Constructing a One-solar-mass Evolutionary Sequence Using Asteroseismic Data from Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silva Aguirre, V.; Chaplin, W.J.; Ballot, J.

2011-01-01

Asteroseismology of solar-type stars has entered a new era of large surveys with the success of the NASA Kepler mission, which is providing exquisite data on oscillations of stars across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. From the time-series photometry, the two seismic parameters that can be most...... readily extracted are the large frequency separation (Δν) and the frequency of maximum oscillation power (νmax). After the survey phase, these quantities are available for hundreds of solar-type stars. By scaling from solar values, we use these two asteroseismic observables to identify for the first time...

Testing asteroseismic radii of dwarfs and subgiants with Kepler and Gaia

Science.gov (United States)

Sahlholdt, C. L.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Casagrande, L.; Mosumgaard, J. R.; Bojsen-Hansen, M.

2018-05-01

We test asteroseismic radii of Kepler main-sequence and subgiant stars by deriving their parallaxes which are compared with those of the first Gaia data release. We compute radii based on the asteroseismic scaling relations as well as by fitting observed oscillation frequencies to stellar models for a subset of the sample, and test the impact of using effective temperatures from either spectroscopy or the infrared flux method. An offset of 3 per cent, showing no dependency on any stellar parameters, is found between seismic parallaxes derived from frequency modelling and those from Gaia. For parallaxes based on radii from the scaling relations, a smaller offset is found on average; however, the offset becomes temperature dependent which we interpret as problems with the scaling relations at high stellar temperatures. Using the hotter infrared flux method temperature scale, there is no indication that radii from the scaling relations are inaccurate by more than about 5 per cent. Taking the radii and masses from the modelling of individual frequencies as reference values, we seek to correct the scaling relations for the observed temperature trend. This analysis indicates that the scaling relations systematically overestimate radii and masses at high temperatures, and that they are accurate to within 5 per cent in radius and 13 per cent in mass for main-sequence stars with temperatures below 6400 K. However, further analysis is required to test the validity of the corrections on a star-by-star basis and for more evolved stars.

Automated asteroseismic peak detections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

de Montellano, Andres Garcia Saravia Ortiz; Hekker, S.; Themessl, N.

2018-01-01

Space observatories such as Kepler have provided data that can potentially revolutionize our understanding of stars. Through detailed asteroseismic analyses we are capable of determining fundamental stellar parameters and reveal the stellar internal structure with unprecedented accuracy. However......, such detailed analyses, known as peak bagging, have so far been obtained for only a small percentage of the observed stars while most of the scientific potential of the available data remains unexplored. One of the major challenges in peak bagging is identifying how many solar-like oscillation modes are visible...... of detected oscillation modes. The algorithm presented here opens the possibility for detailed and automated peak bagging of the thousands of solar-like oscillators observed by Kepler....

Fast Rotating solar-like stars using asteroseismic datasets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

A. García, R.; Ceillier, T.; Campante, T.

2011-01-01

The NASA Kepler mission is providing an unprecedented set of asteroseismic data. In particular, short-cadence lightcurves (~60s samplings), allow us to study solar-like stars covering a wide range of masses, spectral types and evolutionary stages. Oscillations have been observed in around 600 out...

Fundamental Properties of Kepler Planet-candidate Host Stars using Asteroseismology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huber, D.; Chaplin, W.J.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Gilliland, R.L.; Kjeldsen, H.; Buchhave, L.A.; Fischer, D.A.; Lissauer, J.J.; Rowe, J.F.; Sanchis-Ojeda, R.; Basu, S.; Handberg, R.; Hekker, S.; Howard, A.W.; Isaacson, H.; Karoff, C.; Latham, D.W.; Lund, M.N.; Lundkvist, M.; Marcy, G.W.; Miglio, A.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Stello, D.; Arentoft, T.; Barclay, T.; Bedding, T.R.; Burke, C.J.; Christiansen, J.L.; Elsworth, Y.P.; Haas, M.R.; Kawaler, S.D.; Metcalfe, T.S.; Mullally, F.; Thompson, S.E.

2013-01-01

We have used asteroseismology to determine fundamental properties for 66 Kepler planet-candidate host stars, with typical uncertainties of 3% and 7% in radius and mass, respectively. The results include new asteroseismic solutions for four host stars with confirmed planets (Kepler-4, Kepler-14,

Asteroseismic Diagram for Subgiants and Red Giants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gai, Ning; Tang, Yanke [College of Physics and Electronic information, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023 (China); Yu, Peng [College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331 (China); Dou, Xianghua, E-mail: ning_gai@163.com, E-mail: tyk450@163.com [Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biophysics, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023 (China)

2017-02-10

Asteroseismology is a powerful tool for constraining stellar parameters. NASA’s Kepler mission is providing individual eigenfrequencies for a huge number of stars, including thousands of red giants. Besides the frequencies of acoustic modes, an important breakthrough of the Kepler mission is the detection of nonradial gravity-dominated mixed-mode oscillations in red giants. Unlike pure acoustic modes, mixed modes probe deeply into the interior of stars, allowing the stellar core properties and evolution of stars to be derived. In this work, using the gravity-mode period spacing and the large frequency separation, we construct the ΔΠ{sub 1}–Δ ν asteroseismic diagram from models of subgiants and red giants with various masses and metallicities. The relationship ΔΠ{sub 1}–Δ ν is able to constrain the ages and masses of the subgiants. Meanwhile, for red giants with masses above 1.5 M {sub ⊙}, the ΔΠ{sub 1}–Δ ν asteroseismic diagram can also work well to constrain the stellar age and mass. Additionally, we calculate the relative “isochrones” τ , which indicate similar evolution states especially for similar mass stars, on the ΔΠ{sub 1}–Δ ν diagram.

