Transiting planets of intermediate-mass stars

与类太阳恒星的行星相比，人们对中等质量恒星（1.3-2.1 Msun）的近距离行星知之甚少。探测到一颗（几颗）靠近中等质量的主序恒星的行星，将表明行星的形成和迁移时间一定很短，因为这类恒星的原行星盘的寿命很短。它还将使我们能够发现这些恒星的行星是否与类太阳恒星的行星具有不同的性质（例如，质量更高，密度更高），正如行星形成理论所预测的那样。我们关注的是由CoRoT发现的轨道周期小于4天的过境候选行星。一项可行性研究表明，在这些类型的恒星周围，有可能探测到质量大于2 MJup的行星。为了研究中质量恒星的凌日行星，我们对corot卫星获得的高精度光曲线进行了分析。在确定了合适的候选者后，我们利用麦克唐纳天文台的2.1米望远镜进行了第一次观测。这些观测表明，测量中等质量恒星的径向速度是可能的，我们确定了合适的候选者。然后，我们向西班牙-德国天文中心（DSAZ）提交了一份建议，以便用安装在2.2米望远镜上的新的咖啡梯队光谱仪以更高的精度观测这些天体。

In contrast to planets of solar-like stars, very little is known about close-in planets of intermediate mass stars (1.3-2.1 Msun). The detection of a (several) close-in planet(s) of main-sequence stars of intermediate-mass would show that the formation and migration time of planets must be short, because the life time of the proto-planetary disks of such stars is short. It would also allow us to find out whether planets of such stars have different properties than planets of solar like stars (e.g. higher mass, higher density), as predicted by theory of planet-formation. We focus on transiting planet-candidates discovered by CoRoT with orbital periods less than 4 days. A feasibility study with the shows that it is possible to detect planets with masses greater than 2 MJup around these types of stars.In order to study transiting planets of intermediate-mass stars, we have analyzed high-precision light-curves obtained with the CoRoT-satellite. After identifying suitable candidates, we carried out a first observing run using the 2.1-m telescope at McDonald observatory. These observations showed that it is possible to measure the radial-velocity of intermediate-mass stars and we identified suitable candidates. We then submitted a proposal to the Spanish-German-astronomical centre (DSAZ) in order to observe these objects with a higher precision with the new Cafe-echelle spectrograph mounted on the 2.2-m telescope.