Search

Observational data suggest that a belt of planetesimals is expected close to the snow line in protoplanetary disks. Assuming there is such a belt in TRAPPIST-1 system, we examine possibilities of water delivery to the planets via planetesimals from the belt. The study is accomplished by numerical simulations of dynamical evolution of a hypothetical planetesimal belt. Our results show that the inner part of the belt is dynamically unstable and planetesimals located in this region are quickly scattered away, with many of them entering the region around the planets. The main dynamical mechanism responsible for the instability are close encounters with the outermost planet Trappist-1h. A low-order mean-motion resonance 2:3 with Trappist-1h, located in the same region, also contributes to the objects transport. In our nominal model, the planets have received non-negligible amount of water, with the smallest amount of $15$\% of the current Earth's water amount (EWA) being delivered to the planet 1b, while the planets Trappist-1e and Trappist-1g have received more than $60$\% of the EWA. We have found that while the estimated efficiency of water transport to the planets is robust, the amount of water delivered to each planet may vary significantly depending on the initial masses and orbits of the planets. The estimated dynamical "half-lives" have shown that the impactors' source region should be emptied in less then 1~Myr. Therefore, the obtained results suggest that transport of planetesimals through the system preferably occurs during an early phase of the planetary system evolution., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; MNRAS, accepted for publication

[Aims] To interpret adaptive-optics observations of (216) Kleopatra, we need to describe an evolution of multiple moons orbiting an extremely irregular body and include their mutual interactions. Such orbits are generally non-Keplerian and orbital elements are not constants. [Methods] Consequently, we used a modified N-body integrator, which was significantly extended to include the multipole expansion of the gravitational field up to the order ℓ = 10. Its convergence was verified against the 'brute-force' algorithm. We computed the coefficients Cℓ m, Sℓ m for Kleopatra's shape, assuming a constant bulk density. For Solar System applications, it was also necessary to implement a variable distance and geometry of observations. Our χ2 metric then accounts for the absolute astrometry, the relative astrometry (second moon with respect to the first), angular velocities, and silhouettes, constraining the pole orientation. This allowed us to derive the orbital elements of Kleopatra's two moons. [Results] Using both archival astrometric data and new VLT/SPHERE observations (ESO LP 199.C-0074), we were able to identify the true periods of the moons, P1 = (1.822359 ± 0.004156) d, P2 = (2.745820 ± 0.004820) d. They orbit very close to the 3:2 mean-motion resonance, but their osculating eccentricities are too small compared to other perturbations (multipole, mutual), meaning that regular librations of the critical argument are not present. The resulting mass of Kleopatra, m1 = (1.49 ± 0.16) × 10-12 M· or 2.97 × 1018 kg, is significantly lower than previously thought. An implication explained in the accompanying paper is that (216) Kleopatra is a critically rotating body., Broz, M. et al., This work has been supported by the Czech Science Foundation through grant 21-11058S (M. Brož, D. Vokrouhlický), 20-08218S (J. Hanuš, J. Ďurech), and by the Charles University Research program No. UNCE/SCI/023. This material is partially based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1743015. P.V., A.D., M.F. and B.C. were supported by CNRS/INSU/PNP. M.M. was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant No. 80NSSC18K0849 issued through the Planetary Astronomy Program. The work of TSR was carried out through grant APOSTD/2019/046 by Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). This work was supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) through grant RTI2018-095076-B-C21 (MINECO/FEDER, UE). The research leading to these results has received funding from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. TRAPPIST is a project funded by the Belgian Fonds (National) de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liège, and performed in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakesh. E. Jehin is a FNRS Senior Research Associate.

We obtained high-resolution spectra of the ultra-cool M-dwarf TRAPPIST-1 during the transit of its planet `b' using two high dispersion near-infrared spectrographs, IRD instrument on the Subaru 8.2m telescope and HPF instrument on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. These spectroscopic observations are complemented by a photometric transit observation for planet `b' using the APO/ARCTIC, which assisted us to capture the correct transit times for our transit spectroscopy. Using the data obtained by the new IRD and HPF observations, as well as the prior transit observations of planets `b', `e' and `f' from IRD, we attempt to constrain the atmospheric escape of the planet using the He I triplet 10830 �� absorption line. We do not detect evidence for any primordial extended H-He atmospheres in all three planets. To limit any planet related absorption, we place an upper limit on the equivalent widths of, 11 pages; 4 figures; Accepted for publication in AJ

In this work we investigate whether a multilayered planet can be approximated as a homogeneous planet, and in particular how well the dissipation rate of a multilayered planet can be reproduced with a homogeneous rheology. We study the case of a stratified body with an icy crust that, according to recent studies, displays a double peak feature in the tidal response that cannot be reproduced with a homogeneous planet with an Andrade rheology. We revisit the problem with a slightly more complex rheology for the homogeneous body, the Sundberg-Cooper rheology, which naturally has a double peak feature, and apply the model to the TRAPPIST-1e planet. Our results compare very well with the results obtained when employing a multilayered model, showing that it is possible to approximate the behavior of a multilayer icy planet with a homogeneous planet using the Sundberg-Cooper rheology. This highlights the fact that we do not need the complexity of the multilayer planet model in order to estimate the tidal dissipation of an icy planet., Comment: Accepted in A&A. Short note, 13 pages, 5 figures, 15 references

The discovery of potentially habitable planets around the ultracool dwarf star Trappist-1 naturally poses the question: could Trappist-1 planets be home to life? These planets orbit very close to the host star and are most susceptible to the UV radiation emitted by the intense and frequent flares of Trappist-1. Here we calculate the UV spectra (100 - 450 nm) of a superflare observed on Trappist-1 with the K2 mission. We couple radiative transfer models to this spectra to estimate the UV surface flux on planets in the habitable zone of Trappist-1 (planets $e$, $f$, and $g$), assuming atmospheric scenarios based on a pre-biotic and an oxygenic atmosphere. We quantify the impact of the UV radiation on living organisms on the surface and on a hypothetical planet ocean. Finally, we find that for non-oxygenic planets, UV resistant lifeforms would survive on the surface of planets f and g. Nevertheless, more fragile organisms (i.e. \textit{E. coli}) could be protected from the hazardous UV effects at ocean depths greater than 8m. If the planets have an ozone layer, any lifeforms studied here would survive in the HZ planets., 13 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astrobiology