Atmospheric parameters of 82 red giants in the Kepler field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overaa Thygesen, Anders; Frandsen, Søren; Bruntt, Hans

2012-01-01

spectroscopy and photometry shows good agreement within the uncertainties. We find good agreement between the spectroscopic log g and the log g derived from asteroseismology. Also, we see indications of a potential metallicity effect on the stellar oscillations. Conclusions. We have determined the fundamental...... elements were measured using equivalent widths of the spectral lines. Results. We identify discrepancies in log g and [Fe/H], compared to the parameters based on photometric indices in the Kepler Input Catalogue (larger than 2.0 dex for log g and [Fe/H] for individual stars). The Teff found from...... parameters and element abundances of 82 red giants. The large discrepancies between the spectroscopic log g and [Fe/H] and values in the Kepler Input Catalogue emphasize the need for further detailed spectroscopic follow-up of the Kepler targets in order to produce reliable results from the asteroseismic...

LAMOST OBSERVATIONS IN THE KEPLER FIELD. I. DATABASE OF LOW-RESOLUTION SPECTRA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cat, P. De; Ren, A. B.; Yang, X. H. [Royal observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussel (Belgium); Fu, J. N. [Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, 19 Avenue Xinjiekouwai, Beijing 100875 (China); Shi, J. R.; Luo, A. L.; Yang, M.; Wang, J. L.; Zhang, H. T.; Shi, H. M.; Zhang, W. [Key Lab for Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China); Dong, Subo [Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Yi He Yuan Road 5, Hai Dian District, Beijing, 100871 (China); Catanzaro, G.; Frasca, A. [INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Corbally, C. J. [Vatican Observatory Research Group, Steward Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85721-0065 (United States); Gray, R. O. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 (United States); Żakowicz, J. Molenda- [Astronomical Institute of the University of Wrocław, ul. Kopernika 11, 51-622 Wrocław (Poland); Uytterhoeven, K. [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Briquet, M. [Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août 19C, B-4000 Liège (Belgium); Bruntt, H., E-mail: Peter.DeCat@oma.be [Stellar Astrophysics Center, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); and others

2015-09-15

The nearly continuous light curves with micromagnitude precision provided by the space mission Kepler are revolutionizing our view of pulsating stars. They have revealed a vast sea of low-amplitude pulsation modes that were undetectable from Earth. The long time base of Kepler light curves allows for the accurate determination of the frequencies and amplitudes of pulsation modes needed for in-depth asteroseismic modeling. However, for an asteroseismic study to be successful, the first estimates of stellar parameters need to be known and they cannot be derived from the Kepler photometry itself. The Kepler Input Catalog provides values for the effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity, but not always with sufficient accuracy. Moreover, information on the chemical composition and rotation rate is lacking. We are collecting low-resolution spectra for objects in the Kepler field of view with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (lamost, Xinglong observatory, China). All of the requested fields have now been observed at least once. In this paper, we describe those observations and provide a useful database for the whole astronomical community.

VERIFYING ASTEROSEISMICALLY DETERMINED PARAMETERS OF KEPLER STARS USING HIPPARCOS PARALLAXES: SELF-CONSISTENT STELLAR PROPERTIES AND DISTANCES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva Aguirre, V.; Chaplin, W. J.; Bedding, T. R.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Kjeldsen, H. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Casagrande, L. [Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, The Australian National University, ACT 2611 (Australia); Basu, S. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Campante, T. L.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G. [Centro de Astrofisica and Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Huber, D. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Miglio, A.; Elsworth, Y.; Hekker, S. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Serenelli, A. M.; Garcia, R. A.; Mathur, S. [Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States); Ballot, J. [CNRS, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse (France); Creevey, O. L. [Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Cote dAzur, F-06304 Nice Cedex 4 (France); Gilliland, R. L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Metcalfe, T. S. [Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); and others

2012-09-20

Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution.

A Precise Asteroseismic Age and Radius for the Evolved Sun-like Star KIC 11026764

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Metcalfe, Travis S.; Monteiro, Mario J.P.F.G.; Thompson, Michael J.

2010-01-01

The primary science goal of the Kepler Mission is to provide a census of exoplanets in the solar neighborhood, including the identification and characterization of habitable Earth-like planets. The asteroseismic capabilities of the mission are being used to determine precise radii and ages for th...

