Many multiple planet systems have been found by both radial velocity (RV) and transit surveys, such as the Kepler mission. Period ratio distribution of these planet candidates show that they do not prefer to be in or near Mean Motion Resonance (MMR). Nevertheless, there are small but significant excesses of candidate pairs both spaced slightly exterior to exact resonance, particular near the first order of MMR, such as 2:1 and 3:2. Here, we first review recent observational constraints on these multiple transiting systems and theoretical models, which attempt to understand their period ratio distributions. Then we identify a statistical effect based on an intrinsic asymmetry associated with MMR, and find it play an important role in shaping the period ratio distribution near MMR. Last but least, we also find such an intrinsic asymmetry is existing in asteroids of our solar system.

We have developed a new model for analysing light curves of planetary transits when there are starspots on the stellar disc. Because the parameter space contains a profusion of local minima we developed a new optimisation algorithm which combines the global minimisation power of a genetic algorithm and the Bayesian statistical analysis of the Markov chain. With these tools we modelled three transit light curves of WASP-19. Two light curves were obtained on consecutive nights and contain anomalies which we confirm as being due to the same spot. Using these data we measure the star's rotation period and velocity to be 11.76 ± 0.09 d and 3.88 ± 0.15 kms−1, respectively, at a latitude of 65°. We find that the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis is λ = 1.0° ± 1.2°, indicating axial alignment. Our results are consistent with and more precise than published spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect.

Transiting extrasolar planets provide unmatched insights into the structure and composition of close-in planets. When a planet transits its host star, its radius is known, which together with radial velocity measurements, allows accessing the planetary density. We present results obtained using the Euler and TRAPPIST telescopes that aim at reaching very high accuracy on the parameters derived from transit lightcurves. Here, we show the case of the recently discovered WASP-42b and WASP-49b and new observations of WASP-50b.

The transiting exoplanetary system HAT-P-24 was observed by using CCD cameras at Yunnan Observatory and Hokoon Astronomical Centre, China in 2010 and 2012. Three new transit light curves are analyzed by means of MCMC technique, and the new physical parameters of the system are derived, which are compatible with the old ones in the discovery paper. The orbital period of HAT-P-24b is refined and no obvious TTV signal can be found from five transit events during 2010-2012.

Ranked near the top of the long list of exciting discoveries made with NASA's Kepler photometer is the detection of transiting circumbinary planets. In just over a year the number of such planets went from zero to seven, including a multi-planet system with one of the planets in the habitable zone (Kepler-47). We are quickly learning to better detect and characterize these planets, including the recognition of their transit timing and duration variation “smoking gun” signature. Even with only a handful of such planets, some exciting trends are emerging.

The presence of additional bodies orbiting a binary star system can be detected by monitoring the binary's eclipse timing. These so-called circumbinary objects will reveal themselves by i) either introducing a reflex motion of the binary system about the total system's barycenter creating a geometric light-travel time effect (LITE), ii) by gravitational perturbations on the binary orbit, or iii) a combination of the two effects resulting in eclipse timing (ETV) and transit timing (TTV) variations. Motivated by the four recently detected circumbinary planets by the Kepler space telescope (Kepler-16b, Kepler-34b, Kepler-35b and Kepler-38b) we have begun to study their dynamics in the presence of an additional massive perturber. In particular we used Kepler-16b as a test bed case. We are aiming to study the detectability of non-transiting and inclined circumbinary planets using the ETV effect along with the fast indicator MEGNO to quantitatively map the chaotic/quasi-periodic regions of the orbital parameter-space and to determine where the orbit of a circumbinary planet will be stable. We have calculated the amplitudes of TTV and ETV signals for different values of the mass and orbital elements of the planet and binary.

The growing number of detected planets in binary star systems requires methods for a quick assessment of possible habitability of planets in such environments. We offer an analytic method to determine habitability of a terrestrial planet in binary star systems. In this context we give an answer to the most important question: Do the radiative and gravitational perturbations of a secondary influence the extent of the habitable zone (HZ)?

After we have defined the borders of the HZ, we will show the dynamical behaviour of a terrestrial planet in the HZ when adding a Jupiter to the system. In such a system the HZ shows signs of mean motion resonances and secular resonances, depending on the architecture of the planetary system.

