We present results from 30 nights of observations of the intermediate-age Solar-metallicity open cluster NGC 7789 with the WFC camera on the INT telescope in La Palma. From ~900 epochs, we obtained lightcurves and Sloan r' - i' colours for ~33000 stars, with ~2400 stars with better than 1% precision. We find 24 transit candidates, 14 of which we can assign a period. We rule out the transiting planet model for 21 of these candidates using various robust arguments. For 2 candidates we are unable to decide on their nature, although it seems most likely that they are eclipsing binaries as well. We have one candidate exhibiting a single eclipse for which we derive a radius of 1.81+/0.09- Three candidates remain that require follow-up observations in order to determine their nature. Monte Carlo simulations reveal that we expected to detect ~2 transiting 3d to 5d hot Jupiter planets from all the stars in our sample if 1% of stars host such a companion and that a typical hot Jupiter radius is similar to that of HD 209458b. Our failure to find good transiting hot Jupiter candidates allows us to place an upper limit on the 3d to 5d hot Jupiter fraction of 2.6% for all stars at the 1% significance level, and similar useful limits on the hot Jupiter fraction of the different star types in our sample.

Orientador: Othon Cabo Winter / Coorientador: Massayoshi Tsuchida / Banca: Tadashi Yokoyama / Banca: Nelson Callegari Junior / Banca: Roberto Vieira Martins / Banca: Fernando Virgilio Roig / Resumo: O estudo da formação de planetas terrestres no Sistema Solar, é crucial para compre- endermos como outros sistemas planetários formam e também inferir as condições que poderiam ter influenciado a origem e evolução de vida na Terra. Esta Tese de douto- rado apresenta um estudo numérico da formação de planetas terrestres. Nosso objetivo principal é analisar o último estágio da formação desses planetas no Sistema Solar, em particular, a formação de Marte e a origem da água da Terra. Esses dois pontos têm intrigado cientistas ao longo de muitos anos. Enquanto que o planeta produzido ao redor de 1.5 UA é, em geral, muito mais massivo do que Marte, na grande parte das simulações, a origem da água da Terra é outro tema de intenso debate. Em vista disso, nós desenvol- vemos um cenário considerando uma depleção local de massa, no disco protoplanetário, a fim de analisarmos a origem da baixa massa de Marte, e também usamos um modelo composto para estudarmos a origem da água da Terra. Este trabalho apresenta um grande número de simulações numéricas explorando uma diversidade de parâmetros do sistema. Entre os principais podemos citar as variadas configurações de planetas gigantes, discos com diferentes perfis de densidade superficial de massa e modelos de distribuição de água. Nós também apresentamos um estudo dos efeitos de ressonâncias seculares nesses discos protoplanetários. Os principais resultados desses experimentos apontam a possibilidade da formação de planetas similares a Marte ao redor de 1.5 UA, especialmente, quando é considerado uma escala de depleção local, no disco protoplanetário, moderadamente alta (50-75%), localizada ao redor de 1.5 UA. Isto é observado juntamente com a formação de planetas do tipo Terra, em torno de 1 UA do Sol, com substanciais... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The study of terrestrial planet formation in the Solar System is crucial to understand how other planetary systems form and to infer the conditions that favored the origin and evolution of life on Earth. In this Thesis we present a numerical study of the accretion of terrestrial planets. Our main goal is study the late stage of the terrestrial planet accretion in the Solar System, especially the formation of Mars and the origin of Earth's water. These two points have intrigued scientists for many years. Whereas the planet formed around Mars' semimajor axis is, in general, much more massive than Mars, the origin of Earth's water is a matter of intense debate. In view of that, we have developed a scenario considering a local depletion in the density of the protosolar nebula in order to analyze the low mass of Mars, and also explored a compound model of water distribution to study the origin of Earth's water. We have carried out extensive numerical simulations of the formation of terrestrial planets in protoplanetary disks exploring a large variety of parameters of the system, as different giant planet configurations, surface density profiles and water distribution models. We also have presented a study of the effects of secular resonances on the evolution of these protoplanetary disks. Our main results point to the possibility of the formation of Mars-sized bodies around 1.5 AU, especifically when is considered a scale of the disk local mass-depletion moderately high (50-75%) around 1.5 AU, as well as Earth-sized planets can form around 1 AU with substantial amount of water. Regarding the origin of Earth's water, we find that the compound model incorporating both the principal endogenous and exogenous theories, play an important role by... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Observations of exoplanet transit spectra are essential to understanding the physics and chemistry of distant worlds. The effects of opacity sources and many physical processes combine to set the shape of a transit spectrum. Two such key processes-refraction and cloud and/or haze forward-scattering-have seen substantial recent study. However, models of these processes are typically complex, which prevents their incorporation into observational analyses and standard transit spectrum tools. In this work, we develop analytic expressions that allow for the efficient parameterization of forward-scattering and refraction effects in transit spectra. We derive an effective slant optical depth that includes a correction for forward-scattered light, and present an analytic form of this correction. We validate our correction against a full-physics transit spectrum model that includes scattering, and we explore the extent to which the omission of forward-scattering effects may bias models. Also, we verify a common analytic expression for the location of a refractive boundary, which we express in terms of the maximum pressure probed in a transit spectrum. This expression is designed to be easily incorporated into existing tools, and we discuss how the detection of a refractive boundary could help indicate the background atmospheric composition by constraining the bulk refractivity of the atmosphere. Finally, we show that opacity from Rayleigh scattering and collision-induced absorption will outweigh the effects of refraction for Jupiter-like atmospheres whose equilibrium temperatures are above 400-500 K.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) has observed similar to 600 transiting exoplanets and exoplanet candidates from Kepler (Kepler Objects of Interest, KOIs), most with >= 18 epochs. The combined multi-epoch spectra are of high signal-to-noise ratio (typically >= 100) and yield precise stellar parameters and chemical abundances. We first confirm the ability of the APOGEE abundance pipeline, ASPCAP, to derive reliable [Fe/H] and effective temperatures for FGK dwarf stars-the primary Kepler host stellar type-by comparing the ASPCAP-derived stellar parameters with those from independent high-resolution spectroscopic characterizations for 221 dwarf stars in the literature. With a sample of 282 close-in (P < 100 days) KOIs observed in the APOGEE KOI goal program, we find a correlation between orbital period and host star [Fe/H] characterized by a critical period, P-crit = 8.3(-4.1)(+0.1) days, below which small exoplanets orbit statistically more metal-enriched host stars. This effect may trace a metallicity dependence of the protoplanetary disk inner radius at the time of planet formation or may be a result of rocky planet ingestion driven by inward planetary migration. We also consider that this may trace a metallicity dependence of the dust sublimation radius, but we find no statistically significant correlation with host T-eff and orbital period to support such a claim.