Tutorial: Asteroseismic Data Analysis with DIAMONDS

Science.gov (United States)

Corsaro, Enrico

Since the advent of the space-based photometric missions such as CoRoT and NASA's Kepler, asteroseismology has acquired a central role in our understanding about stellar physics. The Kepler spacecraft, especially, is still releasing excellent photometric observations that contain a large amount of information not yet investigated. For exploiting the full potential of these data, sophisticated and robust analysis tools are now essential, so that further constraining of stellar structure and evolutionary models can be obtained. In addition, extracting detailed asteroseismic properties for many stars can yield new insights on their correlations to fundamental stellar properties and dynamics. After a brief introduction to the Bayesian notion of probability, I describe the code Diamonds for Bayesian parameter estimation and model comparison by means of the nested sampling Monte Carlo (NSMC) algorithm. NSMC constitutes an efficient and powerful method, in replacement to standard Markov chain Monte Carlo, very suitable for high-dimensional and multimodal problems that are typical of detailed asteroseismic analyses, such as the fitting and mode identification of individual oscillation modes in stars (known as peak-bagging). Diamonds is able to provide robust results for statistical inferences involving tens of individual oscillation modes, while at the same time preserving a considerable computational efficiency for identifying the solution. In the tutorial, I will present the fitting of the stellar background signal and the peak-bagging analysis of the oscillation modes in a red-giant star, providing an example to use Bayesian evidence for assessing the peak significance of the fitted oscillation peaks.

Calculating Asteroseismic Diagrams for Solar-Like Oscillations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

White, T.R.; Bedding, T.R.; Stello, D.

2011-01-01

With the success of the Kepler and CoRoT missions, the number of stars with detected solar-like oscillations has increased by several orders of magnitude; for the first time we are able to perform large-scale ensemble asteroseismology of these stars. In preparation for this golden age of asterose......With the success of the Kepler and CoRoT missions, the number of stars with detected solar-like oscillations has increased by several orders of magnitude; for the first time we are able to perform large-scale ensemble asteroseismology of these stars. In preparation for this golden age...... of these stars. We investigate the scaling relation between the large frequency separation, Δν, and mean stellar density. Furthermore we present model evolutionary tracks for several asteroseismic diagrams. We have extended the so-called C-D diagram beyond the main sequence to the subgiants and the red giant...

Limits on surface gravities of Kepler planet-candidate host stars from non-detection of solar-like oscillations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Campante, T. L.; Chaplin, W. J.; Handberg, R.; Miglio, A.; Davies, G. R.; Elsworth, Y. P. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Lund, M. N.; Arentoft, T.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Karoff, C.; Kjeldsen, H.; Lundkvist, M. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Huber, D. [NASA Ames Research Center, MS 244-30, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Hekker, S. [Astronomical Institute, " Anton Pannekoek," University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Netherlands); García, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot (France); IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Corsaro, E. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Basu, S. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (United States); Bedding, T. R. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney (Australia); Gilliland, R. L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Kawaler, S. D., E-mail: campante@bison.ph.bham.ac.uk [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States); and others

2014-03-10

We present a novel method for estimating lower-limit surface gravities (log g) of Kepler targets whose data do not allow the detection of solar-like oscillations. The method is tested using an ensemble of solar-type stars observed in the context of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium. We then proceed to estimate lower-limit log g for a cohort of Kepler solar-type planet-candidate host stars with no detected oscillations. Limits on fundamental stellar properties, as provided by this work, are likely to be useful in the characterization of the corresponding candidate planetary systems. Furthermore, an important byproduct of the current work is the confirmation that amplitudes of solar-like oscillations are suppressed in stars with increased levels of surface magnetic activity.

FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF KEPLER PLANET-CANDIDATE HOST STARS USING ASTEROSEISMOLOGY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huber, Daniel; Lissauer, Jack J.; Rowe, Jason F. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Chaplin, William J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jorgen; Kjeldsen, Hans; Handberg, Rasmus; Karoff, Christoffer; Lund, Mikkel N.; Lundkvist, Mia [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark); Fischer, Debra A.; Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Sanchis-Ojeda, Roberto [Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Hekker, Saskia [Astronomical Institute ' ' Anton Pannekoek' ' , University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam (Netherlands); Howard, Andrew W. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Isaacson, Howard; Marcy, Geoffrey W. [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Latham, David W., E-mail: daniel.huber@nasa.gov [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); and others

2013-04-20

We have used asteroseismology to determine fundamental properties for 66 Kepler planet-candidate host stars, with typical uncertainties of 3% and 7% in radius and mass, respectively. The results include new asteroseismic solutions for four host stars with confirmed planets (Kepler-4, Kepler-14, Kepler-23 and Kepler-25) and increase the total number of Kepler host stars with asteroseismic solutions to 77. A comparison with stellar properties in the planet-candidate catalog by Batalha et al. shows that radii for subgiants and giants obtained from spectroscopic follow-up are systematically too low by up to a factor of 1.5, while the properties for unevolved stars are in good agreement. We furthermore apply asteroseismology to confirm that a large majority of cool main-sequence hosts are indeed dwarfs and not misclassified giants. Using the revised stellar properties, we recalculate the radii for 107 planet candidates in our sample, and comment on candidates for which the radii change from a previously giant-planet/brown-dwarf/stellar regime to a sub-Jupiter size or vice versa. A comparison of stellar densities from asteroseismology with densities derived from transit models in Batalha et al. assuming circular orbits shows significant disagreement for more than half of the sample due to systematics in the modeled impact parameters or due to planet candidates that may be in eccentric orbits. Finally, we investigate tentative correlations between host-star masses and planet-candidate radii, orbital periods, and multiplicity, but caution that these results may be influenced by the small sample size and detection biases.

Automated asteroseismic peak detections

Science.gov (United States)

García Saravia Ortiz de Montellano, Andrés; Hekker, S.; Themeßl, N.

