The intrinsically faint M dwarfs are the most numerous stars in the Galaxy, have main-sequence lifetimes longer than the Hubble time, and host some of the most interesting planetary systems known to date. Their identification and classification throu
ghout the Galaxy is crucial to unravel the processes involved in the formation of planets, stars and the Milky Way. The ESO Public Survey VVV is a deep near-IR survey mapping the Galactic bulge and southern plane. The VVV b201 tile, located in the border of the bulge, was specifically selected for the characterisation of M dwarfs. We used VISTA photometry to identify M dwarfs in the VVV b201 tile, to estimate their subtypes, and to search for transit-like light curves from the first 26 epochs of the survey. UKIDSS photometry from SDSS spectroscopically identified M dwarfs was used to calculate their expected colours in the $YJHK_s$ VISTA system. A colour-based spectral subtype calibration was computed. Possible giants were identified by a $(J-K_s, H_{J})$ reduced proper motion diagram. The light curves of 12.8<$K_s$<15.8 colour-selected M dwarfs were inspected for signals consistent with transiting objects. We identified 23,345 objects in VVV b201 with colours consistent with M dwarfs. We provided their spectral types and photometric distances, up to $sim$ 300 pc for M9s and $sim$ 1.2 kpc for M4s, from photometry. In the range 12<$K_s$<16, we identified 753 stars as possible giants out of 9,232 M dwarf candidates. While only the first 26 epochs of VVV were available, and 1 epoch was excluded, we were already able to identify transit-like signals in the light curves of 95 M dwarfs and of 12 possible giants. Thanks to its deeper photometry ($sim$4 magnitudes deeper than 2MASS), the VVV survey will be a major contributor to the discovery and study of M dwarfs and possible companions towards the center of the Milky Way.
GJ 1214 is orbited by a transiting super-Earth-mass planet. It is a primary target for ongoing efforts to understand the emerging population of super-Earth-mass planets around M dwarfs. We present new precision astrometric measurements, a re-analysis
of HARPS radial velocity measurements, and medium-resolution infrared spectroscopy of GJ 1214. We combine these measurements with recent transit follow-up observations and new catalog photometry to provide a comprehensive update of the star-planet properties. The distance is obtained with 0.6% relative uncertainty using CAPScam astrometry. The new value increases the nominal distance to the star by ~10% and is significantly more precise than previous measurements. Updated Doppler measurements combined with published transit observations significantly refine the constraints on the orbital solution. The analysis of the infrared spectrum and photometry confirm that the star is enriched in metals compared to the Sun. Using all this information, combined with empirical mass-luminosity relations for low mass stars, we derive updated values for the bulk properties of the star-planet system. We also use infrared absolute fluxes to estimate the stellar radius and to re-derive the star-planet properties. Both approaches provide very consistent values for the system. Our analysis shows indicates that the favoured mean density of GJ 1214b is 1.6 +/-0.6 g cm^{-3}. We illustrate how fundamental properties of M dwarfs are of paramount importance in the proper characterization of the low mass planetary candidates orbiting them. Given that the distance is now known to better than 1%, interferometric measurements of the stellar radius, additional high precision Doppler observations, and/or or detection of the secondary transit (occultation), are necessary to further improve the constraints on the GJ 1214 star-planet properties.
