Corot (space mission)
Encyclopedia
COROT is a space mission led by the French Space Agency (CNES)
in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA)
and other international partners. The mission's two objectives are to search for extrasolar planet
s with short orbital periods, particularly those of large terrestrial size
, and to perform asteroseismology
by measuring solar-like oscillations
in stars. It was launched at 14:28:00 UTC on 27 December 2006, atop a Soyuz 2.1b
carrier rocket, reporting first light on 18 January 2007. Subsequently, the probe started to collect science data on 2 February 2007. COROT is the first spacecraft
dedicated to the detection of transiting extrasolar planets, opening the way for more advanced probes such as Kepler and possibly TESS
and PLATO
. It detected its first extrasolar planet, COROT-1b, in May 2007, just 3 months after the start of the observations. Mission flight operations were originally scheduled to end 2.5 years from launch but operations were extended to 2013.
of 2.7° by 3.05°. The COROT optical path consists of a 27 cm (10.6 in) diameter off-axis afocal
telescope housed in a two-stage opaque baffle
specifically designed to block sunlight reflected by the Earth and a camera consisting of a dioptric objective and a focal box. Inside the focal box is an array of four CCD
detectors protected against radiation
by aluminum shielding 10mm thick. The asteroseismology
CCDs are defocused by 760μm toward the dioptric objective to avoid saturation of the brightest stars. A prism
in front of the planet detection CCDs gives a small spectrum
designed to disperse more strongly in the blue wavelengths.
The four CCD
detectors are model 4280 CCDs provided by E2V Technologies. These CCDs are frame-transfer, thinned, back-illuminated designs in a 2048 pixel by 2048 pixel array. Each pixel is 13.5 × 13.5μm2 in size which corresponds to an angular pixel size of 2.32 arcsec. The CCDs are cooled to -40 C. These detectors are arranged in a square pattern with two each dedicated to the planetary detection and asteroseismology
. The data output stream from the CCDs are connected in two chains. Each chain has one planetary detection CCD and one asteroseismology
CCD. The field of view
for planetary detection is 3.5°.
The satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center
, has a launch mass of 630 kg, is 4.10 m long, 1.984 m in diameter and is powered by two solar panels.
s, allowing up to 150 days of continuous observation. These observations session, called "Long Runs", allow the detections of smaller and long-period planets. During the remaining 30 days between the two main observation periods, COROT observes other patches of sky for a few weeks long "Short Runs", in order to analyze a larger number of stars for the asteroseismic program. After the loss of half the field of view due to failure
of Data Processing Unit #1 in March 2009
, the observation strategy changed to 3 months observing runs, in order to optimize the number of observed stars and detection efficiency
. In order to avoid the Sun
entering in its field of view, during the northern summer COROT will observe in an area around Serpens Cauda, toward the galactic center
, and during the winter it will observe in Monoceros
, in the Galactic anticenter
. Both this "eyes" of COROT have been studied in preliminary observations carried out between 1998 and 2005, allowing the creation of a database
, called COROTSKY, with data about the stars located in this two patches of sky. This work allow to select the best fields to be observed: the exoplanet research program requires a large number of dwarf stars to be monitored, and to avoid giant star
s, for which planetary transits are too shallow to be detectable. The asteroseismic program requires stars brighter than magnitude 9, and to cover as many as possible different type of stars. In addition, in order to optimize the observations, the fields shouldn't be too sparse - fewer targets observed - or too crowded - too many stars overlapping. Several fields have been already observed:
The probe monitors the brightness of stars over time, searching for the slight dimming that happens in regular intervals when planets transit
their primary sun. In every fields, COROT records the brightness of thousands stars in the V-magnitude
range from 11 to 16 for the extrasolar planet study. In fact, stellar targets brighter than 11 will saturate the exoplanets CCD detectors, yielding inaccurate data, whilst stars dimmer than 16 don't deliver enough photons to allow planetary detections. COROT will be sensitive enough to detect rocky planets with a radius two times larger than Earth orbiting stars brighter than 14; it is also expected to discover new gas giants in the whole magnitude range.
COROT will also undertake asteroseismology
. It can detect luminosity
variations associated with acoustic pulsations of stars. This phenomenon allows calculation of a star's precise mass, age and chemical composition and will aid in comparisons between the sun and other stars. For this program, in each field of view there will be one main target star for the asteroseismology as well as up to nine other targets. The number of observed targets have dropped to half after the loss of Data Processing Unit #1.
The mission began on 27 December 2006 when a Russian Soyuz 2-1b
rocket lifted the satellite into a circular polar orbit
with an altitude of 827 km . The first scientific observation campaign started on 3 February 2007.
and took 60 person-years to complete. The COROT camera, also constructed by the LESIA Laboratory, took 25 person-years to complete.
The transit method requires the detection of at least two transits, hence the planets detected will mostly have an orbital period under 75 day. Candidates that show only one transit have been found, but uncertainty remains about their exact orbital period.
COROT should be assumed to detect a small percentage of planets within the observed star fields, due to the low percentage of exoplanets that would transit from the angle of observation of our Solar System
. The chances of seeing a planet transiting its host star is inversely proportional to the diameter of the planet's orbit, thus close in planets detections will outnumber outer planets ones. The transit method is also biased toward large planets, since their very depth transits are more easily detected than the shallows eclipses induced by terrestrial planets.
dedicated to asteroseismology
and one CCD
dedicated to planet detection. The field of view
of the satellite is thus reduced by 50%, but without any degradation of the quality of the observations. The loss of channel 1 appears to be permanent.
