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Creators/Authors contains: "Rodriguez, David R"

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  1. Abstract Specifically selected to leverage the unique ultraviolet capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Hubble Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards (ULLYSES) is a Director’s Discretionary program of approximately 1000 orbits—the largest ever executed—that produced a UV spectroscopic library of O and B stars in nearby low-metallicity galaxies and accreting low-mass stars in the Milky Way. Observations from ULLYSES combined with archival spectra uniformly sample the fundamental astrophysical parameter space for each mass regime, including spectral type, luminosity class, and metallicity for massive stars, and the mass, age, and disk accretion rate for low-mass stars. The ULLYSES spectral library of massive stars will be critical to characterize how massive stars evolve at different metallicities; to advance our understanding of the production of ionizing photons, and thus of galaxy evolution and the re-ionization of the Universe; and to provide the templates necessary for the synthesis of integrated stellar populations. The massive-star spectra are also transforming our understanding of the interstellar and circumgalactic media of low-metallicity galaxies. On the low-mass end, UV spectra of T Tauri stars contain a plethora of diagnostics of accretion, winds, and the warm disk surface. These diagnostics are crucial for evaluating disk evolution and provide important input to assess atmospheric escape of planets and to interpret powerful probes of disk chemistry, as observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and the James Webb Space Telescope. In this paper, we motivate the design of the program, describe the observing strategy and target selection, and present initial results. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 16, 2026
  2. Astronomers have found more than a dozen planets transiting stars that are 10–40 million years old1, but younger transiting planets have remained elusive. The lack of such discoveries may be because planets have not fully formed at this age or because our view is blocked by the protoplanetary disk. However, we now know that many outer disks are warped or broken2; provided the inner disk is depleted, transiting planets may thus be visible. Here we report observations of the transiting planet IRAS 04125+2902 b orbiting a 3-million-year-old, 0.7-solar-mass, pre-main-sequence star in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The host star harbours a nearly face-on (30 degrees inclination) transitional disk3 and a wide binary companion. The planet has a period of 8.83 days, a radius of 10.7 Earth radii (0.96 Jupiter radii) and a 95%-confidence upper limit on its mass of 90 Earth masses (0.3 Jupiter masses) from radial-velocity measurements, making it a possible precursor of the super-Earths and sub-Neptunes frequently found around main-sequence stars. The rotational broadening of the star and the orbit of the wide (4 arcseconds, 635 astronomical units) companion are both consistent with edge-on orientations. Thus, all components of the system are consistent with alignment except the outer disk; the origin of this misalignment is unclear. 
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  3. Abstract We present the discovery of TOI 762 A b and TIC 46432937 b, two giant planets transiting M-dwarf stars. Transits of both systems were first detected from observations by the NASA TESS mission, and the transiting objects are confirmed as planets through high-precision radial velocity observations carried out with Very Large Telescope/ESPRESSO. TOI 762 A b is a warm sub-Saturn with a mass of 0.251 ± 0.042MJ, a radius of 0.744 ± 0.017RJ, and an orbital period of 3.4717 days. It transits a mid-M-dwarf star with a mass of 0.442 ± 0.025Mand a radius of 0.4250 ± 0.0091R. The star TOI 762 A has a resolved binary star companion, TOI 762 B, that is separated from TOI 762 A by 3.″2 (∼319 au) and has an estimated mass of 0.227 ± 0.010M. The planet TIC 46432937 b is a warm super-Jupiter with a mass of 3.20 ± 0.11MJand radius of 1.188 ± 0.030RJ. The planet’s orbital period isP= 1.4404 days, and it undergoes grazing transits of its early M-dwarf host star, which has a mass of 0.563 ± 0.029Mand a radius of 0.5299 ± 0.0091R. TIC 46432937 b is one of the highest-mass planets found to date transiting an M-dwarf star. TIC 46432937 b is also a promising target for atmospheric observations, having the highest transmission spectroscopy metric or emission spectroscopy metric value of any known warm super-Jupiter (mass greater than 3.0MJ, equilibrium temperature below 1000 K). 
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  4. ABSTRACT A new generation of observatories is enabling detailed study of exoplanetary atmospheres and the diversity of alien climates, allowing us to seek evidence for extraterrestrial biological and geological processes. Now is therefore the time to identify the most unique planets to be characterized with these instruments. In this context, we report on the discovery and validation of TOI-715 b, a $$R_{\rm b}=1.55\pm 0.06\rm R_{\oplus }$$ planet orbiting its nearby (42 pc) M4 host (TOI-715/TIC 271971130) with a period $$P_{\rm b} = 19.288004_{-0.000024}^{+0.000027}$$ d. TOI-715 b was first identified by TESS and validated using ground-based photometry, high-resolution imaging and statistical validation. The planet’s orbital period combined with the stellar effective temperature $$T_{\rm eff}=3075\pm 75~\rm K$$ give this planet an installation $$S_{\rm b} = 0.67_{-0.20}^{+0.15}~\rm S_\oplus$$, placing it within the most conservative definitions of the habitable zone for rocky planets. TOI-715 b’s radius falls exactly between two measured locations of the M-dwarf radius valley; characterizing its mass and composition will help understand the true nature of the radius valley for low-mass stars. We demonstrate TOI-715 b is amenable for characterization using precise radial velocities and transmission spectroscopy. Additionally, we reveal a second candidate planet in the system, TIC 271971130.02, with a potential orbital period of $$P_{02} = 25.60712_{-0.00036}^{+0.00031}$$ d and a radius of $$R_{02} = 1.066\pm 0.092\, \rm R_{\oplus }$$, just inside the outer boundary of the habitable zone, and near a 4:3 orbital period commensurability. Should this second planet be confirmed, it would represent the smallest habitable zone planet discovered by TESS to date. 
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  5. Abstract We report the discovery of TOI-2180 b, a 2.8 M J giant planet orbiting a slightly evolved G5 host star. This planet transited only once in Cycle 2 of the primary Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Citizen scientists identified the 24 hr single-transit event shortly after the data were released, allowing a Doppler monitoring campaign with the Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory to begin promptly. The radial velocity observations refined the orbital period of TOI-2180 b to be 260.8 ± 0.6 days, revealed an orbital eccentricity of 0.368 ± 0.007, and discovered long-term acceleration from a more distant massive companion. We conducted ground-based photometry from 14 sites spread around the globe in an attempt to detect another transit. Although we did not make a clear transit detection, the nondetections improved the precision of the orbital period. We predict that TESS will likely detect another transit of TOI-2180 b in Sector 48 of its extended mission. We use giant planet structure models to retrieve the bulk heavy-element content of TOI-2180 b. When considered alongside other giant planets with orbital periods over 100 days, we find tentative evidence that the correlation between planet mass and metal enrichment relative to stellar is dependent on orbital properties. Single-transit discoveries like TOI-2180 b highlight the exciting potential of the TESS mission to find planets with long orbital periods and low irradiation fluxes despite the selection biases associated with the transit method. 
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