We conducted a global analysis of the TRAPPIST Ultra-Cool Dwarf Transit Survey - a prototype of the SPECULOOS transit search conducted with the TRAPPIST-South robotic telescope in Chile from 2011 to 2017 - to estimate the occurrence rate of close-in planets such as TRAPPIST-1b orbiting ultra-cool dwarfs. For this purpose, the photometric data of 40 nearby ultra-cool dwarfs were reanalysed in a self-consistent and fully automated manner starting from the raw images. The pipeline developed specifically for this task generates differential light curves, removes non-planetary photometric features and stellar variability, and searches for transits. It identifies the transits of TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c without any human intervention. To test the pipeline and the potential output of similar surveys, we injected planetary transits into the light curves on a star-by-star basis and tested whether the pipeline is able to detect them. The achieved photometric precision enables us to identify Earth-sized planets orbiting ultra-cool dwarfs as validated by the injection tests. Our planet-injection simulation further suggests a lower limit of 10 per cent on the occurrence rate of planets similar to TRAPPIST-1b with a radius between 1 and 1.3 $R_\oplus$ and the orbital period between 1.4 and 1.8 days., Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 21 pages, 18 figures, 3 tables

Discoveries of terrestrial, Earth-sized exoplanets that lie within the habitable zone (HZ) of their host stars continue to occur at increasing rates. Transit spectroscopy can potentially enable the detection of molecular signatures from such worlds, providing an indication of the presence of an atmosphere and its chemical composition, including gases potentially indicative of a biosphere. Such planets around nearby M-dwarf stars - such as TRAPPIST-1 - provide relatively good signal, high signal/noise, and frequent transits for follow-up spectroscopy. However, even with these advantages, transit spectroscopy of terrestrial planets in the HZ of nearby M-stars will still be a challenge. Herein, we examine the potential for future space observatories to conduct such observations, using a Global Climate Model (GCM), a photochemical model, and a radiative transfer suite to simulate modern-Earth-like atmospheric boundary conditions on TRAPPIST-1e. The detectability of biosignatures on such an atmosphere via transmission spectroscopy is modeled for JWST, LUVOIR, HabEx, and Origins. We show that for any of these observatories, only CO2 would be detectable at the 3 sigma level in transmission spectroscopy, when clouds are included in our simulations. This is because the impacts of clouds on scale height strongly limits the detectability of molecules in the atmosphere. Synergies between space- and ground-based spectroscopy may be essential in order to overcome these difficulties., Accepted to ApJL July 2020

The nearby TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is an exciting target for characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial planets. The planets e, f, and g lie in the circumstellar habitable zone and could sustain liquid water on their surfaces. During the extended pre-main-sequence phase of TRAPPIST-1, however, the planets may have experienced extreme water loss, leading to a desiccated mantle. The presence or absence of an ocean is challenging to determine with current and next-generation telescopes. Therefore, we investigate whether indirect evidence of an ocean and/or a biosphere can be inferred from observations of the planetary atmosphere. We introduce a newly developed photochemical model for planetary atmospheres, coupled to a radiative-convective model, and validate it against modern Earth, Venus, and Mars. The coupled model is applied to the TRAPPIST-1 planets e and f, assuming different surface conditions and varying amounts of CO(2)in the atmosphere. As input for the model we use a constructed spectrum of TRAPPIST-1, based on near-simultaneous data from X-ray to optical wavelengths. We compute cloud-free transmission spectra of the planetary atmospheres and determine the detectability of molecular features using the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We find that under certain conditions the existence or nonexistence of a biosphere and/or an ocean can be inferred by combining 30 transit observations with ELT and JWST within theKband. A nondetection of CO could suggest the existence of an ocean, whereas significant CH(4)hints at the presence of a biosphere. © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved., This research was supported by DFG projects RA-714/7-1, GO 2610/1-1, SCHR 1125/3-1, and RA 714/9-1. We acknowledge the support of the DFG priority program SPP 1992 "Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets (GO 2610/2-1)." M.L.-P. acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through project ESP2017-87143-R, the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the IAA-CSIC (SEV-2017-0709), and EC FEDER funds. P.C.S. gratefully acknowledges support by the German Aerospace Center under DLR 50.OR.1901. We thank Michael Gillon for providing the SPECULOOS target list, Franklin Mills for sending cross-section data of several sulfur species, and Vladimir Krasnopolsky for providing chemical profiles of Mars. The SED used in this study is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program No. 15071. Support for program No. 15071 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute. We thank the anonymous referee for the helpful and constructive comments.

We present the distance-calibrated spectral energy distribution (SED) of TRAPPIST-1 using a new medium resolution (R~6000) near-infrared FIRE spectrum and its Gaia parallax. We report an updated bolometric luminosity (Lbol) of -3.216+/-0.016, along with semi-empirical fundamental parameters: effective temperature Teff=2628+/-42 K, mass=90+/-8 MJup, radius=1.16+/-0.03 RJup, and logg=5.21+/-0.06 dex. It's kinematics point toward an older age while spectral indices indicate youth therefore, we compare the overall SED and near-infrared bands of TRAPPIST-1 to field-age, low-gravity, and low-metallicity dwarfs of similar Teff and Lbol. We find field dwarfs of similar Teff and Lbol best fit the overall and band-by-band features of TRAPPIST-1. Additionally, we present new Allers & Liu 2013 spectral indices for the SpeX SXD and FIRE spectra of TRAPPIST-1, both classifying it as intermediate gravity. Examining Teff, Lbol, and absolute JHKW1W2 magnitudes versus optical spectral type places TRAPPIST-1 in an ambiguous location containing both field- and intermediate-gravity sources. Kinematics place TRAPPIST-1 within a subpopulation of intermediate-gravity sources lacking bonafide membership in a moving group with higher tangential and UVW velocities. We conclude that TRAPPIST-1 is a field-age source with subtle spectral features reminiscent of a low surface gravity object. To resolve the cause of TRAPPIST-1's intermediate gravity indicators we speculate two avenues which might be correlated to inflate the radius: (1) magnetic activity or (2) tidal interactions from planets. We find the M8 dwarf LHS 132 is an excellent match to TRAPPIST-1's spectral peculiarities along with the M9 beta dwarf 2MASS J10220489+0200477, the L1 beta 2MASS J10224821+5825453, and the L0 beta 2MASS J23224684-3133231 which have distinct kinematics making all three intriguing targets for future exoplanet studies., 35 pages, 17 figures, submitted to ApJ 11/2/2018, accepted 9/27/2019