, or an eclipsing fainter star very close to the target star, whose light, blended in the light curve, can reproduce transit-like events. A first screening is executed on the light curves, searching hints of secondary eclipses or a rather V-shaped transit, indicative of a stellar nature of the transits. For the brighter targets, the prism in front of the exoplanets CCDs provides photometry in 3 different colors, enabling to reject planet candidates that have different transit depths in the three channels, a behaviour typical of binary stars. These tests allow to discard 83% of the candidate detections, whilst the remaining 17% are screened with photometric and radial velocity follow-up from a network of telescopes around the world. Photometric observations, required to rule out a possible contamination by a diluted eclipsing binary in close vicinity of the target, is performed on several 1 m-class instruments, but also employs the 2 m Tautenburg telescope in Germany and the 3,6 m CFHT/Megacam in Hawaii. The radial velocity follow-up allows to discard binaries or even multiple star system
and, given enough observations, provide the mass
of the exoplanets found. Radial velocity follow-up is performed high-precision spectrographs
, namely SOPHIE
, HARPS and HIRES. Once the planetary nature of the candidate is established, high-resolution spectroscopy
is performed on the host star, in order to accurately determine the stellar parameters, form which further derive the exoplanet characteristics. Such work is done with large aperture telescopes, as the UVES spectrograph or HIRES.
Interesting transiting planets could be further followed-up with the infrared Spitzer
Space Telescope, to give an independent confirmation at a different wavelength
and possibly detect reflected light from the planet or the atmospheric compositions. COROT-7b and COROT-9b
have already been observed by Spitzer
.
Papers presenting the results of follow-up operations of planetary candidates in the IRa01, LRc01, LRa01, SRa01 and SRa02 fields have been published. Sometimes the faintness of the target star or its characteristics, such as a high rotational velocity or strong stellar activity, do not allow to determine unambiguously the nature or the mass of the planetary candidate.
More than one hundred star have already been observed in the asteroseismic channels. A review of the results is presented:
. With the scientist surprise, the granulation signature suggest time scales 30% larger than the Sun and granule size 4 times bigger than the Sun. Oscillations amplitudes were found 25% larger than the ones predicted from current theoretical models, which suggest the need to reformulate current star models.
in Red Giants
are excited, confriming the existence of modes with lifetimes in order of a month.
It seems that the distribution of frequencies
at maximum power among all the observed red giants, present a rather narrow peak, which scientists think has to bear the print of the evolution of our galaxy
.
, the existence of higher frequency modes, due to stochastic
oscillations. This discovery opens new perspectives in the study of these objects, where low frequency oscillations and higher frequency ones could be used in a complementary way to probe the centre and outer layers of the stars.
, interesting science on stars is obtained also on the exoplanets channel data, where the probe records several thousands of light curves from every observed field. Stellar activity, rotation period, star spots evolution, differential rotation
, pulsations are nice extras in addition to the main asteroseismic program. Star-planets interactions have also been studied for the first time, and statistics about binary and multiple star system
could be defined by the large sample of star observed.
In October 2009 the COROT mission was the subject of a special issue of the Astronomy and Astrophysics
Journal, dedicated to the early results of the probe. Several papers with results on the asteroseismic field were published.
s COROT-1b and COROT-2b. Results on asteroseismology
were published in the same year. By further analysis, COROT-1b became the first exoplanets to have its secondary eclipse detected in the optical, thanks to the high precision lightcurve delivered by COROT.
In May 2008, two new exoplanets of Jupiter
size, COROT-4b and COROT-5b, as well as an unknown celestial object, COROT-3b, were announced by ESA. COROT-3b, for its mass, appears to be "something between a brown dwarf
and a planet." According to the definition of planet proposed by the owners of the exoplanet.eu database three years later, COROT-3b, being less massive than 25 Jupiter masses, is classified as an exoplanet.
In February 2009, during the First Corot Symposium, the super-earth COROT-7b was announced, which at the time was the smallest exoplanet to have its diameter confirmed, at 1.58 Earth diameters. The discoveries of a second non transiting planet in the same system, COROT-7c
, and of a new Hot Jupiter, COROT-6b, were also announced at the Symposium.
In March 2010 COROT-9b
was announced. With 80% of Jupiter mass, and an orbit similar to the Mercury
one, this is the first transiting temperate planet found known to be similar to those within our own Solar System. At the time of the discovery, it was the second longest period exoplanet found in transit, after HD80606 b
.
In June 2010 the COROT team announced six new planets, COROT-8b, COROT-10b, COROT-11b, COROT-12b, COROT-13b
, COROT-14b, and a brown dwarf
, COROT-15b. All the planets announced are Jupiter sized, except COROT-8b, which appears to be somewhat between Saturn
and Neptune
.
In an August 2010 paper, COROT detected the ellipsoidal and the relativistic beaming effects in the COROT-3
lightcurve. The probe was also able to tentatively detect the reflected light at optical wavelengths of HD46375 b
, a non transiting planet.
In June 2011, during the Second Corot Symposium, the probe added ten new objects to the Exoplanet catalogue: COROT-16b, COROT-17b, COROT-18b, COROT-19b, COROT-20b, COROT-21b, COROT-22b, COROT-23b, COROT-24b, COROT-24c. The last two planets are of Neptune size, and orbit the same star, thus rappresenting the first multiple transiting system detected by COROT. COROT-22b is also notable for its small size, having less than half the mass of Saturn.
As of June 2011, 401 further planet candidates are being screened for confirmation.
