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
Fossati L
(2010)
METALS IN THE EXOSPHERE OF THE HIGHLY IRRADIATED PLANET WASP-12b
in The Astrophysical Journal
Gibson N
(2010)
Ground-based detection of thermal emission from the exoplanet WASP-19b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Gillon M
(2009)
Discovery and characterization of WASP-6b, an inflated sub-Jupiter mass planet transiting a solar-type star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gillon M
(2011)
WASP-50 b: a hot Jupiter transiting a moderately active solar-type star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hebb L
(2009)
WASP-12b: THE HOTTEST TRANSITING EXTRASOLAR PLANET YET DISCOVERED
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hebb L
(2010)
WASP-19b: THE SHORTEST PERIOD TRANSITING EXOPLANET YET DISCOVERED
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hellier C
(2010)
WASP-29b: A SATURN-SIZED TRANSITING EXOPLANET
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hellier C
(2011)
WASP-43b: the closest-orbiting hot Jupiter
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hellier C
(2009)
WASP-7: A BRIGHT TRANSITING-EXOPLANET SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hellier C
(2009)
An orbital period of 0.94 days for the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-18b.
in Nature