Low mass stars might offer today the best opportunities to detect and characterise planetary systems, especially those harbouring close-in low mass temperate planets. Among those stars, TRAPPIST-1 is exceptional since it has seven Earth-sized planets, of which three could sustain liquid water on their surfaces. Here we present new and deep ALMA observations of TRAPPIST-1 to look for an exo-Kuiper belt which can provide clues about the formation and architecture of this system. Our observations at 0.88 mm did not detect dust emission, but can place an upper limit of 23$��$Jy if the belt is smaller than 4 au, and 0.15 mJy if resolved and 100 au in radius. These limits correspond to low dust masses of $\sim10^{-5}-10^{-2}$ $M_\oplus$, which are expected after 8 Gyr of collisional evolution unless the system was born with a $>20$ $M_\oplus$ belt of 100 km-sized planetesimals beyond 40 au or suffered a dynamical instability. This $20$ $M_\oplus$ mass upper limit is comparable to the combined mass in TRAPPIST-1 planets, thus it is possible that most of the available solid mass in this system was used to form the known planets. A similar analysis of the ALMA data on Proxima Cen leads us to conclude that a belt born with a mass $\gtrsim1$ $M_\oplus$ in 100 km-sized planetesimals could explain its putative outer belt at 30 au. We recommend that future characterisations of debris discs around low mass stars should focus on nearby and young systems if possible., accepted for publication in MNRAS, 7 pages, 5 figures

As part of our ongoing search for technosignatures, we collected over three terabytes of data in May 2017 with the L-band receiver (1.15-1.73 GHz) of the 100 m diameter Green Bank Telescope. These observations focused primarily on planetary systems in the Kepler field, but also included scans of the recently discovered TRAPPIST-1 and LHS 1140 systems. We present the results of our search for narrowband signals in this data set with techniques that are generally similar to those described by Margot et al. (2018). Our improved data processing pipeline classified over $98\%$ of the $\sim$ 6 million detected signals as anthropogenic Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Of the remaining candidates, 30 were detected outside of densely populated frequency regions attributable to RFI. These candidates were carefully examined and determined to be of terrestrial origin. We discuss the problems associated with the common practice of ignoring frequency space around candidate detections in radio technosignature detection pipelines. These problems include inaccurate estimates of figures of merit and unreliable upper limits on the prevalence of technosignatures. We present an algorithm that mitigates these problems and improves the efficiency of the search. Specifically, our new algorithm increases the number of candidate detections by a factor of more than four compared to Margot et al. (2018)., 17 pages, 9 figures

The TRAPPIST-1 system is sufficiently closely packed that tides raised by one planet on another are significant. We investigate whether this source of tidal heating is comparable to eccentricity tides raised by the star. Assuming a homogeneous body with a Maxwell rheology, we find that energy dissipation from stellar tides always dominates over that from planet-planet tides across a range of viscosities. TRAPPIST-1 g may experience the greatest proportion of planet-planet tidal heating, where it can account for between 2% and 20% of the total amount of tidal heating, for high ($10^{21}$ Pa s) and low viscosity ($10^{14}$ Pa s) regimes, respectively. If planet-planet tidal heating is to exceed that from stellar eccentricity tides, orbital eccentricities must be no more than e=$10^{-3}$ to $10^{-4}$ for most of the TRAPPIST-1 planets., Comment: 14 pages - 7 figures - accepted to ApJ

Small exoplanets of nearby M dwarf stars present the possibility to find and characterize habitable worlds within the next decade. TRAPPIST-1, an ultracool M dwarf star, was recently found to have seven Earth-sized planets of predominantly rocky composition. The planets e, f, and g can have a liquid water ocean on their surface given appropriate atmospheres of N2 and CO2. Particularly, climate models have shown that the planets e and f can sustain a global liquid water ocean, for >=0.2 bar CO2 plus 1 bar N2, or >=2 bars CO2, respectively. These atmospheres are irradiated by ultraviolet emission from the star's moderately active chromosphere, and the consequence of this irradiation is unknown. Here we show that chemical reactions driven by the irradiation can produce and maintain more than 0.2 bar O2 and 0.05 bar CO if the CO2 is >=0.1 bar. The abundance of O2 and CO can rise to more than 1 bar under certain boundary conditions. Because of this O2-CO runaway, habitable environments on the TRAPPIST-1 planets entail an O2- and CO-rich atmosphere with coexisting O3. The only process that would prevent the runaway is direct recombination of O2 and CO in the ocean, a reaction that is facilitated biologically. Our results indicate that O2, O3, and CO should be considered together with CO2 as the primary molecules in the search for atmospheric signatures from temperate and rocky planets of TRAPPIST-1 and other M dwarf stars., ApJ accepted

