Search

Very-high Energy (VHE) gamma-ray astroparticle physics is a relatively young field, and observations over the past decade have surprisingly revealed almost two hundred VHE emitters which appear to act as cosmic particle accelerators. These sources are an important component of the Universe, influencing the evolution of stars and galaxies. At the same time, they also act as a probe of physics in the most extreme environments known - such as in supernova explosions, and around or after the merging of black holes and neutron stars. However, the existing experiments have provided exciting glimpses, but often falling short of supplying the full answer. A deeper understanding of the TeV sky requires a significant improvement in sensitivity at TeV energies, a wider energy coverage from tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV and a much better angular and energy resolution with respect to the currently running facilities. The next generation gamma-ray observatory, the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), is the answer to this need. In this talk I will present this upcoming observatory from its design to the construction, and its potential science exploitation. CTAO will allow the entire astronomical community to explore a new discovery space that will likely lead to paradigm-changing breakthroughs. In particular, CTA has an unprecedented sensitivity to short (sub-minute) timescale phenomena, placing it as a key instrument in the future of multi-messenger and multi-wavelength time domain astronomy. I will conclude the talk presenting the first scientific results obtained by the LST-1, the prototype of one CTAO telescope type - the Large-Sized Telescope, that is currently under commission., PoS: Proceedings of Science, 395, ISSN:1824-8039, Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021)

J.M.O. acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Social Fund (ESF) through the PhD grant SFRH/BD/131700/2017. The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's H2020 2014-2021 ERC grant Agreement nffi 669416 "Lucky Star". We thank S. Para who supported some travels to observe the 5 October 2017 occultation. T.B. was supported for this research by an appointment to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Post-Doctoral Program at the Ames Research Center administered by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) through a contract with NASA. We acknowledge useful exchanges with Mark Gurwell on the ALMA CO observations. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. J.L.O., P.S.-S., N.M. and R.D. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), they also acknowledge the financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-2017-84637-R and the Proyecto de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucia J.A. 2012-FQM1776. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no. 687378, as part of the project "Small Bodies Near and Far" (SBNAF). P.S.-S. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-RTI2018-098657-J-I00 "LEO-SBNAF". The work was partially based on observations made at the Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica (LNA), Itajuba-MG, Brazil. The following authors acknowledge the respective CNPq grants: F.B.-R. 309578/2017-5; R.V.-M. 304544/2017-5, 401903/2016-8; J.I.B.C. 308150/2016-3 and 305917/2019-6; M.A. 427700/20183, 310683/2017-3, 473002/2013-2. This study was financed in part by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior -Brasil (CAPES) -Finance Code 001 and the National Institute of Science and Technology of the e-Universe project (INCT do e-Universo, CNPq grant 465376/2014-2). G.B.R. acknowledges CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ grant E26/203.173/2016 and CAPES-PRINT/UNESP grant 88887.571156/2020-00, M.A. FAPERJ grant E26/111.488/2013 and A.R.G.Jr. FAPESP grant 2018/11239-8. B.E.M. thanks CNPq 150612/2020-6 and CAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-05 grants. Part of the photometric data used in this study were collected in the frame of the photometric observations with the robotic and remotely controlled telescope at the University of Athens Observatory (UOAO; Gazeas 2016). The 2.3 m Aristarchos telescope is operated on Helmos Observatory by the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. Observations with the 2.3 m Aristarchos telescope were carried out under OPTICON programme. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730890. This material reflects only the authors views and the Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The 1. 2m Kryoneri telescope is operated by the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. The Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) is managed by the Fondazione Clement Fillietroz-ONLUS, which is supported by the Regional Government of the Aosta Valley, the Town Municipality of Nus and the "Unite des Communes valdotaines Mont-Emilius". The 0.81 m Main Telescope at the OAVdA was upgraded thanks to a Shoemaker NEO Grant 2013 from The Planetary Society. D.C. and J.M.C. acknowledge funds from a 2017 'Research and Education' grant from Fondazione CRT-Cassa di Risparmio di Torino. P.M. acknowledges support from the Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia ref. PTDC/FISAST/29942/2017 through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE 2020 (ref. POCI010145 FEDER007672). F.J. acknowledges Jean Luc Plouvier for his help. S.J.F. and C.A. would like to thank the UCL student support observers: Helen Dai, Elise Darragh-Ford, Ross Dobson, Max Hipperson, Edward Kerr-Dineen, Isaac Langley, Emese Meder, Roman Gerasimov, Javier Sanjuan, and Manasvee Saraf. We are grateful to the CAHA, OSN and La Hita Observatory staffs. This research is partially based on observations collected at Centro Astronomico HispanoAleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by Junta de Andalucia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAA-CSIC). This research was also partially based on observation carried out at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN) operated by Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC). This article is also based on observations made with the Liverpool Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. Partially based on observations made with the Tx40 and Excalibur telescopes at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre in Teruel, a Spanish Infraestructura Cientifico-Tecnica Singular (ICTS) owned, managed and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA). Tx40 and Excalibur are funded with the Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel (FITE). A.R.R. would like to thank Gustavo Roman for the mechanical adaptation of the camera to the telescope to allow for the observation to be recorded. R.H., J.F.R., S.P.H. and A.S.L. have been supported by the Spanish projects AYA2015-65041P and PID2019-109467GB-100 (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19. Our great thanks to Omar Hila and their collaborators in Atlas Golf Marrakech Observatory for providing access to the T60cm telescope. TRAPPIST is a project funded by the Belgian Fonds (National) de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant PDR T.0120.21. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liege, and performed in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakesh. E.J. is a FNRS Senior Research Associate., Context. A stellar occultation by Neptune's main satellite, Triton, was observed on 5 October 2017 from Europe, North Africa, and the USA. We derived 90 light curves from this event, 42 of which yielded a central flash detection. Aims. We aimed at constraining Triton's atmospheric structure and the seasonal variations of its atmospheric pressure since the Voyager 2 epoch (1989). We also derived the shape of the lower atmosphere from central flash analysis. Methods. We used Abel inversions and direct ray-tracing code to provide the density, pressure, and temperature profiles in the altitude range similar to 8 km to similar to 190 km, corresponding to pressure levels from 9 mu bar down to a few nanobars. Results. (i) A pressure of 1.18 +/- 0.03 mu bar is found at a reference radius of 1400 km (47 km altitude). (ii) A new analysis of the Voyager 2 radio science occultation shows that this is consistent with an extrapolation of pressure down to the surface pressure obtained in 1989. (iii) A survey of occultations obtained between 1989 and 2017 suggests that an enhancement in surface pressure as reported during the 1990s might be real, but debatable, due to very few high S/N light curves and data accessible for reanalysis. The volatile transport model analysed supports a moderate increase in surface pressure, with a maximum value around 2005-2015 no higher than 23 mu bar. The pressures observed in 1995-1997 and 2017 appear mutually inconsistent with the volatile transport model presented here. (iv) The central flash structure does not show evidence of an atmospheric distortion. We find an upper limit of 0.0011 for the apparent oblateness of the atmosphere near the 8 km altitude., Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology SFRH/BD/131700/2017, European Social Fund (ESF) SFRH/BD/131700/2017, European Research Council under the European Community's H2020 2014-2021 ERC grant 669416, Spanish Government SEV-2017-0709 AYA-2017-84637-R AYA-RTI2018-098657-J-I00, Junta de Andalucia 2012-FQM1776, European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, as part of the project "Small Bodies Near and Far" (SBNAF) 687378, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ), Fundacao de Apoio a Pesquisa do Distrito Federal (FAPDF) 309578/2017-5 304544/2017-5 401903/2016-8 308150/2016-3 305917/2019-6 427700/2018-3 310683/2017-3 473002/2013-2, Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) 001, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 465376/2014-2 CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ grant E26/203.173/2016 CAPES-PRINT/UNESP grant 88887.571156/2020-00, Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio De Janeiro (FAPERJ) E26/111.488/2013, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) 2018/11239-8, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 150612/2020-6, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 730890, Regional Government of the Aosta Valley, Town Municipality of Nus, Unite des Communes valdotaines Mont-Emilius, Planetary Society, Fondazione CRT-Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PTDC/FISAST/29942/2017, FEDER through COMPETE 2020 POCI010145 FEDER007672, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel (FITE), Spanish Government AYA2015-65041P PID2019-109467GB-100, Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19, Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS PDR T.0120.21, University of Liege, CAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-05