2018-05-01

Space observatories such as Kepler have provided data that can potentially revolutionize our understanding of stars. Through detailed asteroseismic analyses we are capable of determining fundamental stellar parameters and reveal the stellar internal structure with unprecedented accuracy. However, such detailed analyses, known as peak bagging, have so far been obtained for only a small percentage of the observed stars while most of the scientific potential of the available data remains unexplored. One of the major challenges in peak bagging is identifying how many solar-like oscillation modes are visible in a power density spectrum. Identification of oscillation modes is usually done by visual inspection that is time-consuming and has a degree of subjectivity. Here, we present a peak-detection algorithm especially suited for the detection of solar-like oscillations. It reliably characterizes the solar-like oscillations in a power density spectrum and estimates their parameters without human intervention. Furthermore, we provide a metric to characterize the false positive and false negative rates to provide further information about the reliability of a detected oscillation mode or the significance of a lack of detected oscillation modes. The algorithm presented here opens the possibility for detailed and automated peak bagging of the thousands of solar-like oscillators observed by Kepler.

TESTING THE ASTEROSEISMIC SCALING RELATIONS FOR RED GIANTS WITH ECLIPSING BINARIES OBSERVED BY KEPLER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gaulme, P.; McKeever, J.; Jackiewicz, J.; Rawls, M. L. [Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 4500, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001 (United States); Corsaro, E. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DRF-CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Mosser, B. [LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, F-92195 Meudon (France); Southworth, J. [Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG (United Kingdom); Mahadevan, S.; Bender, C.; Deshpande, R., E-mail: gaulme@nmsu.edu [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)

2016-12-01

Given the potential of ensemble asteroseismology for understanding fundamental properties of large numbers of stars, it is critical to determine the accuracy of the scaling relations on which these measurements are based. From several powerful validation techniques, all indications so far show that stellar radius estimates from the asteroseismic scaling relations are accurate to within a few percent. Eclipsing binary systems hosting at least one star with detectable solar-like oscillations constitute the ideal test objects for validating asteroseismic radius and mass inferences. By combining radial velocity (RV) measurements and photometric time series of eclipses, it is possible to determine the masses and radii of each component of a double-lined spectroscopic binary. We report the results of a four-year RV survey performed with the échelle spectrometer of the Astrophysical Research Consortium’s 3.5 m telescope and the APOGEE spectrometer at Apache Point Observatory. We compare the masses and radii of 10 red giants (RGs) obtained by combining radial velocities and eclipse photometry with the estimates from the asteroseismic scaling relations. We find that the asteroseismic scaling relations overestimate RG radii by about 5% on average and masses by about 15% for stars at various stages of RG evolution. Systematic overestimation of mass leads to underestimation of stellar age, which can have important implications for ensemble asteroseismology used for Galactic studies. As part of a second objective, where asteroseismology is used for understanding binary systems, we confirm that oscillations of RGs in close binaries can be suppressed enough to be undetectable, a hypothesis that was proposed in a previous work.

Measurement of acoustic glitches in solar-type stars from oscillation frequencies observed by Kepler

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mazumdar, A. [Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, V. N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd, Mumbai 400088 (India); Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Cunha, M. S. [Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Ballot, J. [CNRS, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse (France); Antia, H. M. [Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005 (India); Basu, S. [Astronomy Department, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 065208101 (United States); Houdek, G.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Metcalfe, T. S. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Mathur, S. [High Altitude Observatory, NCAR, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 (United States); García, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Salabert, D. [Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR7293, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d' Azur, F-06304 Nice (France); Verner, G. A.; Chaplin, W. J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Sanderfer, D. T. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Seader, S. E.; Smith, J. C. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)

2014-02-10

For the very best and brightest asteroseismic solar-type targets observed by Kepler, the frequency precision is sufficient to determine the acoustic depths of the surface convective layer and the helium ionization zone. Such sharp features inside the acoustic cavity of the star, which we call acoustic glitches, create small oscillatory deviations from the uniform spacing of frequencies in a sequence of oscillation modes with the same spherical harmonic degree. We use these oscillatory signals to determine the acoustic locations of such features in 19 solar-type stars observed by the Kepler mission. Four independent groups of researchers utilized the oscillation frequencies themselves, the second differences of the frequencies and the ratio of the small and large separation to locate the base of the convection zone and the second helium ionization zone. Despite the significantly different methods of analysis, good agreement was found between the results of these four groups, barring a few cases. These results also agree reasonably well with the locations of these layers in representative models of the stars. These results firmly establish the presence of the oscillatory signals in the asteroseismic data and the viability of several techniques to determine the location of acoustic glitches inside stars.

Oscillating red giants in eclipsing binary systems: empirical reference value for asteroseismic scaling relation

Science.gov (United States)

Themeßl, N.; Hekker, S.; Southworth, J.; Beck, P. G.; Pavlovski, K.; Tkachenko, A.; Angelou, G. C.; Ball, W. H.; Barban, C.; Corsaro, E.; Elsworth, Y.; Handberg, R.; Kallinger, T.

