Project support for the Wide Angle Search for Planets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leicester
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.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Richard West (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Hellier C
(2011)
WASP-43b: the closest-orbiting hot Jupiter
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Anderson D
(2011)
WASP-31b: a low-density planet transiting a metal-poor, late-F-type dwarf star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Butters O
(2009)
RXTE confirmation of the intermediate polar status of IGR J15094-6649
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Butters O
(2010)
The first WASP public data release
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Queloz D
(2010)
WASP-8b : a retrograde transiting planet in a multiple system
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Faedi F
(2009)
Transit detection limits for sub-stellar and terrestrial companions to white dwarfs
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Enoch B
(2010)
WASP-25b: a 0.6 MJ planet in the Southern hemisphere WASP-25b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Byckling K
(2009)
Swift observations of GW Lib: a unique insight into a rare outburst
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Joshi Y
(2009)
WASP-14b: 7.3 M J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cameron A
(2010)
Line-profile tomography of exoplanet transits - II. A gas-giant planet transiting a rapidly rotating A5 star? A gas-giant planet transiting an A5 star
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society