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Determining the architecture of multi-planetary systems is one of the cornerstones of understanding planet formation and evolution. Resonant systems are especially important as the fragility of their orbital configuration ensures that no significant scattering or collisional event has taken place since the earliest formation phase when the parent protoplanetary disc was still present. In this context, TOI-178 has been the subject of particular attention since the first TESS observations hinted at the possible presence of a near 2:3:3 resonant chain. Here we report the results of observations from CHEOPS, ESPRESSO, NGTS, and SPECULOOS with the aim of deciphering the peculiar orbital architecture of the system. We show that TOI-178 harbours at least six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune regimes, with radii ranging from 1.152−0.070+0.073 to 2.87−0.13+0.14 Earth radii and periods of 1.91, 3.24, 6.56, 9.96, 15.23, and 20.71 days. All planets but the innermost one form a 2:4:6:9:12 chain of Laplace resonances, and the planetary densities show important variations from planet to planet, jumping from 1.02−0.23+0.28 to 0.177−0.061+0.055 times the Earth’s density between planets c and d. Using Bayesian interior structure retrieval models, we show that the amount of gas in the planets does not vary in a monotonous way, contrary to what one would expect from simple formation and evolution models and unlike other known systems in a chain of Laplace resonances. The brightness of TOI-178 (H = 8.76 mag, J = 9.37 mag, V = 11.95 mag) allows for a precise characterisation of its orbital architecture as well as of the physical nature of the six presently known transiting planets it harbours. The peculiar orbital configuration and the diversity in average density among the planets in the system will enable the study of interior planetary structures and atmospheric evolution, providing important clues on the formation of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 649, ISSN:0004-6361, ISSN:1432-0746

International audience; AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is a young, active star whose transiting planet was recently detected. Here, we report our analysis of its TESS light curve, where we modeled the BY Draconis type quasi-periodic rotational modulation by starspots simultaneously to the flaring activity and planetary transits. We measured a flare occurrence rate in AU Mic of 6.35 flares per day for flares with amplitudes in the range of 0.06% < f max < 1.5% of the star flux. We employed a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to model the five transits of AU Mic b observed by TESS, improving the constraints on the planetary parameters. The measured planet-to-star effective radius ratio of R p /R = 0.0496 ± 0.0007 implies a physical radius of 4.07 ± 0.17 R ⊕ and a planet density of 1.4 ± 0.4 g cm −3 , confirming that AU Mic b is a Neptune-size moderately inflated planet. While a single feature possibly due to a second planet was previously reported in the former TESS data, we report the detection of two additional transit-like events in the new TESS observations of July 2020. This represents substantial evidence for a second planet (AU Mic c) in the system. We analyzed its three available transits and obtained an orbital period of 18.859019 ± 0.000016 d and a planetary radius of 3.24 ± 0.16 R ⊕ , which defines AU Mic c as a warm Neptune-size planet with an expected mass in the range of 2.2 M ⊕ < M c < 25.0 M ⊕ , estimated from the population of exoplanets of similar sizes. The two planets in the AU Mic system are in near 9:4 mean-motion resonance. We show that this configuration is dynamically stable and should produce transit-timing variations (TTV). Our non-detection of significant TTV in AU Mic b suggests an upper limit for the mass of AU Mic c of

