TITLE: First Transiting Extrasolar Planet Results from the NASA EPOXI Mission

SPEAKER: Dr. Jessie Christiansen (CfA)

Monday 16 November 2009
2:00 pm Seminar 
NASA Ames Building N245 Room 215


ABSTRACT:

The EPOCh (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterisation) project
forms part of the NASA EPOXI mission of opportunity utilising the Deep
Impact flyby spacecraft. The aim of the project was to observe known
transiting extrasolar planets to construct high cadence, high precision
light curves. We analyse these data for evidence of additional planets in
several ways, including searching for additional transiting planets, and
also by constraining the variations in the transit parameters, such as
transit times and durations, which could indicate perturbing bodies. I
will present the results of this analysis for GJ436, which was predicted
to host a second planet owing to the significantly non-zero eccentricity
of the known transiting planet.

We also use the EPOXI light curves to refine our knowledge of the known
transiting planet in each system. This includes constraining
the atmospheric properties by looking for signals of reflected light
and/or thermal emission at secondary eclipse. I will present our results
for HAT-P-7b. For this target in particular we have used secondary
eclipse constraints from three NASA missions - EPOXI, Spitzer and Kepler
- to construct, for the first time, an emission spectrum from the dayside
of an extrasolar planet that extends from the infrared into the optical.