Title: A simple, quantitative method to infer the minimum atmospheric height of small exoplanets Authors: Kipping, Spiegel, and Sasselov First Author’s Institution: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Introduction One of the major questions among astronomers who study planets around other stars is, “What kinds of atmospheres do exoplanets have?” This question is extremely challenging to answer [...]
This paper describes the detection of transits for a planet previously identified via radial velocities (RVs). Measuring the properties of the planet with both the transit and RV method allows the authors to determine the density, which suggests it should have a lot of volatiles (e.g. H2O, CO2, etc). This discovery is particularly exciting because the planet orbits a bright, nearby star: ideal for follow-up observations to characterize its atmosphere!
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