arXiv:2111.11453v1, Mid- and far-infrared (IR) photometric and spectroscopic observations are fundamental to a full understanding of the dust-obscured Universe and the evolution of both star formation and black hole accretion in galaxies. In this work, using the specifications of the SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) as a baseline, we investigate the capability to study the dust-obscured Universe of mid- and far-IR photometry at 34 and 70 µm and low-resolution spectroscopy at 17−36 µm using the state-of-the-art SpectroPhotometric Realisations of Infrared-selected Targets at all-z (SPRITZ) simulation. This investigation is also compared to the expected performance of the Origins Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Probe. The photometric view of the Universe of a SPICA-like mission could cover not only bright objects (e.g. LIR > 1012 L) up to z = 10, but also normal galaxies (LIR < 1011 L) up to z ∼ 4. At the same time, the spectroscopic observations of such mission could also allow us to estimate the redshifts and study the physical properties for thousands of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei by observing the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and a large set of IR nebular emission lines. In this way, a cold, 2.5-m size space telescope with spectro-photometric capability analogous to SPICA, could provide us with a complete three-dimensional (i.e. images and integrated spectra) view of the dust-obscured Universe and the physics governing galaxy evolution up to z ∼ 4., We acknowledge the whole SPICA Collaboration Team. LB, CG, LS and JAFO acknowledge financial support by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) under the research contract 2018-31-HH.0. AF and FC acknowledges the support from grant PRIN MIUR2017-20173ML3WW_001. MPS acknowledges support from the Comunidad de Madrid through the Atracción de Talento Investigador Grant 2018-T1/TIC11035 and PID2019-105423GA-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE). FJC acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry MCIU under project RTI2018-096686-B-C21 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER/UE), cofunded by FEDER funds and from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765.

We present the discovery and characterization of two sub-Neptunes in close orbits, as well as a tentative outer planet of a similar size, orbiting TOI-1260 – a low metallicity K6 V dwarf star. Photometry from Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS) yields radii of Rb = 2.33 ± 0.10 and Rc = 2.82 ± 0.15 R⊕, and periods of 3.13 and 7.49 d for TOI-1260 b and TOI-1260 c, respectively. We combined the TESS data with a series of ground-based follow-up observations to characterize the planetary system. From HARPS-N high-precision radial velocities we obtain Mb = $8.6 _{ - 1.5 } ^ { + 1.4 }$ and Mc = $11.8 _{ - 3.2 } ^ { + 3.4 }$ M⊕. The star is moderately active with a complex activity pattern, which necessitated the use of Gaussian process regression for both the light-curve detrending and the radial velocity modelling, in the latter case guided by suitable activity indicators. We successfully disentangle the stellar-induced signal from the planetary signals, underlining the importance and usefulness of the Gaussian process approach. We test the system’s stability against atmospheric photoevaporation and find that the TOI-1260 planets are classic examples of the structure and composition ambiguity typical for the 2–3 R⊕ range.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are extremely energetic pulses of millisecond duration and unknown origin. In order to understand the phenomenon that emits these pulses, targeted and untargeted searches have been performed for multi-wavelength counterparts, including the optical. The objective of this work is to search for optical transients at the position of 8 well-localized FRBs, after the arrival of the burst on different time-scales (typically at one day, several months, and one year after FRB detection) in order to compare with known transient optical light curves. We used the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), which allows us to promptly take images owing to its network of twenty-three telescopes working around the world. We used a template subtraction technique on all the images we collected at different epochs. We have divided the subtractions into two groups, in one group we use the image of the last epoch as a template and in the other group we use the image of the first epoch as a template. We have searched for bright optical transients at the localizations of the FRBs (, Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics on 27 June, 2021. 8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

We present the early installment of the third Gaia data release, Gaia EDR3, consisting of astrometry and photometry for 1.8 billion sources brighter than magnitude 21, complemented with the list of radial velocities from Gaia DR2. Gaia EDR3 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.8 billion sources. For 1.5 billion of those sources, parallaxes, proper motions, and the (G_BP-G_RP) colour are also available. The passbands for G, G_BP, and G_RP are provided as part of the release. For ease of use, the 7 million radial velocities from Gaia DR2 are included in this release, after the removal of a small number of spurious values. New radial velocities will appear as part of Gaia DR3. Finally, Gaia EDR3 represents an updated materialisation of the celestial reference frame (CRF) in the optical, the Gaia-CRF3, which is based solely on extragalactic sources. The creation of the source list for Gaia EDR3 includes enhancements that make it more robust with respect to high proper motion stars, and the disturbing effects of spurious and partially resolved sources. The source list is largely the same as that for Gaia DR2, but it does feature new sources and there are some notable changes. The source list will not change for Gaia DR3. Gaia EDR3 represents a significant advance over Gaia DR2, with parallax precisions increased by 30 percent, proper motion precisions increased by a factor of 2, and the systematic errors in the astrometry suppressed by 30--40 percent for the parallaxes and by a factor ~2.5 for the proper motions. The photometry also features increased precision, but above all much better homogeneity across colour, magnitude, and celestial position. A single passband for G, G_BP, and G_RP is valid over the entire magnitude and colour range, with no systematics above the 1 percent level.

