[astro-ph.EP]. The TRAPPIST-1 system is well-known for its seven transiting Earth-sized exoplanets. It has been extensively studied and characterized, notably with transit timing variations (TTVs) to precisely measure the mass […]
TESS
Posted inPLATO
Habitable-zone Earths At The Detection Frontier: Measured Completeness And False-alarm Rate Of A Transit Pipeline For The PLATO M-dwarf Sample
[astro-ph.EP] The PLATO mission will observe its first long-pointing field, LOPS2 (Long-duration Observation Phase, South field), for at least two years, bringing the habitable zones (HZ) of its M-dwarf sample […]
![Sky maps with locations of star clusters with exoplanets and candidate objects. The upper graph is centred on the Galactic centre, while the lower one is centred on the Galactic Anticenter.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Exoplanets-in.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Exoplanets In Star Clusters
[astro-ph.EP] The field of exoplanetary research is rapidly evolving, thanks to TESS and Kepler/K2. With the latest data release, Gaia DR3, Gaia has transformed the study of star clusters.
![An example RV fit with Alfred on the TOI-6054 system (M. A. Kroft et al. 2025), with Gaussian priors on the planets’ periods and conjunction times. This fit demonstrates Alfred’s ability to fit multiple planets and multiple datasets simultaneously, as well as handle eccentricity and user-defined priors. This plot is the default output from an RV fit with Alfred.-- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Alfred.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics
Alfred: A Flexible, User-Friendly Python Package for Exoplanet Confirmation
[astro-ph.IM] In the era of TESS, exoplanet follow-up and confirmation have become a massive community effort.
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Hidden Worlds: A Non-transiting Candidate Planet In The Neptunian Desert Around The Solar-type Pulsator KIC 9139163
[Astronomy & Astrophysics] Close-in substellar companions experience strong tidal and magnetic interactions with their host stars and are therefore subject to fast orbital evolution.
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Astro-Hunters: Machine Learning For Exoplanet Transit Detection In TESS Photometry
[astro-ph.EP] Finding planets beyond the Solar System is now largely a data-analysis problem: photometric surveys return far more stellar light curves than can be inspected by eye, and machine learning […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
A Search for Helium in the Atmospheres of Three Sub-Neptunes and a Super-Earth Around M-dwarfs
[astro-ph.EP] Thousands of sub-Neptunes have been discovered mainly through space-based surveys such as Kepler and TESS. Their bulk compositions and internal structures are thought to reflect their formation and evolutionary […]
![Chemical abundance distributions of the Sample II planet-candidate host stars in the [Fe/H]–[Mg/Fe] plane.](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/A-chemo.png?resize=1200%2C715&ssl=1)
Posted inStellar Cartography
A Chemo-dynamical Search For Planet-candidate Hosts Of Possible Extragalactic Origin
[astro-ph.SR] To date, all known exoplanetary systems have been identified around stars currently residing in the Milky Way, whereas planets formed in external galaxies remain largely unexplored. Such systems would […]
![CH Ind timing and inference. Top: the six differential nodes 𝐷 from equation (1); subtracting primary and secondary O–C values removes their common ephemeris or LTTE trend and isolates the first-order apsidal signal. Bottom: Monte Carlo posteriors for the displayed 0.08-dex common log 𝑘2 systematic; horizontal segments show central 68 per cent intervals.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Stellar-Tidal.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inStellar Cartography
Stellar Tidal Systematics In Apsidal-motion Searches For Circumbinary Planets: CH Ind And SW CMa
[astro-ph.EP] Thornton et al. (2026) reported 27 non-transiting circumbinary-planet candidates from excess apsidal motion in TESS eclipsing-binary timings. The classical stellar contribution is sensitive to target-specific radii, apsidal constants k2, […]
![Left: Sensitivity of TESS to transits in the full sample of single-star TOIs. Center: The sensitivity for all binary stars in our sample, with all planets presumed to transit the brighter star. Right: As with the top-center panel, except that all planets are assumed to transit the fainter star. The sensitivity of TESS to small planets around binary hosts is substantially lower than for single-star hosts, especially when the planet transits the secondary star.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-sensitivity.png?resize=1200%2C722&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
The Sensitivity Of TESS To Transiting Planets In TOIs With Close-in Stellar Companions
[astro-ph.EP] High resolution imaging with optical speckle interferometry has revealed that many transiting exoplanet host stars possess close-in stellar companions.