Super-Earth and Sub-Neptune Exoplanets
Subtitle: a First Look from the MEarth Project
Contributors: Charbonneau, David; Goodman, Alyssa; Latham, David; Protopapas, Pavlos; Sasselov, Dimitar; Mamajek, Eric
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Description: Exoplanets that transit nearby M dwarfs allow us to measure the sizes, masses, and atmospheric properties of distant worlds. Between 2008 and 2013, we searched for such planets with the MEarth Project, a photometric survey of the closest and smallest main-sequence stars. This thesis uses the first planet discovered with MEarth, the warm 2.7 Earth radius exoplanet GJ1214b, to explore the possibilities that planets transiting M dwarfs provide.
Notes: Keywords: atmospheres, exoplanets, M dwarfs, photometry, statistics, transits.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2013