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system consists of seven planets within 0.05 au of each other, five of which are in a multi-resonant chain. {These resonances suggest the system formed via planet migration; subsequent tidal evolution has damped away most of the initial eccentricities. We used dynamical N-body simulations to estimate how long it takes for the multi-resonant configuration that arises during planet formation to break. From there we use secular theory to pose limits on the tidal parameters of planets b and c. We calibrate our results against multi-layered interior models constructed to fit the masses and radii of the planets, from which the tidal parameters are computed independently.} The dynamical simulations show that the planets typically go unstable 30 Myr after their formation. {Assuming synchronous rotation throughout} we compute $\frac{k_2}{Q} \gtrsim 2\times 10^{-4}$ for planet b and $\frac{k_2}{Q} \gtrsim 10^{-3}$ for planet c. Interior models yield $(0.075-0.37) \times 10^{-4}$ for TRAPPIST-1 b and $(0.4-2)\times 10^{-4}$ for TRAPPIST-1 c. The agreement between the {dynamical and interior} models is not too strong, but is still useful to constrain the dynamical history of the system. We suggest that this two-pronged approach could be of further use in other multi-resonant systems if the planet's orbital and interior parameters are sufficiently well known., Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The discovery of the first active interstellar object 2I/Borisov provides an unprecedented opportunity to study planetary formation processes in another planetary system. In particular, spectroscopic observations of 2I allow us to constrain the composition of its nuclear ices. We obtained optical spectra of 2I with the 4.2 m William Herschel and 2.5 m Isaac Newton telescopes between 2019 September 30 and October 13, when the comet was between 2.5 au and 2.4 au from the Sun. We also imaged the comet with broadband filters on 15 nights from September 11 to October 17, as well as with a CN narrow-band filter on October 18 and 20, with the TRAPPIST-North telescope. Broadband imaging confirms that the dust coma colours (B-V=0.82$\pm$0.02, V-R=0.46$\pm$0.03, R-I=0.44$\pm$0.03, B-R=1.28$\pm$0.03) are the same as for Solar System comets. We detect CN emission in all spectra and in the TRAPPIST narrow-band images with production rates between 1.6$\times10^{24}$ and 2.1$\times10^{24}$ molec/s. No other species are detected. We determine three-sigma upper limits for C$_2$, C$_3$, and OH production rates of 6$\times10^{23}$ molec/s, 3$\times10^{23}$ molec/s and 2$\times10^{27}$ molec/s, respectively, on October 02. There is no significant increase of the CN production rate or A(0)f$\rho$ during our observing period. Finally, we place a three-sigma upper limit on the Q(C$_2$)/Q(CN) ratio of 0.3 (on October 13). From this, we conclude that 2I is highly depleted in C$_2$, and may have a composition similar to Solar System carbon-chain depleted comets., Comment: Revised version, Accepted for publication in A&A Letters

We study the evolution of protoplanetary discs that would have been precursors of a Trappist-1 like system under the action of accretion and external photoevaporation in different radiation environments. Dust grains swiftly grow above the critical size below which they are entrained in the photoevaporative wind, so although gas is continually depleted, dust is resilient to photoevaporation after only a short time. This means that the ratio of the mass in solids (dust plus planetary) to the mass in gas rises steadily over time. Dust is still stripped early on, and the initial disc mass required to produce the observed $4\,M_{\oplus}$ of Trappist-1 planets is high. For example, assuming a Fatuzzo & Adams (2008) distribution of UV fields, typical initial disc masses have to be $>30\,$per cent the stellar (which are still Toomre $Q$ stable) for the majority of similar mass M dwarfs to be viable hosts of the Trappist-1 planets. Even in the case of the lowest UV environments observed, there is a strong loss of dust due to photoevaporation at early times from the weakly bound outer regions of the disc. This minimum level of dust loss is a factor two higher than that which would be lost by accretion onto the star during 10 Myr of evolution. Consequently even in these least irradiated environments, discs that are viable Trappist-1 precursors need to be initially massive ($>10\,$per cent of the stellar mass)., 15 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The TRAPPIST-1 system is unique in that it has a chain of seven terrestrial Earth-like planets located close to or in its habitable zone. In this paper, we study the effect of potential cometary impacts on the TRAPPIST-1 planets and how they would affect the primordial atmospheres of these planets. We consider both atmospheric mass loss and volatile delivery with a view to assessing whether any sort of life has a chance to develop. We ran N-body simulations to investigate the orbital evolution of potential impacting comets, to determine which planets are more likely to be impacted and the distributions of impact velocities. We consider three scenarios that could potentially throw comets into the inner region (i.e within 0.1au where the seven planets are located) from an (as yet undetected) outer belt similar to the Kuiper belt or an Oort cloud: Planet scattering, the Kozai-Lidov mechanism and Galactic tides. For the different scenarios, we quantify, for each planet, how much atmospheric mass is lost and what mass of volatiles can be delivered over the age of the system depending on the mass scattered out of the outer belt. We find that the resulting high velocity impacts can easily destroy the primordial atmospheres of all seven planets, even if the mass scattered from the outer belt is as low as that of the Kuiper belt. However, we find that the atmospheres of the outermost planets f, g and h can also easily be replenished with cometary volatiles (e.g. $\sim$ an Earth ocean mass of water could be delivered). These scenarios would thus imply that the atmospheres of these outermost planets could be more massive than those of the innermost planets, and have volatiles-enriched composition., accepted to MNRAS. We now quantify the amount of water lost owing to impacts

The seven approximately Earth-sized transiting planets in the \object{TRAPPIST-1} system provide a unique opportunity to explore habitable zone and non-habitable zone small planets within the same system. Its habitable zone exoplanets -- due to their favorable transit depths -- are also worlds for which atmospheric transmission spectroscopy is within reach with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We present here an independent reduction and analysis of two \textit{HST} Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) near-infrared transit spectroscopy datasets for six planets (b through g). Utilizing our physically-motivated detector charge trap correction and a custom cosmic ray correction routine, we confirm the general shape of the transmission spectra presented by \textbf{\citet{deWit2016, deWit2018}}. Our data reduction approach leads to a 25\% increase in the usable data and reduces the risk of confusing astrophysical brightness variations (e.g., flares) with instrumental systematics. No prominent absorption features are detected in any individual planet's transmission spectra; by contrast, the combined spectrum of the planets shows a suggestive decrease around 1.4\,$\micron$ similar to an inverted water absorption feature. Including transit depths from \textit{K2}, the SPECULOOS-South Observatory, and \textit{Spitzer}, we find that the complete transmission spectrum is fully consistent with stellar contamination owing to the transit light source effect. These spectra demonstrate how stellar contamination can overwhelm planetary absorption features in low-resolution exoplanet transit spectra obtained by \textit{HST} and \textit{JWST} and also highlight the challenges in combining multi epoch observations for planets around rapidly rotating spotted stars., 41 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for publication on AJ on 8/28/2018. Comments and suggestions are welcome