[Context] The high number of super-Earth and Earth-like planets in the habitable zone detected around M-dwarf stars in recent years has revealed these stellar objects to be the key to planetary radial velocity (RV) searches. [Aims] Using the HARPS-N spectrograph within The HArps-n red Dwarf Exoplanet Survey (HADES) we have reached the precision needed to detect small planets with a few Earth masses using the spectroscopic radial velocity technique. HADES is mainly focused on the M-dwarf population of the northern hemisphere. [Methods] We obtained 138 HARPS-N RV measurements between 2013 May and 2020 September of GJ 720 A, classified as an M0.5 V star located at a distance of 15.56 pc. To characterize the stellar variability and to distinguish the periodic variation due to the Keplerian signals from those related to stellar activity, the HARPS-N spectroscopic activity indicators and the simultaneous photometric observations with the APACHE and EXORAP transit surveys were analyzed. We also took advantage of TESS, MEarth, and SuperWASP photometric surveys. The combined analysis of HARPS-N RVs and activity indicators let us address the nature of the periodic signals. The final model and the orbital planetary parameters were obtained by simultaneously fitting the stellar variability and the Keplerian signal using a Gaussian process regression and following a Bayesian criterion. [Results] The HARPS-N RV periodic signals around 40 days and 100 days have counterparts at the same frequencies in HARPS-N activity indicators and photometric light curves. We thus attribute these periodicities to stellar activity; the first period is likely associated with the stellar rotation. GJ 720 A shows the most significant signal at 19.466 ± 0.005 days with no counterparts in any stellar activity indices. We hence ascribe this RV signal, having a semi-amplitude of 4.72 ± 0.27 m s-1, to the presence of a sub-Neptune mass planet. The planet GJ 720 Ab has a minimum mass of 13.64 ± 0.79 Mpdbl, it is in circular orbit at 0.119 ± 0.002 AU from its parent star, and lies inside the inner boundary of the habitable zone around its parent star., This research was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research through the PREMIALE WOW 2013 research project under grant Ricerca di pianeti intorno a stelle di piccola massa. This paper makes use of data from the MEarth Project, which is a collaboration between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The MEarth Project acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering and the National Science Foundation under grants AST-0807690, AST-1109468, AST-1616624 and AST-1004488 (Alan T. Waterman Award), and a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www. cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. E.G.A. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation, and Universities through projects AYA-2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P, AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P, ESP2017-87676-C5-2-R, ESP2017-87143-R, and the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Project No. MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”– Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC/INTA). A.P. acknowledges support from ASI-INAF agreement 2018-22-HH.0 Partecipazione alla fase B1 della missione ARIEL. We acknowledge support from the Accordo Attuativo ASI-INAF no. 2018.22.HH.O, Partecipazione alla fase B1 della missione Ariel (ref. G. Micela). A.S., M.Pi. acknowledge the financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF n.2018-16-HH.0. M.P., I.R. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grant PGC2018-098153-B-C33, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. J.I.G.H. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MICINN under the 2013 Ramón y Cajal program RYC-2013-14875. A.S.M. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) under the 2019 Juan de la Cierva Programme. B.T.P. acknowledges Fundación La Caixa for the financial support received in the form of a Ph.D. contract. J.I.G.H., R.R., A.S.M., B.T.P. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MICINN AYA2017-86389-P.

We present here the development status of the NIR spectrograph of the Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) instrument, for the ESO/NTT telescope at La Silla (Chile). SOXS is a R~4,500 mean resolution spectrograph, with a simultaneously coverage from about 0.35 to 2.00 μm. It will be mounted at the Nasmyth focus of the NTT. The two UV-VIS-NIR wavelength ranges will be covered by two separated arms. The NIR spectrograph is a fully cryogenic echelle-dispersed spectrograph, working in the range 0.80-2.00 μm, equipped with a Hawaii H2RG IR array from Teledyne. The whole spectrograph will be cooled down to about 150 K (but the array at 40 K), to lower the thermal background, and equipped with a thermal filter to block any thermal radiation above 2.0 μm. In this work, we will show the advanced phase of integration of the NIR spectrograph.

SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) is a single object spectrograph, characterized by offering a wide simultaneous spectral coverage from U- to H-band, built by an international consortium for the 3.6-m ESO New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory, in the Southern part of the Chilean Atacama Desert. The consortium is focussed on a clear scientific goal: the spectrograph will observe all kind of transient and variable sources discovered by different surveys with a highly flexible schedule, updated daily, based on the Target of Opportunity concept. It will provide a key spectroscopic partner to any kind of imaging survey, becoming one of the premier transient follow-up instruments in the Southern hemisphere. SOXS will study a mixture of transients encompassing all distance scales and branches of astronomy, including fast alerts (such as gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves), mid-term alerts (such as supernovae and X-ray transients), and fixed-time events (such as the close-by passage of a minor planet or exoplanets). It will also have the scope to observe active galactic nuclei and blazars, tidal disruption events, fast radio bursts, and more. Besides of the consortium programs on guaranteed time, the instrument is offered to the ESO community for any kind of astrophysical target. The project has passed the Final Design Review and is currently in manufacturing and integration phase. This paper describes the development status of the project., Proc SPIE Volume 11447, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 1144709,2020

Son of X-Shooter (SOXS) will be a high-efficiency spectrograph with a mean Resolution-Slit product of ∼ 4500 over the entire band capable of simultaneously observing the complete spectral range 350-2000 nm. It consists of three scientific arms (the UV-VIS Spectrograph, the NIR Spectrograph, and the Acquisition Camera) connected by the Common Path system to the NTT, and the Calibration Unit. The Common Path is the backbone of the instrument and the interface to the NTT Nasmyth focus flange. The instrument project went through the Final Design Review in 2018 and is currently in Assembly Integration and test (AIT) Phase. This paper outlines the observing modes of SOXS and the efficiency of each subsystem and the laboratory test plan to evaluate it.

