Coordination Funds

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The DFG Research Unit "Blue Planets around Red Stars" exploits scientific data from one of the largest radial velocity (RV) surveys for planets around nearby, cool dwarf stars. Together with five Spanish partner institutes and the Observatory Calar Alto in Andalucia, the Research Unit members built two specialized spectrographs CARMENES that are in operation since Jan 1, 2016. The consortium receives 750 (useful) observing nights as Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO), which are used for the search for low-mass planets around cool stars. During the first funding period, the Research Unit enabled us to fully exploit the scientific data from our survey. The results from the first period include the discovery of 19 planets, among them highlights like a long-period planet around Barnard's star (the second closest star system to Earth), a two-planet system around Teegarden's star (an ultra-cool dwarf only 12 light years away), and a giant planet in orbit around a low-mass star (the existence of GJ 3512b requires non-standard modes of planet formation). Furthermore, in-depth characterization of the stars, of RV methods at long wavelengths, and the analysis of planetary atmospheres are among the key results of the Research Unit. In this renewal proposal, we are asking for the second phase of our Research Unit during which we want to continue the successful work on CARMENES data. For the second phase, we concentrate on the planets and their atmospheres, and we aim to include the analysis of transiting planets discovered by the TESS satellite.