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is favourable for transmission spectroscopy and offers the unique opportunity to study rocky planets with possibly non-primary envelopes. We present here the transmission spectrum of the seventh planet of the TRAPPIST-1 system, TRAPPIST-1 h (R$_{\rm P}$=0.752 R$_{\oplus}$, T$_{\rm eq}$=173K) using Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Wide Field Camera 3 Grism 141 (WFC3/G141) data. First we extracted and corrected the raw data to obtain a transmission spectrum in the near-infrared (NIR) band (1.1-1.7$\mu$m). We corrected for stellar modulations using three different stellar contamination models; while some fit the data better, they are statistically not significant and the conclusion remains unchanged concerning the presence or lack thereof of an atmosphere. Finally, using a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval code, we put new constraints on the atmosphere composition of TRAPPIST-1h. According to the retrieval analysis, there is no evidence of molecular absorption in the NIR spectrum. This suggests the presence of a high cloud deck or a layer of photochemical hazes in either a primary atmosphere or a secondary atmosphere dominated by heavy species such as nitrogen. This result could even be the consequence of the lack of an atmosphere as the spectrum is better fitted using a flat line. We cannot yet distinguish between a primary cloudy or a secondary clear envelope using HST/WFC3 data; however, in most cases with more than 3$\sigma$ confidence, we can reject the hypothesis of a clear atmosphere dominated by hydrogen and helium. By testing the forced secondary atmospheric scenario, we find that a CO-rich atmosphere (i.e. with a volume mixing ratio of 0.2) is one of the best fits to the spectrum with a Bayes factor of 1.01, corresponding to a 2.1$\sigma$ detection., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

ERRATUMThis article is an erratum for:[https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039657]​​​​​​​

Morris, B. M. et al., [Context] 55 Cnc e is a transiting super-Earth (radius 1.88 R⊕ and mass 8 M⊕) orbiting a G8V host star on a 17-h orbit. Spitzer observations of the planet's phase curve at 4.5 μm revealed a time-varying occultation depth, and MOST optical observations are consistent with a time-varying phase curve amplitude and phase offset of maximum light. Both broadband and high-resolution spectroscopic analyses are consistent with either a high mean molecular weight atmosphere or no atmosphere for planet e. A long-term photometric monitoring campaign on an independent optical telescope is needed to probe the variability in this system. [Aims] We seek to measure the phase variations of 55 Cnc e with a broadband optical filter with the 30 cm effective aperture space telescope CHEOPS and explore how the precision photometry narrows down the range of possible scenarios. [Methods] We observed 55 Cnc for 1.6 orbital phases in March of 2020. We designed a phase curve detrending toolkit for CHEOPS photometry which allowed us to study the underlying flux variations in the 55 Cnc system. [Results] We detected a phase variation with a full-amplitude of 72 ± 7 ppm, but did not detect a significant secondary eclipse of the planet. The shape of the phase variation resembles that of a piecewise-Lambertian; however, the non-detection of the planetary secondary eclipse, and the large amplitude of the variations exclude reflection from the planetary surface as a possible origin of the observed phase variations. They are also likely incompatible with magnetospheric interactions between the star and planet, but may imply that circumplanetary or circumstellar material modulate the flux of the system. [Conclusions] This year, further precision photometry of 55 Cnc from CHEOPS will measure variations in the phase curve amplitude and shape over time., Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). CHEOPS is an ESA mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The Swiss participation to CHEOPS has been supported by the Swiss Space Office (SSO) in the framework of the Prodex programme and the Activités Nationales Complémentaires (ANC), the Universities of Bern and Geneva as well as of the NCCR PlanetS and the Swiss National Science Foundation. This work benefited from support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00P2-163967 and PP00P2-190080). 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). 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. S.C.C.B. and S.G.S. acknowledge support from FCT through FCT contracts nr. IF/01312/2014/CP1215/CT0004, IF/00028/2014/CP1215/CT0002. O.D.S.D. 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). X.B., S.C., D.G., M.F. and J.L. acknowledge their roles as ESA-appointed CHEOPS science team members. A.C.C. and T.W. acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/R000824/1. This project was supported by the CNES. S.H. gratefully acknowledges CNES funding through the grant 837319. P.M. acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/M001040/1. K.G.I. is the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist and is responsible for the ESA CHEOPS Guest Observers Programme.