The forthcoming SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) will be a new spectroscopic facility for the ESO New Technology Telescope in La Silla, focused on transient events and able to cover both the UV-VIS and NIR bands. The instrument passed the Final Design Review in 2018 and is currently in manufacturing and integration phase. This paper is focused on the assembly and testing of the instrument control electronics, which will manage all the motorized functions, alarms, sensors, and electric interlocks. The electronics is hosted in two main control cabinets, divided in several subracks that are assembled to ensure easy accessibility and transportability, to simplify test, integration and maintenance. Both racks are equipped with independent power supply distribution and have their own integrated cooling systems. This paper shows the assembly strategy, reports on the development status and describes the tests performed to verify the system before the integration into the whole instrument.

We report on the first detection of very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula by a Cherenkov telescope in dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) configuration. The result has been achieved by means of the 4 m size ASTRI-Horn telescope, operated on Mt. Etna (Italy) and developed in the context of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory preparatory phase. The dual-mirror SC design is aplanatic and characterized by a small plate scale, allowing us to implement large field of view cameras with small-size pixel sensors and a high compactness. The curved focal plane of the ASTRI camera is covered by silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs), managed by an unconventional front-end electronics based on a customized peak-sensing detector mode. The system includes internal and external calibration systems, hardware and software for control and acquisition, and the complete data archiving and processing chain. The observations of the Crab Nebula were carried out in December 2018, during the telescope verification phase, for a total observation time (after data selection) of 24.4 h, equally divided into on- and off-axis source exposure. The camera system was still under commissioning and its functionality was not yet completely exploited. Furthermore, due to recent eruptions of the Etna Volcano, the mirror reflection efficiency was reduced. Nevertheless, the observations led to the detection of the source with a statistical significance of 5.4 sigma above an energy threshold of ~3 TeV. This result provides an important step towards the use of dual-mirror systems in Cherenkov gamma-ray astronomy. A pathfinder mini-array based on nine large field-of-view ASTRI-like telescopes is under implementation., 6 pages, 2 figures

We present the development of the End-to-End simulator for the SOXS instrument at the ESO-NTT 3.5-m telescope. SOXS will be a spectroscopic facility, made by two arms high efficiency spectrographs, able to cover the spectral range 350-2000 nm with resolving power R˜4500. The E2E model allows to simulate the propagation of photons starting from the scientific target of interest up to the detectors. The outputs of the simulator are synthetic frames, which will be mainly exploited for optimizing the pipeline development and possibly assisting for proper alignment and integration phases in laboratory and at the telescope. In this paper, we will detail the architecture of the simulator and the computational model, which are strongly characterized by modularity and flexibility. Synthetic spectral formats, related to different seeing and observing conditions, and calibration frames to be ingested by the pipeline are also presented.

This article is dedicated to the memory of H.-J. Bode, J. G. Greenhill and O. Faragó for their long-standing support and participation to occultation campaigns. The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community’s H2020 2014-2020 ERC Grant Agreement n° 669416 “Lucky Star”. E.M. thanks support from Concytec-Fondecyt-PE and GA, FC-UNI for providing support during the 2012 July 18 occultation. B.S. thanks S. Para for partly supporting this research though a donation, J. P. Beaulieu for helping us accessing to the Hobart Observatory facilities and B. Warner, B. L. Gary, C. Erickson, H. Reitsema, L. Albert, P. J. Merritt, T. Hall, W. J. Romanishin, Y. J. Choi for providing data during the 2007 March 18 occultation. M.A. thanks CNPq (Grants 427700/2018-3, 310683/2017-3 and 473002/2013-2) and FAPERJ (Grant E-26/111.488/2013). J.L.O. thanks support from grant AYA2017-89637-R. P.S.S. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no 687378, as part of the project “Small Bodies Near and Far” (SBNAF). J.L.O., R.D., P.S.S. and N.M. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). F.B.R. acknowledges CNPq support process 309578/2017-5. G.B.R. thanks support from the grant CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ (E26/203.173/2016). J.I.B.C. acknowledges CNPq grant 308150/2016-3. R.V.M. thanks the grants: CNPq-304544/2017-5, 401903/2016-8, and Faperj: PAPDRJ-45/2013 and E-26/203.026/2015. B.M. thanks the CAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-05 grant and CAPES/Brazil – Finance Code 001. B.M. and A.R.G.J. were financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liège, in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco). TRAPPIST-South is a project funded by the Belgian Fonds (National) de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F, with the participation of the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNS/SNSF). VSD, SPL, TRM and ULTRACAM are all supported by the STFC. K.G. acknowledges help from the team of Archenhold-Observatory, Berlin, and A.R. thanks G. Román (Granada) for help during the observation of the 2016 July 19 occultation. A.J.C.T. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry Project AYA2015-71718-R (including EU funds). We thank Caisey Harlingten for the repeated use of his 50 cm telescopes in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We thank the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. L.M. acknowledges support from the Italian Minister of Instruction, University and Research (MIUR) through FFABR 2017 fund and support from the University of Rome Tor Vergata through “Mission: Sustainability 2016” fund. The Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) is managed by the Fondazione Clément Fillietroz-ONLUS, which is supported by the Regional Governmentof the Aosta Valley, the Town Municipality of Nus and the “Unité des Communes valdôtaines Mont-Émilius”. The research was partially funded by a 2016 “Research and Education”s grant from Fondazione CRT. We thank D.P. Hinson for his constructive and detailed comments that helped to improve this article., Context. The tenuous nitrogen (N2) atmosphere on Pluto undergoes strong seasonal effects due to high obliquity and orbital eccentricity, and has recently (July 2015) been observed by the New Horizons spacecraft. Aims. The main goals of this study are (i) to construct a well calibrated record of the seasonal evolution of surface pressure on Pluto and (ii) to constrain the structure of the lower atmosphere using a central flash observed in 2015. Methods. Eleven stellar occultations by Pluto observed between 2002 and 2016 are used to retrieve atmospheric profiles (density, pressure, temperature) between altitude levels of ~5 and ~380 km (i.e. pressures from ~ 10 μbar to 10 nbar). Results. (i) Pressure has suffered a monotonic increase from 1988 to 2016, that is compared to a seasonal volatile transport model, from which tight constraints on a combination of albedo and emissivity of N2 ice are derived. (ii) A central flash observed on 2015 June 29 is consistent with New Horizons REX profiles, provided that (a) large diurnal temperature variations (not expected by current models) occur over Sputnik Planitia; and/or (b) hazes with tangential optical depth of ~0.3 are present at 4–7 km altitude levels; and/or (c) the nominal REX density values are overestimated by an implausibly large factor of ~20%; and/or (d) higher terrains block part of the flash in the Charon facing hemisphere., European Research Council under the European Community’s H2020 2014-2020 ERC Grant Agreement n° 669416 “Lucky Star”, Grants 427700/2018-3, 310683/2017-3 and 473002/2013-2) and FAPERJ (Grant E-26/111.488/2013), Grant AYA2017-89637-R. P.S.S. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no 687378, as part of the project “Small Bodies Near and Far” (SBNAF), Financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), Support process 309578/2017-5. G.B.R. thanks support from the grant CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ (E26/203.173/2016). J.I.B.C. acknowledges CNPq grant 308150/2016-3. R.V.M. thanks the grants: CNPq-304544/2017-5, 401903/2016-8, and Faperj: PAPDRJ-45/2013 and E-26/203.026/2015. B.M. thanks the CAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-05 grant and CAPES/Brazil – Finance Code 001., Grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F, with the participation of the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNS/SNSF), Support from the Spanish Ministry Project AYA2015-71718-R (including EU funds), Support from the Italian Minister of Instruction, University and Research (MIUR) through FFABR 2017 fund and support from the University of Rome Tor Vergata through “Mission: Sustainability 2016” fund

