Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability » News (tag [MNRAS])

NGTS-4b: A sub-Neptune transiting in the desert

Fri, 31 May 2019 12:03:00 GMT

CEH member Richard West leads the fascinating discovery of an exoplanet that falls in the middle of what has been termed the 'Neptunian desert'. This refers to a region close-in to the parent star where previously no Neptune-sized exoplanets had been found. NGTS-4b has a mass 20 times that of the Earth and orbits its star (a 13th mag K dwarf) once every 1.34 days! What's more, it's the smallest planet discovered by a wide-field ground-based photometric survey to date - excellent work!

This study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 486, Issue 4, July 2019, Pages 5094–5103

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Richard West (lead), Daniel Bayliss, James Jackman, George King, James McCormac, Peter Wheatley, David Armstrong, Paul Chote, Ben Cooke, Emma Foxell, Boris Gänsicke, Tom Louden & Don Pollacco

Ground-based detection of G star superflares with NGTS

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:43:00 GMT

CEH member James Jackman leads a recent study of flares in G-type stars, as observed using NGTS. The study shows that G-stars can have flares many times the energy of the Carrington event, and the primary detection is one of the largest amplitude superflares detected from a bright G star.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 477, Issue 4, p.4655-4664

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: James Jackman (lead), Peter Wheatley, Chloe Pugh, Boris Gänsicke, Anne-Marie Broomhall, David Armstrong & James McCormac

Cool DZ white dwarfs II: compositions and evolution of old remnant planetary systems

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:39:00 GMT

CEH member Mark Hollands leads a new study which examines pollution of cool DZ white dwarfs.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 477, Issue 1, p.93-111

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Mark Hollands (lead), Boris Gänsicke

Automatic vetting of planet candidates from ground based surveys: Machine learning with NGTS

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:37:00 GMT

CEH member David Armstrong has published a new study on automatic vetting of exoplanet candidates using machine learning techniques. In this work he applies it to candidates from NGTS, but the technique is extendable to other transiting exoplanet surveys.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 3, August 2018, Pages 4225–4237

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: David Armstrong (lead), James McCormac, Daniel Bayliss, Tom Louden, Don Pollacco, Richard West & Peter Wheatley

Unmasking the hidden NGTS-3Ab: a hot Jupiter in an unresolved binary system

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:33:00 GMT

The Next Generation Transit Survey, which is led by CEH member Peter Wheatley, has publised its third planet discovery. NGTS-3Ab is in an unresolved binary system, and vetting the planet was a challenging task that produced new insights in BIS correlations in exoplanet observations.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 4, August 2018, Pages 4720–4737

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: James McCormac, David Armstrong, Benjamin Cooke, Boris Gänsicke, Tom Louden, Don Pollacco & Peter Wheatley

The XUV environments of exoplanets from Jupiter-size to super-Earth

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:29:00 GMT

CEH member George King has published an exciting study looking at the extreme UV environment of several exoplanets, including a detection of the transit of WASP-80b in the NUV using XMM Newton.

The study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 1, July 2018, Pages 1193–1208

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: George King, Peter Wheatley & Tom Louden

Unstable low-mass planetary systems as drivers of white dwarf pollution

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:22:00 GMT

A new study examining white dwarf pollution, and featuring contributions from CEH members Dimitri Veras and Boris Gänsicke, concludes that if planet-planet scattering is responsible for the phenomenon then many such objects can be expected to host (currently undetectable) super-Earth planets on orbits of several au and beyond.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 476, Issue 3, p.3939-3955

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Dimitri Veras & Boris Gänsicke

Implications of the interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua for planetary dynamics and planetesimal formation

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:17:00 GMT

A new study, involving CEH member Dimitri Veras, examines the implications fo newly discovered solar system interloper 'Oumuamua for hypotheses of planetary dynamics.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 476, Issue 3, p.3031-3038

CEH members involved: Dimitri Veras

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:06:00 GMT

CEH member Peter Wheatley, PI of the NGTS transiting exoplanet survey, has published a paper describing the project.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 475, Issue 4, p.4476-4493

CEH members involved: Peter Wheatley (lead), Richard West, Don Pollacco, James McCormac, David Armstrong, Emma Foxell, Boris Gänsicke, James Jackman & Tom Louden