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Mauro Barbieri

Publications and source records attributed to Mauro Barbieri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Two warm sub-Saturn mass planets identified from the TESS Full Frame Images

Context. Characterization of warm giants is crucial to constrain giant planet formation and evolution. Measuring the mass and radius of these planets, combined with their moderated irradiation, allows us to estimate their planetary bulk composition, which is a key quantity to comprehend giant planet formation and structure. Aims. We present the discovery of two transiting warm giant planets orbiting solar-type stars from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which were characterized by further spectroscopic and photometric ground-based observations. Methods. We performed a joint analysis of photometric data with radial velocities to confirm and characterize TOI-883 b and TOI-899 b, two sub-Saturns orbiting solar-like stars. Results. TOI-883 b and TOI-899 b have masses of $0.123 \pm 0.012$ $M_J$ and $0.213 \pm 0.024$ $M_J$, radius of $0.604 \pm 0.028$ $R_J$ and $0.991 \pm 0.044$ $R_J$, periods of $10.06$ d and $12.85$ d and equilibrium temperature of $1086 \pm 19$ K and $1040 \pm 19$ K, respectively. Conclusions. While having similar masses, orbital periods and stellar host properties, these planets seem to have different internal compositions, which could point to distinct formation histories. Both planets are suitable targets for atmospheric studies to further constrain formation scenarios of planets in the Neptune-Saturn mass range

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Rare Near-Opposition Alignment of 3I/ATLAS on 22 January, 2026

We point out that on 22 January 2026, the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS will align to within an exceptionally small angle, alpha= 0.69 degrees, with the Earth-Sun axis. This rare alignment provides unique circumstances for measuring the opposition surge and polarimetric properties of interstellar cometary dust. We characterize the alignment geometry, outline key scientific opportunities, and define the observational requirements for data collection. Observations before and after the alignment time offer an unprecedented opportunity which may not repeat for decades, for characterizing the albedo, structure, and composition of interstellar matter.

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The PLATO Mission

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA's M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2 R_(Earth)) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5 %, 10 %, 10 % for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO's target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile at the beginning of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases.

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ESO/HARPS Radial Velocities Catalog

This document details the first public data release of the HARPS radial velocities catalog. This data release aims to provide the astronomical community with a catalog of radial velocities obtained with spectroscopic observations acquired from 2003 to 2023 with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph installed at the ESO 3.6m telescope in La Silla Observatory (Chile), and spanning wavelengths from 3800 to 6900 Angstrom. The catalog comprises 289843 observations of 6488 unique astronomical objects. Radial velocities reported in this catalog are obtained using the HARPS pipeline, with a typical precision of 0.5 m/s, which is essential for the search and validation of exoplanets. Additionally, independent radial velocities measured on the H$α$ spectral line are included, with a typical error of around 300 m/s suitable for various astrophysical applications where high precision is not critical. This catalog includes 282294 radial velocities obtained through the HARPS pipeline and 288972 derived from the H$_α$ line, collectively forming a time-series dataset that provides a historical record of measurements for each object. Further, each object has been cross-referenced with the SIMBAD astronomical database to ensure accurate identification, enabling users to locate and verify objects with existing records in astronomical literature. Information provided for each object includes: astrometric parameters (coordinates, parallaxes, proper motions, radial velocities), photometric parameters (apparent magnitudes in the visible and near-infrared), spectral types and object classifications.

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The ESO Science Archive Facility: Status, Impact, and Prospects

Scientific data collected at ESO's observatories are freely and openly accessible online through the ESO Science Archive Facility. In addition to the raw data straight out of the instruments, the ESO Science Archive also contains four million processed science files available for use by scientists and astronomy enthusiasts worldwide. ESO subscribes to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship. All data in the ESO Science Archive are distributed according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).

