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Evgenya L. Shkolnik

Publications and source records attributed to Evgenya L. Shkolnik.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

On the Correlation between L Dwarf Optical and Infrared Variability and Radio Aurorae

Photometric variability attributed to cloud phenomena is common in L/T transition brown dwarfs. Recent studies show that such variability may also trace aurorae, suggesting that localized magnetic heating may contribute to observed brown dwarf photometric variability. We assess this potential correlation with a survey of 17 photometrically variable brown dwarfs using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at 4 -- 8 GHz. We detect quiescent and highly circularly polarized flaring emission from one source, 2MASS J17502484-0016151, which we attribute to auroral electron cyclotron maser emission. The detected auroral emission extends throughout the frequency band at $\sim$5 -- 25$σ$, and we do not detect evidence of a cutoff. Our detection confirms that 2MASS J17502484-0016151 hosts a magnetic field strength of $\geq$2.9 kG, similar to those of other radio-bright ultracool dwarfs. We show that H$α$ emission continues to be an accurate tracer of auroral activity in brown dwarfs. Supplementing our study with data from the literature, we calculate the occurrence rates of quiescent emission in L dwarfs with low- and high-amplitude variability and conclude that high amplitude O/IR variability does not trace radio magnetic activity in L dwarfs.

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ACRONYM IV: Three New, Young, Low-mass Spectroscopic Binaries

As part of our search for new low-mass members of nearby young moving groups (YMG), we discovered three low-mass, spectroscopic binaries, two of which are not kinematically associated with any known YMG. Using high-resolution optical spectroscopy, we measure the component and systemic radial velocities of the systems, as well as their lithium absorption and H$α$ emission, both spectroscopic indicators of youth. One system (2MASS J02543316-5108313, M2.0+M3.0) we confirm as a member of the 40 Myr old Tuc-Hor moving group, but whose binarity was previously undetected. The second young binary (2MASS J08355977-3042306, K5.5+M1.5) is not a kinematic match to any known YMG, but each component exhibits lithium absorption and strong and wide H$α$ emission indicative of active accretion, setting an upper age limit of 15 Myr. The third system (2MASS J10260210-4105537, M1.0+M3.0) has been hypothesized in the literature to be a member of the 10 Myr old TW Hya Association (TWA), but with our measured systemic velocity, shows the binary is in fact not part of any known YMG. This last system also has lithium absorption in each component, and has strong and variable H$α$ emission, setting an upper age limit of 15 Myr based on the lithium detection.

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HAZMAT VI: The Evolution of Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation Emitted from Early M Star

Quantifying the evolution of stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV, 100 -- 1000 $\overset{\circ}{A}$) emission is critical for assessing the evolution of planetary atmospheres and the habitability of M dwarf systems. Previous studies from the HAbitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time (HAZMAT) program showed the far- and near-UV (FUV, NUV) emission from M stars at various stages of a stellar lifetime through photometric measurements from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The results revealed increased levels of short-wavelength emission that remain elevated for hundreds of millions of years. The trend for EUV flux as a function of age could not be determined empirically because absorption by the interstellar medium prevents access to the EUV wavelengths for the vast majority of stars. In this paper, we model the evolution of EUV flux from early M stars to address this observational gap. We present synthetic spectra spanning EUV to infrared wavelengths of 0.4 $\pm$ 0.05 M$_{\odot}$ stars at five distinct ages between 10 and 5000 Myr, computed with the PHOENIX atmosphere code and guided by the GALEX photometry. We model a range of EUV fluxes spanning two orders of magnitude, consistent with the observed spread in X-ray, FUV, and NUV flux at each epoch. Our results show that the stellar EUV emission from young M stars is 100 times stronger than field age M stars, and decreases as t$^{-1}$ after remaining constant for a few hundred million years. This decline stems from changes in the chromospheric temperature structure, which steadily shifts outward with time. Our models reconstruct the full spectrally and temporally resolved history of an M star's UV radiation, including the unobservable EUV radiation, which drives planetary atmospheric escape, directly impacting a planet's potential for habitability.