2018-05-01

The internal structures and properties of oscillating red-giant stars can be accurately inferred through their global oscillation modes (asteroseismology). Based on 1460 days of Kepler observations we perform a thorough asteroseismic study to probe the stellar parameters and evolutionary stages of three red giants in eclipsing binary systems. We present the first detailed analysis of individual oscillation modes of the red-giant components of KIC 8410637, KIC 5640750 and KIC 9540226. We obtain estimates of their asteroseismic masses, radii, mean densities and logarithmic surface gravities by using the asteroseismic scaling relations as well as grid-based modelling. As these red giants are in double-lined eclipsing binaries, it is possible to derive their independent dynamical masses and radii from the orbital solution and compare it with the seismically inferred values. For KIC 5640750 we compute the first spectroscopic orbit based on both components of this system. We use high-resolution spectroscopic data and light curves of the three systems to determine up-to-date values of the dynamical stellar parameters. With our comprehensive set of stellar parameters we explore consistencies between binary analysis and asteroseismic methods, and test the reliability of the well-known scaling relations. For the three red giants under study, we find agreement between dynamical and asteroseismic stellar parameters in cases where the asteroseismic methods account for metallicity, temperature and mass dependence as well as surface effects. We are able to attain agreement from the scaling laws in all three systems if we use Δνref, emp = 130.8 ± 0.9 μHz instead of the usual solar reference value.

KEPLER-68: THREE PLANETS, ONE WITH A DENSITY BETWEEN THAT OF EARTH AND ICE GIANTS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gilliland, Ronald L. [Department of Astronomy, and Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Rowe, Jason F.; Henze, Christopher E.; Lissauer, Jack J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Rogers, Leslie [California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Torres, Guillermo; Fressin, Francois; Desert, Jean-Michel [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Lopez, Eric D. [University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University (Denmark); Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jorgen; Handberg, Rasmus [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Jenkins, Jon M. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, 260 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Metcalfe, Travis S. [White Dwarf Research Corporation, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); Hekker, Saskia, E-mail: gillil@stsci.edu [Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Science Park 904 (Netherlands); and others

2013-03-20

NASA's Kepler Mission has revealed two transiting planets orbiting Kepler-68. Follow-up Doppler measurements have established the mass of the innermost planet and revealed a third Jovian-mass planet orbiting beyond the two transiting planets. Kepler-68b, in a 5.4 day orbit, has M{sub P}=8.3{sup +2.2}{sub -2.4} M{sub Circled-Plus }, R{sub P}=2.31{sup +0.06}{sub -0.09} R{sub Circled-Plus }, and {rho}{sub P}=3.32{sup +0.86}{sub -0.98} g cm{sup -3}, giving Kepler-68b a density intermediate between that of the ice giants and Earth. Kepler-68c is Earth-sized, with a radius R{sub P}=0.953{sup +0.037}{sub -0.042} R{sub Circled-Plus} and transits on a 9.6 day orbit; validation of Kepler-68c posed unique challenges. Kepler-68d has an orbital period of 580 {+-} 15 days and a minimum mass of M{sub P}sin i = 0.947 {+-} 0.035M{sub J} . Power spectra of the Kepler photometry at one minute cadence exhibit a rich and strong set of asteroseismic pulsation modes enabling detailed analysis of the stellar interior. Spectroscopy of the star coupled with asteroseismic modeling of the multiple pulsation modes yield precise measurements of stellar properties, notably T{sub eff} = 5793 {+-} 74 K, M{sub *} = 1.079 {+-} 0.051 M{sub Sun }, R{sub *} = 1.243 {+-} 0.019 R{sub Sun }, and {rho}{sub *} = 0.7903 {+-} 0.0054 g cm{sup -3}, all measured with fractional uncertainties of only a few percent. Models of Kepler-68b suggest that it is likely composed of rock and water, or has a H and He envelope to yield its density {approx}3 g cm{sup -3}.

Detection of ℓ = 4 and ℓ = 5 modes in 12 years of solar VIRGO-SPM data—tests on Kepler observations of 16 Cyg A and B

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lund, Mikkel Nørup; Kjeldsen, Hans; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Handberg, Rasmus; Aguirre, Victor Silva

2014-01-01

We present the detection of ℓ = 4 and ℓ = 5 modes in power spectra of the Sun, constructed from 12 yr full-disk VIRGO-SPM data sets. A method for enhancing the detectability of these modes in asteroseismic targets is presented and applied to Kepler data of the two solar analogues 16 Cyg A and B. For these targets, we see indications of a signal from ℓ = 4 modes, while nothing is yet seen for ℓ = 5 modes. We further simulate the power spectra of these stars and from this we estimate that it should indeed be possible to see such indications of ℓ = 4 modes at the present length of the data sets. In the simulation process, we briefly look into the apparent misfit between observed and calculated mode visibilities. We predict that firm detections of at least ℓ = 4 should be possible in any case at the end of the Kepler mission. For ℓ = 5, we do not predict any firm detections from Kepler data.

The search for ZZ Ceti stars in the original Kepler mission

Science.gov (United States)

Greiss, S.; Hermes, J. J.; Gänsicke, B. T.; Steeghs, D. T. H.; Bell, Keaton J.; Raddi, R.; Tremblay, P.-E.; Breedt, E.; Ramsay, G.; Koester, D.; Carter, P. J.; Vanderbosch, Z.; Winget, D. E.; Winget, K. I.

2016-04-01

We report the discovery of 42 white dwarfs in the original Kepler mission field, including nine new confirmed pulsating hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs (ZZ Ceti stars). Guided by the Kepler-Isaac Newton Telescope Survey, we selected white dwarf candidates on the basis of their U - g, g - r, and r - Hα photometric colours. We followed up these candidates with high-signal-to-noise optical spectroscopy from the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. Using ground-based, time series photometry, we put our sample of new spectroscopically characterized white dwarfs in the context of the empirical ZZ Ceti instability strip. Prior to our search, only two pulsating white dwarfs had been observed by Kepler. Ultimately, four of our new ZZ Cetis were observed from space. These rich data sets are helping initiate a rapid advancement in the asteroseismic investigation of pulsating white dwarfs, which continues with the extended Kepler mission, K2.