We thank Dr. S. Hoyer from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) in France for the helpful discussions. We also thank the anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Erasmus+ grant number 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035562, by the VEGA grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences number 2/0031/18, by an ESA PRODEX grant under contracting with the ELTE University, by the GINOP number 2.3.2-15-2016-00003 of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, and by the City of Szombathely under agreement number 67.177-21/2016. This paper includes data collected with the TESS mission, obtained from the MAST data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by the NASA Explorer Program. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sanchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work was partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grant number PGC2018098153-B-C31. This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP17H04574, JP18H01265 and JP18H05439, and JST PRESTO grant number JPMJPR1775. This work was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, grant number JP20J21872. TP acknowledges support from the Slovak Research and Development Agency - the contract No. APVV-20-0148. MT was supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005. AC acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the `Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrophysics of Andalusia (SEV-2017-0709). We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 694513., Up to now, WASP-12b is the only hot Jupiter confirmed to have a decaying orbit. The case of WASP-43b is still under debate. Recent studies preferred or ruled out the orbital decay scenario, but further precise transit timing observations are needed to definitively confirm or refute the period change of WASP-43b. This possibility is given by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope. In this work, we used the available TESS data, multicolour photometry data obtained with the Multicolor Simultaneous Camera for studying Atmospheres of Transiting exoplanets 2 (MuSCAT2) and literature data to calculate the period change rate of WASP-43b and to improve its precision, and to refine the parameters of the WASP-43 planetary system. Based on the observed-minus-calculated data of 129 mid-transit times in total, covering a time baseline of about 10 yr, we obtained an improved period change rate of (P)over dot = -0.6 +/- 1.2 ms yr(-1) that is consistent with a constant period well within 1 sigma. We conclude that new TESS and MuSCAT2 observations confirm no detection of WASP-43b orbital decay., Erasmus+ grant 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035562, VEGA grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences 2/0031/18, ESA PRODEX grant, ELTE University, National Research, Development & Innovation Office (NRDIO) - Hungary 2.3.2-15-2016-00003, City of Szombathely 67.177-21/2016, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) NAS 5-26555, Gaia Multilateral Agreement, Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness PGC2018098153-B-C31, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) JP17H04574 JP18H01265 JP18H05439, JST PRESTO grant JPMJPR1775, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP20J21872, Slovak Research and Development Agency APVV-20-0148, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) 18H05442 15H02063 22000005, State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the 'Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrophysics of Andalusia SEV-2017-0709, European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program 694513