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Current Population Statistics Do Not Favor Photoevaporation over Core-Powered Mass Loss as the Dominant Cause of the Exoplanet Radius Gap

We search for evidence of the cause of the exoplanet radius gap, i.e. the dearth of planets with radii near $1.8\ R_\oplus$. If the cause was photoevaporation, the radius gap should trend with proxies for the early-life high-energy emission of planet-hosting stars. If, alternatively, the cause was core-powered mass loss, no such trends should exist. Critically, spurious trends between the radius gap and stellar properties arise from an underlying correlation with instellation. After accounting for this underlying correlation, we find no trends remain between the radius gap and stellar mass or present-day stellar activity as measured by near-UV emission. We dismiss the nondetection of a radius gap trend with near-UV emission because present-day near-UV emission is unlikely to trace early-life high-energy emission, but we provide a catalog of GALEX near-UV and far-UV emission measurements for general use. We interpret the nondetection of a radius gap trend with stellar mass by simulating photoevaporation with mass-dependent evolution of stellar high-energy emission. The simulation produces an undetectable trend between the radius gap and stellar mass under realistic sources of error. We conclude that no evidence, from this analysis or others in the literature, currently exists that clearly favors either photoevaporation or core powered mass loss as the primary cause of the exoplanet radius gap. However, repeating this analysis once the body of well-characterized $< 4\ R_\oplus$ planets has roughly doubled could confirm or rule out photoevaporation.

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LRP2020: The Opportunity of Young Nearby Associations with the Advent of the Gaia Mission

This white paper proposes leveraging high-quality Gaia data available to the worldwide scientific community and complement it with support from Canadian-related facilities to place Canada as a leader in the fields of stellar associations and exoplanet science, and to train Canadian highly qualified personnel through graduate and post-graduate research grants. Gaia has sparked a new era in the study of stellar kinematics by measuring precise distances and proper motions for 1.3 billion stars. These data have already generated more than 1700 scientific papers and are guaranteed to remain the source of many more papers for the upcoming decades. More than 900 new age-calibrated young low-mass stars have already been discovered as a direct consequence of the second Gaia data release. Some of these may already be host stars to known exoplanet systems or may become so with the progress of the TESS mission that is expected to discover 10,000 nearby transiting exoplanets in the upcoming decade. This places Canada in a strategic position to leverage Gaia data because it has access to several high-resolution spectrometers on 1-4 m class telescopes (e.g. The ESPaDOnS, SPIRou and NIRPS), that would allow to quickly characterize this large number of low-mass stars and their exoplanet systems. This white paper describes the opportunity in such scientific projects that could place Canada as a leader in the fields of stellar associations and exoplanets.

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The chaotic wind of WR 40 as probed by BRITE

Among Wolf-Rayet stars, those of subtype WN8 are the intrinsically most variable. We have explored the long-term photometric variability of the brightest known WN8 star, WR 40, through four contiguous months of time-resolved, single-passband optical photometry with the BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) nanosatellite mission. The Fourier transform of the observed light-curve reveals that the strong light variability exhibited by WR 40 is dominated by many randomly-triggered, transient, low-frequency signals. We establish a model in which the whole wind consists of stochastic clumps following an outflow visibility promptly rising to peak brightness upon clump emergence from the optically thick pseudo-photosphere in the wind, followed by a gradual decay according to the right-half of a Gaussian. Free electrons in each clump scatter continuum light from the star. We explore a scenario where the clump size follows a power-law distribution, and another one with an ensemble of clumps of constant size. Both scenarios yield simulated light curves morphologically resembling the observed light curve remarkably well, indicating that one cannot uniquely constrain the details of clump size distribution with only a photometric light curve. Nevertheless, independent evidence favours a negative-index power law, as seen in many other astrophysical turbulent media.

