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arXiv · 1409.0891

The MEarth-North and MEarth-South transit surveys: searching for habitable super-Earth exoplanets around nearby M-dwarfs

Jonathan M. Irwin·Zachory K. Berta-Thompson·David Charbonneau·Jason Dittmann·Emilio E. Falco·Elisabeth R. Newton·Philip Nutzman
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Abstract

Detection and characterization of potentially habitable Earth-size 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 Inter-American 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.

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Jonathan M. Irwin, Zachory K. Berta-Thompson, David Charbonneau, Jason Dittmann, Emilio E. Falco, Elisabeth R. Newton, Philip Nutzman. 2014-09-02. The MEarth-North and MEarth-South transit surveys: searching for habitable super-Earth exoplanets around nearby M-dwarfs. https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.0891

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