Context. The tenuous nitrogen (N2) atmosphere on Pluto undergoes strong seasonal effects due to high obliquity and orbital eccentricity, and has recently (July 2015) been observed by the New Horizons spacecraft. Aims: The main goals of this study are (i) to construct a well calibrated record of the seasonal evolution of surface pressure on Pluto and (ii) to constrain the structure of the lower atmosphere using a central flash observed in 2015. Methods: Eleven stellar occultations by Pluto observed between 2002 and 2016 are used to retrieve atmospheric profiles (density, pressure, temperature) between altitude levels of ~5 and ~380 km (i.e. pressures from ~ 10 μbar to 10 nbar). Results: (i) Pressure has suffered a monotonic increase from 1988 to 2016, that is compared to a seasonal volatile transport model, from which tight constraints on a combination of albedo and emissivity of N2 ice are derived. (ii) A central flash observed on 2015 June 29 is consistent with New Horizons REX profiles, provided that (a) large diurnal temperature variations (not expected by current models) occur over Sputnik Planitia; and/or (b) hazes with tangential optical depth of ~0.3 are present at 4-7 km altitude levels; and/or (c) the nominal REX density values are overestimated by an implausibly large factor of ~20%; and/or (d) higher terrains block part of the flash in the Charon facing hemisphere.

We report an analysis of the first known β Cep pulsator observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, the runaway star PHL 346 = HN Aqr. The star, previously known as a singly periodic pulsator, has at least 34 oscillation modes excited, 12 of those in the g-mode domain and 22 p modes. Analysis of archival data implies that the amplitude and frequency of the dominant mode and the stellar radial velocity were variable over time. A binary nature would be inconsistent with the inferred ejection velocity from the Galactic disk of 420 km s-1, which is too large to be survivable by a runaway binary system. A kinematic analysis of the star results in an age constraint (23 ± 1 Myr) that can be imposed on asteroseismic modeling and that can be used to remove degeneracies in the modeling process. Our attempts to match the excitation of the observed frequency spectrum resulted in pulsation models that were too young. Hence, asteroseismic studies of runaway pulsators can become vital not only in tracing the evolutionary history of such objects, but to understand the interior structure of massive stars in general. TESS is now opening up these stars for detailed asteroseismic investigation.

We use deep Chandra and HST data to uniquely classify the X-ray binary (XRB) populations in M81 on the basis of their donor stars and local stellar populations (into early-type main sequence, yellow giant, supergiant, low-mass, and globular cluster). First, we find that more massive, redder, and denser globular clusters are more likely to be associated with XRBs. Second, we find that the high-mass XRBs (HMXBs) overall have a steeper X-ray luminosity function (XLF) than the canonical star-forming galaxy XLF, though there is some evidence of variations in the slopes of the sub-populations. On the other hand, the XLF of the prototypical starburst M82 is described by the canonical powerlaw (αcum ∼ 0.6) down to LX ∼ 1036 erg s-1. We attribute variations in XLF slopes to different mass transfer modes (Roche-lobe overflow versus wind-fed systems).

The Planets In Your Hand project was granted by Europlanet in the frame of Public Engagement Funding Scheme in 2017. It consists of a portable interactive exhibition of planetary surface models, embedded in square frames. The project offers the visitors a chance to see, learn and understand the diversity of the planetary surfaces in our Solar System, including the different conditions such as temperature, wind and atmosphere. Since the beginning of the project, the planetary surfaces have been presented to a wide range of audience, including visually impaired people, preliminary school and high school students as well as university researchers.

The eclipsing binary system DV Psc has been known to be magnetically active for almost two decades. However, there has been no evidence of a magnetic cycle on this system until recently. This study focuses on the long-term photometric monitoring of DV Psc between 2005-2017. A total of 50 individual light curves in BVRI optical bands were collected, in order to investigate its magnetic activity and cycle, as well as determine its orbital and physical properties. The combined photometric and spectroscopic observations of this study resulted in a unified model for the system, which describes accurately the light curves throughout the years, as a result of the variable spot activity. A total of 105 new times of minimum light are calculated through the entire time span of observations and they are combined with the 203 bibliographic ones since 1997, increasing significantly the existing sample. This resulted in an accurate ephemeris and an updated O-C diagram for a total span of 20 yr (1997-2017). It is found that the system exhibits intense magnetic activity, which is shown through the strong asymmetries on the light curves (O'Connell effect) and the periodic variation of the O-C diagram. The existence of a third body, orbiting the eclipsing binary with a period of Porb=9.79±0.60 yr in an eccentric orbit with eccentricity e=0.83±0.24, as well as a magnetic cycle of 14.74±0.84 yr are most likely connected with this variability. The absolute physical parameters of the system are calculated for a new and unified model, which explains the light curves through the entire observing season. The evolution state of DV Psc is studied through the mass-radius and temperature-luminosity (HR) diagrams, as well as the location of the two components with respect to the ZAMS and TAMS region.

