Person: Newton, Elisabeth R
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Newton
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Elisabeth R
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Newton, Elisabeth R
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Publication A rocky planet transiting a nearby low-mass star(Springer Nature, 2015) Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Irwin, Jonathan; Charbonneau, David; Newton, Elisabeth R; Dittmann, Jason Adam; Astudillo-Defru, Nicola; Bonfils, Xavier; Gillon, Michaël; Jehin, Emmanuël; Stark, Antony; Stalder, Brian; Bouchy, Francois; Delfosse, Xavier; Forveille, Thierry; Lovis, Christophe; Mayor, Michel; Neves, Vasco; Pepe, Francesco; Santos, Nuno C.; Udry, Stéphane; Wünsche, AnaëlM-dwarf stars – hydrogen-burning stars that are smaller than 60 per cent of the size of the Sun – are the most common class of star in our Galaxy and outnumber Sun-like stars by a ratio of 12:1. Recent results have shown that M dwarfs host Earth-sized planets in great numbers1,2: the average number of M-dwarf planets that are between 0.5 to 1.5 times the size of Earth is at least 1.4 per star3. The nearest such planets known to transit their star are 39 parsecs away4 , too distant for detailed follow-up observations to measure the planetary masses or to study their atmospheres. Here we report observations of GJ 1132b, a planet with a size of 1.2 Earth radii that is transiting a small star 12 parsecs away. Our Doppler mass measurement of GJ 1132b yields a density consistent with an Earth-like bulk composition, similar to the compositions of the six known exoplanets with masses less than six times that of the Earth and precisely measured densities5−11. Receiving 19 times more stellar radiation than the Earth, the planet is too hot to be habitable but is cool enough to support a substantial atmosphere, one that has probably been considerably depleted of hydrogen. Because the host star is nearby and only 21 per cent the radius of the Sun, existing and upcoming telescopes will be able to observe the composition and dynamics of the planetary atmosphere.Publication The Rotation and Galactic Kinematics of Mid M Dwarfs in the Solar Neighborhood(American Astronomical Society, 2016) Newton, Elisabeth R; Irwin, Jonathan; Charbonneau, David; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Dittmann, Jason Adam; West, Andrew A.Rotation is a directly observable stellar property, and it drives magnetic field generation and activity through a magnetic dynamo. Main-sequence stars with masses below approximately 0.35 ${M}_{\odot }$ (mid-to-late M dwarfs) are fully convective, and are expected to have a different type of dynamo mechanism than solar-type stars. Measurements of their rotation rates provide insight into these mechanisms, but few rotation periods are available for these stars at field ages. Using photometry from the MEarth Project, we measure rotation periods for 387 nearby, mid-to-late M dwarfs in the northern hemisphere, finding periods from 0.1 to 140 days. The typical rotator has stable, sinusoidal photometric modulations at a semi-amplitude of 0.5%–1%. We find no period–amplitude relation for stars below 0.25 ${M}_{\odot }$ and an anticorrelation between period and amplitude for higher-mass M dwarfs. We highlight the existence of older, slowly rotating stars without Hα emission that nevertheless have strong photometric variability. We use parallaxes, proper motions, radial velocities, photometry, and near-infrared metallicity estimates to further characterize the population of rotators. The Galactic kinematics of our sample is consistent with the local population of G and K dwarfs, and rotators have metallicities characteristic of the solar neighborhood. We use the W space velocities and established age–velocity relations to estimate that stars with P < 10 days have ages of on average <2 Gyr, and that those with P > 70 days have ages of about 5 Gyr. The period distribution is dependent on mass: as the mass decreases, the slowest rotators at a given mass have longer periods, and the fastest rotators have shorter periods. We find a lack of stars with intermediate rotation periods, and the gap between the fast and slow rotators is larger for lower masses. Our data are consistent with a scenario in which these stars maintain rapid rotation for several gigayears, then spin down quickly, reaching periods of around 100 days by a typical age of 5 Gyr.Publication Calibration of the MEarth Photometric System: Optical Magnitudes and Photometric Metallicity Estimates for 1802 Nearby M-dwarfs(American Astronomical Society, 2016) Dittmann, Jason Adam; Irwin, Jonathan; Charbonneau, David; Newton, Elisabeth RThe MEarth Project is a photometric survey systematically searching the smallest stars nearest to the Sun for transiting rocky planets. Since 2008, MEarth has taken approximately two million images of 1844 stars suspected to be