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The degree of alignment between a star’s spin axis and the orbital plane of its planets (the stellar obliquity) is related to interesting and poorly understood processes that occur during planet formation and evolution. Hot Jupiters orbiting hot stars (≳6250 K) display a wide range of obliquities, while similar planets orbiting cool stars are preferentially aligned. Tidal dissipation is expected to be more rapid in stars with thick convective envelopes, potentially explaining this trend. Evolved stars provide an opportunity to test the damping hypothesis, particularly stars that were hot on the main sequence and have since cooled and developed deep convective envelopes. We present the first systematic study of the obliquities of hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants that recently developed convective envelopes using Rossiter–McLaughlin observations. Our sample includes two newly discovered systems in the Giants Transiting Giants survey (TOI-6029 b, TOI-4379 b). We find that the orbits of hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants that have cooled below ∼6250 K are aligned or nearly aligned with the spin axis of their host stars, indicating rapid tidal realignment after the emergence of a stellar convective envelope. We place an upper limit for the timescale of realignment for hot Jupiters orbiting subgiants at ∼500 Myr. Comparison with a simplified tidal evolution model shows that obliquity damping needs to be ∼4 orders of magnitude more efficient than orbital period decay to damp the obliquity without destroying the planet, which is consistent with recent predictions for tidal dissipation from inertial waves excited by hot Jupiters on misaligned orbits.

The nearby LHS 1678 (TOI-696) system contains two confirmed planets and a wide-orbit, likely brown-dwarf companion, which orbit an M2 dwarf with a unique evolutionary history. The host star occupies a narrow “gap” in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram lower main sequence, associated with the M dwarf fully convective boundary and long-term luminosity fluctuations. This system is one of only about a dozen M dwarf multiplanet systems to date that hosts an ultra-short-period planet (USP). Here we validate and characterize a third planet in the LHS 1678 system using TESS Cycle 1 and 3 data and a new ensemble of ground-based light curves. LHS 1678 d is a 0.98 ± 0.07 R _⊕ planet in a 4.97 day orbit, with an insolation flux of ${9.1}_{-0.8}^{+0.9}\,{S}_{\oplus }$ . These properties place it near 4:3 mean motion resonance with LHS 1678 c and in company with LHS 1678 c in the Venus zone. LHS 1678 c and d are also twins in size and predicted mass, making them a powerful duo for comparative exoplanet studies. LHS 1678 d joins its siblings as another compelling candidate for atmospheric measurements with the JWST and mass measurements using high-precision radial velocity techniques. Additionally, USP LHS 1678 b breaks the “peas-in-a-pod” trend in this system although additional planets could fill in the “pod” beyond its orbit. LHS 1678's unique combination of system properties and their relative rarity among the ubiquity of compact multiplanet systems around M dwarfs makes the system a valuable benchmark for testing theories of planet formation and evolution.

JWST has ushered in an era of unprecedented ability to characterize exoplanetary atmospheres. While there are over 5000 confirmed planets, more than 4000 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) planet candidates are still unconfirmed and many of the best planets for atmospheric characterization may remain to be identified. We present a sample of TESS planets and planet candidates that we identify as “best-in-class” for transmission and emission spectroscopy with JWST. These targets are sorted into bins across equilibrium temperature T _eq and planetary radius R _p and are ranked by a transmission and an emission spectroscopy metric (TSM and ESM, respectively) within each bin. We perform cuts for expected signal size and stellar brightness to remove suboptimal targets for JWST. Of the 194 targets in the resulting sample, 103 are unconfirmed TESS planet candidates, also known as TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs). We perform vetting and statistical validation analyses on these 103 targets to determine which are likely planets and which are likely false positives, incorporating ground-based follow-up from the TESS Follow-up Observation Program to aid the vetting and validation process. We statistically validate 18 TOIs, marginally validate 31 TOIs to varying levels of confidence, deem 29 TOIs likely false positives, and leave the dispositions for four TOIs as inconclusive. Twenty-one of the 103 TOIs were confirmed independently over the course of our analysis. We intend for this work to serve as a community resource and motivate formal confirmation and mass measurements of each validated planet. We encourage more detailed analysis of individual targets by the community.

