[en] Radial velocity, microlensing and transit surveys have revealed the existence of a large population of low-mass planets in our Galaxy, the so-called `Super-Earths' and `Neptunes'. The understanding of these objects would greatly benefit from the detection of a few of them transiting bright nearby stars, making possible their thorough characterization with high signal-to-noise follow-up measurements. Our HARPS Doppler survey has now detected dozens of low-mass planets in close orbit around bright nearby stars, and it is highly probable that a few of them do transit their host star. In this context, we have set up an ambitious Spitzer program devoted to the search for the transits of the short period low-mass planets detected by HARPS. We present here this program and some of its first results.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Gillon, Michaël ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astrophysique et traitement de l'image
Demory, Brice*-Olivier; Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Deming, Drake; Astronomy Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421, Maryland, USA
Seager, Sara; Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Lovis, Christophe; Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
Lattanzi, Mario G
Boss, Alan P
Language :
English
Title :
The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets
Publication date :
01 November 2011
Event name :
IAU Symposium 276. The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems: Formation, Structure and Dynamical Evolution.
Event organizer :
IAU
Event place :
Torino, Italy
Event date :
October 10-15, 2010
Audience :
International
Main work title :
Proceedings of the IAU
Main work alternative title :
[en] The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems: Formation, Structure and Dynamical Evolution.
