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Jessie L. Christiansen

Publications and source records attributed to Jessie L. Christiansen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A Century of Radial Velocity and Astrometric Monitoring of 70 Oph AB: New PFS Data and Constraints on Planetary Companions

At a distance of 5.1 pc, the 70 Oph AB binary star system is one of the most favorable targets for future direct imaging and astrometry missions surveying mature, terrestrial planets. We present new radial velocities (RVs) obtained with the Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) on the 6.5\,m Magellan II Clay Telescope in Chile. We collected 499 measurements of 70 Oph A and 334 measurements of 70 Oph B during 2023--2025. Combining these data with decades of archival RVs and astrometry, we derive an updated orbital solution for the binary and dynamical masses of $0.88 \pm 0.004\,M_\odot$ and $0.73 \pm 0.003\,M_\odot$ for the primary and secondary components, respectively. We find that the long-term RV variability of both components is consistent with stellar activity modulated by rotation periods, and we detect no coherent planetary signals in either component. We place upper limits on any planets orbiting in the plane of the binary. The 27 yr RV baseline for 70 Oph A excludes Jupiter-mass planets interior to 5 au and reaches a sensitivity of $0.3\,M_{\rm Jup}$ at 1 au or $0.5\,M_{\rm Jup}$ at 2 au. For 70 Oph B, with PFS data we rule out planets more massive than $0.25$--$0.3\,M_{\rm Jup}$ inside 0.5 au. We show that stable S-type orbits around 70 Oph A extend to $\sim2.5$ au, covering the habitable zone. Thus, Saturn-mass planets or smaller on stable orbits in the habitable zone of 70 Oph A are allowed. Overall, our results provide important guidance for future planet searches around this stellar system.

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Finding Habitable Exoplanets with Binary Relative Astrometry: Planet Detection and Characterization with the Microarcsecond Astrometric Retrieval Algorithm (MARA)

Binary relative astrometry is a technique to search for rocky planets in the habitable zone of nearby binary stars using 1D relative astrometry at the microarcsecond level. This unprecedented precision would allow a custom-designed space telescope to directly measure the occurrence rate of these planets. The success of such a mission depends on our ability to recover and characterize planets from the unique format of extreme precision binary relative astrometry data. We present MARA, the Microarcsecond Astrometric Retrieval Algorithm, specifically designed for these data. We describe the design and format of the MARA pipeline, and demonstrate its accuracy and performance with a series of validation tests on simulated data, using the SHERA SMEx mission concept as an example. Our injection/recovery tests show that with these data, MARA is able to detect and characterize rocky planets in the habitable zone of alpha Cen A, down to a coplanar mass of about 1 Earth mass in 1 year orbits. Expanding to a range of input planet masses and periods for the same example mission, we find that the results from these injection/recovery tests generally agree with the analytic predictions of binary relative astrometry sensitivity. We use MARA to map out the expected completeness as a function of planet mass and period, which in this case reaches down to about 0.5 M Earth masses at 3 year orbits around alpha Cen A. These depth-of-search calculations will be a vital ingredient in demographics calculations from the final data from a binary relative astrometry mission.

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Assessing Planetary Stability and Long-Term Habitability in Nearby Stellar Binaries: 70 Oph, 36 Oph, $γ$ Leo

Binary stars are common and have the potential to host habitable planets, which may reside in more complex habitable zones as compared to planets orbiting single stars. In this work, we use numerical simulations to assess the possibility that bright, nearby stellar multiples 36 Oph, 70 Oph, and $γ$ Leo could host habitable planets. We find that for the 36 Oph A/B system and for the 70 Oph A/B system, the stars can support planets residing in permanently habitable zones with low ejection rates and moderate eccentricity oscillations. The habitable zones around the red giants in the $γ$ Leo system exhibit severe dynamical instability due to the high binary eccentricity, eliminating the habitable zones around both stars. In these two systems, we find that planets in the habitable zone with orbits coplanar to that of the binary become uninhabitable due to interactions with the binary only 1.5% - 1.8% of the time, while planets with orbits 45 degrees misaligned to the plane of the binary experience larger oscillations in orbital eccentricity and as a result become uninhabitable 4.8% - 5.4% of the time. Our results identify 36 Oph and 70 Oph as promising targets for future missions such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory and SHERA, while suggesting that the stars in $γ$ Leo are unlikely to host any habitable planets. Our methods can be applied more generally to other binary stellar systems to refine target lists for upcoming habitable planet searches.

