Doug Long brief presentation about his research with XO transiting planet survey. Want to estimate mass but really only get m*sin(i). Range of possible i values fairly great. FInd a lot of things that are brown dwarfs. If you find a transit then you know your inclination is almost 0, can determine exact properties of the orbit. Want to follow-up because you can determine atmosphere with right measurements (in transit and out of transit).

Many RV planets discovered, some of these will transit. Transitsearch.org -- gives info about new objects.

OGLE planets don’t have great follow-up but are recorded.

Ground Surveys -- target fainter stars than RV and optimize equipment. Wide field, steer a little off of the galactic plane to avoid false detections.

 

Leading ground based surveys at the moment: HAT, TrES, WASP and XO

 

Gave example of XO camera set-up and analysis. Use a network of amatures set-up around the world, mostly northern hemisphere. 5 total XO planets so far.

 

Sample results from secondary transits and spectra.

 

Also brief discussion of press release:

Hubble Finds Carbon Dioxide on an Extrasolar Planet

This seems like a good proof of concept and will likely be done better in the future.

 

Our next meeting will be January 8th, 2009. Please send Susan article suggestions before then.