scholarly journals The influence of starspots activity on the determination of planetary transit parameters

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S264) ◽  
pp. 440-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Silva-Válio

AbstractAs a planet eclipses its parent star, dark spots on the surface of the star may be occulted, causing a detectable variation in the transit light curve. There are basically two effects caused by the presence of spots on the surface of the star which can alter the shape of the light curve during transits and thus preclude the correct determination of the planet physical and orbital parameters. The first one is that the presence of many spots within the latitude band occulted by the planet will cause the depth of the transit in the light curve to be shallower. This will erroneously result in a smaller radius for the planet. The other effect is that generated by spots located close to the limb of the star. In this case, the spots will interfere in the light curve during the times of ingress or egress of the planet, causing a decrease in the transit duration. This in turn will provide a larger value for the semi-major axis of the planetary orbit. Qualitative estimates of both effects are discussed and an example provided for a very active star, such as CoRoTo-2.

2019 ◽  
Vol 621 ◽  
pp. L8 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-M. Lagrange ◽  
A. Boccaletti ◽  
M. Langlois ◽  
G. Chauvin ◽  
R. Gratton ◽  
...  

Context. With an orbital distance comparable to that of Saturn in the solar system, β Pictoris b is the closest (semi-major axis ≃9 au) exoplanet that has been imaged to orbit a star. Thus it offers unique opportunities for detailed studies of its orbital, physical, and atmospheric properties, and of disk-planet interactions. With the exception of the discovery observations in 2003 with NaCo at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), all following astrometric measurements relative to β Pictoris have been obtained in the southwestern part of the orbit, which severely limits the determination of the planet’s orbital parameters. Aims. We aimed at further constraining β Pictoris b orbital properties using more data, and, in particular, data taken in the northeastern part of the orbit. Methods. We used SPHERE at the VLT to precisely monitor the orbital motion of beta β Pictoris b since first light of the instrument in 2014. Results. We were able to monitor the planet until November 2016, when its angular separation became too small (125 mas, i.e., 1.6 au) and prevented further detection. We redetected β Pictoris b on the northeast side of the disk at a separation of 139 mas and a PA of 30° in September 2018. The planetary orbit is now well constrained. With a semi-major axis (sma) of a = 9.0 ± 0.5 au (1σ), it definitely excludes previously reported possible long orbital periods, and excludes β Pictoris b as the origin of photometric variations that took place in 1981. We also refine the eccentricity and inclination of the planet. From an instrumental point of view, these data demonstrate that it is possible to detect, if they exist, young massive Jupiters that orbit at less than 2 au from a star that is 20 pc away.


Author(s):  
Gloria Guilluy ◽  
Alessandro Sozzetti ◽  
Paolo Giacobbe ◽  
Aldo S. Bonomo ◽  
Giuseppina Micela

AbstractSince the first discovery of an extra-solar planet around a main-sequence star, in 1995, the number of detected exoplanets has increased enormously. Over the past two decades, observational instruments (both onboard and on ground-based facilities) have revealed an astonishing diversity in planetary physical features (i. e. mass and radius), and orbital parameters (e.g. period, semi-major axis, inclination). Exoplanetary atmospheres provide direct clues to understand the origin of these differences through their observable spectral imprints. In the near future, upcoming ground and space-based telescopes will shift the focus of exoplanetary science from an era of “species discovery” to one of “atmospheric characterization”. In this context, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large (Ariel) survey, will play a key role. As it is designed to observe and characterize a large and diverse sample of exoplanets, Ariel will provide constraints on a wide gamut of atmospheric properties allowing us to extract much more information than has been possible so far (e.g. insights into the planetary formation and evolution processes). The low resolution spectra obtained with Ariel will probe layers different from those observed by ground-based high resolution spectroscopy, therefore the synergy between these two techniques offers a unique opportunity to understanding the physics of planetary atmospheres. In this paper, we set the basis for building up a framework to effectively utilise, at near-infrared wavelengths, high-resolution datasets (analyzed via the cross-correlation technique) with spectral retrieval analyses based on Ariel low-resolution spectroscopy. We show preliminary results, using a benchmark object, namely HD 209458 b, addressing the possibility of providing improved constraints on the temperature structure and molecular/atomic abundances.


1968 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 217-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ľ. Kresák

