Exoplanets and Astrobiology

    General
    Description

    The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable information about its physical properties, but also allowing to constrain the properties of the Solar system's planets within a more global context. The field is approaching to the important discovery of the first potentially habitable planets and encouraging more detailed studies of them. With the launching of upcoming related satellites like JWST, CHEOPS, TESS, ARIEL and PLATO, the exoplanets field faces a bright future.

    It is for this reason that this field is aid of, and at the same time promotes, the development of increasingly sensitive and stable instrumentation for both, ground-based telescopes and space missions. Our group is particularly prepared for these two fronts. On the one hand, during the last years we have developed observational and reduction techniques of exoplanet transits data for the ORM telescopes, ours being one of the most productive groups in the exploitation of GTC. On the other hand, all ESA space missions (present and future) related to exoplanets have one or more components of the project as CoIs. Within the frame of this project, we intend that IAC researchers maintain an advantageous position regarding the operation of OSIRIS and CanariCam, first light

    GTC's instruments, and participate in the construction, commissioning and operation of new instruments such as the high resolution optical spectrograph HORUS at GTC. The exploitation of the photometry and spectroscopy of transits with LIRIS at WHT is also one of our principal interests, especially in preparation for the installation in 2015 of EMIR on the GTC .

    To summarize, the project "Exoplanets and Astrobiology" will focus on these four action lines:

    1) The characterization of atmospheric and physical properties of exoplanets (GTC, WHT, ARIEL, HARPSN, CARMENES, ESPRESSO, etc. ..)

    2) The search and confirmation of exoplanets by transits techniques (CoRoT, Kepler, K2, CHEOPS, XO, LCOGT, W FC, DISH, etc. ..)

    3) The search and confirmation of exoplanet by radial velocity techniques (HARPSN, HORUS, LCOGT, SONG, CARMENES)

    4) Astrobiology

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    1. Detection of He in the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the ground, published in Science
    2. Detection of a super-earth around Barnard star, published in Nature
    3. Detection of the first TESS planets, with several papers of high relevance
    4. Discovery of Na and Halpha features in the spectrum of KELT-20b with TNG
    5. Publication of the Handbook of Exoplanets, the most extensive work of reference in the field of exoplanets. The Handbook was edited by members of our group, and includes contributions by about 300 experts worldwide, including 12 members of IAC.

