Transiting Exoplanets

Carole A. Haswell is a Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University. She worked on accretion flows around black hole binary star systems until becoming fascinated by the field of exoplanets. Her research work now focuses on Hubble Space Telescope observations of transiting exoplanets.

• 1. Our solar system from afar; 2. Exoplanet discoveries by the transit method; 3. What the transit lightcurve tells us; 4. The transiting exoplanet population; 5. Transmission spectroscopy and Rossiter-McLaughlin effect; 6. Secondary eclipses and phase variations; 7. Transit timing variations and orbital dynamics; 8. Brave new worlds: the future; Index.

'This advanced-level undergraduate text distils the essential physics and methodology of planet discovery and characterisation into a single volume. The book's narrative is cleverly constructed, outlining the progression of exoplanetary discoveries in more-or-less chronological sequence, interspersed with detailed step-by-step presentations of the underlying principles that underpinned each stage in the discovery process. The book treats all these facets of exoplanetary science at a comprehensive level making it an essential reference work for graduate students and more advanced researchers.' Professor Andrew Collier Cameron, University of St Andrews