We obtained high-resolution spectra of HD 221416 using several facilities within the TESS Follow-up Observation Program (TFOP), including HIRES (Vogt et al. 1994SPIE.2198..362V) on the 10 m telescope at Keck Observatory (Maunakea, Hawai'i); the Hertzsprung SONG Telescope at Teide Observatory (Tenerife; Grundahl et al. 2017ApJ...836..142G); HARPS (Mayor et al. 2003Msngr.114...20M), FEROS (Kaufer et al. 1999Msngr..95....8K), Coralie (Queloz et al. 2001Msngr.105....1Q), and FIDEOS (Vanzi et al. 2018MNRAS.477.5041V) on the MPG/ESO 3.6 m, 2.2 m, 1.2 m, and 1 m telescopes at La Silla Observatory (Chile); Veloce (Gilbert et al. 2018SPIE10702E..0YG) on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory (Australia); TRES (Furesz 2008, PhD thesis Univ. Szeged) on the 1.5 m Tillinghast reflector at the F. L. Whipple Observatory (Mt. Hopkins, Arizona); and iSHELL (Rayner et al. 2012SPIE.8446E..2CR) on the NASA IRTF Telescope (Maunakea, Hawai'i). All spectra used in this paper were obtained between 2018 November 11 and December 30 and have a minimum spectral resolution of R~44000. (1 data file).

We present the discovery of HD 221416 b, the first transiting planet identified by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) for which asteroseismology of the host star is possible. HD 221416 b (HIP 116158, TOI-197) is a bright (V = 8.2 mag), spectroscopically classified subgiant that oscillates with an average frequency of about 430 μHz and displays a clear signature of mixed modes. The oscillation amplitude confirms that the redder TESS bandpass compared to Kepler has a small effect on the oscillations, supporting the expected yield of thousands of solar-like oscillators with TESS 2 minute cadence observations. Asteroseismic modeling yields a robust determination of the host star radius (R ⋆ = 2.943 ± 0.064 R ⊙), mass (M ⋆ = 1.212 ± 0.074 M ⊙), and age (4.9 ± 1.1 Gyr), and demonstrates that it has just started ascending the red-giant branch. Combining asteroseismology with transit modeling and radial-velocity observations, we show that the planet is a “hot Saturn” (R p = 9.17 ± 0.33 R ⊕) with an orbital period of ∼14.3 days, irradiance of F = 343 ± 24 F ⊕, and moderate mass (M p = 60.5 ± 5.7 M ⊕) and density (ρ p = 0.431 ± 0.062 g cm-3). The properties of HD 221416 b show that the host-star metallicity-planet mass correlation found in sub-Saturns (4-8 R ⊕) does not extend to larger radii, indicating that planets in the transition between sub-Saturns and Jupiters follow a relatively narrow range of densities. With a density measured to ∼15%, HD 221416 b is one of the best characterized Saturn-size planets to date, augmenting the small number of known transiting planets around evolved stars and demonstrating the power of TESS to characterize exoplanets and their host stars using asteroseismology.

Systematic monitoring of specific targets in the optical regime was historically applied on a very narrow sample of known variable stars. The discovery of blazars in the 20th century brought to the foreground the need for new global sky surveys, covering the entire sky and fainter sources. Full-sky surveys are conducted more easily from space observatories, while radio telescopes perform follow up observations from the ground. Blazars are detected in a wide range of energies, while they exhibit strong variability in various wavelengths from γ-rays and X-rays to the optical and radio domain. This results in a detailed classification, according to their emission properties in each region. The rapid variability in optical domain makes blazars interesting targets for optical sky surveys, offering a new opportunity to study their variability in the time domain. Digital sky surveys in optical and near-IR found a fertile ground with the aid of sensitive sensors. Only a few dedicated programs are focusing on blazar variability, a trend which evolved rapidly in the last decade. Modern techniques, in combination with dedicated sky survey programs lead towards a new era of long-term monitoring of blazars, aiming towards the search or variability on various time scales. In this work, an overview of blazar optical surveys and monitoring projects is given, addressing the major points of each one, and highlighting the constraints that the long-term study of blazars will bring through future international campaigns.