Carbon monoxide was recently reported in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-39b using the NIRSpec PRISM transit observation of this planet, collected as part of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program. This detection, however, could not be confidently confirmed in the initial analysis of the higher-resolution observations with NIRSpec G395H disperser. Here we confirm the detection of CO in the atmosphere of WASP-39b using the NIRSpec G395H data and cross-correlation techniques. We do this by searching for the CO signal in the unbinned transmission spectrum of the planet between 4.6 and 5.0 μ m, where the contribution of CO is expected to be higher than that of other anticipated molecules in the planet’s atmosphere. Our search results in a detection of CO with a cross-correlation function (CCF) significance of 6.6 σ when using a template with only ^12 C ^16 O lines. The CCF significance of the CO signal increases to 7.5 σ when including in the template lines from additional CO isotopologues, with the largest contribution being from ^13 C ^16 O. Our results highlight how cross-correlation techniques can be a powerful tool for unveiling the chemical composition of exoplanetary atmospheres from medium-resolution transmission spectra, including the detection of isotopologues.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is predicted to be the dominant carbon-bearing molecule in giant planet atmospheres and, along with water, is important for discerning the oxygen and therefore carbon-to-oxygen ratio of these planets. The fundamental absorption mode of CO has a broad, double-branched structure composed of many individual absorption lines from 4.3 to 5.1 μ m, which can now be spectroscopically measured with JWST. Here we present a technique for detecting the rotational sub-band structure of CO at medium resolution with the NIRSpec G395H instrument. We use a single transit observation of the hot Jupiter WASP-39b from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science (JTEC ERS) program at the native resolution of the instrument ( R ∼ 2700) to resolve the CO absorption structure. We robustly detect absorption by CO, with an increase in transit depth of 264 ± 68 ppm, in agreement with the predicted CO contribution from the best-fit model at low resolution. This detection confirms our theoretical expectations that CO is the dominant carbon-bearing molecule in WASP-39b’s atmosphere and further supports the conclusions of low C/O and supersolar metallicities presented in the JTEC ERS papers for WASP-39b.

We present 307 type Ia supernova (SN) light curves from the first 4 yr of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. We use this sample to characterize the shapes of the early-time light curves, measure the rise times from first light to peak, and search for companion star interactions. Using simulations, we show that light curves must have noise 31 R _⊙ (separations >5.7 × 10 ^12 cm, 99.9% confidence level) and disfavor companions having Roche lobe radii >10 R _⊙ (separations >1.9 × 10 ^12 cm, 95% confidence level). Lastly, we discuss the implications of our results for the intrinsic fraction of single degenerate progenitor systems.

Observational data from astronomical imaging surveys contain information about a variety of source populations and environments, and their complexity will increase substantially as telescopes become more sensitive. Even for existing observations, measuring the correlations between pointlike and diffuse emission can be crucial to correctly inferring the properties of any individual component. For this task, information is typically lost, because of conservative data cuts, aggressive filtering, or incomplete treatment of contaminated data. We present the code PCAT-DE , an extension of probabilistic cataloging, designed to simultaneously model pointlike and diffuse signals. This work incorporates both explicit spatial templates and a set of nonparametric Fourier component templates into a forward model of astronomical images, reducing the number of processing steps applied to the observed data. Using synthetic Herschel-SPIRE multiband observations, we demonstrate that point-source and diffuse emission can be reliably separated and measured. We present two applications of this model. For the first, we perform point-source detection/photometry in the presence of galactic cirrus and demonstrate that cosmic infrared background galaxy counts can be recovered in cases of significant contamination. In the second, we show that the spatially extended thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect signal can be reliably measured even when it is subdominant to the pointlike emission from individual galaxies.