We thank the anonymous referee for comments that improved the manuscript. The authors 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. This work has been supported by the University of Liege through an ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. The authors acknowledge support from the Swiss NCCR PlanetS and the Swiss National Science Foundation. V.V.G. is a F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate. M.G. is an F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associate. St.C. acknowledges financial support from the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France) and from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) under grant ANR-17-CE31-0018. K.G.I. is the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist and is responsible for the ESA CHEOPS Guest Observers Programme. She does not participate in, or contribute to, the definition of the Guaranteed Time Programme of the CHEOPS mission through which observations described in this paper have been taken, nor to any aspect of target selection for the programme. D.E. 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). This project has been carried out in the frame of the National Centre for Competence in Research PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). G.B. acknowledges support from CHEOPS ASI-INAF agreement n. 2019-29-HH.0. A.J.M. acknowledges funding from the Swedish Research Council (starting grant 2017-04945) and the Swedish National Space Agency (career grant 120/19C). A.C.C. and T.G.W. acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/M001296/1. A.B. was supported by the SNSA. M.F. gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 65/19, 174/18). S.H. acknowledges CNES funding through the grant 837319. S.C.C.B. acknowledges support from FCT through FCT contracts nr. IF/01312/2014/CP1215/CT0004. S.G.S. acknowledge support from FCT through FCT contract nr. CEECIND/00826/2018 and POPH/FSE (EC). This work was supported by FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 -Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao by these grants: UID/FIS/04434/2019; UIDB/04434/2020; UIDP/04434/2020; PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017 & POCI-01-0145-FEDER032113; PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017 & POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953; PTDC/FIS-AST/28987/2017 & POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028987. O.D.S.D. is supported in the form of work contract (DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0004) funded by national funds through FCT. B.-O.D. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00P2-190080). B.N.B. acknowledges funding through the TESS Guest Investigator Program Grant 80NSSC21K0364. We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grants ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP2016-80435-C2-2-R, PGC2018-098153-B-C33, PGC2018-098153-B-C31, ESP2017-87676-C5-1-R, MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia "Maria de Maeztu"-Centro de Astrobiologia (INTA-CSIC), as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. The MOC activities have been supported by the ESA contract No. 4000124370. I.R. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grant PGC2018-098153-BC33, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. X.B., Se.C., D.G., M.F. and J.L. acknowledge their role as ESA-appointed CHEOPS science team members. D.G. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the CRT foundation under Grant No. 2018.2323 "Gaseous or rocky? Unveiling the nature of small worlds". P.F.L.M. acknowledges support from STFC research grant number ST/M001040/1. This project has been supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) grants GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00003, K-119517, K-125015, and the City of Szombathely under Agreement No. 67.177-21/2016. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission. Funding for the TESS mission is provided by the NASA Explorer Program. Funding for the TESS Asteroseismic Science Operations Centre is provided by the Danish National Research Foundation (Grant agreement no.: DNRF106), ESA PRODEX (PEA 4000119301) and Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC) at Aarhus University. We thank the TESS team and staff and TASC/TASOC for their support of the present work. This work has made use of data from the ESA mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement., Context. Hot subdwarfs experienced strong mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) and are now hot and small He-burning objects. These stars constitute excellent opportunities for addressing the question of the evolution of exoplanetary systems directly after the RGB phase of evolution. Aims. In this project we aim to perform a transit survey in all available light curves of hot subdwarfs from space-based telescopes (Kepler, K2, TESS, and CHEOPS) with our custom-made pipeline SHERLOCK in order to determine the occurrence rate of planets around these stars as a function of orbital period and planetary radius. We also aim to determine whether planets that were previously engulfed in the envelope of their red giant host star can survive, even partially, as a planetary remnant. Methods. For this first paper, we performed injection-and-recovery tests of synthetic transits for a selection of representative Kepler, K2, and TESS light curves to determine which transiting bodies in terms of object radius and orbital period we will be able to detect with our tools. We also provide estimates for CHEOPS data, which we analyzed with the pycheops package. Results. Transiting objects with a radius less than or similar to 1.0 R-circle times can be detected in most of the Kepler, K2, and CHEOPS targets for the shortest orbital periods (1 d and shorter), reaching values as low as similar to 0.3 R-circle times in the best cases. Sub-Earth-sized bodies are only reached for the brightest TESS targets and for those that were observed in a significant number of sectors. We also give a series of representative results for larger planets at greater distances, which strongly depend on the target magnitude and on the length and quality of the data. Conclusions. The TESS sample will provide the most important statistics for the global aim of measuring the planet occurrence rate around hot subdwarfs. The Kepler, K2, and CHEOPS data will allow us to search for planetary remnants, that is, very close and small (possibly disintegrating) objects., European Space Agency European Commission PEA 4000131343, University of Liege through an ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions - Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Swiss NCCR PlanetS, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) European Commission, Centre National D'etudes Spatiales, French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR-17-CE31-0018, European Research Council (ERC) 724427, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), CHEOPS ASI-INAF 2019-29-HH.0, Swedish Research Council European Commission 2017-04945, Swedish National Space Agency 120/19C - DNR 65/19 - 174/18, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/M001296/1- ST/M001040/1, SNSA, Centre National D'etudes Spatiales 837319, European Commission European Commission Joint Research Centre European Social Fund (ESF), Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0004 - IF/01312/2014/CP1215/CT0004 - CEECIND/00826/2018, European Commission UID/FIS/04434/2019 - UIDB/04434/2020 - UIDP/04434/2020 - PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER032113 - PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953 - PTDC/FIS-AST/28987/2017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028987, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) European Commission PP00P2-190080, TESS Guest Investigator Program Grant 80NSSC21K0364, Spanish Government, European Commission ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R - ESP2016-80435-C2-2-R - PGC2018-098153-B-C33 - PGC2018-098153-B-C31 - ESP2017-87676-C5-1-R - MDM-2017-0737 - PGC2018-098153-BC33, Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme, European Space Agency 4000124370, CRT foundation 2018.2323, National Research, Development & Innovation Office (NRDIO) - Hungary GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00003 - K-119517 - K-125015, City of Szombathely 67.177-21/2016, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), Danmarks Grundforskningsfond DNRF106, European Space Agency PEA 4000119301, Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC) at Aarhus University, TASC/TASOC, Gaia Multilateral Agreement, DPAC

