Long-term transit timing monitoring and homogenous study of WASP-32

We report new photometric observations of the transiting exoplanetary system WASP-32 made by using CCD cameras at Yunnan Observatories and Ho Koon Nature Education cum Astronomical Centre, China from 2010 to 2012. Following our usual procedure, the observed data are corrected for systematic errors according to the coarse decorrelation and SYSREM algorithms so as to enhance the signal of the transit events. Combined with radial velocity data presented in the literature, our newly observed data and earlier photometric data in the literature are simultaneously analyzed to derive the physical parameters describing the system by employing the Markov chain Monte Carlo technique. The derived parameters are consistent with the result published in the original paper about WASP-32b, but the uncertainties of the new parameters are smaller than those in the original paper. Moreover, our modeling result supports a circular orbit for WASP-32b. Through the analysis of all available mid-transit times, we have refined the orbital period of WASP-32b; no evident transit timing variation is found in these transit events.

Physicochemical Stages of Evolution: Ring-Like Structures in the Universe

This short digest is devoted to the mechanism of ring formation during the origination and evolution of planetary and satellite systems in the Universe. The appearance of these structures can be traced back to the phenomenon of spatially periodic condensation which can be observed on the Earth. The author actually posited the existence of exoplanetary systems and the cosmic scale of this phenomenon. It was accurately predicted that Uranus, Neptune and other heavenly bodies have rings. The suggested general mechanism rationalized the Titius-Bode law which, while not being a precise law, often accurately describes the tendency towards varying distances between planets (and their moons) and central bodies. The possibility of this law manifestation in exoplanetary systems had been predicted by the author long before their discovery. Many exoplanetary systems have been discovered by now and there is some evidence corroborating the mechanism of spatially periodic condensation involved in the formation of ring-like structures in these systems. The author’s hypothesis is now becoming a theory or a fact. It appears that we are now witnessing the dawn of a new extensive cosmology, taking into account general physicochemical mechanisms of space object formation.