Author
Jon M. Jenkins
Other affiliations: University of New Mexico, Max Planck Society, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Bio: Jon M. Jenkins is an academic researcher from Ames Research Center. The author has contributed to research in topics: Planet & Exoplanet. The author has an hindex of 126, co-authored 581 publications receiving 62929 citations. Previous affiliations of Jon M. Jenkins include University of New Mexico & Max Planck Society.
Topics: Planet, Exoplanet, Planetary system, Physics, Radial velocity
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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Ames Research Center1, University of California, Berkeley2, San Jose State University3, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network4, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence5, York University6, Aarhus University7, University of Texas at Austin8, Lowell Observatory9, Harvard University10, California Institute of Technology11, Space Telescope Science Institute12, Lawrence Hall of Science13, Goddard Space Flight Center14, United States Department of the Navy15, Carnegie Institution for Science16, University of Washington17, University of Hawaii at Hilo18, University of California, Santa Cruz19, Massachusetts Institute of Technology20, Fermilab21, San Diego State University22, Southern Connecticut State University23, Planetary Science Institute24, Yale University25, Marshall Space Flight Center26, The Catholic University of America27, University of Idaho28, Villanova University29
TL;DR: The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars, which is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface.
Abstract: The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet’s surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (~0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.
3,663 citations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology1, Harvard University2, Princeton University3, University of Chicago4, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network5, University of Copenhagen6, Arizona State University7, Carnegie Institution for Science8, University of Birmingham9, Aarhus University10, Goddard Space Flight Center11, University of Maryland, College Park12, Vanderbilt University13, Northern Kentucky University14, Lowell Observatory15, University of Texas at Austin16, University of Florida17, Max Planck Society18, Tokyo Institute of Technology19, University of California, Berkeley20, University of California, Santa Cruz21, Johns Hopkins University22, Space Telescope Science Institute23, Spanish National Research Council24, Lehigh University25, INAF26, Fisk University27
TL;DR: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) as discussed by the authors will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars using four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars.
Abstract: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its 2-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I C ≈4−13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from 1 month to 1 year, depending mainly on the star’s ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10 to 100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations.
2,604 citations
TL;DR: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) as mentioned in this paper was selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission to search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars.
Abstract: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its two-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical CCD cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I = 4-13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from one month to one year, depending mainly on the star's ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10-100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every four months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations.
1,728 citations
Ames Research Center1, San Jose State University2, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network3, Harvard University4, University of California, Santa Cruz5, University of Florida6, Pennsylvania State University7, University of California, Berkeley8, Georgia State University9, California Institute of Technology10, Carnegie Institution for Science11, University of Copenhagen12, Aarhus University13, University of Texas at Austin14, Massachusetts Institute of Technology15, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence16, Lawrence Hall of Science17, University of Hertfordshire18, Villanova University19, Fermilab20, Princeton University21, San Diego State University22
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors verified nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new transiting planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300.
Abstract: New transiting planet candidates are identified in 16 months (2009 May-2010 September) of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher catalog reliability. Most notable is the noise-weighted robust averaging of multi-quarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis that identifies likely background eclipsing binaries. Twenty-two months of photometry are used for the purpose of characterizing each of the candidates. Ephemerides (transit epoch, T_0, and orbital period, P) are tabulated as well as the products of light curve modeling: reduced radius (R_P/R_★), reduced semimajor axis (d/R_★), and impact parameter (b). The largest fractional increases are seen for the smallest planet candidates (201% for candidates smaller than 2 R_⊕ compared to 53% for candidates larger than 2 R_⊕) and those at longer orbital periods (124% for candidates outside of 50 day orbits versus 86% for candidates inside of 50 day orbits). The gains are larger than expected from increasing the observing window from 13 months (Quarters 1-5) to 16 months (Quarters 1-6) even in regions of parameter space where one would have expected the previous catalogs to be complete. Analyses of planet frequencies based on previous catalogs will be affected by such incompleteness. The fraction of all planet candidate host stars with multiple candidates has grown from 17% to 20%, and the paucity of short-period giant planets in multiple systems is still evident. The progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods with each new catalog release suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant.
1,271 citations
Ames Research Center1, University of California, Berkeley2, San Jose State University3, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network4, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence5, Aarhus University6, University of Texas at Austin7, Lowell Observatory8, California Institute of Technology9, Harvard University10, Space Telescope Science Institute11, Lawrence Hall of Science12, Carnegie Institution for Science13, University of Florida14, University of California, Santa Cruz15, Massachusetts Institute of Technology16, Fermilab17, San Diego State University18, Southern Connecticut State University19, Marshall Space Flight Center20, University of Arizona21, University of Hertfordshire22, Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales23, Villanova University24
TL;DR: In this article, the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16, and there are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period.
Abstract: On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distributions of the characteristics of the planetary candidates are separated into five class sizes: 68 candidates of approximately Earth-size (R_p < 1.25 R_⊕), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 2 R_⊕), 662 Neptune-size (2 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 6 R_⊕), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 15 R_⊕), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 22 R_⊕). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable zone, 54 candidates are found with sizes ranging from Earth-size to larger than that of Jupiter. Six are less than twice the size of the Earth. Over 74% of the planetary candidates are smaller than Neptune. The observed number versus size distribution of planetary candidates increases to a peak at two to three times the Earth-size and then declines inversely proportional to the area of the candidate. Our current best estimates of the intrinsic frequencies of planetary candidates, after correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, are 5% for Earth-size candidates, 8% for super-Earth-size candidates, 18% for Neptune-size candidates, 2% for Jupiter-size candidates, and 0.1% for very large candidates; a total of 0.34 candidates per star. Multi-candidate, transiting systems are frequent; 17% of the host stars have multi-candidate systems, and 34% of all the candidates are part of multi-candidate systems.
