Eight years of accurate photometric follow-up of transiting giant exoplanets

TL;DR

This paper reviews eight years of high-precision photometric follow-up observations of transiting hot Jupiters, focusing on measuring their characteristics and probing planetary atmospheres using advanced observational techniques.

Contribution

It presents a homogeneous analysis of transit data collected over eight years, employing innovative observational strategies like telescope defocussing and multi-band imaging to improve accuracy.

Findings

Precise measurements of exoplanet and host star parameters.

Detection of atmospheric features through transmission photometry.

Validation of two-site observational strategy for reliable transit data.

Abstract

Since 2008 we have run an observational program to accurately measure the characteristics of known exoplanet systems hosting close-in transiting giant planets, i.e. hot Jupiters. Our study is based on high-quality photometric follow-up observations of transit events with an array of medium-class telescopes, which are located in both the northern and the southern hemispheres. A high photometric precision is achieved through the telescope-defocussing technique. The data are then reduced and analysed in a homogeneous way for estimating the orbital and physical parameters of both the planets and their parent stars. We also make use of multi-band imaging cameras for probing planetary atmospheres via the transmission-photometry technique. In some cases we adopt a two-site observational strategy for collecting simultaneous light curves of individual transits, which is the only completely reliable method for truly distinguishing a real astrophysical signal from systematic noise. In this contribution we review the main results of our program.