The Kepler satellite has discovered a number of transiting planets around close binary stars. These circumbinary systems have highly aligned planetary and binary orbits. In this paper, we explore how the mutual inclination between the planetary and binary orbits may reflect the physical conditions of the assembly of protoplanetary discs and the interaction between protostellar binaries and circumbinary discs. Given the turbulent nature of star-forming molecular clouds, it is possible that the infalling gas onto the outer region of a circumbinary disc rotates around a different axis compared to the central protostellar binary. Thus, the newly assembled circumbinary disc can be misaligned with respect to the binary. However, the gravitational torque from the binary produces warp and twist in the disc, and the back-reaction torque tends to align the disc and the binary orbital plane. We present a new, analytic calculation of this alignment torque, and show that the binary-disc inclination angle can be reduced appreciably after the binary accretes a few percent of its mass from the disc. Since mass accretion onto the proto-binary is very likely to occur, our calculation suggests that in the absence of other disturbances, circumbinary discs and planets around close (sub-AU) stellar binaries are highly aligned with the binary orbits, while discs and planets around wide binaries can be misaligned.

We take as dynamical model for extrasolar planetary systems a central star like our Sun and two giant planets m1 and m2 like Jupiter and Saturn. We change the mass ratio μ=m2/m1 of the two large planets for a wide range of 1/16 < μ < 16. We also change the ratio between the initial semi-major axes (ν=a2/a1) in the range of 1.2 < ν < 3 to model the different architecture of extrasolar planetary systems hosting two giant planets. The results for possible Trojans (Trojan planets) in the equilateral equilibrium points of the inner planet m1 and the outer planet m2 were derived with the aid of numerical integration. It turned out that in many configurations – depending on the mass ratios μ and the semi-major axes ratio ν – giant planets may host Trojans.

Detections of massive extrasolar moons are shown feasible with the Kepler space telescope. Kepler's findings of about 50 exoplanets in the stellar habitable zone naturally make us wonder about the habitability of their hypothetical moons. Illumination from the planet, eclipses, tidal heating, and tidal locking distinguish remote characterization of exomoons from that of exoplanets. We show how evaluation of an exomoon's habitability is possible based on the parameters accessible by current and near-future technology.

Project Dwarf is a new observing campaign focused on the detection of substellar companions to low-mass (composed of late-type, subdwarf (sd) or/and white dwarf (WD) components) detached eclipsing binaries using minima timing. The crucial condition for the object selection for this campaign is possibility to determine times of the minima with high precision. This is naturally fullfilled for eclipsing binaries with deep and narrow minima or systems hosting a WD component showing fast ingress or egress.

The observing project includes three groups of close eclipsing binaries indicating presence of substellar circum-binary components:

1. (i) systems with K or/and M dwarf components

2. (ii) systems with hot subdwarf (sd) and M dwarf components

3. (iii) systems with white dwarf (WD) component(s).

Since the discovery of the first exoplanets, those most adequate for life to begin and evolve have been sought. Due to observational bias, however, most of the discovered planets so far are gas giants, precluding their habitability. However, if these hot Jupiters are located in the habitable zones of their host stars, and if rocky moons orbit them, then these moons may be habitable. In this work, we present a model for planetary transit simulation considering the presence of moons around a planet. The moon orbit is considered to be circular and coplanar with the planetary orbit. The other physical and orbital parameters of the star, planet, and moon, can be adjusted in each simulation. It is possible to simulate as many successive transits as desired. Since the presence of spots on the surface of the star may produce a signal similar to that of the presence of a moon, our model also allows for the inclusion of starspots. The goal is to determine the criteria for detectability of moons using photometry with the CoRoT and Kepler telescopes taking into account the stellar activity.

