scholarly journals Constraining the oblateness of transiting planets with photometry and spectroscopy

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (3) ◽  
pp. 3484-3492
Author(s):  
B Akinsanmi ◽  
S C C Barros ◽  
N C Santos ◽  
M Oshagh ◽  
L M Serrano

ABSTRACT Rapid planetary rotation can cause the equilibrium shape of a planet to be oblate. While planetary oblateness has mostly been probed by examining the subtle ingress and egress features in photometric transit light curves, we investigate the effect of oblateness on the spectroscopic Rossiter–McLaughlin (RM) signals. We found that a giant planet, with planet-to-star radius ratio of 0.15 and Saturn-like oblateness of 0.098, can cause spectroscopic signatures with amplitudes up to 1.1 m s−1 which is detectable by high-precision spectrographs such as ESPRESSO. We also found that the spectroscopic oblateness signals are particularly amplified for transits across rapidly rotating stars and for planets with spin-orbit misalignment thereby making them more prominent than the photometric signals at some transit orientations. We compared the detectability of oblateness in photometry and spectroscopy and found that photometric light curves are more sensitive to detecting oblateness than the spectroscopic RM signals mostly because they can be sampled with higher cadence to better probe the oblateness ingress and egress anomaly. However, joint analyses of the light curve and RM signal of a transiting planet provides more accurate and precise estimate of the planet’s oblateness. Therefore, ESPRESSO alongside ongoing and upcoming photometric instruments such as TESS, CHEOPS, PLATO, and JWST will be extremely useful in measuring planet oblateness.

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S282) ◽  
pp. 139-140
Author(s):  
G. M. Szabó ◽  
R. Szabó ◽  
J. M. Benkö ◽  
H. Lehmann ◽  
G. Mezö ◽  
...  

AbstractExoplanets orbiting rapidly rotating stars may have unusual light curve shapes. These objects transit across an oblate disk with non-isotropic surface brightness, caused by the gravitational darkening. If such asymmetries are measured, one can infer the orbital obliquity of the exoplanet and the gravity darkened star, even without the analysis of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect or interferometry. Here we introduce KOI-13 as the first example of a transiting system with a gravity darkened star.


1993 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Prosser ◽  
Rudolph E. Schild ◽  
John R. Stauffer ◽  
Burton F. Jones

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (S299) ◽  
pp. 295-296
Author(s):  
Marshall C. Johnson ◽  
William D. Cochran

AbstractWe present Doppler tomographic observations of the transiting planet Kepler-13b (aka KOI-13b), a highly inflated hot Jupiter orbiting the Teff=8500 K primary of a hierarchical triple stellar system. As the planet transits the rapidly rotating host star, it successively blocks regions of the stellar disk with different radial velocities, causing a “bump” in the stellar spectral line shape, which we resolve spectroscopically. The manner in which this perturbation moves across the stellar line during the transit gives information on the relative alignment between the stellar spin and planetary orbital angular momentum vectors. This is a powerful statistical probe of planetary migration processes, as the expected spin-orbit misalignment distributions from dynamically cold migration (disk interactions) and dynamically hot migration (planet-planet scattering, Kozai cycles) are significantly different: the former will lead to primarily aligned orbits; the latter to a wide distribution. Doppler tomography also promises to be a powerful technique for confirming transiting planet candidates around rapidly rotating stars like Kepler-13A, which are not amenable to radial velocity follow-up and thus are currently a poorly sampled region of parameter space.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A150 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Oshagh ◽  
A. H. M. J. Triaud ◽  
A. Burdanov ◽  
P. Figueira ◽  
A. Reiners ◽  
...  

One of the most powerful methods used to estimate sky-projected spin-orbit angles of exoplanetary systems is through a spectroscopic transit observation known as the RossiterMcLaughlin (RM) effect. So far mostly single RM observations have been used to estimate the spin-orbit angle, and thus there have been no studies regarding the variation of estimated spin-orbit angle from transit to transit. Stellar activity can alter the shape of photometric transit light curves and in a similar way they can deform the RM signal. In this paper we present several RM observations, obtained using the HARPS spectrograph, of known transiting planets that all transit extremely active stars, and by analyzing them individually we assess the variation in the estimated spin-orbit angle. Our results reveal that the estimated spin-orbit angle can vary significantly (up to ~42°) from transit to transit, due to variation in the configuration of stellar active regions over different nights. This finding is almost two times larger than the expected variation predicted from simulations. We could not identify any meaningful correlation between the variation of estimated spin-orbit angles and the stellar magnetic activity indicators. We also investigated two possible approaches to mitigate the stellar activity influence on RM observations. The first strategy was based on obtaining several RM observations and folding them to reduce the stellar activity noise. Our results demonstrated that this is a feasible and robust way to overcome this issue. The second approach is based on acquiring simultaneous high-precision short-cadence photometric transit light curves using TRAPPIST/SPECULOOS telescopes, which provide more information about the stellar active region’s properties and allow a better RM modeling.


1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 385
Author(s):  
M.B.K. Sarma ◽  
K.D. Abhankar

AbstractThe Algol-type eclipsing binary WX Eridani was observed on 21 nights on the 48-inch telescope of the Japal-Rangapur Observatory during 1973-75 in B and V colours. An improved period of P = 0.82327038 days was obtained from the analysis of the times of five primary minima. An absorption feature between phase angles 50-80, 100-130, 230-260 and 280-310 was present in the light curves. The analysis of the light curves indicated the eclipses to be grazing with primary to be transit and secondary, an occultation. Elements derived from the solution of the light curve using Russel-Merrill method are given. From comparison of the fractional radii with Roche lobes, it is concluded that none of the components have filled their respective lobes but the primary star seems to be evolving. The spectral type of the primary component was estimated to be F3 and is found to be pulsating with two periods equal to one-fifth and one-sixth of the orbital period.