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Lyman-$α$ Observations of High Radial Velocity Low-Mass Stars Ross 1044 and Ross 825

The discovery of habitable zone (HZ) planets around low-mass stars has highlighted the need for a comprehensive understanding of the radiation environments in which such planets reside. Of particular importance is knowledge of the far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation, as low-mass stars are typically much more active than solar-type stars and the proximity of their HZs can be one tenth the distance. The vast majority of the flux emitted by low-mass stars at FUV wavelengths occurs in the Lyman-$α$ line at 1216 Angstroms. However, measuring a low-mass star's Lyman-$α$ emission directly is almost always impossible because of the contaminating effects of interstellar hydrogen and geocoronal airglow. We observed Ross 825 (K3) and Ross 1044 (M0), two stars with exceptional radial velocities, with the STIS spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Their radial velocities resulted in significant line shifts, allowing for a more complete view of their Lyman-$α$ line profiles. We provide an updated relation between effective temperature and Lyman-$α$ flux using Gaia DR2 astrometry as well as updated, model-independent relationships between Lyman-$α$ flux and UV flux measurements from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) for low-mass stars. These new relations, in combination with GALEX's considerable spatial coverage, provide substantial predictive power for the Lyman-$α$ environments for thousands of nearby, low-mass stars.

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Magnetic field strengths of hot Jupiters from signals of star-planet interactions

Evidence of star-planet interactions in the form of planet-modulated chromospheric emission has been noted for a number of hot Jupiters. Magnetic star-planet interactions involve the release of energy stored in the stellar and planetary magnetic fields. These signals thus offer indirect detections of exoplanetary magnetic fields. Here we report the derivation of the magnetic field strengths of four hot Jupiter systems using the power observed in Ca II K emission modulated by magnetic star-planet interactions. By approximating the fractional energy released in the Ca II K line we find that the surface magnetic field values for the hot Jupiters in our sample range from 20 G to 120 G, ~10-100 times larger than the values predicted by dynamo scaling laws for planets with rotation periods of ~2 - 4 days. On the other hand, these value are in agreement with scaling laws relating the magnetic field strength to the internal heat flux in giant planets. Large planetary magnetic field strengths may produce observable electron-cyclotron maser radio emission by preventing the maser from being quenched by the planet's ionosphere. Intensive radio monitoring of hot Jupiter systems will help confirm these field values and inform on the generation mechanism of magnetic fields in this important class of exoplanets.

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Constraining Exoplanet Metallicities and Aerosols with ARIEL: An Independent Study by the Contribution to ARIEL Spectroscopy of Exoplanets (CASE) Team

Launching in 2028, ESA's Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) survey of $\sim$1000 transiting exoplanets will build on the legacies of Kepler and TESS and complement JWST by placing its high precision exoplanet observations into a large, statistically-significant planetary population context. With continuous 0.5--7.8~$μ$m coverage from both FGS (0.50--0.55, 0.8--1.0, and 1.0--1.2~$μ$m photometry; 1.25--1.95~$μ$m spectroscopy) and AIRS (1.95--7.80~$μ$m spectroscopy), ARIEL will determine atmospheric compositions and probe planetary formation histories during its 3.5-year mission. NASA's proposed Contribution to ARIEL Spectroscopy of Exoplanets (CASE) would be a subsystem of ARIEL's FGS instrument consisting of two visible-to-infrared detectors, associated readout electronics, and thermal control hardware. FGS, to be built by the Polish Academy of Sciences' Space Research Centre, will provide both fine guiding and visible to near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy, providing powerful diagnostics of atmospheric aerosol contribution and planetary albedo, which play a crucial role in establishing planetary energy balance. The CASE team presents here an independent study of the capabilities of ARIEL to measure exoplanetary metallicities, which probe the conditions of planet formation, and FGS to measure scattering spectral slopes, which indicate if an exoplanet has atmospheric aerosols (clouds and hazes), and geometric albedos, which help establish planetary climate. Our design reference mission simulations show that ARIEL could measure the mass-metallicity relationship of its 1000-planet single-visit sample to $>7.5σ$ and that FGS could distinguish between clear, cloudy, and hazy skies and constrain an exoplanet's atmospheric aerosol composition to $>5σ$ for hundreds of targets, providing statistically-transformative science for exoplanet atmospheres.

