Project support for the Wide Area Search for Planets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
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.
Publications
Lanza A
(2008)
Magnetic activity in the photosphere of CoRoT-Exo-2a Active longitudes and short-term spot cycle in a young Sun-like star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lendl M
(2012)
WASP-42 b and WASP-49 b: two new transiting sub-Jupiters
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lendl M
(2014)
WASP-117b: a 10-day-period Saturn in an eccentric and misaligned orbit
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lister T
(2009)
WASP-16b: A NEW JUPITER-LIKE PLANET TRANSITING A SOUTHERN SOLAR ANALOG
in The Astrophysical Journal
Llama J
(2011)
The shocking transit of WASP-12b: modelling the observed early ingress in the near-ultraviolet The shocking transit of WASP-12b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Llama J
(2012)
Using Kepler transit observations to measure stellar spot belt migration rates Measuring spot latitude drift rates with transits
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Llama J
(2013)
Exoplanet transit variability: bow shocks and winds around HD 189733b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lohr M
(2014)
Period and amplitude variations in post-common-envelope eclipsing binaries observed with SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lucas W
(2013)
Misaligned streamers around a Galactic Centre black hole from a single cloud's infall
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Madhusudhan N
(2011)
A high C/O ratio and weak thermal inversion in the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-12b.
in Nature
Mahtani D
(2013)
Warm Spitzer occultation photometry of WASP-26b at 3.6 and 4.5 µm
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mancini L
(2014)
Physical properties and transmission spectrum of the WASP-80 planetary system from multi-colour photometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mancini L
(2014)
Physical properties of the WASP-67 planetary system from multi-colour photometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Maxted P
(2011)
Discovery of a stripped red giant core in a bright eclipsing binary system? J0247-25
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Maxted P
(2013)
WASP-77 Ab: A Transiting Hot Jupiter Planet in a Wide Binary System1
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Maxted P
(2010)
WASP-22 b: A TRANSITING "HOT JUPITER" PLANET IN A HIERARCHICAL TRIPLE SYSTEM
in The Astronomical Journal
Maxted P
(2011)
WASP-41b: A Transiting Hot Jupiter Planet Orbiting a Magnetically Active G8V Star
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Maxted P
(2013)
EL CVn-type binaries - discovery of 17 helium white dwarf precursors in bright eclipsing binary star systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Maxted P
(2010)
WASP-32b: A Transiting Hot Jupiter Planet Orbiting a Lithium-Poor, Solar-Type Star
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Miller G
(2010)
The Doppler shadow of WASP-3b A tomographic analysis of Rossiter-McLaughlin observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mortier A
(2016)
The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XXXIX. HD 175607, the most metal-poor G dwarf with an orbiting sub-Neptune
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Motalebi F
(2015)
The HARPS-N Rocky Planet Search I. HD 219134 b: A transiting rocky planet in a multi-planet system at 6.5 pc from the Sun ?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Neveu-VanMalle M
(2014)
WASP-94 A and B planets: hot-Jupiter cousins in a twin-star system
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Nisi RS
(2014)
An altitude and distance correction to the source fluence distribution of TGFs.
in Journal of geophysical research. Space physics
Description | SuperWASP is the UK's leading extra-solar planet detection program comprised of a consortium of eight academic institutions. SuperWASP consists of two robotic observatories that operate continuously throughout the year, allowing coverage of both hemispheres of the sky. The first, SuperWASP-North, is located on the island of La Palma among the Isaac Newton Group (ING) of telescopes. The second, SuperWASP-South, is located at the site of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), just outside Sutherland, South Africa. The observatories each consist of eight wide-angle cameras that simultaneously monitor the sky for planetary transit events. The eight cameras allow the monitoring of millions of stars simultaneously, enabling the detection of rare transit events. WASP has to date yielded over 150 discoveries of giant planets in close orbits about their host stars, making it the world's leading ground-based transit survey. |
Exploitation Route | Education; Data mining of public archive. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
URL | http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/SuperWASPMission.html |
Description | WASP planet discoveries formed the basis for a number of successful press releases. |
First Year Of Impact | 2008 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Policy & public services |
Description | WASP |
Organisation | Keele University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Design and implementation of WASP data-analysis pipeline. Design and implementation of WASP transit-search software. Design and implementation of WASP transit-fitting and orbit-determination software. |
Collaborator Contribution | QUB: Fabrication, installation and operation of SuperWASP. Keele: Fabrication, installation and operation of WASP-South. Leicester: Design, implementation and maintenance of WASP data archive. |
Impact | Over 200 Publications |
Description | WASP |
Organisation | Open University |
Department | School of Physical Sciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Design and implementation of WASP data-analysis pipeline. Design and implementation of WASP transit-search software. Design and implementation of WASP transit-fitting and orbit-determination software. |
Collaborator Contribution | QUB: Fabrication, installation and operation of SuperWASP. Keele: Fabrication, installation and operation of WASP-South. Leicester: Design, implementation and maintenance of WASP data archive. |
Impact | Over 200 Publications |
Description | WASP |
Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
Department | Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Design and implementation of WASP data-analysis pipeline. Design and implementation of WASP transit-search software. Design and implementation of WASP transit-fitting and orbit-determination software. |
Collaborator Contribution | QUB: Fabrication, installation and operation of SuperWASP. Keele: Fabrication, installation and operation of WASP-South. Leicester: Design, implementation and maintenance of WASP data archive. |
Impact | Over 200 Publications |
Description | WASP |
Organisation | University of Leicester |
Department | Department of Physics & Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Design and implementation of WASP data-analysis pipeline. Design and implementation of WASP transit-search software. Design and implementation of WASP transit-fitting and orbit-determination software. |
Collaborator Contribution | QUB: Fabrication, installation and operation of SuperWASP. Keele: Fabrication, installation and operation of WASP-South. Leicester: Design, implementation and maintenance of WASP data archive. |
Impact | Over 200 Publications |