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Taranga DR1: Analysis of TESS Short Cadence data for years 1 and 2

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) was launched in 2018 with the purpose of observing bright stars in the solar neighbourhood to search for transiting exoplanets. After the completion of the two year nominal mission, TESS has provided 2\,minute cadence photometry of over 200\,000 stars. This large collection of light curves opens the possibility to study the statistical and temporal properties of this ensemble of stars. Most of the currently available data pipelines are designed to work on single sector at a time. We present a new TESS data pipeline called {\tt Taranga}, with the purpose of merging multi-sector light curves, whilst performing a period search for all the observed stars, and stores the statistical results in a database. {\tt Taranga} pipeline has three components which 1) processes the PDCSAP fluxes of each sector and creates merged PDCSAP light curve, 2) performs a similar operation on the SAP fluxes, and 3) generates the periodograms of the merged SAP and PDCSAP light curves while performing peak identification. For all the 232\,122 stars observed in short cadence in the nominal TESS mission, we provide the merged PDCSAP and SAP light-curves along with their periodograms. We provide a database that has the statistics of all the results produced from {\tt Taranga} of these stars.

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Simulating the Legacy Survey of Space and Time stellar content with TRILEGAL

We describe a large simulation of the stars to be observed by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The simulation is based on the TRILEGAL code, which resorts to large databases of stellar evolutionary tracks, synthetic spectra, and pulsation models, added to simple prescriptions for the stellar density and star formation histories of the main structures of the Galaxy, to generate mock stellar samples through a population synthesis approach. The main bodies of the Magellanic Clouds are also included. A complete simulation is provided for single stars, down to the $r=27.5$ mag depth of the co-added wide-fast-deep survey images. A second simulation is provided for a fraction of the binaries, including the interacting ones, as derived with the BinaPSE module of TRILEGAL. We illustrate the main properties and numbers derived from these simulations, including: comparisons with real star counts; the expected numbers of Cepheids, long-period variables and eclipsing binaries; the crowding limits as a function of seeing and filter; the star-to-galaxy ratios, etc. Complete catalogs are accessible through the NOIRLab Astro Data Lab, while the stellar density maps are incorporated in the LSST metrics analysis framework (MAF).

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A pair of warm giant planets near the 2:1 mean motion resonance around the K-dwarf star TOI-2202

TOI-2202 b is a transiting warm Jovian-mass planet with an orbital period of P=11.91 days identified from the Full Frame Images data of five different sectors of the TESS mission. Ten TESS transits of TOI-2202 b combined with three follow-up light curves obtained with the CHAT robotic telescope show strong transit timing variations (TTVs) with an amplitude of about 1.2 hours. Radial velocity follow-up with FEROS, HARPS and PFS confirms the planetary nature of the transiting candidate (a$_{\rm b}$ = 0.096 $\pm$ 0.002 au, m$_{\rm b}$ = 0.98 $\pm$ 0.06 M$_{\rm Jup}$), and dynamical analysis of RVs, transit data, and TTVs points to an outer Saturn-mass companion (a$_{\rm c}$ = 0.155 $\pm$ 0.003 au, m$_{\rm c}$= $0.37 \pm 0.10$ M$_{\rm Jup}$) near the 2:1 mean motion resonance. Our stellar modeling indicates that TOI-2202 is an early K-type star with a mass of 0.82 M$_\odot$, a radius of 0.79 R$_\odot$, and solar-like metallicity. The TOI-2202 system is very interesting because of the two warm Jovian-mass planets near the 2:1 MMR, which is a rare configuration, and their formation and dynamical evolution are still not well understood.