KEPLER'S FIRST ROCKY PLANET: KEPLER-10b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batalha, Natalie M.; Borucki, William J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Haas, Michael R.; Koch, David G.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Fressin, Francois; Latham, David W.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen; Kjeldsen, Hans; Ciardi, David; Dunham, Edward W.; Gautier, Thomas N. III; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Howell, Steve B.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.

2011-01-01

NASA's Kepler Mission uses transit photometry to determine the frequency of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The mission reached a milestone toward meeting that goal: the discovery of its first rocky planet, Kepler-10b. Two distinct sets of transit events were detected: (1) a 152 ± 4 ppm dimming lasting 1.811 ± 0.024 hr with ephemeris T [BJD] =2454964.57375 +0.00060 -0.00082 + N*0.837495 +0.000004 -0.000005 days and (2) a 376 ± 9 ppm dimming lasting 6.86 ± 0.07 hr with ephemeris T [BJD] =2454971.6761 +0.0020 -0.0023 + N*45.29485 +0.00065 -0.00076 days. Statistical tests on the photometric and pixel flux time series established the viability of the planet candidates triggering ground-based follow-up observations. Forty precision Doppler measurements were used to confirm that the short-period transit event is due to a planetary companion. The parent star is bright enough for asteroseismic analysis. Photometry was collected at 1 minute cadence for >4 months from which we detected 19 distinct pulsation frequencies. Modeling the frequencies resulted in precise knowledge of the fundamental stellar properties. Kepler-10 is a relatively old (11.9 ± 4.5 Gyr) but otherwise Sun-like main-sequence star with T eff = 5627 ± 44 K, M * = 0.895 ± 0.060 M sun , and R * = 1.056 ± 0.021 R sun . Physical models simultaneously fit to the transit light curves and the precision Doppler measurements yielded tight constraints on the properties of Kepler-10b that speak to its rocky composition: M P = 4.56 +1.17 -1.29 M + , R P = 1.416 +0.033 -0.036 R + , and ρ P = 8.8 +2.1 -2.9 g cm -3 . Kepler-10b is the smallest transiting exoplanet discovered to date.

Modelling linewidths of Kepler red giants in NGC 6819

Science.gov (United States)

Aarslev, Magnus J.; Houdek, Günter; Handberg, Rasmus; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen

2018-04-01

We present a comparison between theoretical, frequency-dependent, damping rates and linewidths of radial-mode oscillations in red-giant stars located in the open cluster NGC 6819. The calculations adopt a time-dependent non-local convection model, with the turbulent pressure profile being calibrated to results of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar atmospheres. The linewidths are obtained from extensive peakbagging of Kepler lightcurves. These observational results are of unprecedented quality owing to the long continuous observations by Kepler. The uniqueness of the Kepler mission also means that, for asteroseismic properties, this is the best data that will be available for a long time to come. We therefore take great care in modelling nine RGB stars in NGC 6819 using information from 3D simulations to obtain realistic temperature stratifications and calibrated turbulent pressure profiles. Our modelled damping rates reproduce well the Kepler observations, including the characteristic depression in the linewidths around the frequency of maximum oscillation power. Furthermore, we thoroughly test the sensitivity of the calculated damping rates to changes in the parameters of the nonlocal convection model.

Models of red giants in the CoRoT asteroseismology fields combining asteroseismic and spectroscopic constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Nadège, Lagarde

The availability of asteroseismic constraints for a large sample of red-giant stars from the CoRoT and Kepler missions paves the way for various statistical studies of the seismic properties of stellar populations. We use a detailed spectroscopic study of 19 CoRoT red-giant stars (Morel et al. 2014) to compare theoretical stellar evolution models to observations of the open cluster NGC 6633 and field stars. This study is already published in Lagarde et al. (2015)

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Per-Target Detection Contours for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Christopher J.; Catanzarite, Joseph

2017-01-01

A necessary input to planet occurrence calculations is an accurate model for the pipeline completeness (Burke et al., 2015). This document describes the use of the Kepler planet occurrence rate products in order to calculate a per-target detection contour for the measured Data Release 25 (DR25) pipeline performance. A per-target detection contour measures for a given combination of orbital period, Porb, and planet radius, Rp, what fraction of transit signals are recoverable by the Kepler pipeline (Twicken et al., 2016; Jenkins et al., 2017). The steps for calculating a detection contour follow the procedure outlined in Burke et al. (2015), but have been updated to provide improved accuracy enabled by the substantially larger database of transit injection and recovery tests that were performed on the final version (i.e., SOC 9.3) of the Kepler pipeline (Christiansen, 2017; Burke Catanzarite, 2017a). In the following sections, we describe the main inputs to the per-target detection contour and provide a worked example of the python software released with this document (Kepler Planet Occurrence Rate Tools KeplerPORTs)1 that illustrates the generation of a detection contour in practice. As background material for this document and its nomenclature, we recommend the reader be familiar with the previous method of calculating a detection contour (Section 2 of Burke et al.,2015), input parameters relevant for describing the data quantity and quality of Kepler targets (Burke Catanzarite, 2017b), and the extensive new transit injection and recovery tests of the Kepler pipeline (Christiansen et al., 2016; Burke Catanzarite, 2017a; Christiansen, 2017).