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...
in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA)
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
and other international partners. The mission's two objectives are to search for extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
s with short orbital periods, particularly those of large terrestrial size
Terrestrial planet
A terrestrial planet, telluric planet or rocky planet is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets are the inner planets closest to the Sun...
, and to perform asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
by measuring solar-like oscillations
Solar-like oscillations
The term solar-like oscillations refers to oscillations in other stars that are excited in the same way as those in the Sun, namely by convection in its outer layers.-See also:* asteroseismology* helioseismology* variable stars* Procyon...
in stars. It was launched at 14:28:00 UTC on 27 December 2006, atop a Soyuz 2.1b
Soyuz 2 rocket
Soyuz-2, GRAU index 14A14, is the collective designation for the new version of the Russian Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage carrier rocket for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. The first stage boosters and two core stages feature uprated engines with improved injection...
carrier rocket, reporting first light on 18 January 2007. Subsequently, the probe started to collect science data on 2 February 2007. COROT is the first spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
dedicated to the detection of transiting extrasolar planets, opening the way for more advanced probes such as Kepler and possibly TESS
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is a proposed space telescope by MIT for NASA's Small Explorer program. It was not selected for development in the most recent Small Explorer phase A study round...
and PLATO
PLATO (spacecraft)
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars is a European Space Agency-proposed space observatory that will use a group of photometers to discover and characterize extrasolar planets of all sizes and kinds around cool dwarf and subgiant stars...
. It detected its first extrasolar planet, COROT-1b, in May 2007, just 3 months after the start of the observations. Mission flight operations were originally scheduled to end 2.5 years from launch but operations were extended to 2013.
Spacecraft design
The COROT optical design minimizes stray light coming from the Earth and provides a field of viewField of view
The field of view is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment....
of 2.7° by 3.05°. The COROT optical path consists of a 27 cm (10.6 in) diameter off-axis afocal
Afocal system
In optics an afocal system is an optical system that produces no net convergence or divergence of the beam, i.e. has an infinite effective focal length. This type of system can be created with a pair of optical elements where the distance between the elements is equal to the sum of each element's...
telescope housed in a two-stage opaque baffle
Opacity (optics)
Opacity is the measure of impenetrability to electromagnetic or other kinds of radiation, especially visible light. In radiative transfer, it describes the absorption and scattering of radiation in a medium, such as a plasma, dielectric, shielding material, glass, etc...
specifically designed to block sunlight reflected by the Earth and a camera consisting of a dioptric objective and a focal box. Inside the focal box is an array of four CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
detectors protected against radiation
Ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation is radiation composed of particles that individually have sufficient energy to remove an electron from an atom or molecule. This ionization produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons...
by aluminum shielding 10mm thick. The asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
CCDs are defocused by 760μm toward the dioptric objective to avoid saturation of the brightest stars. A prism
Prism (optics)
In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial use...
in front of the planet detection CCDs gives a small spectrum
Spectrum
A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...
designed to disperse more strongly in the blue wavelengths.
The four CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
detectors are model 4280 CCDs provided by E2V Technologies. These CCDs are frame-transfer, thinned, back-illuminated designs in a 2048 pixel by 2048 pixel array. Each pixel is 13.5 × 13.5μm2 in size which corresponds to an angular pixel size of 2.32 arcsec. The CCDs are cooled to -40 C. These detectors are arranged in a square pattern with two each dedicated to the planetary detection and asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
. The data output stream from the CCDs are connected in two chains. Each chain has one planetary detection CCD and one asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
CCD. The field of view
Field of view
The field of view is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment....
for planetary detection is 3.5°.
The satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center
Cannes Mandelieu Space Center
The Cannes Mandelieu Space Center is an industrial plant dedicated to spacecraft manufacturing, located in both the towns of Cannes and Mandelieu in France...
, has a launch mass of 630 kg, is 4.10 m long, 1.984 m in diameter and is powered by two solar panels.
Mission design
The satellite observes perpendicular to its orbital plane, meaning there will be no Earth occultationOccultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...
s, allowing up to 150 days of continuous observation. These observations session, called "Long Runs", allow the detections of smaller and long-period planets. During the remaining 30 days between the two main observation periods, COROT observes other patches of sky for a few weeks long "Short Runs", in order to analyze a larger number of stars for the asteroseismic program. After the loss of half the field of view due to failure
Failure
Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic...
of Data Processing Unit #1 in March 2009
March 2009
March 2009 was the third month of that year. It began on a Sunday and ended after 31 days on a Tuesday.-Portal:Current events:This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from March 2009....
, the observation strategy changed to 3 months observing runs, in order to optimize the number of observed stars and detection efficiency
Efficiency
Efficiency in general describes the extent to which time or effort is well used for the intended task or purpose. It is often used with the specific purpose of relaying the capability of a specific application of effort to produce a specific outcome effectively with a minimum amount or quantity of...
. In order to avoid the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
entering in its field of view, during the northern summer COROT will observe in an area around Serpens Cauda, toward the galactic center
Galactic Center
The Galactic Center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy. It is located at a distance of 8.33±0.35 kpc from the Earth in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius where the Milky Way appears brightest...
, and during the winter it will observe in Monoceros
Monoceros
Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east...
, in the Galactic anticenter
Galactic anticenter
The galactic anticenter is a theoretical point in the sky that lies directly opposite the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Because this point is relative, it will vary depending on the location of the observer; it is not an actual fixed point in space. Most of the time, this term refers to the...