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ACRONYM III: Radial Velocities for 336 Candidate Young Low-Mass Stars in the Solar Neighborhood, Including 78 Newly Confirmed Young Moving Group Members

Young, low-mass stars in the solar neighborhood are vital for completing the mass function for nearby, young coeval groups, establishing a more complete census for evolutionary studies, and providing targets for direct-imaging exoplanet and/or disk studies. We present properties derived from high-resolution optical spectra for 336 candidate young nearby, low-mass stars. These include measurements of radial velocities and age diagnostics such as H$α$ and Li $λ$6707 equivalent widths. Combining our radial velocities with astrometry from Gaia DR2, we provide full 3D kinematics for the entire sample. We combine the measured spectroscopic youth information with additional age diagnostics (e.g., X-ray and UV fluxes, CMD positions) and kinematics to evaluate potential membership in nearby, young moving groups and associations. We identify 78 objects in our sample as bonafide members of 10 different moving groups, 15 of which are completely new members or have had their group membership reassigned. We also reject 44 previously proposed candidate moving group members. Furthermore, we have newly identified or confirmed the youth of numerous additional stars that do not belong to any currently known group, and find 69 co-moving systems using Gaia DR2 astrometry. We also find evidence that the Carina association is younger than previously thought, with an age similar to the $β$ Pictoris moving group ($\sim$22 Myr).

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The Elusive Majority of Young Moving Groups. I. Young Binaries and Lithium-Rich Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

Young stars in the solar neighborhood serve as nearby probes of stellar evolution and represent promising targets to directly image self-luminous giant planets. We have carried out an all-sky search for late-type ($\approx$K7$-$M5) stars within 100 pc selected primarily on the basis of activity indicators from $GALEX$ and $ROSAT$. Approximately two thousand active and potentially young stars are identified, over 600 of which we have followed up with low-resolution optical spectroscopy and over 1000 with diffraction-limited imaging using Robo-AO at the Palomar 1.5-m telescope. Strong lithium is present in 58 stars, implying ages spanning $\approx$10$-$200 Myr. Most of these lithium-rich stars are new or previously known members of young moving groups including TWA, $β$ Pic, Tuc-Hor, Carina, Columba, Argus, AB Dor, Upper Centaurus Lupus, and Lower Centaurus Crux; the rest appear to be young low-mass stars without connections to established kinematic groups. Over 200 close binaries are identified down to 0.2$''$ $-$ the vast majority of which are new $-$ and will be valuable for dynamical mass measurements of young stars with continued orbit monitoring in the future.

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HAZMAT. V. The Ultraviolet and X-ray Evolution of K Stars

Knowing the high-energy radiation environment of a star over a planet's formation and evolutionary period is critical in determining if that planet is potentially habitable and if any biosignatures could be detected, as UV radiation can severely change or destroy a planet's atmosphere. Current efforts for finding a potentially habitable planet are focused on M stars, yet K stars may offer more habitable conditions due to decreased stellar activity and more distant and wider habitable zones (HZ). While M star activity evolution has been observed photometrically and spectroscopically, there has been no dedicated investigation of K-star UV evolution. We present the first comprehensive study of the near-UV, far-UV, and X-ray evolution of K stars. We used members of young moving groups and clusters ranging in age from 10 - 625 Myr combined with field stars and their archived GALEX UV and ROSAT X-ray data to determine how the UV and X-ray radiation evolve. We find that the UV and X-ray flux incident on a HZ planet is 5 - 50 times lower than that of HZ planets around early-M stars and 50 - 1000 times lower than those around late-M stars, due to both an intrinsic decrease in K dwarf stellar activity occurring earlier than for M dwarfs and the more distant location of the K dwarf HZ.