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Searching for Habitable Exoplanets with Relative Astrometry (SHERA). I. The Case for Searching for Planets in Binary Star Systems

Discovering Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars was identified as a priority science goal of the Astronomy 2020 Decadal Survey. It is confounded by many factors, one of which is the high multiplicity of Sun-like stars in the local neighborhood - half of nearby Sun-like stars are in binary or higher-order stellar systems, which are less amenable to the detection of small planets with almost all of the currently productive exoplanet detection techniques. Here we describe the SHERA (Searching for Habitable Exoplanets with Relative Astrometry) NASA Small Explorer mission concept. SHERA utilizes diffractive-pupil technology on a small, simple optical space telescope to achieve microarcsecond precision relative astrometry on 14 Sun-like stars in seven nearby multi-star systems, combining the pupil and stellar binarity to provide a precise reference in the image plane. With this precision, SHERA would enable: (i) a search for rocky planets in the habitable zones of the closest Sun-like stars; (ii) an investigation of the impact of binary star formation on small, widely separated planets; and (iii) the performance of crucial precursor observations on a number of high-priority targets of NASA's future missions to characterize Earth-like planets, such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory. When combined with radial velocity measurements, SHERA relative astrometry will also enable exploration of the three-dimensional orbital structure of planets in binary systems.

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COUNTESS I: A Uniformly Vetted Catalog of Known and New Transiting Exoplanets in the TESS Northern Continuous Viewing Zone

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has transformed the study of nearby exoplanetary systems; however, its nominal observing strategy limits sensitivity to planets with orbital periods shorter than $\sim$10 days for most parts of the sky. The two TESS Continuous Viewing Zones (CVZs) provide extended temporal baselines that help overcome this limitation, enabling the detection of longer-period ($>$10 days) transiting planets around nearby stars. Here, we present COUNTESS, a transit-search pipeline optimized for long-baseline TESS observations that combines multi-sector light curves with heterogeneous cadences, and implements fast-folding BLS period detection, vetting, and statistical validation. As a first application of the pipeline, we conducted a search on the primary and first extended mission photometry in the TESS northern CVZ. For this analysis, we used Gaia DR3 and 2MASS photometry to homogeneously derive a stellar catalog of FGKM stars for the TESS northern CVZ, resulting in a sample of 391,059 stars. We used COUNTESS to search for transiting planets around 26,114 of these stars with TESS-SPOC light curves and assessed its performance, recovering 115 out of 159 known TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs; $0.85\ \text{days} < P <124.72\ \text{days}$; $1.03\ R_\oplus < R_p < 16.35\ R_\oplus$). Additionally, we identified 10 new exoplanet candidates ($1.20\ \text{days} < P <34.62\ \text{days}$; $1.73\ R_\oplus < R_p < 4.19\ R_\oplus$) that passed vetting tests, including two new statistically validated sub-Neptunes, TIC 219893931b and TIC 237254473b. COUNTESS enables extended-baseline TESS analyses and identification of longer-period planets, establishing a foundation for future exoplanet demographic studies, including comparisons with Kepler and K2.

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NASA's Pandora SmallSat Mission: Simulating the Impact of Stellar Photospheric Heterogeneity and Its Correction