. Both this "eyes" of COROT have been studied in preliminary observations carried out between 1998 and 2005, allowing the creation of a database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, called COROTSKY, with data about the stars located in this two patches of sky. This work allow to select the best fields to be observed: the exoplanet research program requires a large number of dwarf stars to be monitored, and to avoid giant star
Giant star
A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main sequence star of the same surface temperature. Typically, giant stars have radii between 10 and 100 solar radii and luminosities between 10 and 1,000 times that of the Sun. Stars still more luminous than giants are...
s, for which planetary transits are too shallow to be detectable. The asteroseismic program requires stars brighter than magnitude 9, and to cover as many as possible different type of stars. In addition, in order to optimize the observations, the fields shouldn't be too sparse - fewer targets observed - or too crowded - too many stars overlapping. Several fields have been already observed:
- IRa01, from 18 January 2007 to 3 April 2007 - 9879 stars observed;
- SRc01, from 3 April 2007 to 9 May 2007 - 6975 stars observed;
- LRc01, from 9 May 2007 to 15 October 2007 - 11408 stars observed;
- LRa01, from 15 October 2007 to 3 March 2008 - 11408 stars observed;
- SRa01, from 3 March 2008 to 31 March 2008 - 8150 stars observed;
- LRc02, from 31 March 2008 to 8 September 2008 - 11408 stars observed;
- SRc02, from 8 September 2008 to 6 October 2008 - 11408 stars observed;
- SRa02, from 6 October 2008 to 12 November 2008 - 10265 stars observed;
- LRa02, from 12 November 2008 to 30 March 2009 - 11408 stars observed;
- LRc03, from 30 March 2009 to 2 July 2009 - 5661 stars observed;
- LRc04, from 2 July 2009 to 30 September 2009 - 5716 stars observed;
- LRa03, from 30 September 2009 to 1 March 2010 - 5289 stars observed;
- SRa03, from 1 March 2010 to 2 April 2010;
- LRc05, from 2 April 2010 to 5 July 2010;
- LRc06, from 5 July 2010 to 27 September 2010;
- LRa04, from 27 September 2010 to 16 December 2010;
- LRa05, from 16 December 2010 to 5 April 2011;
- LRc07, from 5 April 2011 to 30 June 2011;
- SRc03, from 1 July 2011 to 5 July 2011 - a run made to reobserve the transit of COROT-9bCOROT-9bCOROT-9b is an exoplanet orbiting the star COROT-9, approximately 1500 light years away in the constellation Serpens. COROT-9b's distance of nearest approach to its parent star of approximately 0.36 AU is the largest of all known transiting planets, with an orbital period of 95 days. The transit of...
; - LRc08, from 6 July 2011 to 30 September 2011;
- SRa04, from 4 Ocotber 2011, in progress.
The probe monitors the brightness of stars over time, searching for the slight dimming that happens in regular intervals when planets transit
Astronomical transit
The term transit or astronomical transit has three meanings in astronomy:* A transit is the astronomical event that occurs when one celestial body appears to move across the face of another celestial body, hiding a small part of it, as seen by an observer at some particular vantage point...
their primary sun. In every fields, COROT records the brightness of thousands stars in the V-magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
range from 11 to 16 for the extrasolar planet study. In fact, stellar targets brighter than 11 will saturate the exoplanets CCD detectors, yielding inaccurate data, whilst stars dimmer than 16 don't deliver enough photons to allow planetary detections. COROT will be sensitive enough to detect rocky planets with a radius two times larger than Earth orbiting stars brighter than 14; it is also expected to discover new gas giants in the whole magnitude range.
COROT will also undertake asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
. It can detect luminosity
Luminosity
Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...
variations associated with acoustic pulsations of stars. This phenomenon allows calculation of a star's precise mass, age and chemical composition and will aid in comparisons between the sun and other stars. For this program, in each field of view there will be one main target star for the asteroseismology as well as up to nine other targets. The number of observed targets have dropped to half after the loss of Data Processing Unit #1.
The mission began on 27 December 2006 when a Russian Soyuz 2-1b
Soyuz 2 rocket
Soyuz-2, GRAU index 14A14, is the collective designation for the new version of the Russian Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage carrier rocket for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. The first stage boosters and two core stages feature uprated engines with improved injection...
rocket lifted the satellite into a circular polar orbit
Polar orbit
A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...
with an altitude of 827 km . The first scientific observation campaign started on 3 February 2007.
Development
The primary contractor for the construction of the COROT vehicle was CNES, to which individual components were delivered for vehicle assembly. The COROT equipment bay, which houses the data acquisition and pre-processing electronics, was constructed by the LESIA Laboratory at the Paris ObservatoryParis Observatory
The Paris Observatory is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world...
and took 60 person-years to complete. The COROT camera, also constructed by the LESIA Laboratory, took 25 person-years to complete.
Potential
Before the beginning of the mission, the team stated with caution that COROT would only be able to detect planets few times larger than Earth or greater, and that it was not specifically designed to detect habitable planets. According to the press release announcing the first results, COROT's instruments are performing with higher precision than had been predicted, and may be able to find planets down to the size of Earth with short orbits around small stars.The transit method requires the detection of at least two transits, hence the planets detected will mostly have an orbital period under 75 day. Candidates that show only one transit have been found, but uncertainty remains about their exact orbital period.
COROT should be assumed to detect a small percentage of planets within the observed star fields, due to the low percentage of exoplanets that would transit from the angle of observation of our Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. The chances of seeing a planet transiting its host star is inversely proportional to the diameter of the planet's orbit, thus close in planets detections will outnumber outer planets ones. The transit method is also biased toward large planets, since their very depth transits are more easily detected than the shallows eclipses induced by terrestrial planets.