We report the discovery of eight hot-Jupiter exoplanets from the WASP-South transit survey. WASP-144b has a mass of 0.44 Mj, a radius of 0.85 Rj, and is in a 2.27-d orbit around a V = 12.9, K2 star which shows a 21-d rotational modulation. WASP-145Ab is a 0.89 Mj planet in a 1.77-d orbit with a grazing transit, which means that the planetary radius is not well constrained. The host is a V = 11.5, K2 star with a companion 5 arcsecs away and 1.4 mags fainter. WASP-158b is a relatively massive planet at 2.8 Mj with a radius of 1.1 Rj and a 3.66-d orbit. It transits a V = 12.1, F6 star. WASP-159b is a bloated hot Jupiter (1.4 Rj and 0.55 Mj) in a 3.8-d orbit around a V = 12.9, F9 star. WASP-162b is a massive planet in a relatively long and highly eccentric orbit (5.2 Mj, P = 9.6 d, e = 0.43). It transits a V = 12.2, K0 star. WASP-168b is a bloated hot Jupiter (0.42 Mj, 1.5 Rj) in a 4.15-d orbit with a grazing transit. The host is a V = 12.1, F9 star. WASP-172b is a bloated hot Jupiter (0.5 Mj; 1.6 Rj) in a 5.48-d orbit around a V = 11.0, F1 star. It is likely to be the best planet of those reported here for atmospheric characterisation. WASP-173Ab is a massive planet (3.7 Mj) with a 1.2 Rj radius in a circular orbit with a period of 1.39 d. The host is a V = 11.3, G3 star, being the brighter component of the double-star system WDS23366-3437, with a companion 6 arcsecs away and 0.8 mags fainter. One of the two stars shows a rotational modulation of 7.9 d., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS

The number of isolating integrals of motion of the Trappist-1 system - a late M-dwarf orbited by seven Earth-sized planets - was determined numerically, using an adapted version of the correlation dimension method. It was found that over the investigated time-scales of up to 20 000 years the number of isolating integrals of motion is the same as one would find for a system of seven non-interacting planets - despite the fact that the planets in the Trappist-1 system are strongly interacting. Considering perturbed versions of the Trappist-1 system shows that the system may occupy an atypical part of phase-space with high stability. These findings are consistent with earlier studies., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted manuscript for publication MNRAS

Protoplanetary discs around brown dwarfs and very low mass stars offer some of the best prospects for forming Earth-sized planets in their habitable zones. To this end, we study the nature of the disc around the very low mass star V410 X-ray 1, whose SED is indicative of an optically thick and very truncated dust disc, with our modelling suggesting an outer radius of only 0.6 au. We investigate two scenarios that could lead to such a truncation, and find that the observed SED is compatible with both. The first scenario involves the truncation of both the dust and gas in the disc, perhaps due to a previous dynamical interaction or the presence of an undetected companion. The second scenario involves the fact that a radial location of 0.6 au is close to the expected location of the H$_2$O snowline in the disc. As such, a combination of efficient dust growth, radial migration, and subsequent fragmentation within the snowline leads to an optically thick inner dust disc and larger, optically thin outer dust disc. We find that a firm measurement of the CO $J=2$--1 line flux would enable us to distinguish between these two scenarios, by enabling a measurement of the radial extent of gas in the disc. Many models we consider contain at least several Earth-masses of dust interior to 0.6 au, suggesting that V410 X-ray 1 could be a precursor to a system with tightly-packed inner planets, such as TRAPPIST-1., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The recent discovery of potentially habitable exoplanets around Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1 has attracted much attention due to their potential for hosting life. We delineate a simple model that accurately describes the evolution of biological diversity on Earth. Combining this model with constraints on atmospheric erosion and the maximal evolutionary timescale arising from the star's lifetime, we arrive at two striking conclusions: (i) Earth-analogs orbiting low-mass M-dwarfs are unlikely to be inhabited, and (ii) K-dwarfs and some G-type stars are potentially capable of hosting more complex biospheres than the Earth. Hence, future searches for biosignatures may have higher chances of success when targeting planets around K-type stars., Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters; 7 pages, 1 figure

Simultaneously to the ESA Rosetta mission, a world-wide ground-based campaign provided measurements of the large scale activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko through measurement of optically active gas species and imaging of the overall dust coma. We present more than two years of observations performed with the FORS2 low resolution spectrograph at the VLT, TRAPPIST, and ACAM at the WHT. We focus on the evolution of the CN production, as a tracer of the comet activity. We find that it is asymmetric with respect to perihelion and different from that of the dust. The CN emission is detected for the first time at 1.34 au pre-perihelion and production rates then increase steeply to peak about two weeks after perihelion at (1.00±0.10) ×1025 molecules s−1, while the post-perihelion decrease is more shallow. The evolution of the comet activity is strongly influenced by seasonal effects, with enhanced CN production when the Southern hemisphere is illuminated.

