# # Program information file # PROGRAM_ID 2023B048 PROGRAM_TITLE Characterizing Planetary Systems around the Coolest TESS Targets PROGRAM_INV1 Emma Turtelboom PROGRAM_INV2 Courtney Dressing PROGRAM_INV3 Steven Giacalone PROGRAM_INV4 PROGRAM_INV5 PROGRAM_SCICAT extra-solar planets PROGRAM_ABSTRACT_BEG We request a total of 38 hours to obtain IRTF/SpeX observations of 97 cool dwarf stars that host planets detected by TESS. We seek to measure the metallicities of these stars in order to investigate how planet properties vary with stellar metallicity around the most common stars in the Milky Way. These observations will help us understand whether metal-rich M dwarfs host more giant planets, as predicted by the core accretion paradigm of planet formation. Furthermore, the planets orbiting our proposed targets are larger than those orbiting the sample of cool dwarfs with well-constrained metallicities to date. Our proposed observations will almost double the number of cool dwarfs which host planets with Rp > 4Re, allowing us to more deeply probe this region of parameter space. These larger planets have a lower underlying occurrence rate than smaller planets. As stellar metallicity is correlated with the amount of disk solids available to form planets in protoplanetary disks, it is critical to measure the metallicities of these stars to understand the environment in which these larger planets formed. Using these observations, we will work to better understand how planet properties vary with stellar metallicity for planetary systems around cool dwarfs. PROGRAM_ABSTRACT_END