Transiting Exoplanets made in Chile

"Transiting Exoplanets made in Chile"

Transiting exoplanets allow the measurement of a number of physical properties that are otherwise hard to obtain. Since 2009 we have built a systematic program for the discovery and characterization of transiting exoplanets in Chile, deploying custom instrumentation and software for the purpose. In this talk I will describe these efforts which have allowed us to be at the forefront of discovery and characterization for two kinds of systems: warm giant planets with periods 10 < P < 100 days, and giant planets around M dwarfs. I will then describe in detail one of our main current follow-up efforts which concerns the obliquities of warm Jupiters, which provide important information about the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planets. We find that, around single stars, warm Jupiters tend to be more aligned than hot Jupiters, regardless of their orbital eccentricities. This suggests that warm Jupiters form in primordially aligned protoplanetary disks and subsequently evolve in a more quiescent way than hot Jupiters. We also find tentative evidence that warm Saturns may exhibit higher obliquities than warm Jupiters, potentially hinting at different evolutionary pathways.

Sebastián López
Seminar Coordinator
DAS/UChile  – slopez@das.uchile.cl