Recent high angular resolution observations of protoplanetary disks at different wavelengths have revealed several kinds of structures, including multiple bright and dark rings. Embedded planets are the most used explanation for such structures, but there are alternative models capable of shaping the dust in rings as it has been observed. We assume a disk around a Herbig star and investigate the effect that ice lines have on the dust evolution, following the growth, fragmentation, and dynamics of multiple dust size particles, covering from 1 mu m to 2 m sized objects. We use simplified prescriptions of the fragmentation velocity threshold, which is assumed to change radially at the location of one, two, or three ice lines. We assume changes at the radial location of main volatiles, specifically H2O, CO2, and NH3. Radiative transfer calculations are done using the resulting dust density distributions in order to compare with current multiwavelength observations. We find that the structures in the dust density profiles and radial intensities at different wavelengths strongly depend on the disk viscosity. A clear gap of emission can be formed between ice lines and be surrounded by ring-like structures, in particular between the H2O and CO2 (or CO). The gaps are expected to be shallower and narrower at millimeter emission than at near-infrared, opposite to model predictions of particle trapping. In our models, the total gas surface density is not expected to show strong variations, in contrast to other gap-forming scenarios such as embedded giant planets or radial variations of the disk viscosity.

The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) near-IR channel is extensively used in time-resolved observations, especially for transiting exoplanet spectroscopy as well as. brown dwarf and directly imaged exoplanet rotational phase mapping. The ramp effect is the dominant source of systematics in the WFC3 for time-resolved observations, which limits its photometric precision. Current mitigation strategies are based on empirical fits and require additional orbits to help the telescope reach a thermal equilibrium. We show that the ramp-effect profiles can be explained and corrected with high fidelity using charge trapping theories. We also present a model for this process that can be used to predict and to correct charge trap systematics. Our model is based on a very small number of parameters that are intrinsic to the detector. We find that these parameters are very stable between the different data sets, and we provide best-fit values. Our model is tested with more than 120 orbits (similar to 40 visits) of WFC3 observations. and is proved to be able to provide near photon noise limited corrections for observations made with both staring and scanning modes of transiting exoplanets as well as for starting-mode observations of brown dwarfs. After our model correction, the light curve of the first orbit in each visit has the same photometric precision as subsequent orbits, so data from the first orbit no longer need. to. be discarded. Near-IR arrays with the same physical characteristics (e.g., JWST/NIRCam) may also benefit from the extension of this model if similar systematic profiles are observed.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1975 / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 53-55. / by Norman Brenner. / Ph. D. / Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 99-104. / Ph.D.

Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1980. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Includes bibliographies. / by Roger Nelson Clark. / Ph.D.