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XO Project

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International team of astronomers

TheXO Project is an international team of amateur and professional astronomers tasked with identifying extrasolar planets. They are led byPeter R. McCullough of theSpace Telescope Science Institute.^[1] It is primarily funded byNASA's Origins Program and the Director's Discretionary Fund of the Space Telescope Science Institute.^[2]^[3]

Duties

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Preliminary identification of possible star candidates starts at the Haleakala telescope in Hawaii by a team of professional astronomers. Once they identify a star that dims slightly from time to time (thetransit method), the information is forwarded to a team of amateur astronomers who then investigate for additional evidence suggesting this dimming is caused by a transiting planet. Once enough data is collected, it is forwarded to theUniversity of Texas McDonald Observatory to confirm the presence of a transiting planet by a second team of professional astronomers.^[2]

Equipment

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McCullough and his team employed a relatively inexpensive telescope called theXO Telescope, made from commercial equipment, to search for extrasolar planets. The construction of the one-of-a-kind telescope cost $60,000 for the hardware, and much more than that for the associated software.^[4] The telescope consists of two 200-millimetertelephoto camera lenses, and resemblesbinoculars in shape. It is similar to theTrES survey telescope. It stands on the summit of theHaleakalā volcano and 3,054 m (10,000 foot) inHawaii.^[1] Their first discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Sun-like star 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis—XO-1b—was reported May 16, 2006on Newswise.

In 2016 three similar double telescopes were operating, two in Spain and one in Utah.^[5]

Discoveries

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TheXO telescope has discovered six objects so far, five arehot Jupiter planets and one,XO-3b, may be abrown dwarf.

Star	Constellation	Right ascension	Declination	App. mag.	Distance(ly)	Spectral type	Planet	Mass (`M`_J)	Radius (`R`_J)	Orbital period (d)	Semimajor axis (AU)	Orbital eccentricity	Inclination (°)	Discovery year
XO-1^[6]	Corona Borealis	16^h 02^m 12^s	+28° 10′ 11″	11.319	600	G1V	XO-1b	0.9	1.3	3.941534	0.0488	0	87.7	2006
XO-2N^[7]	Lynx	07^h 48^m 07^s	+50° 13′ 33″	11.25	486	K0V	XO-2Nb	0.57	0.973	2.615838	0.0369	0	88.58	2007
XO-3^[8]	Camelopardalis	04^h 21^m 53^s	+57° 49′ 01″	9.91	850	F5V	XO-3b	11.79	1.217	3.1915239	0.0454	0.26	84.2	2007
XO-4^[9]	Lynx	07^h 21^m 33.1657^s	+58° 16′ 05.005″	10.78	956	F5V	XO-4b	1.72	1.34	4.12502	0.0555	0.0024	88.7	2008
XO-5^[10]	Lynx	07^h 46^m 51.959^s	+39° 05′ 40.47″	12.1	881	G8V	XO-5b	1.15	1.15	4.187732	0.0508	0.0029	86.8	2008
XO-6^[11]	Camelopardalis	6^h 19^m 10.31^s	+73° 49′ 39.24″	10.28	760	F5V	XO-6b	4.4	2.07	3.76	0.082	0	86.0	2016
XO-7	Draco	18^h 29^m 52.30^s	85° 13′ 59.58″	10.52	763	G0V	XO-7b	0.71	1.373	2.8641424	0.04421	0.038	83.45	2019

References

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^^a ^b"Astronomers Catch Planet By Unusual Means".www.spacedaily.com. Retrieved2024-12-31.
^^a ^b"XO-3b: Supersized planet or oasis in the 'brown dwarf desert'?".EurekAlert!. Archived fromthe original on 2021-03-30. Retrieved2024-12-31.
^Astronomers Use Innovative Technique to Find Extrasolar Planet,HubbleSite
^McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2005). "The XO Project: Searching for Transiting Extrasolar Planet Candidates".Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.117 (834):783–795.arXiv:astro-ph/0505560.Bibcode:2005PASP..117..783M.doi:10.1086/432024.S2CID 16972795.
^Crouzet, N.; McCullough, P. R.; Long, D.; Rodriguez, P. Montanes; Etangs, A. Lecavelier des; Ribas, I.; Bourrier, V.; Hébrard, G.; Vilardell, F. (February 2017)."Discovery of XO-6b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a Fast Rotating F5 Star on an Oblique Orbit".The Astronomical Journal.153 (3): 94.arXiv:1612.02776.Bibcode:2017AJ....153...94C.doi:10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/94.ISSN 1538-3881.
^McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2006). "A Transiting Planet of a Sun-like Star".The Astrophysical Journal.648 (2):1228–1238.arXiv:astro-ph/0605414.Bibcode:2006ApJ...648.1228M.doi:10.1086/505651.S2CID 8100425.
^Burke, Christopher J.; et al. (2007). "XO-2b: Transiting Hot Jupiter in a Metal-rich Common Proper Motion Binary".The Astrophysical Journal.671 (2):2115–2128.arXiv:0705.0003.Bibcode:2007ApJ...671.2115B.doi:10.1086/523087.S2CID 13468914.
^Johns-Krull, Christopher M.; et al. (2008). "XO-3b: A Massive Planet in an Eccentric Orbit Transiting an F5V Star".The Astrophysical Journal.677 (1):657–670.arXiv:0712.4283.Bibcode:2008ApJ...677..657J.doi:10.1086/528950.S2CID 15342571.
^McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2008). "XO-4b: An Extrasolar Planet Transiting an F5V Star".arXiv:0805.2921 [astro-ph].
^Burke, Christopher J.; et al. (2008). "XO-5b: A Transiting Jupiter-sized Planet with a 4 day Period".The Astrophysical Journal.686 (2):1331–1340.arXiv:0805.2399.Bibcode:2008ApJ...686.1331B.doi:10.1086/591497.S2CID 14043772.
^Crouzet, N.; et al. (2017)."Discovery of XO-6b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a Fast Rotating F5 Star on an Oblique Orbit".The Astronomical Journal.153 (3). 94.arXiv:1612.02776.Bibcode:2017AJ....153...94C.doi:10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/94.S2CID 119082666.

External links

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The XO Project website
The XO Project website
Astronomers Catch Planet By Unusual Means (SpaceDaily) May 19, 2006

Exoplanet search projects

Ground-based

Space missions

Past	MOST(2003–2019) SWEEPSusingHST(2006) CoRoT(2006–2013) EPOXIusingDeep Impact(2008–2013) Kepler(2009–2018) detected exoplanets ASTERIA(2017–2020)
Current	Gaia(2013–present) TESS(2018–present) CHEOPS(2019–present) Hayabusa2(2021–present) James Webb Space Telescope(2021–present)
Planned	PLATO(2026) ARIEL(2029) Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope(mid-2020s)
Proposed	EXCEDE HabEx LIFE LUVOIR Nautilus Deep Space Observatory New Worlds Mission OST PEGASE
Cancelled	Darwin EChO Eddington Space Interferometry Mission Terrestrial Planet Finder