midto-late M dwarfs. We have augmented this survey by taking nightly exposures of photometric standard stars and have utilized this data to photometrically calibrate the MEarth system, identify photometric nights, and obtain an optical magnitude with 1.5% precision for each M dwarf system. Each optical magnitude is an average over many years of data, and therefore should be largely immune to stellar variability and flaring. We combine this with trigonometric distance measurements, spectroscopic metallicity measurements, and 2MASS infrared magnitude measurements in order to derive a color-magnitude-metallicity relation across the mid-to-late M dwarf spectral sequence that can reproduce spectroscopic metallicity determinations to a precision of 0.1 dex. We release optical magnitudes and metallicity estimates for 1567 M dwarfs, many of which did not have an accurate determination of either prior to this work. For an additional 277 stars without a trigonometric parallax, we provide an estimate of the distance assuming solar neighborhood metallicity. We find that the median metallicity for a volume limited sample of stars within 20 parsecs of the Sun is [Fe/H] = −0.03 ± 0.008, and that 29 / 565 of these stars have a metallicity of [Fe/H] = −0.5 or lower, similar to the low-metallicity distribution of nearby G-dwarfs. When combined with the results of ongoing and future planet surveys targeting these objects, the metallicity estimates presented here will be important in assessing the significance of any putative planet-metallicity correlation.Publication Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (Zeit) Iii: A Short-Period Planet Orbiting a Pre-Main-Sequence Star in the Upper Scorpius Ob Association(American Astronomical Society, 2016) Mann, Andrew W.; Newton, Elisabeth R; Rizzuto, Aaron C.; Irwin, Jonathan; Feiden, Gregory A.; Gaidos, Eric; Mace, Gregory N.; Kraus, Adam L.; James, David J.; Ansdell, Megan; Charbonneau, David; Covey, Kevin R.; Ireland, Michael J.; Jaffe, Daniel T.; Johnson, Marshall C.; Kidder, Benjamin; Vanderburg, AndrewWe confirm and characterize a close-in (Porb = 5.425 days), super-Neptune sized (5.04+0.34 −0.37 R⊕) planet transiting K2-33 (2MASS J16101473-1919095), a late-type (M3) pre-main sequence (11 Myr-old) star in the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. The host star has the kinematics of a member of the Upper Scorpius OB association, and its spectrum contains lithium absorption, an unambiguous sign of youth (< 20 Myr) in late-type dwarfs. We combine photometry from K2 and the ground-based MEarth project to refine the planet’s properties and constrain the host star’s density. We determine K2-33’s bolometric flux and effective temperature from moderate resolution spectra. By utilizing isochrones that include the effects of magnetic fields, we derive a precise radius (6-7%) and mass (16%) for the host star, and a stellar age consistent with the established value for Upper Scorpius. Follow-up high-resolution imaging and Doppler spectroscopy confirm that the transiting object is not a stellar companion or a background eclipsing binary blended with the target. The shape of the transit, the constancy of the transit depth and periodicity over 1.5 years, and the independence with wavelength rules out stellar variability, or a dust cloud or debris disk partially occulting the star as the source of the signal; we conclude it must instead be planetary in origin. The existence of K2-33b suggests close-in planets can form in situ or migrate within ∼ 10 Myr, e.g., via interactions with a disk, and that long-timescale dynamical migration such as by Lidov-Kozai or planet-planet scattering is not responsible for all short-period planets.Publication An Empirical Calibration to Estimate Cool Dwarf Fundamental Parameters From H-Band Spectra(IOP Publishing, 2015) Newton, Elisabeth R; Charbonneau, David; Irwin, Jonathan; Mann, Andrew W.Interferometric radius measurements provide a direct probe of the fundamental parameters of M dwarfs. However, interferometry is within reach for only a limited sample of nearby, bright stars. We use interferometrically measured radii, bolometric luminosities, and effective temperatures to develop new empirical calibrations based on low-resolution, near-infrared spectra. We find that H-band Mg and Al spectral features are good tracers of stellar properties, and derive functions that relate effective temperature, radius, and log luminosity to these features. The standard deviations in the residuals of our best fits are, respectively, 73 K, 0.027 R ☉, and 0.049 dex (an 11% error on luminosity). Our calibrations are valid from mid K to mid M dwarf stars, roughly corresponding to temperatures between 3100 and 4800 K. We apply our H-band relationships to M dwarfs targeted by the MEarth transiting planet survey and to the cool Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs). We present spectral measurements and estimated