Failure of Data Processing Unit #1
On March 8, 2009 the satellite suffered a loss of communication with Data Processing Unit #1, processing data from one of the two photo-detector chains on the spacecraft. Science operations resumed early April with Data Processing Unit #1 offline while Data Processing Unit #2 operating normally. The loss of photo-detector chain number 1 results in the loss of one CCDCharge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
dedicated to asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
and one CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
dedicated to planet detection. The field of view
Field of view
The field of view is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment....
of the satellite is thus reduced by 50%, but without any degradation of the quality of the observations. The loss of channel 1 appears to be permanent.
Follow-up program
The rate of discoveries of transiting planets is dictated by the need of ground based follow-up observations, needed to verify the planetary nature of the transit candidates. Candidate detections have been obtained for about 2,3% of all COROT targets, but finding periodic transit events isn't enough to claim a planet discovery, since several configurations could mimic a transiting planet, such as stellar binariesBinary star
A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
, or an eclipsing fainter star very close to the target star, whose light, blended in the light curve, can reproduce transit-like events. A first screening is executed on the light curves, searching hints of secondary eclipses or a rather V-shaped transit, indicative of a stellar nature of the transits. For the brighter targets, the prism in front of the exoplanets CCDs provides photometry in 3 different colors, enabling to reject planet candidates that have different transit depths in the three channels, a behaviour typical of binary stars. These tests allow to discard 83% of the candidate detections, whilst the remaining 17% are screened with photometric and radial velocity follow-up from a network of telescopes around the world. Photometric observations, required to rule out a possible contamination by a diluted eclipsing binary in close vicinity of the target, is performed on several 1 m-class instruments, but also employs the 2 m Tautenburg telescope in Germany and the 3,6 m CFHT/Megacam in Hawaii. The radial velocity follow-up allows to discard binaries or even multiple star system
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...
and, given enough observations, provide the mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
of the exoplanets found. Radial velocity follow-up is performed high-precision spectrographs
Spectrograph
A spectrograph is an instrument that separates an incoming wave into a frequency spectrum. There are several kinds of machines referred to as spectrographs, depending on the precise nature of the waves...
, namely SOPHIE
SOPHIE échelle spectrograph
The SOPHIE échelle spectrograph is a high-resolution echelle spectrograph installed on the 1.93m reflector telescope at the Haute-Provence Observatory located in south-eastern France...
, HARPS and HIRES. Once the planetary nature of the candidate is established, high-resolution spectroscopy
Astronomical spectroscopy
Astronomical spectroscopy is the technique of spectroscopy used in astronomy. The object of study is the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, which radiates from stars and other celestial objects...
is performed on the host star, in order to accurately determine the stellar parameters, form which further derive the exoplanet characteristics. Such work is done with large aperture telescopes, as the UVES spectrograph or HIRES.
Interesting transiting planets could be further followed-up with the infrared Spitzer
Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope , formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003...
Space Telescope, to give an independent confirmation at a different wavelength
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
and possibly detect reflected light from the planet or the atmospheric compositions. COROT-7b and COROT-9b
COROT-9b
COROT-9b is an exoplanet orbiting the star COROT-9, approximately 1500 light years away in the constellation Serpens. COROT-9b's distance of nearest approach to its parent star of approximately 0.36 AU is the largest of all known transiting planets, with an orbital period of 95 days. The transit of...
have already been observed by Spitzer
Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope , formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003...
.
Papers presenting the results of follow-up operations of planetary candidates in the IRa01, LRc01, LRa01, SRa01 and SRa02 fields have been published. Sometimes the faintness of the target star or its characteristics, such as a high rotational velocity or strong stellar activity, do not allow to determine unambiguously the nature or the mass of the planetary candidate.
Asteroseismology
By revealing their microvariability, measuring their oscillations at the ppm level, COROT provides a new vision at stars, never reached before by any ground-based observation.More than one hundred star have already been observed in the asteroseismic channels. A review of the results is presented:
Solar-like pulsators
COROT measured Solar-like oscillations and granulation in stars hotter than the SunSun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. With the scientist surprise, the granulation signature suggest time scales 30% larger than the Sun and granule size 4 times bigger than the Sun. Oscillations amplitudes were found 25% larger than the ones predicted from current theoretical models, which suggest the need to reformulate current star models.
Red Giants
COROT provided evidence that both radial e non radial modesNormal mode
A normal mode of an oscillating system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation. The frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies or resonant frequencies...
in Red Giants
Red giant
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower...
are excited, confriming the existence of modes with lifetimes in order of a month.
It seems that the distribution of frequencies
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
at maximum power among all the observed red giants, present a rather narrow peak, which scientists think has to bear the print of the evolution of our galaxy
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
.
Chimera, a new type of pulsators
The study of the star HD 180872 revealed, at a very low amplitudeAmplitude
Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...
, the existence of higher frequency modes, due to stochastic
Stochastic
Stochastic refers to systems whose behaviour is intrinsically non-deterministic. A stochastic process is one whose behavior is non-deterministic, in that a system's subsequent state is determined both by the process's predictable actions and by a random element. However, according to M. Kac and E...
oscillations. This discovery opens new perspectives in the study of these objects, where low frequency oscillations and higher frequency ones could be used in a complementary way to probe the centre and outer layers of the stars.
Additional programmes
Albeit with a lower Signal to noise ratioSignal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise...
, interesting science on stars is obtained also on the exoplanets channel data, where the probe records several thousands of light curves from every observed field. Stellar activity, rotation period, star spots evolution, differential rotation
Differential rotation
Differential rotation is seen when different parts of a rotating object move with different angular velocities at different latitudes and/or depths of the body and/or in time. This indicates that the object is not solid. In fluid objects, such as accretion disks, this leads to shearing...