    Related publications

    Optical spectroscopy of candidate Alpha Persei white dwarfs 2015MNRAS.451.4259C
    Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XXVII. CoRoT-28b, a planet orbiting an evolved star, and CoRoT-29b, a planet showing an asymmetric transit 2015A&A...579A..36C
    A search for lithium in metal-poor L dwarfs 2015A&A...579A..58L
    Using the Rossiter–McLaughlin Effect to Observe the Transmission Spectrum of Earth’s Atmosphere 2015ApJ...806L..23Y
    The Earthshine Network: an update 1998-2013 2015hsa8.conf..655M
    Period, epoch, and prediction errors of ephemerides from continuous sets of timing measurements 2015A&A...578A..17D
    Rotationally resolved spectroscopy of dwarf planet (136472) Makemake 2015A&A...577A..86L
    Ground-based search for lightning in Jupiter with GTC/OSIRIS fast photometry and tunable filters 2015A&A...577A..94L
    Discovery of a Young Planetary Mass Companion to the Nearby M Dwarf VHS J125601.92-125723.9 2015ApJ...804...96G
    Transits and starspots in the WASP-6 planetary system 2015MNRAS.450.1760T
    Discovery of Two New Thermally Bloated Low-Mass White Dwarfs Among the Kepler Binaries 2015ApJ...803...82R
    Liverpool telescope 2: a new robotic facility for rapid transient follow-up 2015ExA....39..119C
    Three Red Giants With Substellar-Mass Companions 2015ApJ...803....1N
    Kepler-423b: a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting a very old solar-like star 2015A&A...576A..11G
    High-resolution transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere-seeing Earth as an exoplanet using a lunar eclipse 2015IJAsB..14..255Y
    Jupiter as an Exoplanet: UV to NIR Transmission Spectrum Reveals Hazes, a Na Layer, and Possibly Stratospheric H2O-ice Clouds 2015ApJ...801L...8M
    The centre-to-limb variations of solar Fraunhofer lines imprinted upon lunar eclipse spectra. Implications for exoplanet transit observations 2015A&A...574A..94Y
    Characterization of the known T-type dwarfs towards the σ Orionis cluster 2015A&A...574A.118P
    The HU Aqr planetary system hypothesis revisited 2015MNRAS.448.1118G
    On the GJ 436 Planetary System 2014AcA....64..323M
    Kepler-432 b: a massive warm Jupiter in a 52-day eccentric orbit transiting a giant star 2015A&A...573L...6O
    Tracking Advanced Planetary Systems (TAPAS) with HARPS-N . I. A multiple planetary system around the red giant star TYC 1422-614-1 2015A&A...573A..36N
    Very low-luminosity Class I/flat outflow sources in σ Orionis 2015MNRAS.446.2550R
    The PLATO 1.0 mission 2014ExA....38..249R
    The EBLM project. II. A very hot, low-mass M dwarf in an eccentric and long-period, eclipsing binary system from the SuperWASP Survey 2014A&A...572A..50G
    Spectroscopic follow-up of L- and T-type proper-motion member candidates in the Pleiades 2014A&A...572A..67Z
    Saharan mineral dust outbreaks observed over the North Atlantic island of La Palma in summertime between 1984 and 2012 2014QJRMS.140.1058L
    SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates. XII. KOI-1257 b: a highly eccentric three-month period transiting exoplanet 2014A&A...571A..37S
    Spectroscopy of Hyades L dwarf candidates★ 2014MNRAS.445.3908L
    Temperature constraints on the coldest brown dwarf known: WISE 0855-0714 2014A&A...570L...8B
    Investigation of a transiting planet candidate in Trumpler 37: An astrophysical false positive eclipsing spectroscopic binary star 2014AN....335..345E
    Binary frequency of planet-host stars at wide separations. A new brown dwarf companion to a planet-host star 2014A&A...569A.120L
    CoRoT-22 b: a validated 4.9 R⊕ exoplanet in 10-d orbit 2014MNRAS.444.2783M
    The Penn State - Toruń Centre for Astronomy Planet Search stars. II. Lithium abundance analysis of the red giant clump sample 2014A&A...569A..55A
    Revisiting the transits of CoRoT-7b at a lower activity level 2014A&A...569A..74B
    Rossiter-McLaughlin Observations of 55 Cnc e 2014ApJ...792L..31L
    Discovery of a new Y dwarf: WISE J030449.03-270508.3 2014MNRAS.444.1931P
    Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XXVI. CoRoT-24: a transiting multiplanet system 2014A&A...567A.112A
    Trigonometric parallaxes of young field L dwarfs 2014A&A...568A...6Z
    2MASS J154043.42-510135.7: a new addition to the 5 pc population 2014A&A...567A...6P

    Related talks

    No related talks were found.

    Related conferences

    No related conferences were found.
    Eccentric exoplanet reveals how hot jupiters form
    Astronomers observe differences in sunrises and sunsets on a distant world
    Astronomers discover Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting ultra-cool star
    Astronomers spot a giant planet that’s as light as cotton candy
    Eva Villaver, winner of the Spanish Geographical Society Research Award 2023
    CARMENES exoplanet hunter scientific meeting
    The densest “Neptune” ever observed
    Astronomers find Earth-sized world potentially covered in volcanoes
    CARMENES project boosts the number of known planets in the solar neighbourhood
    ESPRESSO and CARMENES discover two potentially habitable exo-Earths around a star near the Sun
    James Webb telescope reveals an exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before
    Heaviest element yet detected in an exoplanet atmosphere
    Astronomers discover a planetary system with three super-Earths and two super-Mercuries
    A study shows that “water worlds” could be as common as Earths
    Gliese 486 b: a Rosetta stone for the study of exoplanets
    Two new rocky planets in the solar neighborhood
    Astronomers discover a four-planet system with a peculiar migration process
    A sub-Earth confirmed in the planetary system of the closest star to the Sun
    Study reveals that giant planets could reach "maturity" much earlier than previously thought
    Astronomers discover an ultra-light and super-fast sub-Earth orbiting a red dwarf
    IAC80 telescope detects faint transit of exoplanet WASP-156b
    A study offers new prospects for finding life outside the Earth
    A new super-Earth detected orbiting a red dwarf star
    Astronomers discover a surprising system of six exoplanets which orbit rhythmically
    Sucessful test of new technology which should help to discover “other Earths”
    Astronomers find a nearby system of exoplanets with a potentially inhabitable world
    ESPRESSO has its first light on the four telescopes of the VLT at the same time
    SARA SEAGER: “En 10 años tendremos la capacidad de encontrar vida en un exoplaneta”