Context. Small planets around low-mass stars often show orbital periods in a range that corresponds to the temperate zones of their host stars which are therefore of prime interest for planet searches. Surface phenomena such as spots and faculae create periodic signals in radial velocities and in observational activity tracers in the same range, so they can mimic or hide true planetary signals. Aims. We aim to detect Doppler signals corresponding to planetary companions, determine their most probable orbital configurations, and understand the stellar activity and its impact on different datasets. Methods. We analyzed 22 yr of data of the M1.5 V-type star Gl 49 (BD+61 195) including HARPS-N and CARMENES spectrographs, complemented by APT2 and SNO photometry. Activity indices are calculated from the observed spectra, and all datasets are analyzed with periodograms and noise models. We investigated how the variation of stellar activity imprints on our datasets. We further tested the origin of the signals and investigate phase shifts between the different sets. To search for the best-fit model we maximize the likelihood function in a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. Results. As a result of this study, we are able to detect the super-Earth Gl 49b with a minimum mass of 5.6 M. It orbits its host star with a period of 13.85 d at a semi-major axis of 0.090 au and we calculate an equilibrium temperature of 350 K and a transit probability of 2.0%. The contribution from the spot-dominated host star to the different datasets is complex, and includes signals from the stellar rotation at 18.86 d, evolutionary timescales of activity phenomena at 40-80 d, and a long-term variation of at least four years.© 2019 ESO., M.P., I.R., J.C. M,D.B., E.H, and M.L., acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grant ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. G.S. acknowledges financial support from >Accordo ASI-INAF> No. 2013-016-R. 0 July 9, 2013 and July 9, 2015. The Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) is operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF -Fundacion Galileo Galilei at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). The HARPS-N Project is a collaboration between the Astronomical Observatory of the Geneva University (lead), the CfA in Cambridge, the Universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, the Queen's University of Belfast, and the TNG-INAF Observatory. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-PlanckGesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Science through projects RYC2013-14875, AYA2015-69350C3-2-P, AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P, ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP2017-87143R, ESP2017-87676-C05-1/2/5-R, and AYA2017-86389-P, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Program and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. Additional support was provided by the European Union FP7/2007-2013 program under grant agreement No. 313014 (ETAEARTH), the Progetto Premiale INAF 2015 FRONTIER, and the >Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa> award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709).

Context. M-dwarfs have proven to be ideal targets for planetary radial velocity (RV) searches due to their higher planet-star mass contrast, which favors the detection of low-mass planets. The abundance of super-Earth and Earth-like planets detected around this type of star motivates further such research on hosts without reported planetary companions. Aims. The HADES and CARMENES programs are aimed at carrying out extensive searches of exoplanetary systems around M-type stars in the northern hemisphere, allowing us to address, in a statistical sense, the properties of the planets orbiting these objects. In this work, we perform a spectroscopic and photometric study of one of the program stars (GJ 740), which exhibits a short-period RV signal that is compatible with a planetary companion. Methods. We carried out a spectroscopic analysis based on 129 HARPS-N spectra taken over a time span of 6 yr combined with 57 HARPS spectra taken over 4 yr, as well as 32 CARMENES spectra taken during more than 1 yr, resulting in a dataset with a time coverage of 10 yr. We also relied on 459 measurements from the public ASAS survey with a time-coverage of 8 yr, along with 5 yr of photometric magnitudes from the EXORAP project taken in the V, B, R, and I filters to carry out a photometric study. Both analyses were made using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations and Gaussian process regression to model the activity of the star. Results. We present the discovery of a short-period super-Earth with an orbital period of 2.37756-0.00011+0.00013 d and a minimum mass of 2.96-0.48+0.50 M . We offer an update to the previously reported characterization of the magnetic cycle and rotation period of the star, obtaining values of Prot = 35.563 ± 0.071 d and Pcycle = 2800 ± 150 d. Furthermore, the RV time series exhibits a possibly periodic long-term signal, which might be related to a Saturn-mass planet of ~100 M . © ESO 2021., B.T.P. acknowledges Fundación La Caixa for the financial support received in the form of a Ph.D. contract. A.S.M. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) under the 2019 Juan de la Cierva Programme. J.I.G.H. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MICINN under the 2013 Ramón y Cajal program RYC-2013-14875. B.T.P., A.S.M., J.I.G.H. and R.R. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MICINN AYA2017-86389-P. I.R. and M.Pe. acknowledge support from the Spanish MICINN and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grant PGC2018-098153-B-C33, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. G.A.P.S. acknowledges support from INAF through the Progetti Premiali funding scheme of the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research. G.A.P.S. acknowledges financial support from Progetto Premiale 2015 FRONTIERA (OB.FU. 1.05.06.11) funding scheme of the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research. G.S. acknowledges the funding support from Italian Space Agency (ASI) regulated by “Accordo ASI-INAF n. 2013-016-R.0 del 9 luglio 2013 e integrazione del 9 luglio 2015”. This research has received financial support from the agreement ASI-INAF n.2018-16-HH.0. The results of this paper were based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF-Fundación Galileo Galilei at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC); observations made with the HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla Observatory (Chile); and observations made with the CARMENES instrument. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almería, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investiga-ciones Científicas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Landessternwarte Königstuhl, Institut de Ciències de l’Espai, Insitut für Astrophysik Göttingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobi-ología and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), with additional contributions by the Spanish MICINN through projects RYC2013-14875, AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P, AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P, ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP2017-87143-R, ESP2017-87676-C05-1/2/5-R, and AYA2017-86389-P, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Program and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 “Blue Planets around Red Stars”, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucía. This paper made use of the IAC Supercomputing facility HTCon-dor (http://research.cs.wisc.edu/htcondor/), partly financed by the MICINN with FEDER funds, code IACA13-3E-2493. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper makes use of data from the first public release of the WASP data (Butters et al. 2010) as provided by the WASP consortium and services at the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www. cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular, the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) is a unique spectroscopic facility that will operate at the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) in La Silla from 2020 onward. The spectrograph will be able to cover simultaneously the UV-VIS and NIR bands exploiting two different arms and a Common Path feeding system. We present the design of the SOXS instrument control electronics. The electronics controls all the movements, alarms, cabinet temperatures, and electric interlocks of the instrument. We describe the main design concept. We decided to follow the ESO electronic design guidelines to minimize project time and risks and to simplify system maintenance. The design envisages Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) industrial components (e.g. Beckhoff PLC and EtherCAT fieldbus modules) to obtain a modular design and to increase the overall reliability and maintainability. Preassembled industrial motorized stages are adopted allowing for high precision assembly standards and a high reliability. The electronics is kept off-board whenever possible to reduce thermal issues and instrument weight and to increase the accessibility for maintenance purpose. The instrument project went through the Preliminary Design Review in 2017 and is currently in Final Design Phase (with FDR in July 2018). This paper outlines the status of the work and is part of a series of contributions describing the SOXS design and properties after the instrument Preliminary Design Review., 10 pages, 7 figures, to be publised in SPIE Proceedings 10707-90

SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) will be a spectrograph for the ESO NTT telescope capable to cover the optical and NIR bands, based on the heritage of the X-Shooter at the ESO-VLT. SOXS will be built and run by an international consortium, carrying out rapid and longer term Target of Opportunity requests on a variety of astronomical objects. SOXS will observe all kind of transient and variable sources from different surveys. These will be a mixture of fast alerts (e.g. gamma-ray bursts, gravitational waves, neutrino events), mid-term alerts (e.g. supernovae, X-ray transients), fixed time events (e.g. close-by passage of minor bodies). While the focus is on transients and variables, still there is a wide range of other astrophysical targets and science topics that will benefit from SOXS. The design foresees a spectrograph with a Resolution-Slit product ~ 4500, capable of simultaneously observing over the entire band the complete spectral range from the U- to the H-band. The limiting magnitude of R~20 (1 hr at S/N~10) is suited to study transients identified from on-going imaging surveys. Light imaging capabilities in the optical band (grizy) are also envisaged to allow for multi-band photometry of the faintest transients. This paper outlines the status of the project, now in Final Design Phase., Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, to be published in SPIE Proceedings 10702

SOXS (Son of X-shooter) is a wide band, medium resolution spectrograph for the ESO NTT with a first light expected in early 2021. The instrument will be composed by five semi-independent subsystems: a pre-slit Common Path (CP), an Acquisition Camera (AC), a Calibration Unit (CU), the NIR spectrograph, and the UV-VIS spectrograph. In this paper, we present the mechanical design of the subsystems, the kinematic mounts developed to simplify the final integration procedure and the maintenance. The concept of the CP and NIR optomechanical mounts developed for a simple pre- alignment procedure and for the thermal compensation of reflective and refractive elements will be shown.

SOXS (Son of X-Shooter) will be the new medium resolution (R~4500 for a 1 arcsec slit), high-efficiency, wide band spectrograph for the ESO-NTT telescope on La Silla. It will be able to cover simultaneously optical and NIR bands (350-2000nm) using two different arms and a pre-slit Common Path feeding system. SOXS will provide an unique facility to follow up any kind of transient event with the best possible response time in addition to high efficiency and availability. Furthermore, a Calibration Unit and an Acquisition Camera System with all the necessary relay optics will be connected to the Common Path sub-system. The Acquisition Camera, working in optical regime, will be primarily focused on target acquisition and secondary guiding, but will also provide an imaging mode for scientific photometry. In this work we give an overview of the Acquisition Camera System for SOXS with all the different functionalities. The optical and mechanical design of the system are also presented together with the preliminary performances in terms of optical quality, throughput, magnitude limits and photometric properties.

Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) is the new instrument for the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) in La Silla site (Chile) devised for the spectroscopic follow-up of transient sources. SOXS is composed by two medium resolution spectrographs able to cover the 350-2000 nm interval. An Acquisition Camera will provide a light imaging capability in the visible band. We present the procedure foreseen for the Assembly, Integration and Test activities (AIT) of SOXS that will be carried out at sub-systems level at various consortium partner premises and at system level both in Europe and Chile.

Son of X-Shooter (SOXS) will be a high-efficiency spectrograph with a mean Resolution-Slit product of 4500 (goal 5000) over the entire band capable of simultaneously observing the complete spectral range 350-2000 nm. It consists of three scientific arms (the UV-VIS Spectrograph, the NIR Spectrograph and the Acquisition Camera) connected by the Common Path system to the NTT and the Calibration Unit. The Common Path is the backbone of the instrument and the interface to the NTT Nasmyth focus flange. The light coming from the focus of the telescope is split by the common path optics into the two different optical paths in order to feed the two spectrographs and the acquisition camera. The instrument project went through the Preliminary Design Review in 2017 and is currently in Final Design Phase (with FDR in July 2018). This paper outlines the status of the Common Path system and is accompanied by a series of contributions describing the SOXS design and properties after the instrument Preliminary Design Review.

We present the NIR spectrograph of the Son Of XShooter (SOXS) instrument for the ESO-NTT telescope at La Silla (Chile). SOXS is a R~4,500 mean resolution spectrograph, with a simultaneously coverage from about 0.35 to 2.00 {\mu}m. It will be mounted at the Nasmyth focus of the NTT. The two UV-VIS-NIR wavelength ranges will be covered by two separated arms. The NIR spectrograph is a fully cryogenic echelle-dispersed spectrograph, working in the range 0.80-2.00 {\mu}m, equipped with an Hawaii H2RG IR array from Teledyne, working at 40 K. The spectrograph will be cooled down to about 150 K, to lower the thermal background, and equipped with a thermal filter to block any thermal radiation above 2.0 {\mu}m. In this poster we will show the main characteristics of the instrument along with the expected performances at the telescope., Comment: SPIE Conference, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation

SOXS will be a unique spectroscopic facility for the ESO NTT telescope able to cover the optical and NIR bands thanks to two different arms: the UV-VIS (350-850 nm), and the NIR (800-1800 nm). In this article, we describe the design of the visible camera cryostat and the architecture of the acquisition system. The UV-VIS detector system is based on a e2v CCD 44-82, a custom detector head coupled with the ESO continuous ow cryostats (CFC) cooling system and the NGC CCD controller developed by ESO. This paper outlines the status of the system and describes the design of the different parts that made up the UV-VIS arm and is accompanied by a series of contributions describing the SOXS design solutions., 9 pages, 13 figures, to be published in SPIE Proceedings 10702

