CAREER: The True Mass-Radius-Period Distribution of Small Exoplanets

事业：小型系外行星的真实质量半径周期分布

• 批准号: 2143195
• 负责人: Darin Ragozzine
• 金额: $ 45.5万
• 依托单位: Brigham Young University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-01 至 2027-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143195&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; True; Mass; Radius; Period

One of the chief goals in exoplanet research today is to understand the mass distribution of planets in the universe. Having accurate masses will help establish mass/density vs. orbital radius relationships, and to identify rocky Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. These advances represent an important new avenue to understanding planetary formation processes. The work proposed here will mine the Kepler data and use new techniques to identify masses of planets in all 706 multi-transit (multi-planet) systems observed by the Kepler spacecraft. Right now, masses can be estimated for about 10% of this sample: the systems in which transit-time variations (TTVs) are observed. The results of this work will guide future observations and searches done for Earth-like planets, be they done with space-based telescopes, such as JWST, or ground-based telescopes, such as the future US-ELTs. Outreach and education efforts include the mentoring of at least five students from under-represented groups, the development of research-based education resources, the development of a library of animated gifs related to astronomy, and supporting development of a chapter on exoplanets in an OpenStax astronomy textbook.The team will conduct an analysis of all 706 Kepler multi-transiting systems (MTSs) using their publicly-available PhotoDynamical Multi-planet Model (PhoDyMM). A photodynamical model includes the full n-body dynamical evolution of a planetary system, but fits directly to the Kepler photometric lightcurve itself. Until now, most analyses of MTSs have relied upon transit timing variations (TTVs) as the multiple planets tug each other around, slightly delaying or accelerating expected transits. Full photodynamical analysis has been applied to only 20 of the 706 known Kepler MTSs. This technique also makes use of the Kepler short cadence data, which traditional TTV analysis typically ignores. In addition to finding masses for many super-Earths and other larger planets, the team expects to make at least 50 new mass determinations of the smallest exoplanets, until now inaccessible to current methods. This method has the promise to detect new planets at the lower end of the mass distribution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

今天系外行星研究的主要目标之一是了解行星在宇宙中的质量分布。拥有准确的质量将有助于建立质量/密度与轨道半径之间的关系，并有助于识别宜居带中类似地球的岩石行星。这些进展代表了理解行星形成过程的重要新途径。这里提出的工作将挖掘开普勒数据，并使用新技术来识别开普勒航天器观测到的所有706个多凌日(多行星)系统中的行星质量。目前，这个样本中大约10%的质量可以被估计出来：在这些系统中，观测到了穿越时间变化(TTV)。这项工作的结果将指导未来对类地行星的观测和搜索，无论是使用JWST等天基望远镜，还是使用未来的US-ELTS等地面望远镜。外展和教育努力包括指导至少五名来自代表性不足群体的学生，开发基于研究的教育资源，开发一个与天文学有关的动画GIF库，以及支持在OpenStAX天文学教科书中开发一个关于系外行星的章节。该团队将使用公开可用的光动力学多行星模型(PhoDyMM)对所有706个开普勒多行星凌日系统(MTSS)进行分析。光动力学模型包括行星系统的完整n体动力学演化，但直接适用于开普勒光度学光曲线本身。到目前为止，对MTSS的大多数分析都依赖于凌日计时变化(TTV)，因为多颗行星相互拖拽，略微推迟或加速了预期的凌日。全光动力学分析仅应用于已知的706个开普勒mts中的20个。这项技术还利用了开普勒短节奏数据，而传统的TTV分析通常忽略了这一点。除了发现许多超级地球和其他较大行星的质量外，该团队预计将对最小的系外行星进行至少50次新的质量测定，目前的方法还无法获得这些测定结果。这种方法有希望在大规模分布的较低端发现新的行星。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。