stellar parameters for these stars. Parallaxes are also available for many of the MEarth targets, allowing us to independently validate our calibrations by demonstrating a clear relationship between our inferred parameters and the stars' absolute K magnitudes. We identify objects with magnitudes that are too bright for their inferred luminosities as candidate multiple systems. We also use our estimated luminosities to address the applicability of near-infrared metallicity calibrations to mid and late M dwarfs. The temperatures we infer for the KOIs agree remarkably well with those from the literature; however, our stellar radii are systematically larger than those presented in previous works that derive radii from model isochrones. This results in a mean planet radius that is 15% larger than one would infer using the stellar properties from recent catalogs. Our results confirm the derived parameters from previous in-depth studies of KOIs 961 (Kepler-42), 254 (Kepler-45), and 571 (Kepler-186), the latter of which hosts a rocky planet orbiting in its star's habitable zone.Publication Near-Infrared Metallicities, Radial Velocities and Spectral Types for 447 Nearby M Dwarfs(IOP Publishing, 2013) Newton, Elisabeth R; Charbonneau, David; Irwin, Jonathan; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Rojas-Ayala, Barbara; Covey, Kevin; Lloyd, James P.We present metallicities, radial velocities, and near-infrared (NIR) spectral types for 447 M dwarfs determined from moderate resolution (R ≈ 2000) NIR spectra obtained with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF)/SpeX. These M dwarfs are primarily targets of the MEarth Survey, a transiting planet survey searching for super Earths around mid-to-late M dwarfs within 33 pc. We present NIR spectral types for each star and new spectral templates for the IRTF in the Y, J, H, and K-bands, created using M dwarfs with near-solar metallicities. We developed two spectroscopic distance calibrations that use NIR spectral type or an index based on the curvature of the K-band continuum. Our distance calibration has a scatter of 14%. We searched 27 NIR spectral lines and 10 spectral indices for metallicity sensitive features, taking into account correlated noise in our estimates of the errors on these parameters. We calibrated our relation using 36 M dwarfs in common proper pairs with an F-, G-, or K-type star of known metallicity. We validated the physical association of these pairs using proper motions, radial velocities, and spectroscopic distance estimates. Our resulting metallicity calibration uses the sodium doublet at 2.2 μm as the sole indicator for metallicity. It has an accuracy of 0.12 dex inferred from the scatter between the metallicities of the primaries and the estimated metallicities of the secondaries. Our relation is valid for NIR spectral types from M1V to M5V and for –1.0 dex < [Fe/H] < +0.35 dex. We present a new color-color metallicity relation using J – H and J – K colors that directly relates two observables: the distance from the M dwarf main sequence and equivalent width of the sodium line at 2.2 μm. We used radial velocities of M dwarf binaries, observations at different epochs, and comparison between our measurements and precisely measured radial velocities to demonstrate a 4 km s–1 accuracy.Publication The Impact of Stellar Rotation on the Detectability of Habitable Planets Around M Dwarfs(American Astronomical Society, 2016) Newton, Elisabeth R; Irwin, Jonathan; Charbonneau, David; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Dittmann, Jason AdamStellar activity and rotation frustrate the detection of exoplanets through the radial velocity technique. This effect is particularly of concern for M dwarfs, which can remain magnetically active for billions of years. We compile rotation periods for late-type stars and for the M dwarf planet-host sample in order to investigate the rotation periods of older field stars across the main sequence. We show that for stars with masses between 0.25 and 0.5 solar masses (M4V to M1V), the stellar rotation period typical of field stars coincides with the orbital periods of planets in the habitable zone. This will pose a fundamental challenge to the discovery and characterization of potentially habitable planets around early M dwarfs. Due to the longer rotation periods reached by mid M dwarfs and the shorter orbital period at which the planetary habitable zone is found, stars with masses between 0.1 and 0.25 solar masses (M6V to M4V) offer better opportunities for the detection of habitable planets via radial velocities.Publication The MEarth-North and MEarth-South transit surveys: searching for habitable super-Earth exoplanets around nearby M-dwarfs(2014) Irwin, Jonathan; Berta-Thompson, Zachory; Charbonneau, David; Dittmann, Jason Adam; Falco, Emilio; Newton, Elisabeth R; Nutzman, PhilipDetection and characterization of potentially habitable Earthsize extrasolar