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Predicting the Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation Environment of Exoplanets Around Low-Mass Stars: the TRAPPIST-1 System

The high energy radiation environment around M dwarf stars strongly impacts the characteristics of close-in exoplanet atmospheres, but these wavelengths are difficult to observe due to geocoronal and interstellar contamination. On account of these observational restrictions, a stellar atmosphere model may be used to compute the stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV; 100 - 912 Å) spectrum. We present a case study of the ultra-cool M8 dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, which hosts seven transiting short-period terrestrial sized planets whose atmospheres will be probed by the James Webb Space Telescope. We construct semi-empirical non-LTE model spectra of TRAPPIST-1 that span EUV to infrared wavelengths (100 Å - 2.5 $μ$m) using the atmosphere code PHOENIX. These upper-atmosphere models contain prescriptions for the chromosphere and transition region and include newly added partial frequency redistribution capabilities. In the absence of broadband UV spectral observations, we constrain our models using HST Ly$α$ observations from TRAPPIST-1 and GALEX FUV and NUV photometric detections from a set of old M8 stars ($>$1 Gyr). We find that calibrating the models using both data sets separately yield similar FUV and NUV fluxes, and EUV fluxes that range from (1.32 - 17.4) $\times$ 10$^{-14}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. The results from these models demonstrate that the EUV emission is very sensitive to the temperature structure in the transition region. Our lower activity models predict EUV fluxes similar to previously published estimates derived from semi-empirical scaling relationships, while the highest activity model predicts EUV fluxes a factor of ten higher. Results from this study support the idea that the TRAPPIST-1 habitable zone planets likely do not have much liquid water on their surfaces due to the elevated levels of high energy radiation emitted by the host star.

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Atmospheric dynamics and the variable transit of KELT-9 b

We present a spectrally and temporally resolved detection of the optical Mg I triplet at 7.8$σ$ in the extended atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9 b, adding to the list of detected metal species in the hottest gas giant currently known. Constraints are placed on the density and radial extent of the excited hydrogen envelope using simultaneous observations of H$α$ and H$β$ under the assumption of a spherically symmetric atmosphere. We find that planetary rotational broadening of $v_\text{rot} = 8.2^{+0.6}_{-0.7}$ km s$^{-1}$ is necessary to reproduce the Balmer line transmission profile shapes, where the model including rotation is strongly preferred over the non-rotating model using a Bayesian information criterion comparison. The time-series of both metal line and hydrogen absorption show remarkable structure, suggesting that the atmosphere observed during this transit is dynamic rather than static. We detect a relative emission feature near the end of the transit which exhibits a P-Cygni-like shape, evidence of material moving at $\approx 50-100$ km s$^{-1}$ away from the planet. We hypothesize that the in-transit variability and subsequent P-Cygni-like profiles are due to a flaring event that caused the atmosphere to expand, resulting in unbound material being accelerated to high speeds by stellar radiation pressure. Further spectroscopic transit observations will help establish the frequency of such events.

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Evidence of magnetic star-planet interactions in the HD 189733 system from orbitally-phased Ca II K variations

Magnetic star-planet interactions (SPI) provide a detection method and insight into exoplanet magnetic fields and, in turn, exoplanet interiors and atmospheric environments. These signatures can be sporadic and difficult to confirm for single-epoch observations of a system due to inhomogeneous stellar magnetospheres and periodic variability in stellar magnetism. Thus an ideal SPI search consists of multiple epochs containing observations on consecutive nights spanning at least one complete planetary orbit. Such data sets are rare but do exist for some of the most intensely studied hot Jupiter systems. One such system is HD 189733 for which six suitable SPI data sets exist, the result of spectroscopic monitoring to perform some of the first SPI searches and also to study the star's magnetic field. Here we perform a uniform analysis of six archival Ca II K data sets for HD 189733, spanning 2006 June through 2015 July, in order to search for magnetic SPI signatures in the chromospheric line variations. We find significant evidence for modulations of Ca II K with a $2.29\pm0.04$ day period in the 2013 August data, which is consistent with the planet's orbital period. The peak in the orbital variations occurs at $ϕ_\text{orb} \approx 0.9$, which corresponds to the SPI emission leading the planet with a phase difference of $Δϕ\approx 40^\circ$ from the sub-planetary point. This is consistent with the phase lead predictions of non-linear force-free magnetic field SPI models. The stellar magnetic field strength at the planet's orbit is greatest in 2013 August which, due to the energy released in magnetic SPI scaling with $B_*$, lends strength to the SPI interpretation.

