I notice that the raw data is now available at http://idc-corotn2-public.ias.u-psud.fr/in...sva=browseGraph at least for the first two sessions of COROT observations.

I collected the monochromatic data for the initial session, which is 5600 data series each of about ten thousand points; easy to parse, and my initial analysis was to find ones where the standard deviation of the measurements divided by the average of the measurement standard deviations was large, and then to look at (99th percentile brightness - 1st percentile brightness) / (1st percentile brightness): that gives the gallery at http://fivemack.livejournal.com/182633.html#cutid1

The pretty curves are mostly eclipsing binaries; could someone give me an idea of what the geometry implied by a light curve like http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~twomack...C0102791304.png is? I can get periods to four decimal places by trying to minimise the sum of the standard deviations of the amplitudes in 64 buckets collected under the purported period, but I don't see how to get to the six decimal places that astronomers often seem to mention for orbital periods.

I assume that cataclysmic variables are much less common than cosmic-ray hits on the CCD, but I don't have a very clear idea how to go about cleaning up the sudden jumps that you see in time series like http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~twomack...C0102741414.png - I don't think that 30% jumps in flux in less than one 512-second sample period are likely to be of astronomical origin.

Looks like a very tight (contact?) binary, with the secondary star being much smaller and dimmer than the primary. The primary star seems to be severely warped, and as it rotates, seeing it along it's widest axis, and then by its shortest axis, would seem to dominate the influence of the light curve. The quick teeth transits are probably the small secondary star transiting across it. As no secondary eclipse is apparent, the secondary, small star must be quite, quite dim.

That's just my guess.

I concur. I guess it is a W Ursae Majoris variable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_Ursae_Majoris_variable). Also, see the link below for a sample light curve:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/rsteph...39-78_Paper.pdf

That's a nice paper, but I don't believe this is a W UMa, because they tend to have periods around ten hours and this one has a period of fourteen days. There are lots of W UMa stars in the gallery, visible by the thickness of the band at the small size of the thumbnails; http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~twomack...C0102806220.png (period ~.349692 days, phased light curve http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~twomack...-phased-.349692 ) looks a classic example.

I'm thinking it's a beta Lyrae with components of very different brightness, which I suppose is the same as an Algol with an elliptical primary; period looks about 13.58 days and when you phase on that the secondary eclipse becomes visible. Data (time/flux pairs) attached if anyone happens to have a binary-star-modelling program; when I think of modelling rotating ellipsoids from scratch, my head fills with ℘ symbols, and I hope somebody else has already written the software even before I think about limb-darkening.

Bad news...CoRoT has lost one if its detector chains, the same as saying that its field of view has been cut to half.

CRAP.
That really hurts to know. But thanks for that update.
Do you have a link to something official on it?

Edit:
http://beyondthecradle.wordpress.com/2009/...dlund/#more-373

Nope...been looking for it myself but even on the mission's website CoRoT is as it should be...well...
http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/

Guess we'll have to trust Malcolm's words...
Let's look to it on the positive side, they're refining the look over the already acquired data...let's see what surprises may be hidden there...

Well COROT did detect the smallest exoplanet so far; COROT-Exo-7b in constellation Monoceros (Unicorn) at 400 Light Years.
Let's hope they can finish the mission...

Looks that will be no problem, according to Fridlund they're getting, with one detector, more and better data than before...
More details on the detector issue:
"The data chain 1 is gone for the moment. We do not want to heat up the spare data link onboard (where we think the error is) at this time because one need to turn everything off first."
You can read the rest at BtC.

EDITED: Sorry if my interpretation of english fails me here but aren't these words a great proof of humilty by the mission's PS?
I am certain that the dearth of Neptunes in our data is because of our search algorithms. I think the external access to our data is going to be a huge improvement."

I agree, and it's great he's doing it. Pattern Recognition is such a huge area these days that it's no longer possible to be an expert in all of it, so I think there's no shame is his admitting that his team's search algorithms are probably missing lots of things.

