Exoplanets in the news (III)

• ALMA observations of polarization from dust scattering in the IM Lup protoplanetary disk
  • A big disk of dust, observed at low spatial resolution.
• Subaru/HiCIAO HKs imaging of LkHα 330 - disk's color discussion and simultaneous detection of gap and spiral-like structures
  • Target is 250 pc from Earth. Note Fig 8.
• WASP-104b is Darker than Charcoal
  • Check Fig 3 for "obvious" rotational features, Fig 5 for ellipsoidal modulation (what is that, anyway?). Do you see the reflection effects?
• Diagnostic value of far-IR water ice features in T Tauri disks
  • Fig 1 shows the strong ice features in mid-IR, Fig 3 and 6 show how spectra might reveal disk properties. Fig 10 and 11 plunge the reader into icy bucket of reality.
• Identifying inflated super-Earths and photo-evaporated cores
  • Fig 1 is evidence that something happens to planet-pair radius ratios at the "critical flux" value. Note use of Transit-Timing Variations (TTV) to estimate planet masses and so derive inflated atmosphere sizes. Fig 6 shows expected planet properties.
• A Revised Exoplanet Yield from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
  • Will TESS double the number of exoplanets? See Fig 5, 6, 8, 9, 13. Maybe Fig 14 is best.
• Spaceflight from Super-Earths is difficult
• Biases in Planet Occurrence Caused by Unresolved Binaries in Transit Surveys
  • Look at list on p 4, Figure 1 on volumes (true and false), Fig 2, Fig 6 on "photo-evaporation gap", Summary items p 17-19.
• Exploring the realm of scaled Solar System analogs with HARPS
  • Check out Figs 1, 2, 23
• Modeling Exoplanetary Atmospheres: An Overview
  • No exciting new results, but this could be a good reference for the future

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.