Stellar photospheric heterogeneity is a dominant astrophysical systematic impacting exoplanet transmission spectroscopy. NASA's Pandora SmallSat Mission is designed to address this challenge through contemporaneous visible photometry and NIR spectroscopy of exoplanet host stars. Here we present an end-to-end simulation study quantifying Pandora's ability to infer stellar photospheric properties and correct stellar contamination using out-of-transit observations. We construct eight representative stellar activity scenarios and generate 160 simulated Pandora datasets, incorporating time-dependent stellar spectra, instrument response, and noise. Given accurate models, Bayesian retrievals of Pandora spectrophotometry recover photospheric temperatures with typical uncertainties of ${\approx}30$ K, with no significant bias. Models with two spectral components (i.e., quiescent photosphere and spots) are strongly favored in 95% of cases; one-component models are preferred when true spot filling factors fall below a detection threshold of ${\approx}0.3$%. We propagate the true and inferred stellar parameters to compute true, inferred, and residual contamination signals under physically motivated spot geometries. For simple spot distributions, contamination signals of $10^2{-}10^3$ ppm are reduced to ${\lesssim}10$ ppm, well below Pandora's expected transmission spectroscopy precision (30$-$100 ppm). For more complex spot distributions, geometric degeneracies limit deterministic corrections, leaving residual contamination at the $10^3$ ppm level that must be mitigated using additional constraints, such as spot-crossing events and joint stellar-planetary retrievals of transmission spectra. These results define regimes in which stellar contamination can be corrected from stellar observations alone and show how Pandora stellar observations can identify cases where additional information is required.

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Gaia DR3 IDs for TESS Input Catalog Targets

The TESS Input Catalog (TIC) was built on Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2). To date, there has not been an update to the TIC to incorporate Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) IDs. In this Research Note, we outline how we cross-matched the TIC with Gaia DR3 IDs, its immediate applications to exoplanet research, and lessons learned when dealing with such large data sets. A full TIC/Gaia DR3 cross-match table is available for download on the Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program (ExoFOP) website, and a Jupyter Notebook with instructions to reproduce the table is available on GitHub.

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NASA's Pandora SmallSat Mission: Simulated Modeling and Retrieval of Near-Infrared Exoplanet Transmission Spectra

Pandora is a SmallSat mission dedicated to understanding exoplanets and their host stars by disentangling the impact of stellar heterogeneity on exoplanet transmission spectra. Selected as a NASA Astrophysics Pioneers mission in 2021, Pandora will provide simultaneous long-term visible photometric monitoring (0.4--0.7 $μ$m) and low-resolution near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (0.9--1.6 $μ$m) of transiting systems for the purposes of monitoring host star variability and characterizing exoplanetary atmospheres. Pandora's year-long prime mission from 2026 to 2027 coincides with the middle of a decade defined by targeted efforts for atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, offering a key opportunity to leverage this new resource to maximize science with JWST and other observatories. Here we investigate Pandora's anticipated performance for the general exoplanet population accessible to transit spectroscopy, from hot Jupiters to temperate sub-Neptunes. By modeling the atmospheres of five test cases broadly consistent with the bulk properties of HD~209458~b, HD~189733~b, WASP-80~b, HAT-P-18~b, and K2-18~b, we find that Pandora may provide abundance constraints as precise as $\sim$1.0\,dex for main atmospheric absorbers such as H$_2$O and CH$_4$. Then, we explore the synergies between Pandora and JWST. Our results suggest that targets with JWST data in the near-infrared can benefit from the addition of Pandora observations and result in more reliable abundance estimates than with JWST data alone. Moreover, Pandora can serve the community by providing precursory observations of targets of interest for JWST atmospheric characterization. We conclude by outlining strategies for the use of Pandora as a standalone observatory and in synergy with JWST.

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Modeling the Impact of Unresolved Stellar Companions on Detection Sensitivity in Kepler's Small Planet Occurrence Rates

Unresolved stellar companions can cause both under-estimations in the radii of transiting planets and over-estimations of their detectability, affecting our ability to reliably measure planet occurrence rates. To quantify the latter, we identified a control sample of 198 Kepler stars with sensitivity to Earth-like planets if they were single stars, and imaged them with adaptive optics. In 20% of systems, we detected stellar companions that were close enough to go unresolved in Kepler observations. We calculated the distribution of planet radius correction factors needed to adjust for these observed companions, along with simulations of undetected companions to which our observations were not sensitive. We then used these correction factors to optimize an occurrence rate model for small close-in planets while correcting Kepler's detection efficiency for the presence of unresolved companions, and quantified how this correction affects occurrence estimates. Median occurrence rates for small planets between $2-100$ days increased by an average factor of $1.08-1.19$ (depending on statistical treatments), with the largest differences found for smaller planets at larger orbital periods. We found that the frequency of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone ($η_\oplus$) increased by a factor of ${1.18}_{-0.66}^{+0.43}-{1.46}_{-0.83}^{+0.53}$ when accounting for the effect of unresolved companions on Kepler's detection sensitivity.

