We present 17 transit light curves of seven known warm-Jupiters observed with the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS). The light curves have been collected as part of the CHEOPS Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program that searches for transit-timing variation (TTV) of warm-Jupiters induced by a possible external perturber to shed light on the evolution path of such planetary systems. We describe the CHEOPS observation process, from the planning to the data analysis. In this work, we focused on the timing performance of CHEOPS, the impact of the sampling of the transit phases, and the improvement we can obtain by combining multiple transits together. We reached the highest precision on the transit time of about 13-16 s for the brightest target (WASP-38, G = 9.2) in our sample. From the combined analysis of multiple transits of fainter targets with G ≥ 11, we obtained a timing precision of ∼2 min. Additional observations with CHEOPS, covering a longer temporal baseline, will further improve the precision on the transit times and will allow us to detect possible TTV signals induced by an external perturber. ; The early support for CHEOPS by Daniel Neuenschwander is gratefully acknowledged. GPi, VN, GSs, IPa, LBo, GLa, and RRa acknowledge the funding support from Italian Space Agency (ASI) regulated by 'Accordo ASI-INAF n. 2013-016-R.0 del 9 luglio 2013 e integrazione del 9 luglio 2015 CHEOPS Fasi A/B/C'. GLa acknowledges support by CARIPARO Foundation, according to the agreement CARIPARO-Università degli Studi di Padova (Pratica n. 2018/0098), and scholarship support by the 'Soroptimist International d'Italia' association (Cortina d'Ampezzo Club). VVG is an FRS-FNRS Research Associate. VVG, LD, and MG thank the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) for the provision of financial support in the framework of the PRODEX Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) under contract number PEA 4000131343. DG, MF, SC, XB, and JL acknowledge their roles as ESA-appointed CHEOPS science team members. ZG was supported by the Hungarian NKFI grant No. K-119517 and the GINOP grant No. 2.3.2-15-2016-00003 of the Hungarian National Research Development and Innovation Office, by the City of Szombathely under agreement No. 67.177-21/2016, and by the VEGA grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. 2/0031/18. This work was supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização by these grants: UID/FIS/04434/2019; UIDB/04434/2020; UIDP/04434/2020; PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032113; PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953; PTDC/FIS-AST/28987/2017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028987. ACC and TGW acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant No. ST/M001296/1. SH acknowledges CNES funding through the grant 837319. ODSD is supported in the form of work contract (DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0004) funded by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project FOUR ACES; grant agreement No. 724427).
Small low-mass stars are favourable targets for the detection of rocky habitable planets. In particular, planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood are interesting and suitable for precise characterization. The RedDots campaigns seek to discover rocky planets orbiting nearby low-mass stars. The 2018 campaign targeted GJ 1061, which is the 20th nearest star to the Sun. For three consecutive months we obtained nightly, high-precision radial velocity measurements with the HARPS spectrograph. We analysed these data together with archival HARPS data. We report the detection of three planet candidates with periods of 3.204 +/- 0.001, 6.689 +/- 0.005, and 13.03 +/- 0.03 d, which are close to 1:2:4 period commensurability. After several considerations related to the properties of the noise and sampling, we conclude that a fourth signal is most likely explained by stellar rotation, although it may be due to a planet. The proposed three-planet system (and the potential four-planet solution) is long-term dynamically stable. Planet-planet gravitational interactions are below our current detection threshold. The minimum masses of the three planets range from 1.4 +/- 0.2 to 1.8 +/- 0.3 M-circle plus. Planet d, with msin i = 1.64 +/- 0.24 M-circle plus, receives a similar amount of energy as Earth receives from the Sun. Consequently it lies within the liquid-water habitable zone of the star and has a similar equilibrium temperature to Earth. GJ 1061 has very similar properties to Proxima Centauri but activity indices point to lower levels of stellar activity. ; German Research Foundation (DFG) FOR2544 DR 281/32-1 JE 701/3-1 DFG priority program SPP 1992 'Ex-ploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets' RE 1664/18 Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion AYA201679425-C3-3-P ESP2017-87676-C5-2-R ESP2017-87143-R Centre of Excellence 'Severo Ochoa' Instituto de Astrof'rasolar Planets' SEV-2017-0709 Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/P000584/1 3180405 Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU) European Union (EU) ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R ESP2016-80435-C2-2-R Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme STFC Consolidated Grant ST/P000592/1 Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation Mc Donald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin National Research Foundation - South Africa 072.C-0488 183.C-0437 0101.C-0516(A) 198.C-0838(A)
