Transit surveys

As a member of the science team for NASA’s Kepler mission, Ford and his research group contributed to the discovery and characterization of many interesting exoplanets. Now, most known exoplanets orbit stars with additional known planets. This presents new opportunities for using the relationships of planets in a system to understand the history of planet formation in these planetary systems.

Recently, our research group have focused on the characterization of exoplanet populations, combining rigorous statistical methods with a detailed understanding of the astronomical selection effects. Results are presented in a series of papers using “SysSim”, the Planetary Systems Simulator.

Confirming Planets using Transit Timing Variations

This animation shows the how planet transit times differ depending on whether the system contains one planet or multiple planets. (Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Kepler Mission)

Publications

The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data

We present occurrence rates for rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZ) of main-sequence dwarf stars based on the Kepler DR25 planet …

A Featureless Infrared Transmission Spectrum for the Super-puff Planet Kepler-79d

Extremely low-density planets (“super-puffs”) are a small but intriguing subset of the transiting planet population. With …

Occurrence rates of planets orbiting M Stars: applying ABC to Kepler DR25, Gaia DR2, and 2MASS data

We present robust planet occurrence rates for Kepler planet candidates around M stars for planet radii $Rp=0.5−4 R\oplus$ and orbital …

Architectures of Exoplanetary Systems: III. Eccentricity and Mutual Inclination Distributions of AMD–Stable Planetary Systems

The angular momentum deficit (AMD) of a planetary system is a measure of its orbital excitation and a predictor of long–term …

Architectures of Exoplanetary Systems. II: An Intrinsic Relation between Planetary System Occurrence and Spectral Type for Kepler's FGK Dwarfs

The Kepler mission observed thousands of transiting exoplanet candidates around hundreds of thousands of FGK dwarf stars. He, Ford, …

Occurrence Rates of Planets Orbiting M Stars: Applying ABC to Kepler DR25, Gaia DR2, and 2MASS Data

We present robust planet occurrence rates for Kepler planet candidates around M stars for planet radii Rp=0.5−4 R⊕ and orbital …

An Automated Method to Detect Transiting Circumbinary Planets

We describe an efficient and automated technique for detecting circumbinary planets that transit their binary hosts in Kepler light …

The mass of the Mars-sized exoplanet Kepler-138 b from transit timing

Here we report the sizes and masses of three planets orbiting Kepler-138, a star much fainter and cooler than the Sun. We determine …

An Earth-Sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star

The diagram compares the planets of our inner solar system to Kepler-186, a five-planet star system about 500 light-years from Earth in …

Kepler-47: A Transiting Circumbinary Multiplanet System

Press Coverage Two planets ... Two stars: Nasa detects strange new solar system : Daily Mail, August 30, 2012 Tatooine Now: NASA Finds …

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler. V. Transit Timing Variation Candidates in the First Sixteen Months from Polynomial Models

Out of hundreds of candidate planetary systems, scientists had previously verified six systems with multiple transiting planets. Now, …

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler. VI. Potentially Interesting Candidate Systems from Fourier-based Statistical Tests

Planets in Systems from NASA’s Kepler Mission The image above depicts multiple planet systems discovered by NASA’s Kepler …

Almost All of Kepler's Multiple-planet Candidates Are Planets

See also papers II , III & IV that led up to this paper. Press Coverage NASA mission piles on the planets: MSNBC, January 26, 2012 …

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler. II. Confirmation of Two Multiplanet Systems via a Non-parametric Correlation Analysis

Planets in Systems from NASA’s Kepler Mission The image above depicts multiple planet systems discovered by NASA’s Kepler …

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler. IV. Confirmation of Four Multiple-planet Systems by Simple Physical Models

Planets in Systems from NASA’s Kepler Mission The image above depicts multiple planet systems discovered by NASA’s Kepler …

Transit timing observations from Kepler - III. Confirmation of four multiple planet systems by a Fourier-domain study of anticorrelated transit timing variations

Planets in Systems from NASA’s Kepler Mission The image above depicts multiple planet systems discovered by NASA’s Kepler …

Probing potassium in the atmosphere of HD 80606b with tunable filter transit spectrophotometry from the Gran Telescopio Canarias

When an exoplanet transits across the face of its host star atoms and gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight at specific …

Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b

Press Coverage Kepler Discovery Establishes New Class of Planetary System: NASA Press release, Jan 11, 2012. NASA's Kepler mission and …

The Kepler-19 System: A Transiting 2.2 R $_⊕$ Planet and a Second Planet Detected via Transit Timing Variations

Press Coverage Hidden Worlds: Astronomers Find Invisible Planet 650 Light-Years Away: Time, September 9, 2011. Astronomers Discover …

Kepler-16: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet

Press Coverage Real-life 'Star Wars' planet seen: MSNBC, September 16, 2011 NASA Detects Planet Dancing With a Pair of Stars: New York …

A closely packed system of low-mass, low-density planets transiting Kepler-11

Press Coverage Scientists Discover Solar System With 6 Planets: AOL News, February 2, 2011 Sun-Like Star With Six Planets Is Found …

Five Kepler Target Stars That Show Multiple Transiting Exoplanet Candidates

Press Coverage A Tidal Wave of Exoplanet Candidates: Sky & Telescope.com, June 17, 2010 NASA finds potential planetary bonanza: …

Kepler-9: A System of Multiple Planets Transiting a Sun-Like Star, Confirmed by Timing Variations

Press Coverage WUFT, August 30, 2010. Recipe for a planetary system: Inside Nova, August 27, 2010. Planet Hunters Bag Systems With …