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Dissecting the Gaia HR diagram within 200 pc

We analyse the high-quality Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) derived from Gaia data release 2 for the Solar Neighbourhood. We start building an almost-complete sample within 200 pc and for |b|>25 deg, so as to limit the impact of known errors and artefacts in the Gaia catalog. Particular effort is then put into improving the modelling of population of binaries, which produce two marked features in the HRD: the sequence of near-equal mass binaries along the lower main sequence, and the isolated group of hot subdwarfs. We describe a new tool, BinaPSE, to follow the evolution of interacting binaries in a way that improves the consistency with PARSEC evolutionary tracks for single stars. BinaPSE is implemented into the TRILEGAL code for the generation of "partial models" for both single and binary stellar populations, taking into account the presence of resolved and unresolved binaries. We then fit the Gaia HRD via MCMC methods that search for the star formation history (SFH) and initial binary fraction (by mass) that maximise the likelihood. The main results are (i) the binary fraction derived from the lower main sequence is close to 0.4, while twice larger values are favoured when the upper part of the HRD is fitted; (ii) present models predict the observed numbers of hot subdwarfs to within a factor of 2; (iii) irrespective of the prescription for the binaries, the star formation rate peaks at values 1.5e-4 Msun/yr at ages slightly above 2 Gyr, and then decreases to 0.8e-4 Msun/yr at very old ages.

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Precise transit and radial-velocity characterization of a resonant pair: a warm Jupiter TOI-216c and eccentric warm Neptune TOI-216b

TOI-216 hosts a pair of warm, large exoplanets discovered by the TESS Mission. These planets were found to be in or near the 2:1 resonance, and both of them exhibit transit timing variations (TTVs). Precise characterization of the planets' masses and radii, orbital properties, and resonant behavior can test theories for the origins of planets orbiting close to their stars. Previous characterization of the system using the first six sectors of TESS data suffered from a degeneracy between planet mass and orbital eccentricity. Radial velocity measurements using HARPS, FEROS, and PFS break that degeneracy, and an expanded TTV baseline from TESS and an ongoing ground-based transit observing campaign increase the precision of the mass and eccentricity measurements. We determine that TOI-216c is a warm Jupiter, TOI-216b is an eccentric warm Neptune, and that they librate in the 2:1 resonance with a moderate libration amplitude of 60 +/- 2 degrees; small but significant free eccentricity of 0.0222 +0.0005/-0.0003 for TOI-216b; and small but significant mutual inclination of 1.2-3.9 degrees (95% confidence interval). The libration amplitude, free eccentricity, and mutual inclination imply a disturbance of TOI-216b before or after resonance capture, perhaps by an undetected third planet.

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TOI-954 b and K2-329 b: Short-Period Saturn-Mass Planets that Test whether Irradiation Leads to Inflation

We report the discovery of two short-period Saturn-mass planets, one transiting the G subgiant TOI-954 (TIC 44792534, $ V = 10.343 $, $ T = 9.78 $) observed in TESS sectors 4 and 5, and one transiting the G dwarf K2-329 (EPIC 246193072, $ V = 12.70 $, $ K = 10.67 $) observed in K2 campaigns 12 and 19. We confirm and characterize these two planets with a variety of ground-based archival and follow-up observations, including photometry, reconnaissance spectroscopy, precise radial velocity, and high-resolution imaging. Combining all available data, we find that TOI-954 b has a radius of $0.852_{-0.062}^{+0.053} \, R_{\mathrm{J}}$ and a mass of $0.174_{-0.017}^{+0.018} \, M_{\mathrm{J}}$ and is in a 3.68 day orbit, while K2-329 b has a radius of $0.774_{-0.024}^{+0.026} \, R_{\mathrm{J}}$ and a mass of $0.260_{-0.022}^{+0.020} \, M_{\mathrm{J}}$ and is in a 12.46 day orbit. As TOI-954 b is 30 times more irradiated than K2-329 b but more or less the same size, these two planets provide an opportunity to test whether irradiation leads to inflation of Saturn-mass planets and contribute to future comparative studies that explore Saturn-mass planets at contrasting points in their lifetimes.

