Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The Kepler, K2, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions have provided a wealth of confirmed exoplanets, benefiting from a huge effort from the planet-hunting and follow-up community. With careful systematics mitigation, these missions provide precise photometric time series, which enable detection of transiting exoplanet signals. However, exoplanet hunting can be confounded by several factors, including instrumental noise, search biases, and host star variability. In this Letter, we discuss strategies to overcome these challenges using newly emerging techniques and tools. We demonstrate the power of new, fast open-source community tools (e.g., lightkurve, starry, celerite, exoplanet), and discuss four high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) exoplanets that showcase specific challenges present in planet detection: K2-43c, K2-168c, K2-198c, and K2-198d. These planets have been undetected in several large K2 planet searches, despite having transit signals with S/N ≥ 10. Two of the planets discussed here are new discoveries. In this work we confirm all four as true planets. Alongside these planet systems, we discuss three key challenges in finding small transiting exoplanets. The aim of this Letter is to help new researchers understand where planet detection efficiency gains can be made, and to encourage the continued use of K2 archive data. The considerations presented in this Letter are equally applicable to Kepler, K2, and TESS, and the tools discussed here are available for the community to apply to improve exoplanet discovery and fitting.
Authors: Christina Hedges, Nicholas Saunders, Geert Barentsen, Jeffrey L. Coughlin, Josè Vinícius de Miranda Cardoso, Veselin B. Kostov, Jessie Dotson, Ann Marie Cody
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G58316358, THE KEPLER SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED IN 2009 MONITORED OVER 160 000 STARS CONTINUOUSLY FOR FOUR YEARS WITH A PRIMARY SCIENCE GOAL OF UNDERSTANDING THE FREQUENCY OF EXOPLANETS. THE RESULTING DATA PROVIDES A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF HIGH PHOTOMETRIC PRECISION DURATION CONTIGUITY AND SOURCE VOLUME. THE DATA COLLECTED BY THE MISSION AND DERIVED DATA PRODUCTS ARE ARCHIVED AT NASA ARCHIVES. THE KEPLER MISSION ENDED IN 2013 WITH THE FAILURE OF THE SECOND OF FOUR REACTION WHEELS. DEVELOPED OVER THE MONTHS FOLLOWING THIS FAILURE THE K2 MISSION REPRESENTS A NEW CONCEPT FOR SPACECRAFT OPERATIONS THAT ENABLES CONTINUED SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS WITH THE KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE. K2 BECAME FULLY OPERATIONAL IN JUNE 2014 AND IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE OPERATING UNTIL 2018. THE K2 MISSION ENTAILS A SERIES OF SEQUENTIAL 80-DAY LONG OBSERVING CAMPAIGNS OF FIELDS DISTRIBUTED AROUND THE ECLIPTIC PLANE AND OFFERS A PHOTOMETRIC PRECISION APPROACHING THAT OF THE ORIGINAL KEPLER MISSION. THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY HAS OPPORTUNITIES TO BOTH CONSTRUCT K2 OBSERVING PROGRAMS AND MINE THE KEPLER AND K2 ARCHIVAL DATA SET TO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. THE KEPLER/K2 GUEST OBSERVER (GO) OFFICE IS DEDICATED TO MAXIMIZING THE SCIENTIFIC IMPACT OF THESE MISSIONS THROUGH RESEARCH THAT INCLUDES IDENTIFYING NEW AREAS OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLOITATION FOR K2 LEADING RESEARCH PROJECTS BASED ON KEPLER AND K2 DATA COLLABORATING ON SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS WITH THE K2 GUEST OBSERVERS PROVIDING PROJECT-TAILORED INSTRUMENT CALIBRATIONS DEVELOPING NOVEL DATA REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS ALGORITHMS AND CONSTRUCTING OBSERVATION AND DATA ACQUISITION PLANS. THIS PROPOSAL IS TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR BAER RESEARCHERS TO WORK WITH THE GO OFFICE TO PERFORM ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH AND TO EDUCATE THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT THE BEST PRACTICES FOR USING ARCHIVAL DATA FROM THE KEPLER MISSION AND TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY DURING THE ONGOING K2 MISSION., G767601387
OpenAlex ID: W2964028772