The relation of physical characteristics of meteors to their orbital elements is investigated using Harvard Super-Schmidt data. A set of characteristic indices is defined, allowing for the effects of geocentric velocity, angle of incidence, magnitude and mass, wherever a correction appears appropriate according to the correlations found by Jacchia et al. (1967). The medians for representative meteor samples are plotted in the semi-major axis/eccentricity diagram and the distribution of each parameter is derived. Although the differences are moderate compared to the measuring errors, six regions of different nature can be distinguished.The existence of two families of asteroidal meteors is indicated, one of them brought to crossing with the Earth's orbit by drag effects and the other by collision effects in the main asteroid belt. These meteors are characterized by low and uniform beginning heights, high fragmentation, low ablation, low deceleration, and bright wakes. A direct counterpart to this is represented by meteors moving in short-period orbits of higher eccentricity and shorter perihelion distance, which bear resemblance to the long-period and retrograde cometary meteors. Meteors with perihelion distances of less than 0·15 AU tend to resemble the bona fide asteroidal meteors by a progressive increase of fragmentation and decrease of reduced beginning heights and decelerations as the perihelion approaches the Sun. This is attributed to the selective destruction effects of solar radiation.With the exception of the Draconids, the mean characteristics of meteor showers agree well with those of sporadic meteors moving in similar orbits. It is suggested that the Draconid stream includes a broad variety of meteoric material and that the two peculiar Super-Schmidt meteors on record represent only the less resistive, short-lived component which has already been eliminated from the other showers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Mohamed R. Amin

AbstractThe focus of this paper is the design of a self-maintenance orbit using two natural forces against each other. The effect of perturbations due to Earth's oblateness up to the third order on both the semi-major axis and eccentricity for a low Earth orbit satellite together with the perturbation due to air drag on the same orbital parameters were used, in order to create self-maintenance orbits. Numerical results were simulated for a low earth orbit satellite, which substantiates the applicability of the results.


1978 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 15-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Duriez

AbstractIn order to improve the determination of the mixed terms in classical theories, we show how these terms may be derived from a general theory developed with the same variables (of a keplerian nature). We find that the general theory of the first order in the masses already allows us to develop the mixed terms which appear at the second order in the classical theory. We also show that a part of the constant perturbation of the semi-major axis introduced in the classical theory is present in the general theory as very long-period terms; by developing these terms in powers of time, they would be equivalent to the appearance of very small secular terms (in t, t2, …) in the perturbation of the semi-major axes from the second order in the masses. The short period terms of the classical theory are found the same in the general theory, but without the numerical substitution of the values of the variables.


1996 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 525-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Arzoumanian ◽  
K. Joshi ◽  
F. A. Rasio ◽  
S. E. Thorsett

AbstractPrevious timing data for PSR B1620–26 were consistent with a second companion mass m2anywhere in the range ∼ 10−3– 1M⊙, i.e., from a Jupiter-type planet to a star. We present the latest timing parameters for the system, including a significant change in the projected semi-major axis of the inner binary, a marginal detection of the fourth time derivative of the pulse frequency, and the pulsar proper motion (which is in agreement with published values for the proper motion of M4), and use them to further constrain the mass m2and the orbital parameters. Using the observed value of, we obtain a one-parameter family of solutions, all with m2≲ 10−2M⊙, i.e., excluding stellar masses. Varyingwithin its formal 1σ error bar does not affect the mass range significantly. However, if we varywithin a 4σ error bar, we find that stellar-mass solutions are still possible. We also calculate the predicted rate of change of the projected semi-major axis of the inner binary and show that it agrees with the measured value.


A solution is obtained for the rate of change of semi-major axis and perigee distance of a satellite orbit with time due to the resistance of the atmosphere. The logarithm of air density is assumed to vary quadratically with height, and the oblateness of the atmosphere is taken into account. The calculation of perigee air density in terms of the rate of change of satellite period is dealt with; and the method is applied to data at present available on six different satellites. The variation of air density with height is obtained as ln ρ = -28·59(±0·15) - ( h - 200 )/46(±5) + 0·028(±0·013) ( h - 200) 2 /(46) 2 for h in the range of approximately 170 to 700 km, where ρ is in grams/cm 3 , h is in kilometres and standard deviations are given in brackets.


1980 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 511-515
Author(s):  
Kyoji Nariai

When there is mass loss from a binary system, the lost mass carries energy and angular momentum out of the system. Therefore, the remaining system must adjust its orbital parameters to the changing values of the total kinematic energy E and the total angular momentum N as the total mass M decreases. The parameters concerned here are : the fractional mass μ, the semi-major axis a, and the eccentricity e.


2004 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 429-430
Author(s):  
N. Wang ◽  
S. Johnston ◽  
R. N. Manchester

This paper summarizes the results of 13 years of timing observations of a unique binary pulsar, B1259–63, which has a massive B2e star companion. A small glitch in the pulsar period apparently occurred in 1997 Aug, not long after the 1997 periastron. We found that spin-orbit coupling with secular changes in periastron longitude and projected semi-major axis cannot account for the observed period variations. A model in which step changes in pulsar orbital parameters occur at each periastron accounts best for the observed timing behavior.


1985 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 417-420
Author(s):  
P. Barge ◽  
R. Pellat ◽  
J. Millet

AbstractThe scattering of dust grains orbits due to recurrent sectors of the interplanetary magnetic field is reinvestigated with a better formalism. Our method reveals the resonant character of the diffusion and is well suited for the problem. The spreads in the orbital parameters are found less important than believed untill now and to vary rapidly with eccentricity and semi-major axis. Only the small dielectric grains with size less than 0.5 μm may be scattered by the Lorentz force fluctuations; the main diffusion occurs in inclination and near the sun (20-60 R⊙).


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