--Greg

CoRoT-Exo-7b definitely Rocky!
"1.6 earth radii and 5.8 earth masses is 5.7g cm-3 and mars is only 4"
Facebook update with Malcolm Fridlund at BtC.
http://beyondthecradle.wordpress.com/2009/...d-via-facebook/

space.com article about CoRoT detecting phases of hot Jupiter exoplanet CoRoT-1b:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0905...net-phases.html

Oddly, CoRoT-1b doesn't have a lot of heat transfer between the dayside to the nightside.

Corot's Littlest Exoplanet.... CoRot-7b and system
from Missions for Exoplanets: 2010-2020, Pasadena, April 2009
see Corot Update in Exoplanet Encyclopedia Bibliography for June 4th,2009
http://exoplanet.eu/biblio.php

system of three planets... one Super Earth, other two Hot Neptunes..

http://exep.jpl.nasa.gov/presentations/48-03-2-Fridland.pdf

Craig

Yeah, we had that posted on the extrasolar planets forum a few months back, and someone apparently involved with the project informed us that the information within is not for public disclosure yet. He asked us to remove it, and we complied.

I do not know if it is still embargoed or not.

Interesting Hungry4info

I check the Exoplanet Encyclopedia Bibliography daily. Very rich source of exoplanet information. Since the link to this presentation just showed up there perhaps we are past embargo? Exoplanet Encyclopedia is also a public site.

?????

Craig

AHHHH....know how tired I was last Friday... it is the The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, NOT exoplanet.
A great resource.

Extrasolar planet forum... was not aware that existed. Thanks for the link.

Craig

At the Observatoire de Haute Provence in France, I got the opportunity to follow a team of Franco-Swiss astronomers who're double checking candidate exo-planets detected by CoRoT (between 30 - 40 every 6 months) by using the SOPHIE spectrograph of the 1m93 telescope.
They're very busy but there will be a quiet period as the mirror needs to be recoated at the end of August, which will be reflected in "delayed" sharing of results...

Planetary transit candidates in COROT-IRa01 field

Context: CoRoT is a pioneering space mission devoted to the analysis of stellar variability and the photometric detection of extrasolar planets.

Aims: We present the list of planetary transit candidates detected in the first field observed by CoRoT, IRa01, the initial run toward the Galactic anticenter, which lasted for 60 days.

Methods: We analysed 3898 sources in the coloured bands and 5974 in the monochromatic band. Instrumental noise and stellar variability were taken into account using detrending tools before applying various transit search algorithms.

Results: Fifty sources were classified as planetary transit candidates and the most reliable 40 detections were declared targets for follow-up ground-based observations. Two of these targets have so far been confirmed as planets, COROT-1b and COROT-4b, for which a complete characterization and specific studies were performed.

Paper on COROT-7b now available.

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission VIII. CoRoT-7b: the first Super-Earth with measured radius

http://exoplanet.eu/papers/corot-7b_phot_v37.pdf

Craig

From research paper Mongo noted above - Planetary transit candidates in COROT-IRa01 field
http://fr.arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0907/0907.5150v1.pdf

"They use the CoRoTlux transit survey simulator described
in Fressin et al. (2007) to show that the CoRoT yield on
the first 4 fields is less than one-half that expected. This gap
will probably be reduced as the follow-up of CoRoT candidates
nears completion. Fressin et al. (2007) provides an estimate of
the planet occurrence in close orbit around F-G-K dwarf stars
as a function of the radius of the planet, which agrees with
radial velocity, ground-based transit, and CoRoT discoveries.
Interestingly, they show that CoRoT’s detection of one Super-
Earth (i.e., CoRoT-7b submitted by L´eger et al. 2009) agrees
with the high expectations fromthe HARPS team for the number
of close-in Super-Earths (i.e., for 30 % of main-sequence dwarfs
- see Lovis et al. (2009)), because this kind of planets typically
needs to have a bright K dwarf host to exceed the CoRoT detection
threshold."

