Physics Commons^™

Detecting And Characterizing Exoplanets: The Gj 436 And Hd 149026 Systems, Kevin Stevenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates two stellar systems known to contain extrasolar planets. It is comprised of five chapters that are readily divided into three independent but related analyses. Chapter 1 reports on the analysis of low signal-to-noise secondary-eclipse observations of the Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b using the Spitzer Space Telescope in multiple infrared channels. The measured wavelength-dependent eclipse depths provide constraints on the planet’s dayside atmospheric composition and thermal profile. The analysis indicates that GJ 436b’s atmosphere is abundant in carbon monoxide and deficient in methane relative to thermochemical equilibrium models for the predicted hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Chapter 2 discusses the techniques …

Interferometric, Astrometric, And Photometric Studies Of Epsilon Aurigae: Seeing The Disk Around A Distant Star, Brian Keith Kloppenborg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Epsilon (ε) Aurigae is a binary star system that has baffled astronomers for 170 years. In 1821 it was first noticed that the star system had dimmed by nearly 50%. After many decades of photometric monitoring, the 27.1 year period was finally established in 1903. A few years later, in 1912, Henry Norris Russell published the first analytic methods for binary star analysis. Later application of these formulae came to an interesting conclusion; the system was composed of two stars: the visible F-type supergiant, and an equally massive, but yet photometrically and spectroscopically invisible, companion.

Several theories were advanced to …