Abstract: We report the discovery of a warm sub-Saturn, TOI-257b (HD 19916b), based on data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The transit signal was detected by TESS and confirmed to be of planetary origin based on radial velocity observations. An analysis of the TESS photometry, the MINERVA-Australis, FEROS, and HARPS radial velocities, and the asteroseismic data of the stellar oscillations reveals that TOI-257b has a mass of M-P = 0.138 +/- 0.023M(J) (43.9 +/- 7.3 M-circle plus), a radius of R-P = 0.639 +/- 0.013 R-J (7.16 +/- 0.15 R-circle plus), bulk density of 0.65(-0.11)(+0.12) (cgs), and period 18.38818(-0.00084)(+0.00085) days. TOI-257b orbits a bright (V = 7.612 mag) somewhat evolved late F-type star with M-* = 1.390 +/- 0.046(Msun), R-* = 1.888 +/- 0.033 R-sun, T-eff = 6075 +/- 90 K, and vsin i = 11.3 +/- 0.5 kms(-1). Additionally, we find hints for a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet on a similar to 71 day orbit using the radial velocity data. This system joins the ranks of a small number of exoplanet host stars (similar to 100) that have been characterized with asteroseismology. Warm sub-Saturns are rare in the known sample of exoplanets, and thus the discovery of TOI-257b is important in the context of future work studying the formation and migration history of similar planetary systems.

Abstract: We present 63 new multi-site radial velocity (RV) measurements of the K1III giant HD 76920, which was recently reported to host the most eccentric planet known to orbit an evolved star. We focused our observational efforts on the time around the predicted periastron passage and achieved near-continuous phase coverage of the corresponding RV peak. By combining our RV measurements from four different instruments with previously published ones, we confirm the highly eccentric nature of the system and find an even higher eccentricity of , an orbital period of 415.891(-0.039)(+0.043) d, and a minimum mass of 3.13(-0.43)(+0.41) M-J for the planet. The uncertainties in the orbital elements are greatly reduced, especially for the period and eccentricity. We also performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis to derive atmospheric stellar parameters, and thus the fundamental stellar parameters (M-*, R-*, L-*) taking into account the parallax from Gaia DR2, and independently determined the stellar mass and radius using asteroseismology. Intriguingly, at periastron, the planet comes to within 2.4 stellar radii of its host star's surface. However, we find that the planet is not currently experiencing any significant orbital decay and will not be engulfed by the stellar envelope for at least another 50-80 Myr. Finally, while we calculate a relatively high transit probability of 16%, we did not detect a transit in the TESS photometry.

Abstract: We present a real-time stamp classifier of astronomical events for the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events broker, ALeRCE. The classifier is based on a convolutional neural network, trained on alerts ingested from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Using only the science, reference, and difference images of the first detection as inputs, along with the metadata of the alert as features, the classifier is able to correctly classify alerts from active galactic nuclei, supernovae (SNe), variable stars, asteroids, and bogus classes, with high accuracy (similar to 94%) in a balanced test set. In order to find and analyze SN candidates selected by our classifier from the ZTF alert stream, we designed and deployed a visualization tool called SN Hunter, where relevant information about each possible SN is displayed for the experts to choose among candidates to report to the Transient Name Server database. From 2019 June 26 to 2021 February 28, we have reported 6846 SN candidates to date (11.8 candidates per day on average), of which 971 have been confirmed spectroscopically. Our ability to report objects using only a single detection means that 70% of the reported SNe occurred within one day after the first detection. ALeRCE has only reported candidates not otherwise detected or selected by other groups, therefore adding new early transients to the bulk of objects available for early follow-up. Our work represents an important milestone toward rapid alert classifications with the next generation of large etendue telescopes, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Abstract: NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has been uncovering a growing number of exoplanets orbiting nearby, bright stars. Most exoplanets that have been discovered by TESS orbit narrow-line, slow-rotating stars, facilitating the confirmation and mass determination of these worlds. We present the discovery of a hot Jupiter orbiting a rapidly rotating (v sin (i) = 35.1 +/- 1.0 km s(-1) early F3V-dwarf, HD 115447 (TOI-778). The transit signal taken from Sectors 10 and 37 of TESS's initial detection of the exoplanet is combined with follow-up ground-based photometry and velocity measurements taken from MINERVA-Australis, TRES, CORALIE, and CHIRON to confirm and characterize TOI-778 b. A joint analysis of the light curves and the radial velocity measurements yields a mass, a radius, and an orbital period for TOI-778 b of 2.76(-0.23)(+0.24) M-J, 1.370 +/- 0.043 R-J, and similar to 4.63 days, respectively. The planet orbits a bright (V = 9.1 mag) F3-dwarf with M = 1.40 +/- 0.05 M-circle dot, R = 1.70 +/- 0.05 R-circle dot, and log g = 4.05 +/- 0.17. We observed a spectroscopic transit of TOI-778 b, which allowed us to derive a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of 18 degrees +/- 11 degrees, consistent with an aligned planetary system. This discovery demonstrates the capability of smaller-aperture telescopes such as MINERVA-Australis to detect the radial velocity signals produced by planets orbiting broad-line, rapidly rotating stars.

