Planetary mass function and planetary systems

1999

Among various techniques to search for extrasolar planets, microlensing has some unique characteristics. Contrary to all other methods which favour nearby objects, microlensing is sensitive to planets around stars at distances of several kpc. These stars act as gravitational lenses leading to a brightening of observed luminous source stars. The lens stars that are tested for the presence of planets are not generally seen themselves. The largest sensitivity is obtained for planets at orbital separations of 1-10 AU offering the view on an extremely interesting range with regard to our own solar system and in particular to the position of Jupiter. The microlensing signal of a jupiter-mass planet lasts typically a few days. This means that a planet reveals its existence by producing a short signal at its quasi-instantaneous position, so that planets can be detected without the need to observe a significant fraction of the orbital period. Relying on the microlensing alerts issued by several survey groups that observe ∼ 10 7 stars in the Galactic bulge, PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) performs precise and frequent measurements on ongoing microlensing events in order to detect deviations from a light curve produced by a single point-like object. These measurements allow constraints to be put on the abundance of planets. From 42 well-sampled events between 1995 and 1999, we infer that less than 1/3 of M-dwarfs in the Galactic bulge have jupiter-mass companions at separations between 1 and 4 AU from their parent star, and that less than 45 % have 3-jupiter-mass companions between 1 and 7 AU.

Solar System Research, 2019

To build the mass distribution of exoplanets discovered with the method of measuring the radial velocities, it is necessary to take into consideration the observational selection factors. We propose the detectability-window method to form homogeneous series of exoplanets. In addition, the errors in determining the masses are taken into account. The mass distributions of the transiting planets and the planets discovered with the radial-velocity method are compared in a range of 0.5 to 13 Jupiter masses.

Astronomische Nachrichten, 2010

The dates of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later Within less than 15 years, the count of known planets orbiting stars other than the Sun has risen from none to more than 400 with detections arising from four successfully applied techniques: Doppler-wobbles, planetary transits, gravitational microlensing, and direct imaging. While the hunt for twin Earths is on, a statistically well-defined sample of the population of planets in all their variety is required for probing models of planet formation and orbital evolution so that the origin of planets that harbour life, like and including ours, can be understood. Given the different characteristics of the detection techniques, a complete picture can only arise from a combination of their respective results. Microlensing observations are well-suited to reveal statistical properties of the population of planets orbiting stars in either the Galactic disk or bulge from microlensing observations, but a mandatory requirement is the adoption of strictly-deterministic criteria for selecting targets and identifying signals. Here, we describe a fully-deterministic strategy realised by means of the ARTEMiS (Automated Robotic Terrestrial Exoplanet Microlensing Search) system at the Danish 1.54m telescope at ESO La Silla between June and August 2008 as part of the MiNDSTEp (Microlensing Network for the Detection of Small Terrestrial Exoplanets) campaign, making use of immediate feedback on suspected anomalies recognized by the SIGNALMEN anomaly detector. We demonstrate for the first time the feasibility of such an approach, and thereby the readiness for studying planet populations down to Earth mass and even below, with ground-based observations. While the quality of the real-time photometry is a crucial factor on the efficiency of the campaign, an impairment of the target selection by data of bad quality can be successfully avoided. With a smaller slew time, smaller dead time, and higher through-put, modern robotic telescopes could significantly outperform the 1.54m Danish, whereas lucky-imaging cameras could set new standards for high-precision follow-up monitoring of microlensing events.

Arxiv preprint arXiv: …, 2010

SPIE Proceedings, 2004

The Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) is a proposed Discovery mission that will complete the first census of extrasolar planets with sensitivity to planets like those in our own solar system. MPF will employ a 1.1m aperture telescope, which images a 1.3 sq. deg. field-of-view in the near-IR, in order to detect extrasolar planets with the gravitational microlensing effect. MPF's sensitivity extends down to planets of 0.1 Earth masses, and MPF can detect Earth-like planets at all separations from 0.7AU to infinity. MPF's extrasolar planet census will provide critical information needed to understand the formation and frequency of extrasolar planetary systems similar to our own.

Astrophys J, 2010

Radial-velocity planet search campaigns are now beginning to detect low-mass "Super-Earth" planets, with minimum masses M sin ilsim 10 M ⊕. Using two independently developed methods, we have derived detection limits from nearly four years of the highest-precision data on 24 bright, stable stars from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search. Both methods are more conservative than a human analyzing an individual observed data set, as is demonstrated by the fact that both techniques would detect the radial-velocity signals announced as exoplanets for the 61 Vir system in 50% of trials. There are modest differences between the methods which can be recognized as arising from particular criteria that they adopt. What both processes deliver is a quantitative selection process such that one can use them to draw quantitative conclusions about planetary frequency and orbital parameter distribution from a given data set. Averaging over all 24 stars, in the period range P< 300 days and the eccentricity range 0.0 < e < 0.6, we could detect 99% of planets with velocity amplitudes Kgsim 7.1 m s-1. For the best stars in the sample, we are able to detect or exclude planets with Kgsim 3 m s-1, corresponding to minimum masses of 8 M ⊕ (P = 5 days) or 17 M ⊕ (P = 50 days). Our results indicate that the observed "period valley," a lack of giant planets (M > 100 M ⊕) with periods between 10 and 100 days, is indeed real. However, for planets in the mass range 10-100 M ⊕, our results suggest that the deficit of such planets may be a result of selection effects.

The Astrophysical Journal, 2014

We extend the statistical analysis of Lissauer et al. (2012, ApJ 750, 112), which demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) represent true transiting planets, and develop therefrom a procedure to validate large numbers of planet candidates in multis as bona fide exoplanets. We show that this statistical framework correctly estimates the abundance of false positives already identified around Kepler targets with multiple sets of transit-like signatures based on their abundance around targets with single sets of transit-like signatures. We estimate the number of multis that represent split systems of one or more planets orbiting each component of a binary star system. We use the high reliability rate for multis to validate more than one dozen particularly interesting multi-planet systems herein. Hundreds of additional multi-planet systems are validated in a companion paper by Rowe et al. (2014, ApJ). We note that few very short period (P < 1.6 days) planets orbit within multiple transiting planet systems and discuss possible reasons for their absence. There also appears to be a shortage of planets with periods exceeding a few months in multis.

The first step in discovering the extent of life in our galaxy is to determine the number of terrestrial planets in circumstellar habitable zones (HZ). The Kepler Mission is designed around a 0.95 m aperture Schmidt-type telescope with an array of 42 CCDs. The photometer is designed to continuously monitor the brightness of 100,000 solar-like stars to detect the transits of Earthsize and larger planets. It is scheduled to be launched into a heliocentric orbit in 2007. Measurements of the depth and repetition time of transits provide the size of the planet relative to the star and its orbital period. When combined with ground-based spectroscopy of these stars to fix the stellar parameters, the true planet radius and orbit, semi-major axis, hence the position relative to the HZ, are determined. The spectra are also used to discover the relationships between the characteristics of planets and the stars that they orbit. In particular, the association of planetary size and occurrence frequency with stellar mass and metallicity will be investigated. At the end of the four year mission, hundreds of terrestrial planets should be discovered in and near the HZ of their stars if such planets are 428 Borucki et al. common. Extending the mission to six years doubles the expected number of Earth-size planets in the HZ. A null result would imply that terrestrial planets in the HZ occur in less than 1% of the stars and that habitable planets might be quite rare. Based on the results of the current Doppler velocity discoveries, detection of the reflected light from several hundred short-period giant planets is also expected. Information on the albedos and densities of those giants showing transits will be obtained.

Arxiv preprint arXiv: …, 2008

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Nature, 2012