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From Earths to Super-Earths: Five New Small Planets Transiting M Dwarf Stars

Earth-sized planets transiting M dwarf stars present one of the best opportunities with current facilities for studying the atmospheric and bulk compositions of terrestrial worlds. Here, we statistically validate five new transiting Earth and super-Earth sized planets orbiting M dwarf stars using a combination of light curves from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, multi-color observations from Palomar and Las Cumbres Observatory, high-resolution imaging, and stellar spectroscopy. The sample includes: TOI-5716 b, an Earth-sized planet (R_p = 0.96 $\pm$ 0.05 Rearth) with a 6.766-day orbit around a metal-poor thin-disk star ([Fe/H] = -0.54 $\pm$ 0.10); TOI-5728 b, a super-Earth (R_p = 1.31 $\pm$ 0.05 Rearth) on an 11.497-day orbit; and TOI-5736 b, a larger planet (R_p = 1.56 $\pm$ 0.07 Rearth) with an ultra-short period of just 0.649 days. We also statistically validate a multi-planet system, TOI-5489, hosting two similarly-sized super-Earths: TOI-5489 b (R_p = 1.40 $\pm$ 0.05 R_earth) and TOI-5489 c (R_p = 1.28 $\pm$ 0.07 R_earth) with orbital periods of 3.152 and 4.921 days, respectively. Due to their longer orbital periods, TOI-5716 b and TOI-5728 b both have equilibrium temperatures $\leq$ 400 K, making them useful test cases for studies of atmospheric mass loss. If TOI-5728 b is confirmed to have an Earth-like bulk composition, it would join the very small sample of rocky planets orbiting mid- to late-M dwarfs that lie below the cosmic shoreline and therefore may have retained high mean molecular weight atmospheres.

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Are We There Yet? Challenges in Quantifying the Frequency of Earth Analogs in the Habitable Zone

Searching for life elsewhere in the universe is one of the most highly prioritized pursuits in astronomy today. However, the ability to observe evidence of Earth-like life through biosignatures is limited by the number of planets in the solar neighborhood with conditions similar to Earth. The occurrence rate of Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars, $η_{\oplus}$, is therefore crucial for addressing the apparent lack of consensus on its value in the literature. Here we present a review of the current understanding of $η_{\oplus}$. We first provide definitions for parameters that contribute to $η_{\oplus}$. Then, we discuss the previous and current estimated parameter values and the context of the limitations on the analyses that produced these estimates. We compile an extensive list of the factors that go into any calculation of $η_{\oplus}$, and how detection techniques and surveys differ in their sensitivity and ability to accurately constrain $η_{\oplus}$. Understanding and refining the value of $η_{\oplus}$ is crucial for upcoming missions and telescopes, such as the planned Habitable Worlds Observatory and the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, which aim to search for biosignatures on exoplanets in the solar neighborhood.

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A New Approach to Compiling Exoatmospheric Target Lists And Quantifying the Ground-Based Resources Needed to Vet Them

Transiting exoplanet atmospheric characterization is currently in a golden age as dozens of exoplanet atmospheres are being studied by NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. This trend is expected to continue with NASA's Pandora Smallsat and Roman Space Telescope and ESA's Ariel mission (all expected to launch within this decade) and NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (expected to launch in the early 2040s) all of which are centered around studying the atmospheres of exoplanets. Here we explore a new approach to constructing large scale exoatmospheric survey lists, which combines the use of traditional transmission/emission spectroscopy figures of merit with a focus on more-evenly sampling planets across a range of radii and equilibrium temperatures. After assembling a sample target list comprised of 750 transmission spectroscopy targets and 150 emission spectroscopy targets, we quantify the potential time lost to stale transit and eclipse ephemerides and find that hundreds of hours of space-based observing could be wasted given current uncertainties in orbital periods, transit epochs, and orbital eccentricities. We further estimate the amount of ground-based telescope time necessary to obtain sufficiently precise exoplanet masses and find that it exceeds 100 nights of 10m telescope time. Based upon these findings, we provide a list of recommendations that would make community efforts for preparation and interpretation of atmospheric characterization endeavors more effective and efficient. The strategies we recommend here can be used to support both current (e.g., HST and JWST) and future exoplanet atmosphere characterization missions (e.g., Pandora, Ariel, Roman, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory).