1,241 citations
Cited by
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Ames Research Center1, University of California, Berkeley2, San Jose State University3, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network4, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence5, York University6, Aarhus University7, University of Texas at Austin8, Lowell Observatory9, Harvard University10, California Institute of Technology11, Space Telescope Science Institute12, Lawrence Hall of Science13, Goddard Space Flight Center14, United States Department of the Navy15, Carnegie Institution for Science16, University of Washington17, University of Hawaii at Hilo18, University of California, Santa Cruz19, Massachusetts Institute of Technology20, Fermilab21, San Diego State University22, Southern Connecticut State University23, Planetary Science Institute24, Yale University25, Marshall Space Flight Center26, The Catholic University of America27, University of Idaho28, Villanova University29
TL;DR: The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars, which is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface.
Abstract: The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet’s surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (~0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.
3,663 citations
TL;DR: Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) as mentioned in this paper is a suite of open source, robust, efficient, thread-safe libraries for a wide range of applications in computational stellar astrophysics.
Abstract: Stellar physics and evolution calculations enable a broad range of research in astrophysics. Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) is a suite of open source, robust, efficient, thread-safe libraries for a wide range of applications in computational stellar astrophysics. A one-dimensional stellar evolution module, MESAstar, combines many of the numerical and physics modules for simulations of a wide range of stellar evolution scenarios ranging from very low mass to massive stars, including advanced evolutionary phases. MESAstar solves the fully coupled structure and composition equations simultaneously. It uses adaptive mesh refinement and sophisticated timestep controls, and supports shared memory parallelism based on OpenMP. State-of-the-art modules provide equation of state, opacity, nuclear reaction rates, element diffusion data, and atmosphere boundary conditions. Each module is constructed as a separate Fortran 95 library with its own explicitly defined public interface to facilitate independent development. Several detailed examples indicate the extensive verification and testing that is continuously performed and demonstrate the wide range of capabilities that MESA possesses. These examples include evolutionary tracks of very low mass stars, brown dwarfs, and gas giant planets to very old ages; the complete evolutionary track of a 1 M ☉ star from the pre-main sequence (PMS) to a cooling white dwarf; the solar sound speed profile; the evolution of intermediate-mass stars through the He-core burning phase and thermal pulses on the He-shell burning asymptotic giant branch phase; the interior structure of slowly pulsating B Stars and Beta Cepheids; the complete evolutionary tracks of massive stars from the PMS to the onset of core collapse; mass transfer from stars undergoing Roche lobe overflow; and the evolution of helium accretion onto a neutron star. MESA can be downloaded from the project Web site (http://mesa.sourceforge.net/).
3,474 citations
TL;DR: Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) as discussed by the authors is an open source software package for modeling the evolution of stellar structures and composition. But it is not suitable for large-scale systems such as supernovae.
Abstract: We substantially update the capabilities of the open source software package Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), and its one-dimensional stellar evolution module, MESA star. Improvements in MESA star's ability to model the evolution of giant planets now extends its applicability down to masses as low as one-tenth that of Jupiter. The dramatic improvement in asteroseismology enabled by the space-based Kepler and CoRoT missions motivates our full coupling of the ADIPLS adiabatic pulsation code with MESA star. This also motivates a numerical recasting of the Ledoux criterion that is more easily implemented when many nuclei are present at non-negligible abundances. This impacts the way in which MESA star calculates semi-convective and thermohaline mixing. We exhibit the evolution of 3-8 M ? stars through the end of core He burning, the onset of He thermal pulses, and arrival on the white dwarf cooling sequence. We implement diffusion of angular momentum and chemical abundances that enable calculations of rotating-star models, which we compare thoroughly with earlier work. We introduce a new treatment of radiation-dominated envelopes that allows the uninterrupted evolution of massive stars to core collapse. This enables the generation of new sets of supernovae, long gamma-ray burst, and pair-instability progenitor models. We substantially modify the way in which MESA star solves the fully coupled stellar structure and composition equations, and we show how this has improved the scaling of MESA's calculational speed on multi-core processors. Updates to the modules for equation of state, opacity, nuclear reaction rates, and atmospheric boundary conditions are also provided. We describe the MESA Software Development Kit that packages all the required components needed to form a unified, maintained, and well-validated build environment for MESA. We also highlight a few tools developed by the community for rapid visualization of MESA star results.
2,761 citations
TL;DR: The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the solar system, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way.
Abstract: (Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pachon in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.
2,738 citations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology1, Harvard University2, Princeton University3, University of Chicago4, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network5, University of Copenhagen6, Arizona State University7, Carnegie Institution for Science8, University of Birmingham9, Aarhus University10, Goddard Space Flight Center11, University of Maryland, College Park12, Vanderbilt University13, Northern Kentucky University14, Lowell Observatory15, University of Texas at Austin16, University of Florida17, Max Planck Society18, Tokyo Institute of Technology19, University of California, Berkeley20, University of California, Santa Cruz21, Johns Hopkins University22, Space Telescope Science Institute23, Spanish National Research Council24, Lehigh University25, INAF26, Fisk University27
TL;DR: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) as discussed by the authors will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars using four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars.
Abstract: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its 2-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I C ≈4−13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from 1 month to 1 year, depending mainly on the star’s ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10 to 100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations.
2,604 citations