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A Framework for Prioritizing the TESS Planetary Candidates Most Amenable to Atmospheric Characterization

A key legacy of the recently launched TESS mission will be to provide the astronomical community with many of the best transiting exoplanet targets for atmospheric characterization. However, time is of the essence to take full advantage of this opportunity. JWST, although delayed, will still complete its nominal five year mission on a timeline that motivates rapid identification, confirmation, and mass measurement of the top atmospheric characterization targets from TESS. Beyond JWST, future dedicated missions for atmospheric studies such as ARIEL require the discovery and confirmation of several hundred additional sub-Jovian size planets (R_p < 10 R_Earth) orbiting bright stars, beyond those known today, to ensure a successful statistical census of exoplanet atmospheres. Ground-based ELTs will also contribute to surveying the atmospheres of the transiting planets discovered by TESS. Here we present a set of two straightforward analytic metrics, quantifying the expected signal-to-noise in transmission and thermal emission spectroscopy for a given planet, that will allow the top atmospheric characterization targets to be readily identified among the TESS planet candidates. Targets that meet our proposed threshold values for these metrics would be encouraged for rapid follow-up and confirmation via radial velocity mass measurements. Based on the catalog of simulated TESS detections by Sullivan et al. (2015), we determine appropriate cutoff values of the metrics, such that the TESS mission will ultimately yield a sample of $\sim300$ high-quality atmospheric characterization targets across a range of planet size bins, extending down to Earth-size, potentially habitable worlds.

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On the Verge of an Astronomy CubeSat Revolution

CubeSats are small satellites built in standard sizes and form factors, which have been growing in popularity but have thus far been largely ignored within the field of astronomy. When deployed as space-based telescopes, they enable science experiments not possible with existing or planned large space missions, filling several key gaps in astronomical research. Unlike expensive and highly sought-after space telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), whose time must be shared among many instruments and science programs, CubeSats can monitor sources for weeks or months at time, and at wavelengths not accessible from the ground such as the ultraviolet (UV), far-infrared (far-IR) and low-frequency radio. Science cases for CubeSats being developed now include a wide variety of astrophysical experiments, including exoplanets, stars, black holes and radio transients. Achieving high-impact astronomical research with CubeSats is becoming increasingly feasible with advances in technologies such as precision pointing, compact sensitive detectors, and the miniaturisation of propulsion systems if needed. CubeSats may also pair with the large space- and ground-based telescopes to provide complementary data to better explain the physical processes observed.

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The Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program for JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presents the opportunity to transform our understanding of planets and the origins of life by revealing the atmospheric compositions, structures, and dynamics of transiting exoplanets in unprecedented detail. However, the high-precision, time-series observations required for such investigations have unique technical challenges, and prior experience with other facilities indicates that there will be a steep learning curve when JWST becomes operational. In this paper we describe the science objectives and detailed plans of the Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science (ERS) Program, which is a recently approved program for JWST observations early in Cycle 1. The goal of this project, for which the obtained data will have no exclusive access period, is to accelerate the acquisition and diffusion of technical expertise for transiting exoplanet observations with JWST, while also providing a compelling set of representative datasets that will enable immediate scientific breakthroughs. The Transiting Exoplanet Community ERS Program will exercise the time-series modes of all four JWST instruments that have been identified as the consensus highest priorities, observe the full suite of transiting planet characterization geometries (transits, eclipses, and phase curves), and target planets with host stars that span an illustrative range of brightnesses. The observations in this program were defined through an inclusive and transparent process that had participation from JWST instrument experts and international leaders in transiting exoplanet studies. Community engagement in the project will be centered on a two-phase Data Challenge that culminates with the delivery of planetary spectra, time-series instrument performance reports, and open-source data analysis toolkits in time to inform the agenda for Cycle 2 of the JWST mission.

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