2012 ◽  
Vol 423 (2) ◽  
pp. 993-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jurcsik ◽  
Á. Sódor ◽  
G. Hajdu ◽  
B. Szeidl ◽  
Á. Dózsa ◽  
...  

Abstract The analysis of recent, extended multicolour CCD and archive photoelectric, photographic and visual observations has revealed several important properties of RZ Lyr, an RRab-type variable exhibiting large-amplitude Blazhko modulation. On the time base of ∼110 yr, a strict anticorrelation between the pulsation- and modulation-period changes is established. The light curve of RZ Lyr shows a remarkable bump on the descending branch in the small-amplitude phase of the modulation, similarly to the light curves of bump Cepheids. We speculate that the stellar structure temporally suits a 4:1 resonance between the periods of the fundamental and one of the higher order radial modes in this modulation phase. The light-curve variation of RZ Lyr can be correctly fitted with a two-modulation-component solution; the 121-d period of the main modulation is nearly but not exactly four times longer than the period of the secondary modulation component. Using the inverse photometric method, the variations in the pulsation-averaged values of the physical parameters in different phases of both modulation components are determined.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 346-346
Author(s):  
E. Zsldos

The light curves of luminous stars often show spectacular secular changes which can be connected to stellar evolution. Such events are, e.g. the outbursts of P Cygni in the 17th century and 77 Carinae in the last century. Both stars belong to the Luminous Blue Variables, but these changes are not restricted to blue stars. The light curve of HR 8752 (V509 Cassiopeiae) shows a certain similarity to that of the former two stars. When it was first catalogued in the middle of the 19th century, it had been a 6m star. During 100 years the star showed a secular brightening of lm. A similar yellow hypergiant, p Cassiopeiae produced at least two outbursts this century, though both have smaller amplitudes than it is in the case of the LBVs. Moreover, these yellow variables also have an apparently secular colour change: the B − V colour of HR 8752 is decreasing while that of ρ Cassiopeiae is increasing. In both cases evolutionary changes are possible but one cannot exclude other causes. Besides these well studied stars there are several other yellow hypergiants with promising light curves. One of the most interesting cases seems to be R Puppis, which was discovered to be variable in the last century, but then did not show any appreciable change in the following 70-80 years. In the late 1970s, however, it began to vary once more.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (3) ◽  
pp. 4112-4124
Author(s):  
Umut Burgaz ◽  
Keiichi Maeda ◽  
Belinda Kalomeni ◽  
Miho Kawabata ◽  
Masayuki Yamanaka ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Photometric and spectroscopic observations of Type Ia supernova (SN) 2017fgc, which cover the period from −12 to + 137 d since the B-band maximum are presented. SN 2017fgc is a photometrically normal SN Ia with the luminosity decline rate, Δm15(B)true  = 1.10 ± 0.10 mag. Spectroscopically, it belongs to the high-velocity (HV) SNe Ia group, with the Si ii λ6355 velocity near the B-band maximum estimated to be 15 200 ± 480 km s−1. At the epochs around the near-infrared secondary peak, the R and I bands show an excess of ∼0.2-mag level compared to the light curves of the normal velocity (NV) SNe Ia. Further inspection of the samples of HV and NV SNe Ia indicates that the excess is a generic feature among HV SNe Ia, different from NV SNe Ia. There is also a hint that the excess is seen in the V band, both in SN 2017fgc and other HV SNe Ia, which behaves like a less prominent shoulder in the light curve. The excess is not obvious in the B band (and unknown in the U band), and the colour is consistent with the fiducial SN colour. This might indicate that the excess is attributed to the bolometric luminosity, not in the colour. This excess is less likely caused by external effects, like an echo or change in reddening but could be due to an ionization effect, which reflects an intrinsic, either distinct or continuous, difference in the ejecta properties between HV and NV SNe Ia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Davoudi ◽  
Atila Poro ◽  
Fahri Alicavus ◽  
Afshin Halavati ◽  
Saeed Doostmohammadi ◽  
...  

AbstractNew observations of the eclipsing binary system V1848 Ori were carried out using the V filter resulting in a determination of new times of minima and new ephemeris were obtained. We presented the first complete analysis of the system’s orbital period behavior and analysis of O-C diagram done by the GA and MCMC approaches in OCFit code. The O-C diagram demonstrates a sinusoidal trend in the data; this trend suggests a cyclic change caused by the LITE effect with a period of 10.57 years and an amplitude of 7.182 minutes. It appears that there is a third body with mass function of f (m3) = 0.0058 M⊙ in this binary system. The light curves were analyzed using the Wilson-Devinney code to determine some geometrical and physical parameters of the system. These results show that V1848 Ori is a contact W UMa binary system with the mass ratio of q = 0.76 and a weak fillout factor of 5.8%. The O’Connell effect was not seen in the light curve and there is no need to add spot.


2021 ◽  
Vol 217 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. V. Zaqarashvili ◽  
M. Albekioni ◽  
J. L. Ballester ◽  
Y. Bekki ◽  
L. Biancofiore ◽  
...  

AbstractRossby waves are a pervasive feature of the large-scale motions of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. These waves (also known as planetary waves and r-modes) also play an important role in the large-scale dynamics of different astrophysical objects such as the solar atmosphere and interior, astrophysical discs, rapidly rotating stars, planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. This paper provides a review of theoretical and observational aspects of Rossby waves on different spatial and temporal scales in various astrophysical settings. The physical role played by Rossby-type waves and associated instabilities is discussed in the context of solar and stellar magnetic activity, angular momentum transport in astrophysical discs, planet formation, and other astrophysical processes. Possible directions of future research in theoretical and observational aspects of astrophysical Rossby waves are outlined.


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