We report the discovery and characterization of two transiting planets around the bright M1 V star LP 961-53 (TOI-776, J = 8.5 mag, M = 0.54+-0.03 Msun) detected during Sector 10 observations of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Combining the TESS photometry with HARPS radial velocities, as well as ground-based follow-up transit observations from MEarth and LCOGT telescopes, we measured for the inner planet, TOI-776 b, a period of 8.25 d, a radius of 1.85+-0.13 Re, and a mass of 4.0+-0.9 Me; and for the outer planet, TOI-776 c, a period of 15.66 d, a radius of 2.02+-0.14 Re, and a mass of 5.3+-1.8 Me. The Doppler data shows one additional signal, with a period of 34 d, associated with the rotational period of the star. The analysis of fifteen years of ground-based photometric monitoring data and the inspection of different spectral line indicators confirm this assumption. The bulk densities of TOI-776 b and c allow for a wide range of possible interior and atmospheric compositions. However, both planets have retained a significant atmosphere, with slightly different envelope mass fractions. Thanks to their location near the radius gap for M dwarfs, we can start to explore the mechanism(s) responsible for the radius valley emergence around low-mass stars as compared to solar-like stars. While a larger sample of well-characterized planets in this parameter space is still needed to draw firm conclusions, we tentatively estimate that the stellar mass below which thermally-driven mass loss is no longer the main formation pathway for sculpting the radius valley is between 0.63 and 0.54 Msun. Due to the brightness of the star, the TOI-776 system is also an excellent target for the James Webb Space Telescope, providing a remarkable laboratory to break the degeneracy in planetary interior models and to test formation and evolution theories of small planets around low-mass stars., Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Casasayas-Barris, N., et al., Ultra-hot Jupiters are highly irradiated gas giants with equilibrium temperatures typically higher than 2000 K. Atmospheric studies of these planets have shown that their transmission spectra are rich in metal lines, with some of these metals being ionised due to the extreme temperatures. Here, we use two transit observations of WASP-76b obtained with the CARMENES spectrograph to study the atmosphere of this planet using high-resolution transmission spectroscopy. Taking advantage of the two channels and the coverage of the red and near-infrared wavelength ranges by CARMENES, we focus our analysis on the study of the Ca II infrared triplet (IRT) at 8500 Å and the He I triplet at 10 830 Å. We present the discovery of the Ca II IRT at 7¿ in the atmosphere of WASP-76b using the cross-correlation technique, which is consistent with previous detections of the Ca II H&K lines in the same planet, and with the atmospheric studies of other ultra-hot Jupiters reported to date. The low mass density of the planet, and our calculations of the XUV (X-ray and EUV) irradiation received by the exoplanet, show that this planet is a potential candidate to have a He I evaporating envelope and, therefore, we performed further investigations focussed on this aspect. The transmission spectrum around the He I triplet shows a broad and red-shifted absorption signal in both transit observations. However, due to the strong telluric contamination around the He I lines and the relatively low signal-to-noise ratio of the observations, we are not able to unambiguously conclude if the absorption is due to the presence of helium in the atmosphere of WASP-76b, and we consider the result to be only an upper limit. Finally, we revisit the transmission spectrum around other lines such as Na I, Li I, H¿, and K I. The upper limits reported here for these lines are consistent with previous studies., We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 694513, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the ERDF through projects PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4]/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2019- 110689RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, ESP2017-87143-R, and ESP2016- 80435-C2-2-R, and the Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” and “María de Maeztu” awards to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (CEX2019-000920- S), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiología (MDM-2017-0737), and the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. T.H. acknowledges support by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC Advanced Grant Origins 83 24 28. G.M. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 895525.