TRAPPIST-1 is a late M-dwarf orbited by seven Earth-sized planets with orbital period ratios near a chain of mean motion resonances. Due to uncertain system parameters, most orbital configurations drawn from the inferred posterior distribution are unstable on short timescales of $\sim$ 0.5 Myr, even when including the eccentricity damping effect of tides. By contrast, we show that most physically plausible resonant configurations generated through disk migration are stable even without tidal dissipation on timescales of at least 50 Myr ($10^{10}$ orbits), an increase of at least two orders of magnitude. This result, together with the remarkable chain of period ratios in the system, provide strong evidence for convergent migration naturally emplacing the system near an equilibrium configuration forced by the resonant chain. We provide an openly available database of physically plausible initial conditions for TRAPPIST-1 generated through parametrized planet-disk interactions, as well as bit-by-bit reproducible N-body integrations over $10^9-10^{10}$ orbits., 7 pages 5 figures. Accepted in ApJ Letters. Scripts to visualize the dataset and reproduce the figures in this manuscript are available at https://github.com/dtamayo/trappist

We analyze short cadence K2 light curve of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Fourier analysis of the data suggests $P_\mathrm{rot}=3.295\pm0.003$ days. The light curve shows several flares, of which we analyzed 42 events, these have integrated flare energies of $1.26\times10^{30}-1.24\times10^{33}$ ergs. Approximately 12% of the flares were complex, multi-peaked eruptions. The flaring and the possible rotational modulation shows no obvious correlation. The flaring activity of TRAPPIST-1 probably continuously alters the atmospheres of the orbiting exoplanets, making these less favorable for hosting life., 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted in ApJ

We explore the occurrence and detectability of planet-planet occultations (PPOs) in exoplanet systems. These are events during which a planet occults the disk of another planet in the same system, imparting a small photometric signal as its thermal or reflected light is blocked. We focus on the planets in TRAPPIST-1, whose orbital planes we show are aligned to within 0.3 degrees at 90% confidence. We present a photodynamical model for predicting and computing PPOs in TRAPPIST-1 and other systems for various assumptions of the planets' atmospheric states. When marginalizing over the uncertainties on all orbital parameters, we find that the rate of PPOs in TRAPPIST-1 is about 1.4 per day. We investigate the prospects for detection of these events with the James Webb Space Telescope, finding that ~10-20 occultations per year of b and c should be above the noise level at 12-15 microns. Joint modeling of several of these PPOs could lead to a robust detection. Alternatively, observations with the proposed Origins Space Telescope should be able to detect individual PPOs at high signal-to-noise. We show how PPOs can be used to break transit timing variation degeneracies, imposing strong constraints on the eccentricities and masses of the planets, as well as to constrain the longitudes of nodes and thus the complete three-dimensional structure of the system. We further show how modeling of these events can be used to reveal a planet's day/night temperature contrast and construct crude surface maps. We make our photodynamical code available on github., Comment: 36 pages, 25 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Multi-purpose photodynamical code available at github.com/rodluger/planetplanet

The search for small planets orbiting late M dwarfs holds the promise of detecting Earth-size planets for which their atmospheres could be characterised within the next decade. The recent discovery of TRAPPIST-1 entertains hope that these systems are common around hosts located at the bottom of the main sequence. In this Letter, we investigate the ability of the repurposed Kepler mission (K2) to probe planetary systems similar to TRAPPIST-1. We perform a consistent data analysis of 189 spectroscopically confirmed M5.5 to M9 late M dwarfs from campaigns 1-6 to search for planet candidates and inject transit signals with properties matching TRAPPIST-1b and c. We find no transiting planet candidates across our K2 sample. Our injection tests show that K2 is able to recover both TRAPPIST-1 planets for 10% of the sample only, mainly because of the inefficient throughput at red wavelengths resulting in Poisson-limited performance for these targets. Increasing injected planetary radii to match GJ1214b's size yields a recovery rate of 70%. The strength of K2 is its ability to probe a large number of cool hosts across the different campaigns, out of which the recovery rate of 10% may turn into bona-fide detections of TRAPPIST-1 like systems within the next two years., 6 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to ApJ Letters on 15 June 2016

Funding for WASP comes from consortium universities and from UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council. TRAPPIST is a project funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F, with the participation of the Swiss National Science Fundation (SNF). The Swiss Euler Telescope is operated by the University of Geneva, and is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. LD acknowledges support of the F.R.I.A. fund of the FNRS. MG, EJ and VVG are FNRS Research Associates. ML acknowledges support of the European Research Council through the European Union‘s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement number 336480. AHMJT received funding from a fellowship provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number P300P2-147773.ASis supported by the European Union under a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development with reference FP7-PEOPLE- 2013-IEF, number 627202. We present the discovery by the WASP-South survey of WASP-121 b, a new remarkable short-period transiting hot Jupiter. The planet has a mass of 1.183+0.064−0.062 MJup, a radius of 1.865 ± 0.044 RJup, and transits every 1.2749255+0.0000020−0.0000025 days an active F6-type main-sequence star (V = 10.4, 1.353+0.080−0.079 M⊙, 1.458 ± 0.030 R⊙, Teff = 6460 ± 140 K). A notable property of WASP-121 b is that its orbital semimajor axis is only ∼1.15 times larger than its Roche limit, which suggests that the planet is close to tidal disruption. Furthermore, its large size and extreme irradiation (∼7.1 109 erg s−1 cm−2) make it an excellent target for atmospheric studies via secondary eclipse observations. Using the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, we indeed detect its emission in the z′-band at better than ∼4σ, the measured occultation depth being 603 ± 130 ppm. Finally, from a measurement of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with the CORALIE spectrograph, we infer a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of 257∘.8+5∘.3−5∘.5. This result may suggest a significant misalignment between the spin axis of the host star and the orbital plane of the planet. If confirmed, this high misalignment would favour a migration of the planet involving strong dynamical events with a third body. Publisher PDF

We present seven new transiting hot Jupiters from the WASP-South survey. The planets are all typical hot Jupiters orbiting stars from F4 to K0 with magnitudes of V = 10.3 to 12.5. The orbital periods are all in the range 3.9--4.6 d, the planetary masses range from 0.4--2.3 Mjup and the radii from 1.1--1.4 Mjup. In line with known hot Jupiters, the planetary densities range from Jupiter-like to inflated (rho = 0.13--1.07 rho_jup). We use the increasing numbers of known hot Jupiters to investigate the distribution of their orbital periods and the 3--4-d "pile-up".

