Project support for the Wide Area Search for Planets
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Mathematics and Physics
Abstract
Questions such as ``how many stars have planets around them?'' and ``how many habitable planets are there?'' interest both astronomers and everyone else. To answer them we need to find planets that can be studied in detail, seeking to understand the processes by which planets form and solar systems evolve. Of the two hundred planets that astronomers have found orbiting other stars we can learn most about those that transit in front of their star. We can measure how big they are, how heavy they are, and thus deduce their density and what they are made of. And by looking at how their atmosphere absorbs the light of their star we can discover the composition of their atmospheres. The WASP project aims to monitor 40 million of the brightest stars, looking for the tiny dips in their light caused by a planet passing in front of them. We will survey the sky for the transiting planets that are relatively close to Earth, which we can study in detail to enable us to understand how planetary systems form and evolve. The next generation of space missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to Hubble, will prioritize the study of planets around other stars. The WASP project will find the planets that will make the best and most interesting targets.
Organisations
Publications
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Gillon M
(2011)
WASP-50 b: a hot Jupiter transiting a moderately active solar-type star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Anderson D
(2011)
WASP-31b: a low-density planet transiting a metal-poor, late-F-type dwarf star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Hebb L
(2010)
MML 53: a new low-mass, pre-main sequence eclipsing binary in the Upper Centaurus-Lupus region discovered by SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Hébrard G
(2013)
WASP-52b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, and WASP-60b: Four new transiting close-in giant planets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Smith A
(2013)
WASP-71b: a bloated hot Jupiter in a 2.9-day, prograde orbit around an evolved F8 star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Miller G
(2010)
The Doppler shadow of WASP-3b A tomographic analysis of Rossiter-McLaughlin observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Smalley B
(2012)
WASP-78b and WASP-79b: two highly-bloated hot Jupiter-mass exoplanets orbiting F-type stars in Eridanus
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Lendl M
(2012)
WASP-42 b and WASP-49 b: two new transiting sub-Jupiters
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Barros S
(2010)
WASP-38b: a transiting exoplanet in an eccentric, 6.87d period orbit
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Triaud A
(2011)
WASP-23b: a transiting hot Jupiter around a K dwarf and its Rossiter-McLaughlin effect
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Anderson D
(2015)
WASP-20b and WASP-28b: a hot Saturn and a hot Jupiter in near-aligned orbits around solar-type stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Bentley S
(2009)
The masses and radii of HD 186753B and TYC7096-222-1B: the discovery of two M-dwarfs that eclipse A-type stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Hellier C
(2011)
WASP-43b: the closest-orbiting hot Jupiter
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Triaud A
(2012)
The EBLM project I. Physical and orbital parameters, including spin-orbit angles, of two low-mass eclipsing binaries on opposite sides of the brown dwarf limit
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Triaud A
(2010)
Spin-orbit angle measurements for six southern transiting planets New insights into the dynamical origins of hot Jupiters???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Norton A
(2011)
Short period eclipsing binary candidates identified using SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Smalley B
(2011)
WASP-34b: a near-grazing transiting sub-Jupiter-mass exoplanet in a hierarchical triple system
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Faedi F
(2013)
WASP-54b, WASP-56b, and WASP-57b: Three new sub-Jupiter mass planets from SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Smalley B
(2011)
SuperWASP observations of pulsating Am stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Faedi F
(2011)
WASP-39b: a highly inflated Saturn-mass planet orbiting a late G-type star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Butters O
(2010)
The first WASP public data release
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Smalley B
(2010)
WASP-26b: a 1-Jupiter-mass planet around an early-G-type star
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Thomas N
(2010)
SuperWASP observations of long timescale photometric variations in cataclysmic variables
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Queloz D
(2010)
WASP-8b : a retrograde transiting planet in a multiple system
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Bouchy F
(2010)
WASP-21b: a hot-Saturn exoplanet transiting a thick disc star
in Astronomy and Astrophysics