We analysed 68 candidate planetary systems first identified during Campaigns 5 and 6 (C5 and C6) of the NASA \textit{K2} mission. We set out to validate these systems by using a suite of follow-up observations, including adaptive optics, speckle imaging, and reconnaissance spectroscopy. The overlap between C5 with C16 and C18, and C6 with C17, yields lightcurves with long baselines that allow us to measure the transit ephemeris very precisely, revisit single transit candidates identified in earlier campaigns, and search for additional transiting planets with longer periods not detectable in previous works. Using \texttt{vespa}, we compute false positive probabilities of less than 1\% for 37 candidates orbiting 29 unique host stars and hence statistically validate them as planets. These planets have a typical size of $2.2R_{\oplus}$ and orbital periods between 1.99 and 52.71 days. We highlight interesting systems including a sub-Neptune with the longest period detected by \textit{K2}, sub-Saturns around F stars, several multi-planetary systems in a variety of architectures. These results show that a wealth of planetary systems still remains in the \textit{K2} data, some of which can be validated using minimal follow-up observations and taking advantage of analyses presented in previous catalogs., 25 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

It has been recurring adulterations in fuels (such as gasoline, ethanol and diesel), being necessary the exploration of the use of more modern analytical techniques capable of controlling the quality of these fuels, since some regulated tests may be inefficient to detect the adulteration. Among them, it is highlighted proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, and portable near infrared spectroscopy (microNIR). In this work, it was studied the conformities of 115 samples of seized fuels (76 of gasoline, 23 of ethanol, and 16 of diesel) by means of standardized techniques with parameters established by the ANP. Results obtained were compared to photometer, MicroNIR and 1H NMR analyzes. The analyzes carried out by ANP showed four nonconforming samples (one of gasoline and three of ethanol). By the photometric technique, only 14 gasoline samples had ethanol content permitted by legislation (i.e ≈ 27 %v/v). By 1H NMR analysis, it was possible to verify nonconformities by presence of aromatics and olefins compounds in the gasoline and diesel samples as well as of methanol in fuel ethanol samples. It is also worth noting the efficiency of MicroNIR when combined with unsupervised chemometric methods to indicate nonconformities presented by 1H NMR and photometry techniques.

A microfluidic sensor was studied for the photometric detection of active chlorine, total chlorine, and pH in swimming pool samples. The sensor consisted of a four-layer borosilicate glass chip, containing a microchannel network and a 2.2 mm path length, 1.7 mL optical cell. The chip was optimised to measure the bleaching of methyl orange and spectral changes in phenol red for quantitative chlorine (active and total) and pH measurements that were suited to swimming pool monitoring. Reagent consumption (60 mL per measurement) was minimised to allow for maintenance-free operation over a nominal summer season (3 months) with minimal waste. The chip was tested using samples from 12 domestic, public, and commercial swimming pools (indoor and outdoor), with results that compare favourably with commercial products (test strips and the N,N&rsquo, diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) method), precision pH electrodes, and iodometric titration.