We present twenty-three transit light curves and seven occultation light curves for the ultra-short period planet WASP-43 b, in addition to eight new measurements of the radial velocity of the star. Thanks to this extensive data set, we improve significantly the parameters of the system. Notably, the largely improved precision on the stellar density (2.41+-0.08 rho_sun) combined with constraining the age to be younger than a Hubble time allows us to break the degeneracy of the stellar solution mentioned in the discovery paper. The resulting stellar mass and size are 0.717+-0.025 M_sun and 0.667+-0.011 R_sun. Our deduced physical parameters for the planet are 2.034+-0.052 M_jup and 1.036+-0.019 R_jup. Taking into account its level of irradiation, the high density of the planet favors an old age and a massive core. Our deduced orbital eccentricity, 0.0035(-0.0025,+0.0060), is consistent with a fully circularized orbit. We detect the emission of the planet at 2.09 microns at better than 11-sigma, the deduced occultation depth being 1560+-140 ppm. Our detection of the occultation at 1.19 microns is marginal (790+-320 ppm) and more observations are needed to confirm it. We place a 3-sigma upper limit of 850 ppm on the depth of the occultation at ~0.9 microns. Together, these results strongly favor a poor redistribution of the heat to the night-side of the planet, and marginally favor a model with no day-side temperature inversion., Comment: 14 pages, 6 tables, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

The high energy radiation environment around M dwarf stars strongly impacts the characteristics of close-in exoplanet atmospheres, but these wavelengths are difficult to observe due to geocoronal and interstellar contamination. On account of these observational restrictions, a stellar atmosphere model may be used to compute the stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV; 100 - 912 \AA) spectrum. We present a case study of the ultra-cool M8 dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, which hosts seven transiting short-period terrestrial sized planets whose atmospheres will be probed by the James Webb Space Telescope. We construct semi-empirical non-LTE model spectra of TRAPPIST-1 that span EUV to infrared wavelengths (100 \AA\ - 2.5 $\mu$m) using the atmosphere code PHOENIX. These upper-atmosphere models contain prescriptions for the chromosphere and transition region and include newly added partial frequency redistribution capabilities. In the absence of broadband UV spectral observations, we constrain our models using HST Ly$\alpha$ observations from TRAPPIST-1 and GALEX FUV and NUV photometric detections from a set of old M8 stars ($>$1 Gyr). We find that calibrating the models using both data sets separately yield similar FUV and NUV fluxes, and EUV fluxes that range from (1.32 - 17.4) $\times$ 10$^{-14}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. The results from these models demonstrate that the EUV emission is very sensitive to the temperature structure in the transition region. Our lower activity models predict EUV fluxes similar to previously published estimates derived from semi-empirical scaling relationships, while the highest activity model predicts EUV fluxes a factor of ten higher. Results from this study support the idea that the TRAPPIST-1 habitable zone planets likely do not have much liquid water on their surfaces due to the elevated levels of high energy radiation emitted by the host star., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted to ApJ

The TRAPPIST-1 system provides an exquisite laboratory for understanding exoplanetary atmospheres and interiors. Their mutual gravitational interactions leads to transit timing variations, from which Grimm et al. (2018) recently measured the planetary masses with precisions ranging from 5% to 12%. Using these masses and the

TRAPPIST-1 is a nearby ultra-cool dwarf that is host to a remarkable planetary system consisting of seven transiting planets. The orbital properties and radii of the planets have been well-constrained, and recently the masses of the inner six planets have been measured with additional ground and space-based photometric observations. Large uncertainties in these mass measurements have prevented a robust analysis of the planetary compositions. Here we perform many thousands of N-body dynamical simulations with planet properties perturbed from the observed values and identify those that are stable for millions of years. This allows us to identify self-consistent orbital solutions that can be used in future studies. From our range of dynamical masses, we find that most of the planets are consistent with an Earth-like composition, where TRAPPIST-1f is likely to have a volatile-rich envelope., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, 3 tables, accepted to ApJL; Changes made due to first review including modification and addition of figures

International audience; We report on three new transiting hot Jupiter planets, discovered from the WASP surveys, which we combine with radial velocities from OHP/ SOPHIE and Euler/CORALIE and photometry from Euler and TRAPPIST. The planets WASP-76b, WASP-82b, and WASP-90b are all inflated, with radii of 1.7-1.8 R-Jup. All three orbit hot stars, of type F5-F7, with orbits of 1.8-3.9 d, and all three stars have evolved, post-main-sequence radii (1.7-2.2 R-circle dot). Thus the three planets fit a known trend of hot Jupiters that receive high levels of irradiation being highly inflated. We caution, though, about the presence of a selection effect, in that non-inflated planets around similar to 2 R-circle dot post-MS stars can often produce transits too shallow to be detected by the ground-based surveys that have found the majority of transiting hot Jupiters.

We present the results of an intense photometric monitoring in the near-infrared (~0.9 microns) with the TRAPPIST robotic telescope of the newly discovered binary brown dwarf WISE J104915.57-531906.1, the third closest system to the Sun at a distance of only 2 pc. Our twelve nights of photometric time-series reveal a quasi-periodic (P = 4.87+-0.01 h) variability with a maximal peak-peak amplitude of ~11% and strong night-to-night evolution. We attribute this variability to the rotational modulation of fast-evolving weather patterns in the atmosphere of the coolest component (~T1-type) of the binary, in agreement with the cloud fragmentation mechanism proposed to drive the spectroscopic morphologies of brown dwarfs at the L/T transition. No periodic signal is detected for the hottest component (~L8-type). For both brown dwarfs, our data allow us to firmly discard any unique transit during our observations for planets >= 2 Rearth. For orbital periods smaller than ~9.5 h, transiting planets are excluded down to an Earth-size., 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted as Letter to A&A. Second version shortened to match the format of A&A Letters, with a few minor modifications