, pulsations are nice extras in addition to the main asteroseismic program. Star-planets interactions have also been studied for the first time, and statistics about binary and multiple star system
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...
could be defined by the large sample of star observed.
In October 2009 the COROT mission was the subject of a special issue of the Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy and Astrophysics
* Astronomy and Astrophysics has a 2010 impact factor of 4.410.-See also:*The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review*Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics*Astronomy & Geophysics*Astronomical Journal*Astrophysical Journal...
Journal, dedicated to the early results of the probe. Several papers with results on the asteroseismic field were published.
Exoplanets
The COROT exoplanet science team has decided to publish confirmed and fully characterized planets only and not simple candidate lists. This strategy, different from the one pursued by the Kepler mission, where the candidates are regularly updated and made available to the public, is quite lengthy. On the other hand, the approach also increases the scientific return of the mission, as the set of published COROT discoveries constitute some of the best exoplanetary studies carried out so far.Timelines of Planets discoveries
COROT discovered its first two planets in 2007: the hot JupiterHot Jupiter
Hot Jupiters are a class of extrasolar planet whose mass is close to or exceeds that of Jupiter...
s COROT-1b and COROT-2b. Results on asteroseismology
Asteroseismology
Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star...
were published in the same year. By further analysis, COROT-1b became the first exoplanets to have its secondary eclipse detected in the optical, thanks to the high precision lightcurve delivered by COROT.
In May 2008, two new exoplanets of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
size, COROT-4b and COROT-5b, as well as an unknown celestial object, COROT-3b, were announced by ESA. COROT-3b, for its mass, appears to be "something between a brown dwarf
Brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, which is characteristic of stars on the main sequence. Brown dwarfs have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...
and a planet." According to the definition of planet proposed by the owners of the exoplanet.eu database three years later, COROT-3b, being less massive than 25 Jupiter masses, is classified as an exoplanet.
In February 2009, during the First Corot Symposium, the super-earth COROT-7b was announced, which at the time was the smallest exoplanet to have its diameter confirmed, at 1.58 Earth diameters. The discoveries of a second non transiting planet in the same system, COROT-7c
COROT-7c
COROT-7c is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type main sequence star COROT-7, located approximately 489 light years away in the constellation Monoceros...
, and of a new Hot Jupiter, COROT-6b, were also announced at the Symposium.
In March 2010 COROT-9b
COROT-9b
COROT-9b is an exoplanet orbiting the star COROT-9, approximately 1500 light years away in the constellation Serpens. COROT-9b's distance of nearest approach to its parent star of approximately 0.36 AU is the largest of all known transiting planets, with an orbital period of 95 days. The transit of...
was announced. With 80% of Jupiter mass, and an orbit similar to the Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
one, this is the first transiting temperate planet found known to be similar to those within our own Solar System. At the time of the discovery, it was the second longest period exoplanet found in transit, after HD80606 b
HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b is a superjovian planet 190 light-years distant in the constellation of Ursa Major. The planet was discovered orbiting the star Struve 1341 B in April 2001 by a team led by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Based on its mass, at 4 times that of Jupiter, it is a gas giant...
.
In June 2010 the COROT team announced six new planets, COROT-8b, COROT-10b, COROT-11b, COROT-12b, COROT-13b
CoRoT-13b
CoRoT-13b is a transiting exoplanet found by the CoRoT space telescope on 12 July 2010.It is an extremely hot Jupiter-like planet with an orbital period of 4.04 earth days, that is around 4257.5 light years away. Its mass is equivalent to 1.308 Jupiter masses, 0.9 Jupiter radii, and has a density...
, COROT-14b, and a brown dwarf
Brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, which is characteristic of stars on the main sequence. Brown dwarfs have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...
, COROT-15b. All the planets announced are Jupiter sized, except COROT-8b, which appears to be somewhat between Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
and Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
.
In an August 2010 paper, COROT detected the ellipsoidal and the relativistic beaming effects in the COROT-3
COROT-3
COROT-3 is a white-yellow dwarf main sequence star hotter than our Sun. This star is located approximately 2200 light-years away in the constellation of Aquila...
lightcurve. The probe was also able to tentatively detect the reflected light at optical wavelengths of HD46375 b
HD 46375 b
HD 46375 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 109 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros, orbiting the star HD 46375. With 79 Ceti b on March 29, 2000, it was joint first known extrasolar planet less massive than Saturn orbiting a normal star. The planet is a "hot Jupiter", a...
, a non transiting planet.
In June 2011, during the Second Corot Symposium, the probe added ten new objects to the Exoplanet catalogue: COROT-16b, COROT-17b, COROT-18b, COROT-19b, COROT-20b, COROT-21b, COROT-22b, COROT-23b, COROT-24b, COROT-24c. The last two planets are of Neptune size, and orbit the same star, thus rappresenting the first multiple transiting system detected by COROT. COROT-22b is also notable for its small size, having less than half the mass of Saturn.
As of June 2011, 401 further planet candidates are being screened for confirmation.
