Exoplanet Other
Professor Seager has worked on a variety of other topics in exoplanets.
One of Prof. Seager’s favorite papers is about how to extract information from a transit light curve, by recognizing that there are five equations and five unknowns for a circular orbit. Surprisingly, a star’s density can be measured from the planet transit light curve. This work spawned became highly relevant after the Kepler space telescope was launched, providing the high-precision photometry needed for the applications described in this paper.
- She also published the first paper on constraining exoplanet rotation rates from oblateness measurements during transit:
Seager, S., & Hui, L. 2002, “Constraining the Rotation Rate of Transiting Extrasolar Planets by an Oblateness Measurement”, ApJ, 574, 1004-1010.
- An early paper on reflected light phase curves and polarization signatures:
Seager, S., Whitney, B. A., & Sasselov, D. D. 2000, “Light Curves and Polarization of the Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets”, ApJ, 540, 504-520.
- And co-authored the first and to date only paper in exoplanet atmospheric refraction:
Hui, L., & Seager, S. 2002, “Atmospheric Lensing and Oblateness Effect During an Extrasolar Planetary Transit”, ApJ, 572, 540-555.
- Co-authored the first paper describing how to use an Earth-twin’s reflected light curve to determine the rotation rate and possibly infer the presence of weather and continents:
Ford, E. B., Seager, S., & Turner, E. L. 2001, “Characterization of Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets from Diurnal Photometric Variability”, Nature, 412, 885-887.