The He » I infrared (IR) line at a vacuum wavelength of 10 833 Å is a diagnostic for the investigation of atmospheres of stars and planets orbiting them. For the first time, we study the behavior of the He » I IR line in a set of chromospheric models for M-dwarf stars, whose much denser chromospheres may favor collisions for the level population over photoionization and recombination, which are believed to be dominant in solar-type stars. For this purpose, we use published PHOENIX models for stars of spectral types M2 V and M3 V and also compute new series of models with different levels of activity following an ansatz developed for the case of the Sun. We perform a detailed analysis of the behavior of the He I IR line within these models. We evaluate the line in relation to other chromospheric lines and also the influence of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation field. The analysis of the He » I IR line strengths as a function of the respective EUV radiation field strengths suggests that the mechanism of photoionization and recombination is necessary to form the line for inactive models, while collisions start to play a role in our most active models. Moreover, the published model set, which is optimized in the ranges of the Na » I D2, Hα, and the bluest Ca » II IR triplet line, gives an adequate prediction of the He » I IR line for most stars of the stellar sample. Because especially the most inactive stars with weak He » I IR lines are fit worst by our models, it seems that our assumption of a 100% filling factor of a single inactive component no longer holds for these stars. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)
Context. The nearby ultra-compact multiplanetary system YZ Ceti consists of at least three planets, and a fourth tentative signal. The orbital period of each planet is the subject of discussion in the literature due to strong aliasing in the radial velocity data. The stellar activity of this M dwarf also hampers significantly the derivation of the planetary parameters. Aims. With an additional 229 radial velocity measurements obtained since the discovery publication, we reanalyze the YZ Ceti system and resolve the alias issues. Methods. We use model comparison in the framework of Bayesian statistics and periodogram simulations based on a method by Dawson and Fabrycky to resolve the aliases. We discuss additional signals in the RV data, and derive the planetary parameters by simultaneously modeling the stellar activity with a Gaussian process regression model. To constrain the planetary parameters further we apply a stability analysis on our ensemble of Keplerian fits. Results. We find no evidence for a fourth possible companion. We resolve the aliases: the three planets orbit the star with periods of 2.02 d, 3.06 d, and 4.66 d. We also investigate an effect of the stellar rotational signal on the derivation of the planetary parameters, in particular the eccentricity of the innermost planet. Using photometry we determine the stellar rotational period to be close to 68 d and we also detect this signal in the residuals of a three-planet fit to the RV data and the spectral activity indicators. From our stability analysis we derive a lower limit on the inclination of the system with the assumption of coplanar orbits which is i(min) = 0.9 deg. From the absence of a transit event with TESS, we derive an upper limit of the inclination of i(max) = 87.43 deg. Conclusions. YZ Ceti is a prime example of a system where strong aliasing hindered the determination of the orbital periods of exoplanets. Additionally, stellar activity influences the derivation of planetary parameters and modeling them correctly is important for the reliable estimation of the orbital parameters in this specific compact system. Stability considerations then allow additional constraints to be placed on the planetary parameters. ; German Research Foundation (DFG) FOR2544 RE 2694/4-1 German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS -2011 -02 Spanish Ministry of Economy German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme Klaus Tschira Stiftung state of Baden-Wurttemberg state of Niedersachsen Junta de Andalucia High Performance and Cloud Computing Group at the Zentrum fur Datenverarbeitung of the University of Tubingen state of Baden-Wurttemberg through bwHPC German Research Foundation (DFG) INST 37/935 -1 FUGG European FEDER/ERF funds AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P ESP2017-87676-C5-2-R ESP2017-87143-R Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" award SEV-2015-0548 Centre of Excellence "Maria de Maeztu" award SEV-2015-0548 Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia SEV-2017-0709 Centro de Astrobiologia MDM-2017-0737 Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/M001008/1 ST/P000584/1 Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 1161218 Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) PB06 Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 3180405 Hong Kong RGC grant HKU 17305618 European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC 83 24 28 Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia Landessternwarte Konigstuhl Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen Universidad Complutense de Madrid Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias Hamburger Sternwarte Centro de Astrobiologia Centro Astronomico Hispano -Aleman Agencia Estatal de Investigacion of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P ESP2017-87676-C5-2-R ESP2017-87143-R