Year: 2008
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The small sizes of low mass stars in principle provide an opportunity to find Earth‐like planets and “super Earths” in habitable zones via transits. Large area synoptic surveys like Pan‐STARRS and LSST will observe large numbers of low mass stars, albeit with widely spaced (sparse) time sampling relative to the planets’ periods and transit durations. We present simple analytical equations that can be used to estimate the feasibility of a survey by setting upper limits to the number of transiting planets that will be detected. We use Monte Carlo simulations to find upper limits for the number of transiting planets that may be discovered in the Pan‐STARRS Medium Deep and 3π surveys. Our search for transiting planets and M‐dwarf eclipsing binaries in the SDSS‐II supernova data is used to illustrate the problems (and successes) in using sparsely sampled surveys.
Source: AIP conference proceedings
DOI: 10.1063/1.3059062
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1533937232