List of Planets discovered
The following transiting planets have been announced by the mission.| Star Star A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth... |
Constellation Constellation In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky.... |
Right ascension Right ascension Right ascension is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. The other coordinate is the declination.-Explanation:... |
Declination Declination In astronomy, declination is one of the two coordinates of the equatorial coordinate system, the other being either right ascension or hour angle. Declination in astronomy is comparable to geographic latitude, but projected onto the celestial sphere. Declination is measured in degrees north and... |
App. mag. Apparent magnitude The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere... |
Distance (ly) | Spectral type Stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure... |
Planet Planet A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,... |
Mass Mass Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:... (MJ Jupiter mass Jupiter mass , is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter . Jupiter mass is used to describe masses of the gas giants, such as the outer planets and extrasolar planets. It is also used in describing brown dwarfs.... ) |
Radius Radius In classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter. If the object does not have an obvious center, the term may refer to its... (RJ) |
Orbital period Orbital period The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of... (d Day A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun... ) |
Semi-major axis Semi-major axis The major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter, a line that runs through the centre and both foci, its ends being at the widest points of the shape... (AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance.... ) |
Orbital eccentricity Orbital eccentricity The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit... |
Inclination Inclination Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit... (° Degree (angle) A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians... ) |
Discovery year |
Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COROT-1 COROT-1 COROT-1 is a yellow dwarf main sequence star similar to our Sun. The star is located approximately 1,560 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros. The apparent magnitude of this star is 13.6, which means it is not visible to the naked eye; however, it can be seen through a medium sized... |
Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
13.6 | 1560 | G0V | b | 1.03 | 1.49 | 1.5089557 | 0.0254 | 0 | 85.1 | 2007 | |||
| COROT-2 COROT-2 COROT-2 is a yellow dwarf main sequence star a little cooler than the Sun. This star is located approximately 930 light-years away in the constellation of Aquila... |
Aquila Aquila (constellation) Aquila is a stellar constellation. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it is commonly represented as such. In mythology, Aquila was owned by the Roman god Jupiter and performed many tasks for him.... |
12.57 | 930 | G7V | b | 3.31 | 1.465 | 1.7429964 | 0.0281 | 0 | 87.84 | 2007 | |||
| COROT-3 COROT-3 COROT-3 is a white-yellow dwarf main sequence star hotter than our Sun. This star is located approximately 2200 light-years away in the constellation of Aquila... |
Aquila Aquila (constellation) Aquila is a stellar constellation. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it is commonly represented as such. In mythology, Aquila was owned by the Roman god Jupiter and performed many tasks for him.... |
13.3 | 2200 | F3V | b | 21.66 | 1.01 | 4.25680 | 0.057 | 0 | 85.9 | 2008 | |||
| COROT-4 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
13.7 | F0V | b | 0.72 | 1.19 | 9.20205 | 0.090 | 0 | 90 | 2008 | ||||
| COROT-5 COROT-5 COROT-5 is an magnitude 14 star located in the Monoceros constellation.-Location and properties:The announcement materials identify this star as located within the LRa01 field of view of the COROT spacecraft... |
Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
14 | 1304 | F9V | b | 0.459 | 1.28 | 4.0384 | 0.04947 | 0.09 | 85.83 | 2008 | |||
| COROT-6 COROT-6 COROT-6 is a magnitude 13.9 star located in the Ophiuchus constellation.-Location and properties:The star has a radius of about 102% of the Sun and a mass of about 110% of the Sun. It is a main sequence F type star a little larger and hotter than the Sun.- Planetary system :The star is orbited by... |
Ophiuchus Ophiuchus Ophiuchus is a large constellation located around the celestial equator. Its name is from the Greek "serpent-bearer", and it is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the constellation Serpens. Ophiuchus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century... |
13.9 | F5V | b | 3.3 | 1.16 | 8.89 | 0.0855 | < 0.1 | 89.07 | 2009 | ||||
| COROT-7 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
11.668 | 489 | G9V | b | 0.0151 | 0.150 | 0.853585 | 0.0172 | 0 | 80.1 | 2009 | |||
| COROT-8 | Aquila Aquila (constellation) Aquila is a stellar constellation. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it is commonly represented as such. In mythology, Aquila was owned by the Roman god Jupiter and performed many tasks for him.... |
14.8 | 1239 | K1V | b | 0.22 | 0.57 | 6.21229 | 0.063 | 0 | 88.4 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-9 | Serpens Serpens Serpens is a constellation of the northern hemisphere. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union.... |
13.7 | 1500 | G3V | b COROT-9b COROT-9b is an exoplanet orbiting the star COROT-9, approximately 1500 light years away in the constellation Serpens. COROT-9b's distance of nearest approach to its parent star of approximately 0.36 AU is the largest of all known transiting planets, with an orbital period of 95 days. The transit of... |
0.84 | 1.05 | 95.2738 | 0.407 | 0.11 | >89.9 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-10 | Aquila Aquila (constellation) Aquila is a stellar constellation. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it is commonly represented as such. In mythology, Aquila was owned by the Roman god Jupiter and performed many tasks for him.... |
15.22 | 1125 | K1V | b | 2.75 | 0.97 | 13.2406 | 0.1055 | 0.53 | 88.55 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-11 | Serpens Serpens Serpens is a constellation of the northern hemisphere. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union.... |
12.94 | 1826 | F6V | b | 2.33 | 1.43 | 2.99433 | 0.0436 | 0 | 83.17 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-12 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
15.52 | 3750 | G2V | b | 0.917 | 1.44 | 2.828042 | 0.04016 | 0.07 | 85.48 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-13 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
