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Two Planets Straddling the Habitable Zone of the Nearby K Dwarf Gl 414A
Cargile, Phillip A.; Knutson, Heather A.; Pepper, Joshua +14 more
We present the discovery of two planets orbiting the nearby (D = 11.9 pc) K7 dwarf Gl 414A. Gl 414A b is a sub-Neptune mass planet with ${M}_{b}\sin {i}_{b}={7.60}_{-2.19}^{+2.44}$ M⊕ and a semimajor axis of 0.23 ± 0.01 au. Gl 414A c is a sub-Saturn mass planet with ${M}_{c}\sin {i}_{c}={53.83}_{-8.58}^{+9.18}$ M⊕ and a semim…
ACCESS: An Optical Transmission Spectrum of the High-gravity Hot Jupiter HAT-P-23b
Kirk, James; López-Morales, Mercedes; MacDonald, Ryan J. +11 more
We present a new ground-based visible transmission spectrum of the high-gravity, hot Jupiter HAT-P-23b, obtained as part of the ACCESS project. We derive the spectrum from five transits observed between 2016 and 2018, with combined wavelength coverage between 5200 Å and 9269 Å in 200 Å bins, and with a median precision of 247 ppm per bin. HAT-P-23…
Distance and Mass of the NGC 253 Galaxy Group
Anand, Gagandeep S.; Shaya, Edward J.; Tully, R. Brent +2 more
Two dwarf galaxies, WOC2017-07 and PGC 704814, located in the vicinity of the nearby luminous spiral galaxy NGC 253 were observed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. Their distances of 3.62 ± 0.18 Mpc and 3.66 ± 0.18 Mpc were derived using the tip of the red giant branch method. These distances are consistent with t…
Photometric and Kinematic Study of the Open Clusters SAI 44 and SAI 45
Sharma, Saurabh; Joshi, Y. C.; Elsanhoury, W. H. +1 more
We carry out a detailed photometric and kinematic study of the poorly studied sparse open clusters SAI 44 and SAI 45 using ground-based BVRcIc data supplemented by archival data from Gaia eDR3 and Pan-STARRS. The stellar memberships are determined using a statistical method based on Gaia eDR3 kinematic data, and we found 204 …
The White Dwarfs of the Old, Solar-metallicity Open Star Cluster Messier 67: Properties and Progenitors
Kilic, Mukremin; Bolte, Michael; Canton, Paul A. +1 more
The old, solar-metallicity open cluster Messier 67 has long been considered a lynchpin in the study and understanding of the structure and evolution of solar-type stars. The same is arguably true for stellar remnants; the white dwarf population of M67 provides crucial observational data for understanding and interpreting white dwarf populations an…
K2-138 g: Spitzer Spots a Sixth Planet for the Citizen Science System
Kristiansen, Martti H.; Barclay, Thomas; Gorjian, Varoujan +10 more
K2 greatly extended Kepler's ability to find new planets, but it was typically limited to identifying transiting planets with orbital periods below 40 days. While analyzing K2 data through the Exoplanet Explorers project, citizen scientists helped discover one super-Earth and four sub-Neptune sized planets in the relatively bright (V = 12.21, K = …
TOI-954 b and K2-329 b: Short-period Saturn-mass Planets that Test whether Irradiation Leads to Inflation
Henning, Thomas; Vanderburg, Andrew; Bieryla, Allyson +70 more
We report the discovery of two short-period Saturn-mass planets, one transiting the G subgiant TOI-954 (TIC 44792534, V = 10.343, T = 9.78) observed in TESS sectors 4 and 5 and one transiting the G dwarf K2-329 (EPIC 246193072, V = 12.70, K = 10.67) observed in K2 campaigns 12 and 19. We confirm and characterize these two planets with a variety of…
Ground-based Transmission Spectroscopy with VLT FORS2: Evidence for Faculae and Clouds in the Optical Spectrum of the Warm Saturn WASP-110b
Madhusudhan, Nikku; Nikolov, Nikolay; Maciejewski, Gracjan +12 more
We present a ground-based optical transmission spectrum for the warm Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-110b from two transit observations made with the FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. The spectrum covers the wavelength range from 4000-8333 Å, which is binned in 46 transit depths measured to an averaged precision of 220 parts p…
The Age-Metallicity-Specific Orbital Energy Relation for the Milky Way's Globular Cluster System Confirms the Importance of Accretion for Its Formation
Schlaufman, Kevin C.; Woody, Turner
Globular clusters can form inside their host galaxies at high redshift when gas densities are higher and gas-rich mergers are common. They can also form inside lower-mass galaxies that have since been accreted and tidally disrupted, leaving their globular cluster complement bound to higher-mass halos. We argue that the age-metallicity-specific orb…
How Complete Are Surveys for Nearby Transiting Hot Jupiters?
Winn, Joshua N.; Hartman, Joel D.; Yee, Samuel W.
Hot Jupiters are a rare and interesting outcome of planet formation. Although more than 500 hot Jupiters (HJs) are known, most of them were discovered by a heterogeneous collection of surveys with selection biases that are difficult to quantify. Currently, our best knowledge of HJ demographics around FGK stars comes from the sample of ≈40 objects …