Description
Most solar system planets have moons and rings and so we also expect them to exist around exoplanets. Co-orbital bodies (trojan) are also abundant around Jupiter and Neptune. With the current observational technology, we are at the limit of detecting these bodies and structures. Dynamical studies can tell us which planetary systems are the most favorable to look for them.
Since the first exoplanets were found, astronomers have speculated about the possibility of detecting other minor bodies and effects associated with these worlds. Each of these promises to unlock new insights into exoplanets which would be otherwise inaccessible, such as their obliquity, internal structure and details of their history and evolution. In this talk, I will summarise what progress...
The PDS 70 system hosts the only two non-controversial protoplanets, offering a unique laboratory for planet formation studies. For instance, ALMA revealed around PDS 70 c the only circumplanetary disk ever detected. Also using ALMA data, we tentatively detected a trojan dust cloud sharing orbit with PDS 70 b. Remarkably, several authors have reported evidence for the presence of an additional...
Wide field surveys searching for transiting exoplanets also record and discover both known stellar variability and previously unknown phenomena. Deep and complex eclipses of otherwise unremarkable stars reveal eclipsing companions that have complex substructures. The ASAS-SN survey has now produced over a dozen complex eclipses that last from weeks to years, and we present our analyses of...
Since the advent of space telescopes such as Kepler and TESS, the discovery of exomoons has been anticipated to follow the plethora of exoplanet detections. Despite more than a decade of observations, exomoons remain elusive, with only a few candidates, such as those around Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b, proposed. Their physical and orbital properties challenge current theories of satellite...
Roman Space Telescope (formerly the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope or WFIRST) is a NASA infrared space telescope scheduled to launch by May 2027. Wilson et al. (2023) predicted that Roman will find between 60000 and 200000 transiting planets. Through the simulated photometric uncertainties, the detectability of exomoons with various configurations hosted by these transiting planets will...
In our Solar system all the giant planets have rings, but their origin and evolution are still uncertain. For exorings even less is known. I will discuss the importance of a large-scale systematic search for exorings and the steps I am taking towards achieving this. Once exoring candidates have been found then they need to be characterised. Therefore, I will also discuss the enigmatic ‘Dusty...
