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The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets

Gillon, Michaël ; Demory, Brice-Olivier ; Deming, Drake ; Seager, Sara ; Lovis, Christophe

In: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2010, vol. 6, no. S276, p. 167-170

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    Titre
    • The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets
    Auteur
    • Gillon, Michaël. Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, 17 Allée du 6 Août, Bat. B5C, 4000 Liège, Belgium email: michael.gillon@ulg.ac.be
    • Demory, Brice-Olivier. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
    • Deming, Drake. Astronomy Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421, Maryland, USA
    • Seager, Sara. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
    • Lovis, Christophe. Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2010, vol. 6, no. S276, p. 167-170. Cambridge University Press
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:297205
    Summary
    Radial velocity, microlensing and transit surveys have revealed the existence of a large population of low-mass planets in our Galaxy, the so-called ‘Super-Earths' and ‘Neptunes'. The understanding of these objects would greatly benefit from the detection of a few of them transiting bright nearby stars, making possible their thorough characterization with high signal-to-noise follow-up measurements. Our HARPS Doppler survey has now detected dozens of low-mass planets in close orbit around bright nearby stars, and it is highly probable that a few of them do transit their host star. In this context, we have set up an ambitious Spitzer program devoted to the search for the transits of the short period low-mass planets detected by HARPS. We present here this program and some of its first results