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Scaling K2 VIII: Short-Period Sub-Neptune Occurrence Rates Peak Around Early-Type M Dwarfs

We uniformly combined data from the NASA Kepler and K2 missions to compute planet occurrence rates across the entire FGK and M dwarf stellar range. The K2 mission, driven by targets selected by guest observers, monitored nine times more M dwarfs than the Kepler mission. Combined, Kepler and K2 observed 130 short-period ($P=1-40$ days) Earth to Neptune-sized candidate planets orbiting M dwarfs. K2 observed 3.5 times more of these planets than Kepler for host stars below 3700 K. Our planet occurrence rates show that short-period sub-Neptunes peak at $3750^{+153}_{-97}$ K and drop for cooler M dwarfs. A peak near this location was predicted by pebble accretion planet formation models and confirmed here by observations for the first time. Super-Earths continue to increase in occurrence toward cooler stars and show no clear evidence of a peak in the host star range considered here (3200 K$-$6900 K). Our observations provide critical input to further refine planet formation models. We strongly recommend further study of mid-to-late M dwarfs with TESS and soon the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and PLATO to identify additional small planet trends.

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Requirements for Joint Orbital Characterization of Cold Giants and Habitable Worlds with Habitable Worlds Observatory

We determine optimal requirements for the joint detection of habitable-zone planets and cold giant planets with the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Analysis of 164 nearby stars shows that a coronagraph outer working angle (OWA) of 1440 milliarcseconds (mas) is necessary to achieve 80-90% visibility of cold giants. Approximately 40 precursor radial velocity measurements with 1 m/s precision are required to adequately constrain orbital parameters before HWO observations. We demonstrate that 6-8 astrometric measurements distributed across the mission timeline, compared to radial velocity constraints alone and to astrometry constraints alone, significantly improve orbital parameter precision, enabling direct determination of orbital inclination with uncertainties of 0.8-3 degrees. For habitable-zone planet characterization, 4-5 epochs provide moderate confidence, while high-confidence (95%) confirmation requires 8+ observations. These specifications are essential for the comprehensive characterization of planetary system architectures and understanding the potential habitability of terrestrial exoplanets.

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A 16 Myr super-Neptune in Upper-Centaurus Lupus and a preliminary survey of transiting planets in Sco-Cen with TESS

Measuring the properties of planets younger than about 50 Myr helps to test different planetary formation and evolution models. NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has observed nearly the entire sky, including a wide range of star-forming regions and young stellar clusters, expanding our census of the newborn planet population. In this work, we present the discovery of the TIC 88785435 planetary system located in the Upper-Centaurus Lupus (UCL) region of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association (Sco-Cen) and a preliminary survey of the planet population within Sco-Cen. TIC 88785435 is a pre-main sequence, K7V dwarf ($M_\star = 0.72M_\odot$, $R_\star = 0.91R_\odot$, $T_\mathrm{eff}$ = 3998K, V = 11.7 mag) located within the bounds of UCL. We investigate the distribution of rotation periods measured from the TESS long-cadence data and the Halpha and Li abundances from the spectra of TIC 88785435. TESS long-candence data reveal that TIC 88785435 hosts a transiting super-Neptune ($R_b = 5.03R_\oplus$, P = 10.51 days), TIC 88785435 b. Ground-based follow-up validates the planetary nature of TIC 88785435 b. Using the TESS data, we perform a preliminary survey to investigate how TIC 88785435 b compares to the population of newly born planets located within Sco-Cen.