Automated Asteroseismic Analysis of Solar-type Stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karoff, Christoffer; Campante, T.L.; Chaplin, W.J.

2010-01-01

The rapidly increasing volume of asteroseismic observations on solar-type stars has revealed a need for automated analysis tools. The reason for this is not only that individual analyses of single stars are rather time consuming, but more importantly that these large volumes of observations open...... are calculated in a consistent way. Here we present a set of automated asterosesimic analysis tools. The main engine of these set of tools is an algorithm for modelling the autocovariance spectra of the stellar acoustic spectra allowing us to measure not only the frequency of maximum power and the large......, radius, luminosity, effective temperature, surface gravity and age based on grid modeling. All the tools take into account the window function of the observations which means that they work equally well for space-based photometry observations from e.g. the NASA Kepler satellite and ground-based velocity...

Internal rotation of 13 low-mass low-luminosity red giants in the Kepler field

Science.gov (United States)

Triana, S. A.; Corsaro, E.; De Ridder, J.; Bonanno, A.; Pérez Hernández, F.; García, R. A.

2017-06-01

Context. The Kepler space telescope has provided time series of red giants of such unprecedented quality that a detailed asteroseismic analysis becomes possible. For a limited set of about a dozen red giants, the observed oscillation frequencies obtained by peak-bagging together with the most recent pulsation codes allowed us to reliably determine the core/envelope rotation ratio. The results so far show that the current models are unable to reproduce the rotation ratios, predicting higher values than what is observed and thus indicating that an efficient angular momentum transport mechanism should be at work. Here we provide an asteroseismic analysis of a sample of 13 low-luminosity low-mass red giant stars observed by Kepler during its first nominal mission. These targets form a subsample of the 19 red giants studied previously, which not only have a large number of extracted oscillation frequencies, but also unambiguous mode identifications. Aims: We aim to extend the sample of red giants for which internal rotation ratios obtained by theoretical modeling of peak-bagged frequencies are available. We also derive the rotation ratios using different methods, and compare the results of these methods with each other. Methods: We built seismic models using a grid search combined with a Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm and obtained rotation averages employing Bayesian inference and inversion methods. We compared these averages with those obtained using a previously developed model-independent method. Results: We find that the cores of the red giants in this sample are rotating 5 to 10 times faster than their envelopes, which is consistent with earlier results. The rotation rates computed from the different methods show good agreement for some targets, while some discrepancies exist for others.

The California- Kepler Survey. II. Precise Physical Properties of 2025 Kepler Planets and Their Host Stars

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, John Asher; Cargile, Phillip A.; Sinukoff, Evan [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Petigura, Erik A.; Howard, Andrew W. [California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125 (United States); Fulton, Benjamin J.; Hirsch, Lea A. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Hebb, Leslie [Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY 14456 (United States); Morton, Timothy D.; Winn, Joshua N. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Peyton Hall, 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540 (United States); Weiss, Lauren M. [Institut de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC (Canada); Rogers, Leslie A., E-mail: petigura@caltech.edu [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)

2017-09-01

We present stellar and planetary properties for 1305 Kepler Objects of Interest hosting 2025 planet candidates observed as part of the California- Kepler Survey. We combine spectroscopic constraints, presented in Paper I, with stellar interior modeling to estimate stellar masses, radii, and ages. Stellar radii are typically constrained to 11%, compared to 40% when only photometric constraints are used. Stellar masses are constrained to 4%, and ages are constrained to 30%. We verify the integrity of the stellar parameters through comparisons with asteroseismic studies and Gaia parallaxes. We also recompute planetary radii for 2025 planet candidates. Because knowledge of planetary radii is often limited by uncertainties in stellar size, we improve the uncertainties in planet radii from typically 42% to 12%. We also leverage improved knowledge of stellar effective temperature to recompute incident stellar fluxes for the planets, now precise to 21%, compared to a factor of two when derived from photometry.

Asteroseismology of the Open Clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6811, and NGC 6819 from 19 Months of Kepler Photometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Corsaro, Enrico; Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel

2012-01-01

We studied solar-like oscillations in 115 red giants in the three open clusters, NGC 6791, NGC 6811, and NGC 6819, based on photometric data covering more than 19 months with NASA's Kepler space telescope. We present the asteroseismic diagrams of the asymptotic parameters δν02, δν01, and ϵ, which...

A Detached Eclipsing Binary near the Turnoff of the Open Cluster NGC 6819 and Determining Age Using Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brewer, Lauren; Sandquist, E. L.; Mathieu, R. D.

2013-01-01

from the Kepler spacecraft and from the 1 m telescope at Mount Laguna Observatory in B, V, Rc, and Ic. Radial velocities were measured as part of a long-term study of the cluster (e.g., Hole et al. 2009) using the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope. A665 is a triple-lined system, and we verify that the brightest...... in the mass-radius plane. Our target is to reduce the uncertainty on the cluster age to less than 10% using results from A665 and other known DEBs. The results for this system will also help produce a valuable test of the asteroseismic mass estimates for giant stars in the cluster (Stello et al. 2011). We...

Semi-empirical seismic relations of A-F stars from COROT and Kepler legacy data

Science.gov (United States)

Moya, A.; Suárez, J. C.; García Hernández, A.; Mendoza, M. A.

