Starspots meet planets: A new tool to investigate the physics of transiting exoplanetary systems around active stars

我们建议利用开普勒和CoRoT空间望远镜获得的高精度长期测光来研究围绕活跃恒星运行的太阳系外行星。拟议调查的主要目标是通过系统和全面分析过境系统的较大样本中的点交叉事件来测量自旋轨道（错误）对准，以及当行星被主星星遮蔽时，在这些数据中系统地寻找次食。轨道对准对于太阳系外行星系统结构的统计评估是重要的，而测量次食及其深度为测量太阳系外行星系统的几何距离提供了独特的机会。这里提出的研究项目与SPP~1992年的两个基本问题之一直接相关（“系外行星的多样性告诉我们关于它们的形成过程和行星及行星系统的演变？“），拟议的研究具体包括在www.dfg.de/foerderung/info_wissenschaft/info_wissenschaft_16_46/index.html下宣布的优先方案”探索太阳系外行星多样性“（SPP 1992）中的科学领域，即观测太阳系外行星特性的特征并了解其形成和演变过程。

We propose to utilize the high-precision long-term photometry obtained with the Kepler and CoRoT space telescopes to study extrasolar planets orbiting active stars. The primary goals of the proposed investigations are the measurement of spin-orbit (mis-)alignment through a systematic and comprehensive analysis of spot-crossing events in a larger sample of transiting systems, as well as a systematic search for secondary eclipses in these data when the planet is occulted by the host star.Measurements of the spin-orbit alignment are important for a statistical assessment of the architecture of extrasolar planetary systems and the measurement of secondary eclipses and their depth provide the unique opportunity to measure the geometric albedo of extrasolar planets, which in turn allows to draw conclusions on their atmospheres.The here proposed research project is directly related to one of the two fundamental questions forming the basis of SPP~1992 (``What does the diversity of exoplanets tell us about their formation processes and the evolution of planets and planetary systems?'') and the proposed research specifically includes the science areas in the announcement of the Priority Programme ''Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets'' (SPP 1992) under www.dfg.de/foerderung/info_wissenschaft/info_wissenschaft_16_46/index.html, viz.the observational characterization of exoplanetary properties and an understanding of their formation and evolution processes.