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The TOI-1117 Multi-planetary System: 3 sub-Neptunes, 1 in both the Neptunian Desert and Radius Valley

We present the discovery of three sub-Neptune planets around TOI-1117, a Sun-like star with mass $0.97\pm0.02M_{\odot}$, radius $1.05\pm0.03R_{\odot}$, age $4.42\pm1.50$ Gyr and effective temperature $5635\pm62$ K. Light curves from TESS and LCOGT show a transiting sub-Neptune with a $2.23$ day period, mass $M_b=8.90_{-0.96}^{+0.95}M_{\oplus}$ and radius $R_b=2.46_{-0.12}^{+0.13}R_{\oplus}$. This is a rare 'hot Neptune' that falls within the parameter spaces known as the 'Neptunian Desert' and the 'Radius Valley'. Two more planetary signals are detected in HARPS radial velocities, revealing two non-transiting planets with minimum masses $M_c=7.46_{-1.62}^{+1.43}M_{\oplus}$ and $M_d=9.06_{-1.78}^{+2.07}M_{\oplus}$, and periods of $4.579\pm0.004$ and $8.67\pm0.01$ days. The eccentricities were poorly constrained by the HARPS data, with upper limits $e_b=0.11$, $e_c=0.29$, and $e_d=0.24$. However, dynamical simulations of the TOI-1117 system, suggest that the orbits must be nearly circular to be stable. The simulations also show that TOI-1117b and c are likely to be in a near 2:1 resonance. The multi-planet nature of TOI-1117 makes it a more complex case for formation theories of the Neptunian Desert and Radius Valley, as current theories such as high-eccentricity migration are too turbulent to produce a stable, non-eccentric, multi-planet system. Moreover, analysis of TOI-1117b's photoevaporation history found rocky core and H/He atmosphere models to be inconsistent with observations, whilst water-rich scenarios were favoured.

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The NASA Exoplanet Archive and Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program: Data, Tools, and Usage

The NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program service are two widely used resources for the exoplanet community. The NASA Exoplanet Archive provides a complete and accurate accounting of exoplanetary systems published by NASA missions and by the community in the refereed literature. In anticipation of continued exponential growth in the number of exoplanetary systems, and the increasing complexity in our characterization of these systems, the NASA Exoplanet Archive has restructured its primary tables and interfaces, as well as extending and standardizing their modes of access. The Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program service provides the exoplanet community with a venue for coordinating and sharing follow-up and precursor data for exoplanets, their host stars, and stars that might eventually be targets for future planet searches, and recently reached one million files uploaded by the community. In this paper we describe the updates to our data holdings, functionality, accessibility, and tools, as well as future priorities for these two services.

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Signatures of Atmospheric Mass Loss and Planet Migration in the Time Evolution of Short-Period Transiting Exoplanets

Comparative studies of young and old exoplanet populations offer a glimpse into how planets may form and evolve with time. We present an occurrence rate study of short-period ($<$12 days) planets between 1.8--10 Rearth around 1374 FGK stars in nearby (200 pc) young clusters ($<$1 Gyr), utilizing data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. These planets represent a population closer to their primordial state. We find that the occurrence rate of young planets is higher ($64^{+32}_{-22}$%) compared to the Gyr-old population observed by \kepler ($7.98^{+0.37}_{-0.35}$%). Dividing our sample into bins of young (10--100 Myr) and intermediate (100\,Myr--1 Gyr) ages, we also find that the occurrence distribution in orbital period remains unchanged while the distribution in planet radius changes with time. Specifically, the radius distribution steepens with age, indicative of a larger planet population shrinking due to the atmospheric thermal cooling and mass loss. We also find evidence for an increase (1.9$σ$) in occurrence after 100 Myr, possibly due to tidal migration driving planets inside of 12 days. While evidence suggests post-disk migration and atmospheric mass loss shape the population of short-period planets, more detections of young planets are needed to improve statistical comparisons with older planets. Detecting long-period young planets and planets $<$1.8 Rearth will help us understand these processes better. Additionally, studying young planetary atmospheres provides insights into planet formation and the efficiency of atmospheric mass loss mechanisms on the evolution of planetary systems.

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