Abstract: Context. The Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA) and bRing are both photometric ground-based instruments with multiple stations that rely on interline charge-coupled devices with wide-field lenses to monitor bright stars in the local sky for variability. MASCARA has already discovered several planets in the northern sky, which are among the brightest known transiting hot Jupiter systems. Aims. In this paper, we aim to characterize a transiting planetary candidate in the southern skies found in the combined MASCARA and bRing data sets of HD 85628, an A7V star of V = 8.2 mag at a distance 172 pc, to establish its planetary nature. Methods. The candidate was originally detected in data obtained jointly with the MASCARA and bRing instruments using a Box Least-Square search for transit events. Further photometry was taken by the 0.7 m Chilean-Hungarian Automated Telescope (CHAT), and radial velocity measurements with the Fiber Dual Echelle Optical Spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory 1.0 m Telescope. High-resolution spectra during a transit were taken with the CTIO high-resolution spectrometer (CHIRON) on the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System 1.5 m telescope to target the Doppler shadow of the candidate. Results. We confirm the existence of a hot Jupiter transiting the bright A7V star HD 85628, which we co-designate as MASCARA-4b and bRing-1b. It is in an orbit of 2.824 days, with an estimated planet radius of 1.53(-0.04)(+0.07) R-Jup and an estimated planet mass of 3.1 +/- 0.9 M-Jup, putting it well within the planetary regime. The CHAT observations show a partial transit, reducing the probability that the transit was around a faint background star. The CHIRON observations show a clear Doppler shadow, implying that the transiting object is in a retrograde orbit with |lambda| = 244.9(-3.6)(+2.7)degrees. The planet orbits at a distance of 0.047 +/- 0.004 AU from the star and has a zero-albedo equilibrium temperature of 2100 +/- 100 K. In addition, we find that HD 85628 has a previously unreported stellar companion star in the Gaia DR2 data demonstrating common proper motion and parallax at 4.3 '' separation (projected separation similar to 740 AU), and with absolute magnitude consistent with being a K/M dwarf. Conclusions. MASCARA-4 b/bRing-1 b is the brightest transiting hot Jupiter known to date in a retrograde orbit. It further confirms that planets in near-polar and retrograde orbits are more common around early-type stars. Due to its high apparent brightness and short orbital period, the system is particularly well suited for further atmospheric characterization.

Abstract: Most time-series models assume that the data come from observations that are equally spaced in time. However, this assumption does not hold in many diverse scientific fields, such as astronomy, finance, and climatology, among others. There are some techniques that fit unequally spaced time series, such as the continuous-time autoregressive moving average (CARMA) processes. These models are defined as the solution of a stochastic differential equation. It is not uncommon in astronomical time series, that the time gaps between observations are large. Therefore, an alternative suitable approach to modeling astronomical time series with large gaps between observations should be based on the solution of a difference equation of a discrete process. In this work we propose a novel model to fit irregular time series called the complex irregular autoregressive (CIAR) model that is represented directly as a discrete-time process. We show that the model is weakly stationary and that it can be represented as a state-space system, allowing efficient maximum likelihood estimation based on the Kalman recursions. Furthermore, we show via Monte Carlo simulations that the finite sample performance of the parameter estimation is accurate. The proposed methodology is applied to light curves from periodic variable stars, illustrating how the model can be implemented to detect poor adjustment of the harmonic model. This can occur when the period has not been accurately estimated or when the variable stars are multiperiodic. Last, we show how the CIAR model, through its state space representation, allows unobserved measurements to be forecast.