In this paper, we present a unique data set of more than one year's worth of regular observations of comet C/2013 A1(Siding Spring) with TRAPPIST in Chile, along with low-resolution spectra obtained with the ESO/VLT FORS 2 instrument. The comet made a close approach to Mars on October 19, 2014 and was then observed by many space and ground-based telescopes. We followed the evolution of the OH, NH, CN, $\mathrm{C_3}$, and $\mathrm{C_2}$ production rates as well as the $Af\rho$ parameter as a proxy for the dust production. We detected an outburst two weeks after perihelion, with gas and dust production rates being multiplied by a factor five within a few days. By modelling the shape of the CN and $\mathrm{C_2}$ radial profiles, we determined that the outburst happened around on November 10 around 15:30 UT ($\pm$ 5h) and measured a gas ejection velocity of $1.1\pm0.2$ km/s. We used a thermal evolution model to reproduce the activity pattern and outburst. Our results are consistent with the progressive formation of a dust mantle explaining the shallow dependence of gas production rates, which may be partially blown off during the outburst. We studied the evolution of gas composition, using various ratios such as CN/OH, $\mathrm{C_2}$/OH, or $\mathrm{C_3}$/OH, which showed little or no variation with heliocentric distance including at the time of the outburst. This indicates a relative level of homogeneity of the nucleus composition., Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

We report the discovery of two new transiting planets from the WASP survey. WASP-42 b is a 0.500 +/- 0.035 M_jup planet orbiting a K1 star at a separation of 0.0548 +/- 0.0017 AU with a period of 4.9816872 +/- 7.3 x 10^-6 days. The radius of WASP-42 b is 1.080 +/- 0.057 R_jup while its equilibrium temperature is T_eq = 995 +/- 34 K. We detect some evidence for a small but non-zero eccentricity of e=0.060 +/- 0.013. WASP-49 b is a 0.378 +/- 0.027 M_jup planet around an old G6 star. It has a period of 2.7817387 +/- 5.6 x 10^-6 days and a separation of 0.0379 +/- 0.0011 AU. This planet is slightly bloated, having a radius of 1.115 +/- 0.047 R_jup and an equilibrium temperature of T_eq = 1369 +/- 39 K. Both planets have been followed up photometrically, and in total we have obtained 5 full and one partial transit light curves of WASP-42 and 4 full and one partial light curves of WASP-49 using the Euler-Swiss, TRAPPIST and Faulkes South telescopes.

We report the discovery of WASP-78b and WASP-79b, two highly-bloated Jupiter-mass exoplanets orbiting F-type host stars. WASP-78b orbits its V=12.0 host star (TYC 5889-271-1) every 2.175 days and WASP-79b orbits its V=10.1 host star (CD-30 1812) every 3.662 days. Planetary parameters have been determined using a simultaneous fit to WASP and TRAPPIST transit photometry and CORALIE radial-velocity measurements. For WASP-78b a planetary mass of 0.89 +/- 0.08 M_Jup and a radius of 1.70 +/- 0.11 R_Jup is found. The planetary equilibrium temperature of T_P = 2350 +/- 80 K for WASP-78b makes it one of the hottest of the currently known exoplanets. WASP-79b its found to have a planetary mass of 0.90 +/- 0.08 M_Jup, but with a somewhat uncertain radius due to lack of sufficient TRAPPIST photometry. The planetary radius is at least 1.70 +/- 0.11 R_Jup, but could be as large as 2.09 +/- 0.14 R_Jup, which would make WASP-79b the largest known exoplanet., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We report the detection of WASP-35b, a planet transiting a metal-poor ([Fe/H] = –0.15) star in the Southern hemisphere, WASP-48b, an inflated planet which may have spun-up its slightly evolved host star of 1.75 Rsun in the Northern hemisphere, and the independent discovery of HAT-P-30b/WASP-51b, a new planet in the Northern hemisphere. Using WASP, RISE, Faulkes Telescope South, and TRAPPIST photometry, with CORALIE, SOPHIE, and NOT spectroscopy, we determine that WASP-35b has a mass of 0.72 ± 0.06 MJ and radius of 1.32 ± 0.05RJ , and orbits with a period of 3.16 days, WASP-48b has a mass of 0.98 ± 0.09 MJ , radius of 1.67 ± 0.10 RJ , and orbits in 2.14 days, while HAT-P-30b/WASP-51b, with an orbital period of 2.81 days, is found to have a mass of 0.76 ± 0.05 MJ and radius of 1.42 ± 0.03 RJ , agreeing with values of 0.71 ± 0.03 MJ and 1.34 ± 0.07 RJ reported for HAT-P-30b.

Context. The TRAPPIST-1 system hosts seven Earth-sized, temperate exoplanets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. As such, it represents a remarkable setting to study the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets that formed in the same protoplanetary disk. While the sizes of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are all known to better than 5% precision, their densities have significant uncertainties (between 28% and 95%) because of poor constraints on the planet's masses. Aims.The goal of this paper is to improve our knowledge of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary masses and densities using transit-timing variations (TTV). The complexity of the TTV inversion problem is known to be particularly acute in multi-planetary systems (convergence issues, degeneracies and size of the parameter space), especially for resonant chain systems such as TRAPPIST-1. Methods. To overcome these challenges, we have used a novel method that employs a genetic algorithm coupled to a full N-body integrator that we applied to a set of 284 individual transit timings. This approach enables us to efficiently explore the parameter space and to derive reliable masses and densities from TTVs for all seven planets. Results. Our new masses result in a five- to eight-fold improvement on the planetary density uncertainties, with precisions ranging from 5% to 12%. These updated values provide new insights into the bulk structure of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. We find that TRAPPIST-1\,c and e likely have largely rocky interiors, while planets b, d, f, g, and h require envelopes of volatiles in the form of thick atmospheres, oceans, or ice, in most cases with water mass fractions less than 5%., Comment: in press in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 24 pages, 13 figures