In 2015 July 29 - September 1 the satellite XMM-Newton pointed at the BL Lac object PG 1553+133 six times, collecting data for 218 hours. During one of these epochs, simultaneous observations by the Swift satellite were requested to compare the results of the X-ray and optical-UV instruments. Optical, near-infrared and radio monitoring was carried out by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) collaboration for the whole observing season. We here present the results of the analysis of all these data, together with an investigation of the source photometric and polarimetric behaviour over the last three years. The 2015 EPIC spectra show slight curvature and the corresponding light curves display fast X-ray variability with a time scale of the order of 1 hour. In contrast to previous results, during the brightest X-ray states detected in 2015 the simple log-parabolic model that best-fits the XMM-Newton data also reproduces reasonably well the whole synchrotron bump, suggesting a peak in the near-UV band. We found evidence of a wide rotation of the polarization angle in 2014, when the polarization degree was variable, but the flux remained almost constant. This is difficult to interpret with deterministic jet emission models, while it can be easily reproduced by assuming some turbulence of the magnetic field., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Context. The orbital obliquity of planets with respect to the rotational axis of their host stars is a relevant parameter for the characterization of the global architecture of planetary systems and a key observational constraint to discriminate between different scenarios proposed to explain the existence of close-in giant planets. Aims: In the framework of the GAPS project, we conduct an observational programme aimed at determinating the orbital obliquity of known transiting exoplanets. The targets are selected to probe the obliquity against a wide range of stellar and planetary physical parameters. Methods: We exploit high-precision radial velocity (RV) measurements, delivered by the HARPS-N spectrograph at the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect in RV time-series bracketing planet transits, and to refine the orbital parameters determinations with out-of-transit RV data. We also analyse new transit light curves obtained with several 1-2 m class telescopes to better constrain the physical fundamental parameters of the planets and parent stars. Results: We report here on new transit spectroscopic observations for three very massive close-in giant planets: WASP-43 b, HAT-P-20 b and Qatar-2 b (Mp = 2.00, 7.22, 2.62 MJ; a = 0.015, 0.036, 0.022 AU, respectively) orbiting dwarf K-type stars with effective temperature well below 5000 K (Teff = 4500 ± 100, 4595 ± 45, 4640 ± 65 K respectively). These are the coolest stars (except for WASP-80) for which the RM effect has been observed so far. We find λ = 3.5 ± 6.8 deg for WASP-43 b and λ = -8.0 ± 6.9 deg for HAT-P-20 b, while for Qatar-2, our faintest target, the RM effect is only marginally detected, though our best-fit value λ = 15 ± 20 deg is in agreement with a previous determination. In combination with stellar rotational periods derived photometrically, we estimate the true spin-orbit angle, finding that WASP-43 b is aligned while the orbit of HAT-P-20 b presents a small but significant obliquity ( deg). By analyzing the CaII H&K chromospheric emission lines for HAT-P-20 and WASP-43, we find evidence for an enhanced level of stellar activity that is possibly induced by star-planet interactions. Based on observations collected at the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, in the frame of the programme Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS).Also based on observations collected at the 0.82 m IAC80 Telescope, operated on the island of Tenerife by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide.

Context. M dwarfs are prime targets for current and future planet search programs, particularly those focused on the detection and characterization of rocky planets in the habitable zone. In this context, understanding their magnetic activity is important for two main reasons: it affects our ability to detect small planets and it plays a key role in the characterization of the stellar environment. Aims: We analyze observations of the Ca II H&K and Hα lines as diagnostics of chromospheric activity for low-activity early-type M dwarfs. Methods: We analyze the time series of spectra of 71 early-type M dwarfs collected in the framework of the HADES project for planet search purposes. The HARPS-N spectra simultaneously provide the Ca II H&K doublet and the Hα line. We develop a reduction scheme able to correct the HARPS-N spectra for instrumental and atmospheric effects, and also to provide flux-calibrated spectra in units of flux at the stellar surface. The Ca II H&K and Hα fluxes are then compared with each other, and their time variability is analyzed. Results: We find that the Ca II H and K flux excesses are strongly correlated with each other, while the Hα flux excess is generally less correlated with the Ca II H&K doublet. We also find that Hα emission does not increase monotonically with the Ca II H&K line flux, showing some absorption before being filled in by chromospheric emission when Ca II H&K activity increases. Analyzing the time variability of the emission fluxes, we derive a tentative estimate of the rotation period (on the order of a few tens of days) for some of the program stars, and the typical lifetime of chromospheric active regions (on the order of a few stellar rotations). Conclusions: Our results are in good agreement with similar previous studies. In particular, we find evidence that the chromospheres of early-type M dwarfs could be characterized by different filament coverage, affecting the formation mechanism of the Hα line. We also show that chromospheric structure is likely related to spectral type.

Context. Short- to mid-term magnetic phenomena on the stellar surface of M-type stars can resemble the effects of planets in radial velocity data, and may also hide them. Aims: We analyze 145 spectroscopic HARPS-N observations of GJ 3942 taken over the past five years and additional photometry in order to disentangle stellar activity effects from genuine Doppler signals as a result of the orbital motion of the star around the common barycenter with its planet. Methods: To achieve this, we use the common methods of pre-whitening, and treat the correlated red noise by a first-order moving average term and by Gaussian-process regression following an MCMC analysis. Results: We identify the rotational period of the star at 16.3 days and discover a new super-Earth, GJ 3942 b, with an orbital period of 6.9 days and a minimum mass of 7.1 M⊕. An additional signal in the periodogram of the residuals is present, but at this point we cannot claim with sufficient significance that it is related to a second planet. If confirmed, this planet candidate would have a minimum mass of 6.3 M⊕ and a period of 10.4 days, which might indicate a 3:2 mean-motion resonance with the inner planet. Based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC); photometric observations from the APACHE array located at the Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley; photometric observations made with the robotic APT2 (within the EXORAP program) located at Serra La Nave on Mt. Etna.Table 9 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/608/A63

We report the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting at the inner edge of the habitable zone of the star GJ 625 based on the analysis of the radial-velocity (RV) time series from the HARPS-N spectrograph, consisting in 151 HARPS-N measurements taken over 3.5 yr. GJ 625 b is a planet with a minimum mass M sin $i$ of 2.82 $\pm$ 0.51 M$_{\oplus}$ with an orbital period of 14.628 $\pm$ 0.013 days at a distance of 0.078 AU of its parent star. The host star is the quiet M2 V star GJ 625, located at 6.5 pc from the Sun. We find the presence of a second radial velocity signal in the range 74-85 days that we relate to stellar rotation after analysing the time series of Ca II H\&K and H${\alpha}$ spectroscopic indicators, the variations of the FWHM of the CCF and and the APT2 photometric light curves. We find no evidence linking the short period radial velocity signal to any activity proxy., Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, 10 tables -- Metadata corrected

Context. Photometric observations of planetary transits may show localized bumps, called transit anomalies, due to the possible crossing of photospheric starspots. Aims: The aim of this work is to analyze the transit anomalies and derive the temperature profile inside the transit belt along the transit direction. Methods: We have developed the algorithm TOSC, a tomographic inverse-approach tool which, by means of simple algebra, reconstructs the flux distribution along the transit belt. Results: We test TOSC against some simulated scenarios. We find that TOSC provides robust results for light curves with photometric accuracies better than 1 mmag, returning the spot-photosphere temperature contrast with an accuracy better than 100 K. TOSC is also robust against the presence of unocculted spots, provided that the apparent planetary radius given by the fit of the transit light curve is used in place of the true radius. The analysis of real data with TOSC returns results consistent with previous studies.