15.04 | 4272 | G0V | b CoRoT-13b CoRoT-13b is a transiting exoplanet found by the CoRoT space telescope on 12 July 2010.It is an extremely hot Jupiter-like planet with an orbital period of 4.04 earth days, that is around 4257.5 light years away. Its mass is equivalent to 1.308 Jupiter masses, 0.9 Jupiter radii, and has a density... |
1.308 | 0.885 | 4.03519 | 0.051 | 0 | 88.02 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-14 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
16.03 | 4370 | F9V | b | 7.58 | 1.09 | 1.51215 | 0.027 | 0 | 79.6 | 2010 | |||
| COROT-16 | 15.64 | 2740 | G5V | b | 0.535 | 1.17 | 5.35227 | 0.0618 | 0.33 | ~ 85.01 | 2011 | ||||
| COROT-17 | Scutum Scutum Scutum is a small constellation introduced in the seventeenth century. Its name is Latin for shield.-History:Scutum is the only constellation that owes its name to a non-classical historical figure... |
15.46 | 3001 | G2V | b | 2.43 | 1.02 | 3.768125 | 0.0461 | 0 | 88.34 | 2011 | |||
| COROT-18 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
14.99 | 2838 | G9 | b | 3.47 | 1.31 | 1.9000693 | 0.0295 | <0.08 | 86.3 | 2011 | |||
| COROT-19 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
14.78 | 2609 | F9V | b | 1.14 | 1.45 | 3.89713 | 0.0518 | 0.047 | 87.61 | 2011 | |||
| COROT-20 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
14.66 | 4012 | G2V | b | 4.24 | 0.84 | 9.24 | 0.0902 | 0.562 | 88.21 | 2011 | |||
| COROT-21 | b | 2.53 | 1.3 | 2.72474 | 0.0417 | 2011 | |||||||||
| COROT-22 | Serpens Serpens Serpens is a constellation of the northern hemisphere. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union.... |
11.93 | 2052 | G0IV | b | < 0.15 | 0.52 | 9.7566 | 0.094 | < 0.6 | 89.4 | 2011 | |||
| COROT-23 | Serpens Serpens Serpens is a constellation of the northern hemisphere. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union.... |
15.63 | F9/G0V | b | 2.8 | 1.05 | 3.632421 | 0.04769 | 0.16 | 88.27 | 2011 | ||||
| COROT-24 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
4413 | b | < 0.1 | 0.236 | 5.1134 | 2011 | ||||||||
| COROT-24 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
4413 | c | 0.173 | 0.38 | 11.749 | 2011 |
Other discoveries
The following table illustrates brown dwarf detected by COROT as well as non transiting planets detected in the follow-up program:| Star Star A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth... |
Constellation Constellation In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky.... |
Right ascension Right ascension Right ascension is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. The other coordinate is the declination.-Explanation:... |
Declination Declination In astronomy, declination is one of the two coordinates of the equatorial coordinate system, the other being either right ascension or hour angle. Declination in astronomy is comparable to geographic latitude, but projected onto the celestial sphere. Declination is measured in degrees north and... |
App. mag. Apparent magnitude The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere... |
Distance (ly) | Spectral type Stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure... |
Object Object Object may refer to:* Object , a thing, being or concept** Entity, something that is tangible and within the grasp of the senses* As used in object relations theories of psychoanalysis, that to which a subject relates.... |
Type Type Type may refer to:In philosophy:*Type–token distinctionIn mathematics:*Type *Type theory, basis for the study of type systems*Type or arity, the number of operands a function takes... |
Mass Mass Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:... (MJ Jupiter mass Jupiter mass , is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter . Jupiter mass is used to describe masses of the gas giants, such as the outer planets and extrasolar planets. It is also used in describing brown dwarfs.... ) |
Radius Radius In classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter. If the object does not have an obvious center, the term may refer to its... (RJ) |
Orbital period Orbital period The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of... (d Day A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun... ) |
Semi-major axis Semi-major axis The major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter, a line that runs through the centre and both foci, its ends being at the widest points of the shape... (AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance.... ) |
Orbital eccentricity Orbital eccentricity The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit... |
Inclination Inclination Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit... (° Degree (angle) A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians... ) |
Discovery year |
Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COROT-7 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
11.668 | 489 | G9V | c COROT-7c COROT-7c is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type main sequence star COROT-7, located approximately 489 light years away in the constellation Monoceros... |
planet | 0.0264 | - | 3.69 | 0.046 | 0 | - | 2009 | |||
| COROT-15 | Monoceros Monoceros Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east... |
16 | 4140 | F7V | b | brown dwarf | 63.3 | 1.12 | 3.06 | 0.045 | 0 | 86.7 | 2010 |
See also
- List of planetary systems
- NASA Star and Exoplanet DatabaseNASA Star and Exoplanet DatabaseThe NASA Star and Exoplanet Database is an on-line astronomical stellar and exoplanet catalog and data service that collates and cross-correlates astronomical data and information on exoplanets and their host stars. NStED is dedicated to collecting and serving important public data sets involved...
- Kepler (spacecraft)
- Terrestrial Planet FinderTerrestrial Planet FinderThe Terrestrial Planet Finder was a proposed project by NASA to construct a system of telescopes for detecting extrasolar terrestrial planets. TPF was postponed several times and finally cancelled...
- High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet SearcherHigh Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet SearcherThe High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher is a high-precision echelle spectrograph installed in 2002 on ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003...
- Space Interferometry MissionSpace Interferometry MissionThe Space Interferometry Mission, or SIM, also known as SIM Lite , was a planned space telescope developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration , in conjunction with contractor Northrop Grumman...
- Darwin (spacecraft)
- Automated Planet FinderAutomated Planet FinderThe Automated Planet Finder Telescope is a fully automated 2.4-meter optical telescope under construction at Lick Observatory designed to search for extrasolar planets in the range of five to twenty times the mass of the Earth. The instrument will examine 25 stars per night. Over a decade, the...