planets is one of the major goals of contemporary astronomy. By applying the transit method to very low-mass M-dwarfs, it is possible to find these planets from the ground with present-day instrumentation and observational techniques. The MEarth project is one such survey with stations in both hemispheres: MEarth-North at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Mount Hopkins, Arizona, and MEarth-South at Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory, Chile. We present an update on recent results of this survey, for planet occurrence rates, and interesting stellar astrophysics, for which our sample of 3000 nearby mid-to-late M-dwarfs has been very fruitful. All light curves gathered during the survey are made publicly available after one year, and we describe how to access and use these data.Publication Exoplanet Characterization by Proxy: A Transiting 2.15 R⊕ Planet Near the Habitable Zone of the Late K Dwarf Kepler-61(IOP Publishing, 2013) Ballard, Sarah; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Torres, Guillermo; Irwin, Jonathan; Desert, Jean-Michel; Newton, Elisabeth R; Mann, Andrew W.; Ciardi, David R.; Crepp, Justin R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steven B.; Horch, Elliott P.; Everett, Mark E.; Shporer, AviWe present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R ⊕ planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 ± 0.13 R ⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 273 ± 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 ± 0.00020 days and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby "proxy" stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses.Publication The Evolution of Rotation and Magnetism in Small Stars Near the Sun(2016-05-19) Newton, Elisabeth R; Berger, Edo; Charbonneau, David; Conroy, Charles R.; Latham, David W.; Mamajek, Eric E.Despite the prevalence of M dwarfs, the smallest and most common type of main sequence star, their sizes, compositions, and ages are not well-constrained. Empirical determination of these properties is important for gaining insight into their stellar structure, magnetic field generation, and angular momentum evolution. I obtained low-resolution (R = 2000) near-infrared spectra of 447 nearby mid-to-late M dwarfs. I measured their absolute radial velocities with an accuracy of 4.4 km/s by exploiting telluric lines to establish an absolute wavelength calibration. I estimated their metallicities from the equivalent width of the sodium absorption feature at 2.2 μm to a precision of 0.12 dex, and from 2MASS colors to a precision of 0.15 dex. Using stars with radii measured from interferometry, I showed that the equivalent widths of aluminum and magnesium absorption features can be used to infer K and M dwarf temperatures to a precision of 69 K, and radii to 0.027 R⊙. I applied these relations to planet-hosting stars from Kepler, showing that the typical planet is 15% larger than inferred when adopting stellar parameters from other recent catalogs. Using photometry from the MEarth-North Observatory, I measured rotation periods from 0.1 to 140 days for 387 M dwarfs. I found a prevalence of stable spot patterns, and no correlation between period and amplitude for fully-convective stars. Using galactic kinematics as a proxy for age, I found that rapid rotators (P < 10 days) are < 2 Gyr, and that the slowest are on average 5 ± 3 Gyr old. I then showed that for early M dwarfs the typical stellar rotation period at 5 Gyr coincides with the orbital period at which habitable planets are found, and I suggest that mid-to-late M dwarfs are optimal targets around which to search for habitable-zone planets. I obtained optical spectra of 247 nearby M dwarfs, and measured the strength of the chromospheric Hα emission line. I identified a well-defined boundary in the mass–period plane that separates active and inactive M dwarfs. Hα activity is therefore a simple, accessible diagnostic for stellar rotation period, and I present a mass–period relation for inactive M dwarfs. I found a significant (p value < 10e−4) positive correlation between Hα emission strength and photometric variability amplitude, which implies that stars with stronger magnetic fields have both higher levels of chromospheric activity and larger or more abundant spots. I suggest that fully convective stars maintain rapid rotation rates and saturated magnetic activity for about 2 Gyr. They then undergo rapid angular momentum evolution upon reaching some critical threshold. Only upon reaching long rotation periods (around 70 days for a 0.2 M⊙ star) do their magnetic activity levels drop below what is required for Hα to be seen in emission. The stars I have observed in pursuit of this work are the nearest low-mass stars. As such they are the best targets around which to search for habitable, rocky worlds, and my work provides the means to constrain the sizes, temperatures, and ages of those planets.