(Abridged) Understanding stellar activity in M dwarfs is crucial for the physics of stellar atmospheres as well as for ongoing radial velocity exoplanet programmes. Despite the increasing interest in M dwarfs, our knowledge of the chromospheres of these stars is far from being complete. We aim to test whether the relations between activity, rotation, and stellar parameters and flux-flux relationships also hold for early-M dwarfs on the main-sequence. We analyse in an homogeneous and coherent way a well defined sample of 71 late-K/early-M dwarfs that are currently being observed in the framework of the HArps-n red Dwarf Exoplanet Survey (HADES). Rotational velocities are derived using the cross-correlation technique while emission flux excesses in the Ca II H & K and Balmer lines from Halpha up to Hepsilon are obtained by using the spectral subtraction technique. The relationships between the emission excesses and the stellar parameters are studied. Relations between pairs of fluxes of different chromospheric lines are also studied. We find that the strength of the chromospheric emission in the Ca II H & K and Balmer lines is roughly constant for stars in the M0-M3 spectral range. Our data suggest that a moderate but significant correlation between activity and rotation might be present as well as a hint of kinematically selected young stars showing higher levels of emission. We find our sample of M dwarfs to be complementary in terms of chromospheric and X-ray fluxes with those of the literature, extending the analysis of the flux-flux relationships to the very low flux domain. Our results agree with previous works suggesting that the activity-rotation-age relationship known to hold for solar-type stars also applies to early-M dwarfs. We also confirm previous findings that the field stars which deviate from the bulk of the empirical flux-flux relationships show evidence of youth., Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics, This version: some typos corrected

International audience; In the framework of the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment (ChArMEx; http://charmex.lsce.ipsl.fr/) initiative, a field campaign took place in the western Mediterranean Basin between 10 June and 5 July 2013 within the ADRIMED (Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the MEDiterranean region) project. The scientific objectives of ADRIMED are the characterization of the most common ‘Mediterranean aerosols’ and their direct radiative forcing (column closure and regional scale). During 15–24 June a multi-intrusion dust event took place over the western and central Mediterranean Basin. Extra measurements were carried out by some EARLINET/ACTRIS (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network /Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network, http://www.actris.net/) lidar stations in Spain and Italy, in particular on 22 June in support to the flight over southern Italy of the Falcon 20 aircraft involved in the campaign. This article describes the physical and optical properties of dust observed at the different lidar stations in terms of dust plume centre of mass, optical depth, lidar ratio, and particle depolarization ratio. To link the differences found in the origin of dust plumes, the results are discussed on the basis of back-trajectories and air- and space-borne lidars. This work puts forward the collaboration between a European research infrastructure (ACTRIS) and an international project (ChArMEx) on topics of interest for both parties, and more generally for the atmospheric community.

Context. Many efforts are currently made to detect Earth-like planets around low-mass stars in almost every extra-solar planet search. M dwarfs are considered ideal targets for Doppler radial velocity searches because their low masses and luminosities make low-mass planets orbiting in these stars' habitable zones more easily detectable than those around higher mass stars. Nonetheless, the frequency statistics of low-mass planets hosted by low-mass stars remains poorly constrained. Aims: Our M-dwarf radial velocity monitoring with HARPS-N within the collaboration between the Global architectures of Planetary Systems (GAPS) project, the Institut de Ciències de l'Espai/CSIC-IEEC (ICE) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) can provide a major contribution to the widening of the current statistics through the in-depth analysis of accurate radial velocity observations in a narrow range of spectral sub-types (79 stars, between dM0 to dM3). Spectral accuracy will enable us to reach the precision needed to detect small planets with a few Earth masses. Our survey will contribute to the surveys devoted to the search for planets around M-dwarfs, mainly focused on the M-dwarf population of the northern emisphere, for which we will provide an estimate of the planet occurrence. Methods: We present here a long-duration radial velocity monitoring of the M1 dwarf star GJ 3998 with HARPS-N to identify periodic signals in the data. Almost simultaneous photometric observations were carried out within the APACHE and EXORAP programs to characterize the stellar activity and to distinguish those due to activity and to the presence of planetary companions from the periodic signals. We ran a Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation and used a Bayesian model selection to determine the number of planets in this system, to estimate their orbital parameters and minimum mass, and to properly treat the activity noise. Results: The radial velocities have a dispersion in excess of their internal errors due to at least four superimposed signals with periods of 30.7, 13.7, 42.5, and 2.65 days. Our data are well described by a two-planet Keplerian (13.7 d and 2.65 d) and a fit with two sinusoidal functions (stellar activity, 30.7 d and 42.5 d). The analysis of spectral indexes based on Ca II H & K and Hα lines demonstrates that the periods of 30.7 and 42.5 days are due to chromospheric inhomogeneities modulated by stellar rotation and differential rotation. This result is supported by photometry and is consistent with the results on differential rotation of M stars obtained with Kepler. The shorter periods of 13.74 ± 0.02 d and 2.6498 ± 0.0008 d are well explained with the presence of two planets, with masses of at least 6.26_(-0.76)^(+0.79) M⊕ and 2.47 ± 0.27 M⊕ and distances of 0.089 AU and 0.029 AU from the host, respectively. -- Based on: observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei at the Roche de Los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC); photometric observations made with the APACHE array located at the Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley; photometric observations made with the robotic telescope APT2 (within the EXORAP program) located at Serra La Nave on Mt. Etna. http://www.oact.inaf.it/exoit/EXO-IT/Projects/Entries/2011/12/27_GAPS.html

We determine the true and the projected obliquity of HAT-P-36 and WASP-11/HAT-P-10 systems, respectively, which are both composed of a relatively cool star and a hot-Jupiter planet. Thanks to the high-resolution spectrograph HARPS-N, we observed the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for both the systems by acquiring precise radial-velocity measurements during planetary transit events. We also present photometric observations comprising six light curves covering five transit events, obtained using three medium-class telescopes and the telescope-defocussing technique. One transit of WASP-11/HAT-P-10 was followed simultaneously from two observatories. The three transit light curves of HAT-P-36b show anomalies that are attributable to starspot complexes on the surface of the parent star, in agreement with the analysis of its spectra that indicate a moderate activity. By analysing the complete HATNet data set of HAT-P-36, we estimated the stellar rotation period by detecting a periodic photometric modulation in the light curve caused by star spots, obtaining Prot=15.3 days, which implies that the inclination of the stellar rotational axis with respect to the line of sight is 65 degree. We used the new spectroscopic and photometric data to revise the main physical parameters and measure the sky-projected misalignment angle of the two systems. We found \lambda=-14 degree for HAT-P-36 and \lambda=7 degree for WASP-11/HAT-P-10, indicating in both cases a good spin-orbit alignment. In the case of HAT-P-36, we also measured its real obliquity, which turned out to be 25 degrees., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures

XO-2 is the first confirmed wide stellar binary system where the almost twin components XO-2N and XO-2S have planets. This stimulated a detailed characterization study of the stellar and planetary components based on new observations. We collected high-resolution spectra with the HARPS-N spectrograph and multi-band light curves. Spectral analysis led to an accurate determination of the stellar atmospheric parameters and characterization of the stellar activity. We collected 14 transit light curves of XO-2Nb used to improve the transit parameters. Photometry provided accurate magnitude differences between the stars and a measure of their rotation periods. The iron abundance of XO-2N was found to be +0.054 dex greater, within more than 3-sigma, than that of XO-2S. We confirm a long-term variation in the radial velocities of XO-2N, and we detected a turn-over with respect to previous measurements. We suggest the presence of a second massive companion in an outer orbit or the stellar activity cycle as possible causes of the observed acceleration. The latter explanation seems more plausible with the present dataset. We obtained an accurate value of the projected spin-orbit angle for the XO-2N system (lambda=7+/-11 degrees), and estimated the real 3-D spin-orbit angle (psi=27 +12/-27 degrees). We measured the XO-2 rotation periods, and found a value of P=41.6 days in the case of XO-2N, in excellent agreement with the predictions. The period of XO-2S appears shorter, with an ambiguity between 26 and 34.5 days that we cannot solve with the present dataset alone. XO-2N appears to be more active than the companion, and this could be due to the fact that we sampled different phases of their activity cycle, or to an interaction between XO-2N and its hot Jupiter that we could not confirm., 26 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Aims. For more than 1.5 years we monitored spectroscopically the star KELT-6 (BD+312447), known to host the transiting hot Saturn KELT-6b, because a previously observed long-term trend in radial velocity time series suggested the existence of an outer companion. Methods. We collected a total of 93 new spectra with the HARPS-N and TRES spectrographs. A spectroscopic transit of KELT-6b was observed with HARPS-N, and simultaneous photometry was obtained with the IAC-80 telescope. Results. We proved the existence of an outer planet with a mininum mass M$_{\rm p}$sini=3.71$\pm$0.21 M$_{\rm Jup}$ and a moderately eccentric orbit ($e=0.21_{-0.036}^{+0.039}$) of period P$\sim$3.5 years. We improved the orbital solution of KELT-6b and obtained the first measurement of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, showing that the planet has a likely circular, prograde, and slightly misaligned orbit, with a projected spin-orbit angle $\lambda$=$-$36$\pm$11 degrees. We improved the KELT-6b transit ephemeris from photometry, and we provided new measurements of the stellar parameters. KELT-6 appears as an interesting case to study the formation and evolution of multi-planet systems., Comment: Letter, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Some language editing and numbering of the paper series changed (from X to IX)

Binary stars hosting exoplanets are a unique laboratory where chemical tagging can be performed to measure with high accuracy the elemental abundances of both stellar components, with the aim to investigate the formation of planets and their subsequent evolution. Here, we present a high-precision differential abundance analysis of the XO-2 wide stellar binary based on high resolution HARPS-N@TNG spectra. Both components are very similar K-dwarfs and host planets. Since they formed presumably within the same molecular cloud, we expect they should possess the same initial elemental abundances. We investigate if the presence of planets can cause some chemical imprints in the stellar atmospheric abundances. We measure abundances of 25 elements for both stars with a range of condensation temperature $T_{\rm C}=40-1741$ K, achieving typical precisions of $\sim 0.07$ dex. The North component shows abundances in all elements higher by $+0.067 \pm 0.032$ dex on average, with a mean difference of +0.078 dex for elements with $T_{\rm C} > 800$ K. The significance of the XO-2N abundance difference relative to XO-2S is at the $2\sigma$ level for almost all elements. We discuss the possibility that this result could be interpreted as the signature of the ingestion of material by XO-2N or depletion in XO-2S due to locking of heavy elements by the planetary companions. We estimate a mass of several tens of $M_{\oplus}$ in heavy elements. The difference in abundances between XO-2N and XO-2S shows a positive correlation with the condensation temperatures of the elements, with a slope of $(4.7 \pm 0.9) \times 10^{-5}$ dex K$^{-1}$, which could mean that both components have not formed terrestrial planets, but that first experienced the accretion of rocky core interior to the subsequent giant planets., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics. Numbering of the series changed

We performed an intensive radial velocity monitoring of XO-2S, the wide companion of the transiting planet-host XO-2N, using HARPS-N at TNG in the framework of the GAPS programme. The radial velocity measurements indicate the presence of a new planetary system formed by a planet that is slightly more massive than Jupiter at 0.48 au and a Saturn-mass planet at 0.13 au. Both planetary orbits are moderately eccentric and were found to be dynamically stable. There are also indications of a long-term trend in the radial velocities. This is the first confirmed case of a wide binary whose components both host planets, one of which is transiting, which makes the XO-2 system a unique laboratory for understanding the diversity of planetary systems., 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted on A&A Letter

During the ADRIMED (Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the Mediterranean region) special observation period (SOP-1a), conducted in June 2013 in the framework of the ChArMEx (Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment) project, a moderate Saharan dust event swept the Western and Central Mediterranean Basin (WCMB) from west to east during a 9-day period between 16 and 24 June. This event was monitored from the ground by six EARLINET/ACTRIS (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network/Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research Infrastructure Network) lidar stations (Granada, Barcelona, Naples, Potenza, Lecce and Serra la Nave) and two ADRIMED/ChArMEx lidar stations specially deployed for the field campaign in Cap d’en Font and Ersa, in Minorca and Corsica Islands, respectively. The first part of the study shows the spatio-temporal monitoring of the dust event during its transport over the WCMB with ground-based lidar and co-located AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) Sun-photometer measurements. Dust layer optical depths, Ångström exponents, coarse mode fractions, linear particle depolarization ratios (LPDRs), dust layer heights and the dust radiative forcing estimated in the shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) spectral ranges at the bottom of the atmosphere (BOA) and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) with the Global Atmospheric Model (GAME), have been used to characterize the dust event. Peak values of the AERONET aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 440 nm ranged between 0.16 in Potenza and 0.37 in Cap d’en Font. The associated Ångström exponent and coarse mode fraction mean values ranged from 0.43 to 1.26 and from 0.25 to 0.51, respectively. The mineral dust produced a negative SW direct radiative forcing at the BOA ranging from −56.9 to −3.5 W m−2. The LW radiative forcing at the BOA was positive, ranging between +0.3 and +17.7 W m-2. The BOA radiative forcing estimates agree with the ones reported in the literature. At the TOA, the SW forcing varied between −34.5 and +7.5 W m−2. In seven cases, the forcing at the TOA resulted positive because of the aerosol strong absorbing properties (0.83 < single-scattering albedo (SSA) < 0.96). The multi-intrusion aspect of the event is examined by means of air- and space-borne lidar measurements, satellite images and back trajectories. The analysis reported in this paper underline the arrival of a second different intrusion of mineral dust observed over southern Italy at the end of the considered period which probably results in the observed heterogeneity in the dust properties., Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project TEC2012-34575 and TEC2015-63832-P), Science and Innovation (project UNPC10-4E-442), Andalusia Regional Government through projects P12-RNM-2409 and P10-RNM-6299