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Past ultraviolet and optical observations of stars hosting close-in Jupiter-mass planets have shown that some of these stars present an anomalously low chromospheric activity, significantly below the basal level. For the hot Jupiter planet host WASP-13, observations have shown that the apparent lack of activity is possibly caused by absorption from the intervening interstellar medium (ISM). Inspired by this result, we study the effect of ISM absorption on activity measurements (S and log R'(HK) indices) for main-sequence late-type stars. To this end, we employ synthetic stellar photospheric spectra combined with varying amounts of chromospheric emission and ISM absorption. We present the effect of ISM absorption on activity measurements by varying several instrumental (spectral resolution), stellar (projected rotational velocity, effective temperature, and chromospheric emission flux), and ISM parameters (relative velocity between stellar and ISM Ca II lines, broadening b-parameter, and Ca II column density). We find that for relative velocities between the stellar and ISM lines smaller than 30-40 km s(-1) and for ISM Ca II column densities log N-CaII greater than or similar to 12, the ISM absorption has a significant influence on activity measurements. Direct measurements and three dimensional maps of the Galactic ISM absorption indicate that an ISM Ca II column density of log N-CaII = 12 is typically reached by a distance of about 100 pc along most sight lines. In particular, for a Sun-like star lying at a distance greater than 100 pc, we expect a depression (bias) in the log R'(HK) value larger than 0.05-0.1 dex, about the same size as the typical measurement and calibration uncertainties on this parameter. This work shows that the bias introduced by ISM absorption must always be considered when measuring activity for stars lying beyond 100 pc. We also consider the effect of multiple ISM absorption components. We discuss the relevance of this result for exoplanet studies and revise the latest results on stellar activity versus planet surface gravity correlation. We finally describe methods with which it would be possible to account for ISM absorption in activity measurements and provide a code to roughly estimate the magnitude of the bias. Correcting for the ISM absorption bias may allow one to identify the origin of the anomaly in the activity measured for some planet-hosting stars.

Over the past decade, the Secret Lives of Cepheids (SLiC) program has been carried out at Villanova University to study aspects and behaviors of classical Cepheids that are still not well understood. In this, the first of several planned papers on program Cepheids, we report the current results for δ Cep, the Cepheid prototype. Ongoing photometry has been obtained to search for changes in the pulsation period, light-curve morphology, and amplitude. Combining our photometry with the times of maximum light compilation by Berdnikov et al. returns a small period change of dP/dt -0.1006 ± 0.0002 s yr-1. There is also evidence for a gradual light amplitude increase of 0.011 mag (V band) and 0.012 mag (B band) per decade over the last 50 years. In addition, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV spectrophotometry and XMM-Newton X-ray data were carried out to investigate the high-temperature plasmas present above the Cepheid photospheres. In total, from the five visits (eight exposures) with XMM-Newton, δ Cep is found to be a soft X-ray source (L X(0.3-2 keV) 4.5-13 × 1028erg s-1) with peak flux at kT = 0.6-0.9 keV. The X-ray activity is found to vary, possibly in phase with the stellar pulsations. From 2010-2013, nine observations of δ Cep were carried out with HST-COS. The UV emissions are also variable and well phased with the stellar pulsations. Maximum UV line emissions occur near, or slightly before, maximum optical light, varying by as much as 20 times. This variability shows that pulsation-induced shock heating plays a significant role in Cepheid atmospheres, possibly in addition to a quiescent, magnetic heating. The results of this study show Cepheid atmospheres to be rather complex and dynamic.