In addition to measuring planetary properties from an exoplanet's transit, the full photometric phase curve can reveal critical information for characterizing the planet, such as it's mass, albedo, and temperature. Planetary masses can be estimated from Doppler beaming and ellipsoidal modulations, which can then be compared to masses obtained through radial velocities. A planet's albedo and day/night side temperature can be obtained from it's atmospheric reflection and thermal emission phase curve. Thus far, only a handful of the most massive exoplanets have been identified to exhibit photometric phase curves. In Fetherolf et al. (in prep.), we search for planetary phase curve signatures in all planetary candidates identified by TESS. This investigation will help to constrain masses and albedos for a statistically significant number of exoplanets and will be used to further understand the interactions (gravitational and atmospheric) between exoplanets and their host stars.
This work has also contributed to several other publications, such as: