This thesis describes the Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA), which consists of two small robotic telescope designed to detect exoplanets around the brightest stars in the sky. These telescopes... Show moreThis thesis describes the Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA), which consists of two small robotic telescope designed to detect exoplanets around the brightest stars in the sky. These telescopes search for exoplanets by continuously taking images of the sky and measuring the brightness of stars in these images, searching for the characteristic dimming that occurs when a planet passes in front of the star, blocking some of the starlight. An introduction to exoplanets is provided in chapter 1. The optical and mechanical design of the MASCARA telescopes, as well as the image processing algorithms, are described in chapter 2. The primary and secondary calibration methods used to remove systematic effects from the brightness measurements, as well as the transit search algorithm used, are described in chapter 3. The first planets discovered by MASCARA, two hot Jupiters orbiting the stars HD 201585 and HD 185603, are described in chapters 4 and 5. Show less
The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems. First, we consider the evolution of orbits of stars orbiting a supermassive black hole (SBH). We... Show more The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems. First, we consider the evolution of orbits of stars orbiting a supermassive black hole (SBH). We study the long-term evolution and compute tidal disruption rates of stars by the SBH. Such disruption events reveal the physics and properties of stars and SBHs. Furthermore, we study the dynamics of planetesimals in the galactic center (GC). When planetesimals are tidally disrupted by the SBH, this can produce a potentially observable flare. We compute the rates of such disruptions, and find rates consistent with observations, suggesting that planetesimals are formed in the GC around stars, similarly to stars in the solar neighbourhood. Subsequently, we consider the long-term evolution of hierarchical quadruple systems. We appy our techniques to provide an explanation for the lack of transiting circumbinary planets around short-period binaries. Lastly, we generalise our methods, and apply them to study the implications of the long-term dynamical evolution of multiplanet systems on hot Jupiters (HJs). We find that the long-term dynamical evolution in multiplanet systems can explain at most a few per cent of the observed HJs, unless the efficiency of tidal dissipation is much higher than is currently believed. Show less