We report the discovery and Doppler mass measurement of a 7.4 days 2.3 R _⊕ mini-Neptune around a metal-poor K dwarf BD+29 2654 (TOI-2018). Based on a high-resolution Keck/HIRES spectrum, the Gaia parallax, and multiwavelength photometry from the UV to the mid-infrared, we found that the host star has ${T}_{\mathrm{eff}}={4174}_{-42}^{+34}$ K, $\mathrm{log}g={4.62}_{-0.03}^{+0.02}$ , [Fe/H] = − 0.58 ± 0.18, M _* = 0.57 ± 0.02 M _⊙ , and R _* = 0.62 ± 0.01 R _⊙ . Precise Doppler measurements with Keck/HIRES revealed a planetary mass of M _p = 9.2 ± 2.1 M _⊕ for TOI-2018 b. TOI-2018 b has a mass and radius that are consistent with an Earthlike core, with a ∼1%-by-mass hydrogen/helium envelope or an ice–rock mixture. The mass of TOI-2018 b is close to the threshold for runaway accretion and hence giant planet formation. Such a threshold is predicted to be around 10 M _⊕ or lower for a low-metallicity (low-opacity) environment. If TOI-2018 b is a planetary core that failed to undergo runaway accretion, it may underline the reason why giant planets are rare around low-metallicity host stars (one possibility is their shorter disk lifetimes). With a K -band magnitude of 7.1, TOI-2018 b may be a suitable target for transmission spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope. The system is also amenable to metastable Helium observation; the detection of a Helium exosphere would help distinguish between a H/He-enveloped planet and a water world.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to start the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in early to mid-2025. This multiband wide-field synoptic survey will transform our view of the solar system, with the discovery and monitoring of over five million small bodies. The final survey strategy chosen for LSST has direct implications on the discoverability and characterization of solar system minor planets and passing interstellar objects. Creating an inventory of the solar system is one of the four main LSST science drivers. The LSST observing cadence is a complex optimization problem that must balance the priorities and needs of all the key LSST science areas. To design the best LSST survey strategy, a series of operation simulations using the Rubin Observatory scheduler have been generated to explore the various options for tuning observing parameters and prioritizations. We explore the impact of the various simulated LSST observing strategies on studying the solar system’s small body reservoirs. We examine what are the best observing scenarios and review what are the important considerations for maximizing LSST solar system science. In general, most of the LSST cadence simulations produce ±5% or less variations in our chosen key metrics, but a subset of the simulations significantly hinder science returns with much larger losses in the discovery and light-curve metrics.

We report the discovery and orbital characterization of three new transiting warm giant planets. These systems were initially identified as presenting single-transit events in the light curves generated from the full-frame images of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Follow-up radial velocity measurements and additional light curves were used to determine the orbital periods and confirm the planetary nature of the candidates. The planets orbit slightly metal-rich late F- and early G-type stars. We find that TOI 4406b has a mass of M _P = 0.30 ± 0.04 M _J , a radius of R _P = 1.00 ± 0.02 R _J , and a low-eccentricity orbit ( e = 0.15 ± 0.05) with a period of P = 30.08364 ±0.00005 days. TOI 2338b has a mass of M _P = 5.98 ± 0.20 M _J , a radius of R _P = 1.00 ± 0.01 R _J , and a highly eccentric orbit ( e = 0.676 ± 0.002) with a period of P = 22.65398 ± 0.00002 days. Finally, TOI 2589b has a mass of M _P = 3.50 ± 0.10 M _J , a radius of R _P = 1.08 ± 0.03 R _J , and an eccentric orbit ( e = 0.522 ± 0.006) with a period of P = 61.6277 ± 0.0002 days. TOI 4406b and TOI 2338b are enriched in metals compared to their host stars, while the structure of TOI 2589b is consistent with having similar metal enrichment to its host star.

TOI-270 d is a temperate sub-Neptune discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) around a bright ( J = 9.1 mag) M3V host star. With an approximate radius of 2 R _⊕ and equilibrium temperature of 350 K, TOI-270 d is one of the most promising small exoplanets for atmospheric characterization using transit spectroscopy. Here we present a primary transit observation of TOI-270 d made with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) spectrograph across the 1.126–1.644 μ m wavelength range, and a 95% credible upper limit of 8.2 × 10 ^−14 erg s ^−1 cm ^−2 Å ^−1 arcsec ^−2 for the stellar Ly α emission obtained using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The transmission spectrum derived from the TESS and WFC3 data provides evidence for molecular absorption by a hydrogen-rich atmosphere at 4 σ significance relative to a featureless spectrum. The strongest evidence for any individual absorber is obtained for H _2 O, which is favored at 3 σ significance. When retrieving on the WFC3 data alone and allowing for the possibility of a heterogeneous stellar brightness profile, the detection significance of H _2 O is reduced to 2.8 σ . Further observations are therefore required to robustly determine the atmospheric composition of TOI-270 d and assess the impact of stellar heterogeneity. If confirmed, our findings would make TOI-270 d one of the smallest and coolest exoplanets to date with detected atmospheric spectral features.