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Revisiting the HD 21749 Planetary System with Stellar Activity Modeling

HD 21749 is a bright ($V=8.1$ mag) K dwarf at 16 pc known to host an inner terrestrial planet HD 21749c as well as an outer sub-Neptune HD 21749b, both delivered by TESS. Follow-up spectroscopic observations measured the mass of HD 21749b to be $22.7\pm2.2\ M_{\oplus}$ with a density of $7.0^{+1.6}_{-1.3}$ g~cm$^{-3}$, making it one of the densest sub-Neptunes. However, the mass measurement was suspected to be influenced by stellar rotation. Here we present new high-cadence PFS RV data to disentangle the stellar activity signal from the planetary signal. We find that HD 21749 has a similar rotational timescale as the planet's orbital period, and the amplitude of the planetary orbital RV signal is estimated to be similar to that of the stellar activity signal. We perform Gaussian Process (GP) regression on the photometry and RVs from HARPS and PFS to model the stellar activity signal. Our new models reveal that HD 21749b has a radius of $2.86\pm0.20\ R_{\oplus}$, an orbital period of $35.6133\pm0.0005$ d with a mass of $M_{b}=20.0\pm2.7\ M_{\oplus}$ and a density of $4.8^{+2.0}_{-1.4}$ g~cm$^{-3}$ on an eccentric orbit with $e=0.16\pm0.06$, which is consistent with the most recent values published for this system. HD 21749c has an orbital period of $7.7902\pm0.0006$ d, a radius of $1.13\pm0.10\ R_{\oplus}$, and a 3$σ$ mass upper limit of $3.5\ M_{\oplus}$. Our Monte Carlo simulations confirm that without properly taking stellar activity signals into account, the mass measurement of HD 21749b is likely to arrive at a significantly underestimated error bar.

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TOI-677 b: A Warm Jupiter (P=11.2d) on an eccentric orbit transiting a late F-type star

We report the discovery of TOI-677 b, first identified as a candidate in light curves obtained within Sectors 9 and 10 of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and confirmed with radial velocities. TOI-677 b has a mass of M_p = 1.236$^{+0.069}_{-0.067}$ M_J, a radius of R_p = 1.170 +- 0.03 R_J,and orbits its bright host star (V=9.8 mag) with an orbital period of 11.23660 +- 0.00011 d, on an eccentric orbit with e = 0.435 +- 0.024. The host star has a mass of M_* = 1.181 +- 0.058 M_sun, a radius of R_* = 1.28 +- 0.03 R_sun, an age of 2.92$^{+0.80}_{-0.73}$ Gyr and solar metallicity, properties consistent with a main sequence late F star with T_eff = 6295 +- 77 K. We find evidence in the radial velocity measurements of a secondary long term signal which could be due to an outer companion. The TOI-677 b system is a well suited target for Rossiter-Mclaughlin observations that can constrain migration mechanisms of close-in giant planets.

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A 3.9 km baseline intensity interferometry photon counting experiment

In the last years we have operated two very similar ultrafast photon counting photometers (Iqueye and Aqueye+) on different telescopes. The absolute time accuracy in time tagging the detected photon with these instruments is of the order of 500 ps for hours of observation, allowing us to obtain, for example, the most accurate ever light curve in visible light of the optical pulsars. Recently we adapted the two photometers for working together on two telescopes at Asiago (Italy), for realizing an Hanbury-Brown and Twiss Intensity Interferometry like experiment with two 3.9 km distant telescopes. In this paper we report about the status of the activity and on the very preliminary results of our first attempt to measure the photon intensity correlation.

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Adaptive Real Time Selection for Quantum Key Distribution in Lossy and Turbulent Free-Space Channels

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) allows to share random keys between two users with unconditional security: the key is usually generated by exchanging a stream of photons. The long-term vision of QKD is represented by a quantum network, implemented by fiber and free-space links involving ground and/or satellites stations. The presence of the atmospheric turbulence represents an obstacle for free-space quantum communications, due to the increase of optical losses. Here we introduce a method to exploit the atmospheric turbulence as a resource for QKD. An Adaptive Real Time Selection (ARTS) technique at the receiver allows to take advantage of the fluctuating transmissivity of the channel, giving rise to an increase of the secure key rate.