Abstract: Kepler's short-period exoplanet population has revealed evolutionary features such as the Radius Valley and the Hot Neptune desert that are likely sculpted by atmospheric loss over time. These findings suggest that the primordial planet population is different from the Gyr-old Kepler population, and motivates exoplanet searches around young stars. Here, we present pterodactyls, a data reduction pipeline specifically built to address the challenges in discovering exoplanets around young stars and to work with TESS Primary Mission 30-minute cadence photometry, since most young stars were not preselected TESS two-minute cadence targets. pterodactyls builds on publicly available and tested tools in order to extract, detrend, search, and vet transiting young planet candidates. We search five clusters with known transiting planets: the Tucana-Horologium Association, IC 2602, Upper Centaurus Lupus, Ursa Major, and Pisces-Eridani. We show that pterodactyls recovers seven out of the eight confirmed planets and one out of the two planet candidates, most of which were initially detected in two-minute cadence data. For these clusters, we conduct injection-recovery tests to characterize our detection efficiency, and compute an intrinsic planet occurrence rate of 49% +/- 20% for sub-Neptunes and Neptunes (1.8-6 R (circle plus)) within 12.5 days, which is higher than Kepler's Gyr-old occurrence rates of 6.8% +/- 0.3%. This potentially implies that these planets have shrunk with time due to atmospheric mass loss. However, a proper assessment of the occurrence of transiting young planets will require a larger sample unbiased to planets already detected. As such, pterodactyls will be used in future work to search and vet for planet candidates in nearby clusters and moving groups.

Abstract: We present results of the analysis of light and radial velocity (RV) curves of eight detached eclipsing binaries observed by the All-Sky Automated Survey, which we have followed up with high-resolution spectroscopy, and were later observed by the Keplersatellite as part of the K2 mission. The RV measurements came from spectra obtained with OAO-188/HIDES, MPG-2.2m/FEROS, SMARTS 1.5m/CHIRON, Euler/CORALIE, ESO-3.6m/HARPS, and OHP-1.93/ELODIE instruments. The K2 time-series photometry was analysed with the JKTEBOP code, with out-of-eclipse modulations of different origin taken into account. Individual component spectra were retrieved with the fd3 code, and analysed with the code ISPEC in order to determine effective temperatures and metallicities. Absolute values of masses, radii, and other stellar parameters are calculated, as well as ages, found through isochrone fitting. For five systems, such analysis has been done for the first time. The presented sample consists of a variety of stars, from low-mass dwarfs, through G- and F-type main sequence objects, to evolved active sub-giants, one of which is found to be crossing the Hertzsprung gap. One target may contain a gamma Dor-type pulsator, two more are parts of higher-order multiples, and spectra of their tertiaries were also retrieved and used to constrain the properties of these systems.

Abstract: About 1 out of 200 Sun-like stars has a planet with an orbital period shorter than one day: an ultrashort-period planet(1,2). All of the previously known ultrashort-period planets are either hot Jupiters, with sizes above 10 Earth radii (R-circle plus), or apparently rocky planets smaller than 2 R-circle plus. Such lack of planets of intermediate size (the `hot Neptune desert') has been interpreted as the inability of low-mass planets to retain any hydrogen/ helium (H/He) envelope in the face of strong stellar irradiation. Here we report the discovery of an ultrashort-period planet with a radius of 4.6 R-circle plus and a mass of 29 M-circle plus, firmly in the hot Neptune desert. Data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(3) revealed transits of the bright Sun-like star LTT 9779 every 0.79 days. The planet's mean density is similar to that of Neptune, and according to thermal evolution models, it has a H/He-rich envelope constituting 9.0(-2.9)(+2.7) % of the total mass. With an equilibrium temperature around 2,000 K, it is unclear how this `ultrahot Neptune' managed to retain such an envelope. Follow-up observations of the planet's atmosphere to better understand its origin and physical nature will be facilitated by the star's brightness (V-mag = 9.8).

Abstract: The relative rarity of giant planets around low-mass stars compared with solar-type stars is a key prediction from the core-accretion planet formation theory. In this paper we report on the discovery of four gas giant planets that transit low-mass late K and early M dwarfs. The planets HATS-74Ab (TOI737b), HATS-75b (TOI552b), HATS-76b (TOI555b), and HATS-77b (TOI730b) were all discovered from the HATSouth photometric survey and follow-up using TESS and other photometric facilities. We use the new ESPRESSO facility at the VLT to confirm systems and measure their masses. We find that these planets have masses of 1.46 +/- 0.14 MJ, 0.491 +/- 0.039 MJ, 2.629 +/- 0.089 MJ, and 1.374(-0.074)(+0.100) MJ, respectively, and radii of 1.032 +/- 0.021 RJ, 0.884 +/- 0.013 RJ, 1.079 +/- 0.031 RJ, and 1.165 +/- 0.021 RJ, respectively. The planets all orbit close to their host stars with periods ranging from 1.7319 days to 3.0876 days. With further work, we aim to test core-accretion theory by using these and further discoveries to quantify the occurrence rate of giant planets around low-mass host stars.