The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems

Details The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems

Feb 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008noao.prop...71h&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2008A-0071

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Are all planetary systems coplanar? Theory suggests that this should be the natural result of planetary system formation. But this expectation has yet to be tested. We have a large (126 orbit) HST program in Cycles 16 and 17 that uses the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) to carry out the first investigation into the coplanarity of exoplanet systems. The astrometric FGS data will be combined with ground-based radial velocity work to ascertain the orbital parameters of the two planetary objects in each of these systems. However, to determine whether these systems are coplanar requires that we have an accurate parallax for the host star. The FGS will obtain a relative parallax of each host star with respect to its background reference frame. To convert this to an absolute parallax requires us to determine the parallaxes of the stars that comprise the reference frame. We do this using spectroscopic parallaxes: combining the spectral types of the reference frame stars with UBVRIJHK photometry. We require two nights of time with the RCSP on the CTIO 4 m telescope to obtain the spectra needed to classify the fourteen reference stars in two of our four program fields. We also need to obtain UBVRI photometry of one of these stars using service time on the CTIO 0.9 m and request 0.25 night for that effort.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1528349