The TESS mission produces a large amount of time series data, only a small fraction of which contain detectable exoplanetary transit signals. Deep-learning techniques such as neural networks have proved effective at differentiating promising astrophysical eclipsing candidates from other phenomena such as stellar variability and systematic instrumental effects in an efficient, unbiased, and sustainable manner. This paper presents a high-quality data set containing light curves from the Primary Mission and 1st Extended Mission full-frame images and periodic signals detected via box least-squares. The data set was curated using a thorough manual review process then used to train a neural network called Astronet-Triage-v2 . On our test set, for transiting/eclipsing events, we achieve a 99.6% recall (true positives over all data with positive labels) at a precision of 75.7% (true positives over all predicted positives). Since 90% of our training data is from the Primary Mission, we also test our ability to generalize on held-out 1st Extended Mission data. Here, we find an area under the precision-recall curve of 0.965, a 4% improvement over Astronet-Triage . On the TESS object of interest (TOI) Catalog through 2022 April, a shortlist of planets and planet candidates, Astronet-Triage-v2 is able to recover 3577 out of 4140 TOIs, while Astronet-Triage only recovers 3349 targets at an equal level of precision. In other words, upgrading to Astronet-Triage-v2 helps save at least 200 planet candidates from being lost. The new model is currently used for planet candidate triage in the Quick-Look Pipeline.

We report the discovery of TOI-4562b (TIC-349576261), a Jovian planet orbiting a young F7V-type star, younger than the Praesepe/Hyades clusters (

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission promises to improve our understanding of hot Jupiters by providing an all-sky, magnitude-limited sample of transiting hot Jupiters suitable for population studies. Assembling such a sample requires confirming hundreds of planet candidates with additional follow-up observations. Here we present 20 hot Jupiters that were detected using TESS data and confirmed to be planets through photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging observations coordinated by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program. These 20 planets have orbital periods shorter than 7 days and orbit relatively bright FGK stars (10.9 < G < 13.0). Most of the planets are comparable in mass to Jupiter, although there are four planets with masses less than that of Saturn. TOI-3976b, the longest-period planet in our sample ( P = 6.6 days), may be on a moderately eccentric orbit ( e = 0.18 ± 0.06), while observations of the other targets are consistent with them being on circular orbits. We measured the projected stellar obliquity of TOI-1937A b, a hot Jupiter on a 22.4 hr orbit with the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, finding the planet’s orbit to be well aligned with the stellar spin axis (∣ λ ∣ = 4.°0 ± 3.°5). We also investigated the possibility that TOI-1937 is a member of the NGC 2516 open cluster but ultimately found the evidence for cluster membership to be ambiguous. These objects are part of a larger effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters to be used for future demographic and detailed characterization work.

Deep optical and near-infrared imaging of the entire Galactic plane is essential for understanding our Galaxy’s stars, gas, and dust. The second data release of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) Plane Survey extends the five-band optical and near-infrared survey of the southern Galactic plane to cover 6.5% of the sky, ∣ b ∣ ≤ 10°, and 6° > ℓ > −124°, complementary to coverage by Pan-STARRS1. Typical single-exposure effective depths, including crowding effects and other complications, are 23.5, 22.6, 22.1, 21.6, and 20.8 mag in g , r , i , z , and Y bands, respectively, with around 1″ seeing. The survey comprises 3.32 billion objects built from 34 billion detections in 21,400 exposures, totaling 260 hr open shutter time on the DECam at Cerro Tololo. The data reduction pipeline features several improvements, including the addition of synthetic source injection tests to validate photometric solutions across the entire survey footprint. A convenient functional form for the detection bias in the faint limit was derived and leveraged to characterize the photometric pipeline performance. A new postprocessing technique was applied to every detection to debias and improve uncertainty estimates of the flux in the presence of structured backgrounds, specifically targeting nebulosity. The images and source catalogs are publicly available at http://decaps.skymaps.info/ .

The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of planetary evolution by providing new opportunities to discover young exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and Fürnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called “Group-X” by the former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this association, and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members using TESS data. The clear color–period sequence indicates that the association is the same age as the 300 ± 50 Myr old NGC 3532. We obtained optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically validate TOI 2048 b, which is a 2.1 ± 0.2 R _⊕ radius planet on a 13.8-day orbit around its 300 Myr old host star.