Craig

CoRoT's initial mission duration was 30 months but it looks like the mission was extended to January 2010.
How was this accomplished, less usage of cryo liquid?

The CoRoT mission had a built-in possibility for extension, and the launch vehicle put the telescope in a very good orbit (errors +90m - 200m deviation from circular at 900km altitude) so they didn't burn ANY fuel for orbit maintenance so far.
Due to the loss of 50% detector array, the telescope observes shorter times now (90 days instead of 150 days) in order to cover
the same amount of stars. Wishing them best of luck...

Announcement of Corot-7c in scientific literature.

"From this work we present independent evidence establishing the planetary nature of CoRoT-7b transit detection. The mass of CoRoT-7b is measured within a 20% accuracy. From the radial velocity data we show the presence of another planet, CoRoT-7c . If one assumes that both planets are on coplanar orbits CoRoT-7c (the second planet) belongs also to the category of Super-earth planets."

http://exoplanet.eu/papers/corot7-RV.pdf

Enjoy...

Craig

They didn't bother to put the constellation in the text, but CoRoT-7b orbits a star in the constellation Monoceros (Unicorn).
The spacecraft views Unicorn in the winter and the constellation Snake in the summer...

COROT 1000 days in orbit!
http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/

An issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics entirely dedicated to Corot (and accessible for free!)
http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2009/...s/contents.html

News from the CoRoT Space Mission

Actually it's a very nice summary of the CoRot results to date, and the PDF is even free. Here's the abstract:

The up to 150 day uninterrupted high-precision photometry of about 100000 stars – provided so far
by the exoplanet channel of the CoRoT space telescope – gave a new perspective on the planet population of
our galactic neighbourhood. The seven planets with very accurate parameters widen the range of known planet
properties in almost any respect. Giant planets have been detected at low metallicity, rapidly rotating and active,
spotted stars. CoRoT-3 populated the brown dwarf desert and closed the gap of measured physical properties
between standard giant planets and very low mass stars. CoRoT extended the known range of planet masses
down-to 5 Earth masses and up to 21 Jupiter masses, the radii to less than 2 Earth radii and up to the most
inflated hot Jupiter found so far, and the periods of planets discovered by transits to 9 days. Two CoRoT planets
have host stars with the lowest content of heavy elements known to show a transit hinting towards a different
planet-host-star-metallicity relation then the one found by radial-velocity search programs. Finally the properties
of the CoRoT-7b prove that terrestrial planets with a density close to Earth exist outside the Solar System. The
detection of the secondary transit of CoRoT-1 at the 10−5-level and the very clear detection of the 1.7 Earth radii
of CoRoT-7b at 3.5 10−4 relative flux are promising evidence of CoRoT being able to detect even smaller, Earth
sized planets.

And here's the PDF: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0912/0912.4655v1.pdf

--Greg

CoRoT-9b: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/...ature08856.html

"Of the over 400 known1 exoplanets, there are about 70 planets that transit their central star, a situation that permits the derivation of their basic parameters and facilitates investigations of their atmospheres. Some short-period planets2, including the first terrestrial exoplanet3, 4 (CoRoT-7b), have been discovered using a space mission5 designed to find smaller and more distant planets than can be seen from the ground. Here we report transit observations of CoRoT-9b, which orbits with a period of 95.274 days on a low eccentricity of 0.11 ± 0.04 around a solar-like star. Its periastron distance of 0.36 astronomical units is by far the largest of all transiting planets, yielding a ‘temperate’ photospheric temperature estimated to be between 250 and 430 K. Unlike previously known transiting planets, the present size of CoRoT-9b should not have been affected by tidal heat dissipation processes. Indeed, the planet is found to be well described by standard evolution models6 with an inferred interior composition consistent with that of Jupiter and Saturn."

6 new COROT planets announced: http://exoplanet.eu/

COROT-8b is a sub-Saturn mass planet. COROT-10b has a 13 day orbit and high eccentricity. The others are standard Hot Jupiters.

Some more info and a snazzy graphic from CNES:

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/14/we...ets/#more-66357