337 b and c, two short-period planets situated on opposite sides of the radius valley, using new transit photometry […]

CHEOPS

Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço Paves The Way In The Field Of Exoclimatology

Precise Transit Photometry Using TESS II: Revisiting 28 Additional Transiting Systems With Updated Physical Properties

TOI-757 b: An Eccentric Transiting Mini-Neptune On Aa 17.5-d Orbit

A Transiting Multi-planet System In The 61 Million Year Old Association Theia 116

Unveiling the Internal Structure And Formation History Of The Three Planets Transiting HIP 29442 (TOI-469) With CHEOPS

Refining the WASP-132 Multi-planetary System: Discovery of a Cold Giant Planet and Mass Measurement of a hot Super-Earth

HD 21520 b: A Warm Sub-Neptune Transiting A Bright G Dwarf

CHEOPS in-flight Performance: A Comprehensive Look At The First 3.5 Years Of Operations

Characterisation Of The TOI-421 Planetary System Using CHEOPS, TESS, and Archival Radial Velocity Data

Precise Characterisation Of HD 15337 With CHEOPS: A Laboratory For Planet Formation And Evolution

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 9 November 2026: Lake Untersee Basecamp Update

From Anoxic to Oxic Earth: Detectability of Atmospheric Biosignatures Across Stellar Hosts with ELT/ANDES

The Kinetic Basis of the Genetic Code

Power Density as a Universal Biosignature: An Application to the Stellivore Hypothesis

The Limits of Tidal Circularization and Atmospheric Escape for Mini-Neptunes and Super-Earths: The Case of TOI-2257 b