Distant stellar encouters can substantially affect the dynamical evolution of existing stellar and planetary systems (e.g., Malmberg et al. 2007; Spurzem et al. 2009). Although planets with small orbital periods are not directly affected by encountering stars, the secular evolution of a perturbed system may result in the ejection of the innermost planets, or physical collisions between the innermost planets and the host star, hundreds of thousands of years after a weak encounter with a neighboring star occurs. Here we present the results of our study on the cumulative effect of distant stellar encounters on multi-planet systems in star clusters, and how these results depend on the properties of the star cluster in which a planetary system is born (for details we refer to Hao & Kouwenhoven, in prep.). With our simulations we explain the scarcity of exoplanets in star clusters, not only for those in wide orbits (affected by stellar encounters), but also in close orbits (affected by the secular evolution of the system following an encounter).

Many planets have been detected in close binary stars with separation only ~20 AU. These discoveries challenge the current theory of planet formation because binary stars with such an close separation are thought to have strong perturbations and thus inhibit planet formation around them. To address this issue, another scenario had been suggested: the binary separation was wider enough for binary formation in early stages, but it shrank to the present one after a transient triple star phase (stellar scattering phase). Here, we investigate how could planet survive or be ejected under this scenario. We find that (1) the odds of planetary survival are significantly reduced if scatterings between planets and/or planetesimals are included (2) circumbinary planets/planetesimals could be readily formed during such a transient phase.

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument under construction for the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The scientific goal of the project is a five-year exoplanet survey targeting 300 M stars with the completed instrument. The CARMENES hardware consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in a temperature-stabilized environment in vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term radial velocity precision of 1 m s−1 employing a simultaneous calibration with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps.

M dwarf stars are attractive targets in the search for habitable worlds as a result of their relative abundance and proximity, making them likely targets for future direct detection efforts. Hot super-Earths as well as gas giants have already been detected around a number of early M dwarfs, and the former appear to be the high-mass end of the population of rocky, terrestrial exoplanets. The Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search (CAPS) program has been underway since March 2007, searching ~ 100 nearby late M, L, and T dwarfs for gas giant planets on orbits wide enough for habitable worlds to orbit interior to them. The CAPSCam-N camera on the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory has demonstrated the ability to detect planets as low in mass as Saturn orbiting at several AU around late M dwarfs within 15 pc. Over the next decade, the CAPS program will provide new constraints on the planetary census around late M dwarf stars, and hence on the suitability of these nearby planetary systems for supporting life.

Spectral classifications and color temperatures based on narrow-band TiO/CN photometry are given for ten dM stars that are known to be planet hosts.

We present a summary of a three-year academic research proposal drafted during the Sao Paulo Advanced School of Astrobiology (SPASA) to prepare for upcoming observations of tidally locked planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. The primary experimental goal of the suggested research is to expose extremophiles from analogue environments to a modified space simulation chamber reproducing the environmental parameters of a tidally locked planet in the habitable zone of a late-type star. Here we focus on a description of the astronomical analysis used to define the parameters for this climate simulation.

Stellar magnetic activity manifests itself in a variety of ways including starspots–cool, dark regions on the stellar surface. Starspots can cause variations (‘jitter’) in spectral line-profiles which can mimic the radial velocity (RV) variations caused by an orbiting planet, or create RV noise that can drown out a planetary signature. Cool, low-mass M dwarf stars can be highly active, which can make detection of potentially habitable planets around these stars difficult. We investigate radial velocity variations caused by different activity (spot) patterns on M dwarf stars in order to determine the limits of detectability for small planets orbiting active M dwarfs. We report on our progress toward the aim of answering the following questions: What types of spot patterns are realistic for M dwarf stars? What effect will spots have on M dwarf RV measurements? Can jitter from M dwarf spots mimic planetary signals? What is the ideal observing wavelength to reduce M dwarf jitter?

We have a plan to conduct a Doppler planet search for low-mass planets around nearby middle-to-late M dwarfs using IRD. IRD is the near-infrared high-precision radial velocity instrument for the Subaru 8.2-m telescope. We expect to achieve the accuracy of the radial velocity measurements of 1 m/s using IRD with a frequency comb as a wavelengh calibrator. Thus, we would detect super-Earths in habitable zone and low-mass rocky planets in close-in orbits around late-M dwarfs. In this survey, we aim to understand and discuss statistical properties of low-mass planets around low-mass M dwarfs compared with those derived from theoretical simulations.