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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

SOAP: A Tool for the Fast Computation of Photometry and Radial Velocity Induced by Stellar Spots

I. Boisse, X. Bonfils, N. C. Santos, P. Figueira

Abstract
Dark spots and bright plages are present on the surface of dwarf stars from spectral types F to M, even in their low-active phase (like the Sun). Their appearance and disappearance on the stellar photosphere, combined with the stellar rotation, may lead to errors and uncertainties in the characterization of planets both in radial velocity (RV) and photometry. Spot Oscillation and Planet (SOAP) is a tool offered to the community that enables to simulate spots and plages on rotating stars and computes their impact on RV and photometric measurements. This tool will help to understand the challenges related to the knowledge of stellar activity for the next decade: detect telluric planets in the habitable zone of their stars (from G to M dwarfs), understand the activity in the low-mass end of M dwarf (on which future projects, like SPIRou or CARMENES, will focus), limitation to the characterization of the exoplanetary atmosphere (from the ground or with Spitzer, JWST), search for planets around young stars. These can be simulated with SOAP in order to search for indices and corrections to the effect of activity.

New Quests in Stellar Astrophysics III: A Panchromatic View of Solar-like Stars, With and Without Planets
(Eds.) M. Chavez, E. Bertone, O. Vega, V. De la Luz

Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Vol. 472, Page 259
2013

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Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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