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Forward Modeling of the Kepler Stellar Rotation Period Distribution: Interpreting Periods from Mixed and Biased Stellar Populations

Stellar surface rotation carries information about stellar parameters---particularly ages---and thus the large rotational datasets extracted from Kepler timeseries represent powerful probes of stellar populations. In this article, we address the challenge of interpreting such datasets with a forward-modeling exercise. We combine theoretical models of stellar rotation, a stellar population model for the galaxy, and prescriptions for observational bias and confusion to predict the rotation distribution in the Kepler field under standard "vanilla" assumptions. We arrive at two central conclusions: first, that standard braking models fail to reproduce the observed distribution at long periods, and second, that the interpretation of the period distribution is complicated by mixtures of unevolved and evolved stars and observational uncertainties. By assuming that the amplitude and thus detectability of rotational signatures is tied to the Rossby number, we show that the observed period distribution contains an apparent "Rossby edge" at $\textrm{Ro}_{thresh} = 2.08$, above which long-period, high-Rossby number stars are either absent or undetected. This $\textrm{Ro}_{thresh}$ is comparable to the Rossby number at which van Saders et al. (2016) observed the onset of weakened magnetic braking, and suggests either that this modified braking is in operation in the full Kepler population, or that stars undergo a transition in spottedness and activity at a very similar Rossby number. We discuss the observations necessary to disentangle these competing scenarios. (abridged)

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The Earth transiting the Sun as seen from Jupiter's moons: detection of an inverse Rossiter-McLaughlin effect produced by the Opposition Surge of the icy Europa

We report on a multi-wavelength observational campaign which followed the Earth's transit on the Sun as seen from Jupiter on 5 Jan the 2014. Simultaneous observations of Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede obtained with HARPS from La Silla, Chile, and HARPS-N from La Palma, Canary Islands, were performed to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect due to the Earth's passage using the same technique successfully adopted for the 2012 Venus Transit (Molaro et al 2013). The expected modulation in radial velocities was of about 20 cm/s but an anomalous drift as large as 38 m/s, i.e. more than two orders of magnitude higher and opposite in sign, was detected instead. The consistent behaviour of the two spectrographs rules out instrumental origin of the radial velocity drift and BiSON observations rule out the possible dependence on the Sun's magnetic activity. We suggest that this anomaly is produced by the Opposition Surge on Europa's icy surface, which amplifies the intensity of the solar radiation from a portion of the solar surface centered around the crossing Earth which can then be observed as a a sort of inverse Rossiter-McLaughling effect. in fact, a simplified model of this effect can explain in detail most features of the observed radial velocity anomalies, namely the extensions before and after the transit, the small differences between the two observatories and the presence of a secondary peak closer to Earth passage. This phenomenon, observed here for the first time, should be observed every time similar Earth alignments occur with rocky bodies without atmospheres. We predict it should be observed again during the next conjunction of Earth and Jupiter in 2026.

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The Comparative Exploration of the Ice Giant Planets with Twin Spacecraft: Unveiling the History of our Solar System

In the course of the selection of the scientific themes for the second and third L-class missions of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program of the European Space Agency, the exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune was defined "a timely milestone, fully appropriate for an L class mission". Among the proposed scientific themes, we presented the scientific case of exploring both planets and their satellites in the framework of a single L-class mission and proposed a mission scenario that could allow to achieve this result. In this work we present an updated and more complete discussion of the scientific rationale and of the mission concept for a comparative exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune and of their satellite systems with twin spacecraft. The first goal of comparatively studying these two similar yet extremely different systems is to shed new light on the ancient past of the Solar System and on the processes that shaped its formation and evolution. This, in turn, would reveal whether the Solar System and the very diverse extrasolar systems discovered so far all share a common origin or if different environments and mechanisms were responsible for their formation. A space mission to the ice giants would also open up the possibility to use Uranus and Neptune as templates in the study of one of the most abundant type of extrasolar planets in the galaxy. Finally, such a mission would allow a detailed study of the interplanetary and gravitational environments at a range of distances from the Sun poorly covered by direct exploration, improving the constraints on the fundamental theories of gravitation and on the behaviour of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field.

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