Exoplanet Astro Workshop

ARITRA CHAKRABARTY Pravega, IISC

Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 04 October 2020
Time to refresh our memory with a few
known terms :

Planet
Host star
A star system
 Word of the hour :

Exoplanet
A planet orbiting a star outside our solar system
What is the first imagery you get when I
say ‘Exoplanets’?
Let’s unravel what exactly we deal with
when we say ‘Exoplanets’ !!
We have progressed and imaged planets!
 So, this is where it all started ...

51 pegasi b was the first detected exoplanet

to be discovered in 1995 by Michel Mayor
and Didier Queloz - a Jupiter-sized planet
around a Sun-like star.
 Still, miles to go ...
• Theoretically, 1011 galaxy x 1011 star in each galaxy.
15 X Earth
Jupiter
• Observationally, confirmed planets: 4284 (till 24/09/2020)
1.25 X Earth 6 X Earth
Saturn
Neptune
Earth

Mercury

400 2156 427

Giant planets (>1.5 Jupiter) : 166

Source: NASA EXOPLANET ARCHIVE
Breaking it down ...
Breaking it down ...
 What do we know so far ?
Largest Planet known till date : HD 100546 b

Jupiter

HD 100546 b (~7 Jupiters)

Sun (~10 Jupiters)


 What do we know so far ?
Tiniest Planet known till date : Kepler-37 b

0.025 0.03 0.035

Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter
 What do we know so far ?
Close-in planets
 What do we know so far ?
Close-in planets : Even Jupiter-sized planets!!

WASP 18 b: A hot Jupiter at 0.02 AU from

the host star

1 AU = distance between Earth and the Sun

 What do we know so far ?
Diamond planet

55
55 Cancri
Cancri ee :: Same
Planetplanet
with rich
withCarbon
molten
lava
(diamond)
on the interior
surface
 What do we know so far ?
Planets with 3 host stars : KELT-4A b, LTT 1445A b, HD 131399 b
How do we know them ??
 Methods of detection of Exoplanets

● Transit method (Tells us about size)

● Radial velocity method (Tells us about mass)
● Direct imaging method

Also,
● Astrometric method
● Gravitational microlensing
● Polarization

and many more ...

Transit
Photometry

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Transit Photometry
 Basic techniques: Observation
Taking images (Photometry)

Camera
Sky Telescope Filters (CCD) Computer
 Basic Techniques of Observation
Taking images (Photometry)

Camera
Sky Telescope Filters (CCD) Computer

Taking spectra (Spectroscopy)

Camera
Sky Telescope Prism / Grating (CCD) Computer
 When do we observe?
● Is this a follow-up observation of an already detected planet?
Observe during the transit events.

https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TransitView/nph-vi http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/predictions.php
sibletbls?dataset=transits
 When do we observe?
● Is this a new target?
Survey : observe multiple targets for a long time

Challenges
❏ False detection : due to spots or other reasons?
❏ Missing out true transit events
 When do we observe?
● Is this a new target?
Survey : observe multiple targets for a long time

Challenges
❏ False detection : due to spots or other reasons?
❏ Missing out true transit events
❏ We have to observe 100-200 frames every night as we want to detect
intra-night variations and repeat the observation on other nights.

We make use of science to rule out false positive: Stellar properties

We need a pipeline (processing code) to handle the bulk amount of data.
Data : Images

Increasing time
 Data : Images
How to store and transfer data?

FITS format : Flexible Image Transport System

It can store images (arrays/matrices), tables as data and other information as headers.

Extension Header unit Data unit

0 common information such ------
as RA, DEC, telescope name etc.
1 Im1/Tab1-specific information: Im1/Tab1
Such as time (UT), airmass etc.
2 ,, Im2/Tab2
. . .
. . .
 How to get information from raw images?

Step 1 : Reduction and corrections

Step 2 : Photometry
Step 3 : Processing and modeling

❖ Tools :
● IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility), PyRAF (Python based IRAF)
● PyApphot
❖ Photometry produces an array of time, flux (magnitude) and error.
❖ The flux versus time plot is also known as light curve. A light curve with a transit
dip is known as transit light curve.
❖ Transit light curves are noisy, contains systematics and trends: calls for detrending
and processing
 How to get information about planetary properties from transit light
curves?
❖ Modeling
❖ Transit function (Mandel and Agol, Astrophysical Journal, 2002):
P : Period of orbit
Tc : Mid-transit time or epoch
i : Inclination angle

Both are observationally same!!

 How to get information about planetary properties from transit light
curves?

❖ Modeling
❖ Transit function (Mandel and Agol 2002):
P : Period of orbit
Tc : Mid-transit time or epoch
i : Inclination angle
How to get information about planetary properties from transit light curves?
❖ Modeling
❖ Transit function (Mandel and Agol 2002):
P : Period of orbit
Tc : Mid-transit time or epoch
i : Inclination angle
a : Semi-major axis of orbit
Rp: Size of planet
k : Size ratio = Rp/R*
b : Impact parameter = a*cos i/R*
W : Transit width or duration = T14
How to get information about planetary properties from transit light curves?
❖ Modeling
❖ Transit function (Mandel and Agol 2002):
P : Period of orbit
Tc : Mid-transit time or epoch
i : Inclination angle
a : Semi-major axis of orbit
Rp: Size of planet
k : Size ratio = Rp/R*
b : Impact parameter = a*cos i/R*
W : Transit width or duration = T14
❖ Transit function depends on stellar limb darkening.
One of the ways of expressing I/I(center) is a quadratic function.
I/I(μ=1) = 1 - c1(1-μ) -c2(1-μ2)
 Effect of limb darkening

With limb
no limb
darkening
darkening
of host
of host
starstar
(Quadratic)
and (uniform)
noise
How to get information about planetary properties from transit light curves?
❖ The properties of the planets are obtained by fitting the transit model against observed
light curves
➢ Least-square techniques
➢ Techniques based on Bayes’ theorem : MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo)
P(Bi|A) = P(A|Bi)*P(Bi)/ Σ(P(A|Bi)*P(Bi))
Bi are mutually exclusive exhaustive events

P (parameter| time, flux, model) ∝ P(flux|parameter, time, model) * P(parameter)

Thus by maximizing P(flux|parameter, time, model) and P(parameter) we can get the set of
parameters that satisfy the observed data.

We apply this theory in retrieval of planet properties using MCMC

 Exoplanet Missions

● Space based: Kepler, K2, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite),

CoRoT (Convection Rotation and Planetary Transits) etc.

● Ground based: WASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets), HATNet (Hungarian
Automated Telescope Network), TRAPPIST (Transiting Planets and
Planetesimals Small Telescope) etc.

Examples of exoplanets : Kepler-10 b, WASP-4 b, TRAPPIST-1 b etc.

What else can we know about exoplanets?

Do we only want to detect planets with transit technique?

NO !

We can also know about the physical structure, chemical

composition, cloud structure of a planet by taking their indirect
spectra during transit.

More importantly, can it harbour life ?

Probably, future missions like JWST, ARIEL, TMT, ELT, etc
will take us closer to our quest for life on these exoplanets.
THANK YOU

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