2017-10-01

Asteroseismology is witnessing a revolution, thanks to high-precise asteroseismic space data (MOST, COROT, Kepler, BRITE) and their large ground-based follow-up programs. Those instruments have provided an unprecedented large amount of information, which allows us to scrutinize its statistical properties in the quest for hidden relations among pulsational and/or physical observables. This approach might be particularly useful for stars whose pulsation content is difficult to interpret. This is the case of intermediate-mass classical pulsating stars (I.e. γ Dor, δ Scuti, hybrids) for which current theories do not properly predict the observed oscillation spectra. Here, we establish a first step in finding such hidden relations from data mining techniques for these stars. We searched for those hidden relations in a sample of δ Scuti and hybrid stars observed by COROT and Kepler (74 and 153, respectively). No significant correlations between pairs of observables were found. However, two statistically significant correlations emerged from multivariable correlations in the observed seismic data, which describe the total number of observed frequencies and the largest one, respectively. Moreover, three different sets of stars were found to cluster according to their frequency density distribution. Such sets are in apparent agreement with the asteroseismic properties commonly accepted for A-F pulsating stars.

Reliability of stellar inclination estimated from asteroseismology: analytical criteria, mock simulations and Kepler data analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Kamiaka, Shoya; Benomar, Othman; Suto, Yasushi

2018-05-01

Advances in asteroseismology of solar-like stars, now provide a unique method to estimate the stellar inclination i⋆. This enables to evaluate the spin-orbit angle of transiting planetary systems, in a complementary fashion to the Rossiter-McLaughlineffect, a well-established method to estimate the projected spin-orbit angle λ. Although the asteroseismic method has been broadly applied to the Kepler data, its reliability has yet to be assessed intensively. In this work, we evaluate the accuracy of i⋆ from asteroseismology of solar-like stars using 3000 simulated power spectra. We find that the low signal-to-noise ratio of the power spectra induces a systematic under-estimate (over-estimate) bias for stars with high (low) inclinations. We derive analytical criteria for the reliable asteroseismic estimate, which indicates that reliable measurements are possible in the range of 20° ≲ i⋆ ≲ 80° only for stars with high signal-to-noise ratio. We also analyse and measure the stellar inclination of 94 Kepler main-sequence solar-like stars, among which 33 are planetary hosts. According to our reliability criteria, a third of them (9 with planets, 22 without) have accurate stellar inclination. Comparison of our asteroseismic estimate of vsin i⋆ against spectroscopic measurements indicates that the latter suffers from a large uncertainty possibly due to the modeling of macro-turbulence, especially for stars with projected rotation speed vsin i⋆ ≲ 5km/s. This reinforces earlier claims, and the stellar inclination estimated from the combination of measurements from spectroscopy and photometric variation for slowly rotating stars needs to be interpreted with caution.

Kepler-93b: A terrestrial world measured to within 120 km, and a test case for a new Spitzer observing mode

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ballard, Sarah [University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Chaplin, William J.; Davies, Guy R.; Campante, Tiago L.; Handberg, Rasmus; Elsworth, Yvonne; Hekker, Saskia [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Zeng, Li [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Désert, Jean-Michel [Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309 (United States); Werner, Michael W. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Aguirre, Victor Silva; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Metcalfe, Travis S.; Karoff, Christoffer [Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (United States); Stello, Dennis; Bedding, Timothy R. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney 2006 (Australia); Gilliland, Ronald L., E-mail: sarahba@uw.edu [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); and others

2014-07-20

We present the characterization of the Kepler-93 exoplanetary system, based on three years of photometry gathered by the Kepler spacecraft. The duration and cadence of the Kepler observations, in tandem with the brightness of the star, enable unusually precise constraints on both the planet and its host. We conduct an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler photometry and conclude that the star has an average density of 1.652 ± 0.006 g cm{sup –3}. Its mass of 0.911 ± 0.033 M{sub ☉} renders it one of the lowest-mass subjects of asteroseismic study. An analysis of the transit signature produced by the planet Kepler-93b, which appears with a period of 4.72673978 ± 9.7 × 10{sup –7} days, returns a consistent but less precise measurement of the stellar density, 1.72{sub −0.28}{sup +0.02} g cm{sup –3}. The agreement of these two values lends credence to the planetary interpretation of the transit signal. The achromatic transit depth, as compared between Kepler and the Spitzer Space Telescope, supports the same conclusion. We observed seven transits of Kepler-93b with Spitzer, three of which we conducted in a new observing mode. The pointing strategy we employed to gather this subset of observations halved our uncertainty on the transit radius ratio R{sub P} /R{sub *}. We find, after folding together the stellar radius measurement of 0.919 ± 0.011 R{sub ☉} with the transit depth, a best-fit value for the planetary radius of 1.481 ± 0.019 R{sub ⊕}. The uncertainty of 120 km on our measurement of the planet's size currently renders it one of the most precisely measured planetary radii outside of the solar system. Together with the radius, the planetary mass of 3.8 ± 1.5 M{sub ⊕} corresponds to a rocky density of 6.3 ± 2.6 g cm{sup –3}. After applying a prior on the plausible maximum densities of similarly sized worlds between 1 and 1.5 R{sub ⊕}, we find that Kepler-93b possesses an average density within this group.

ASTEROSEISMOLOGY OF THE SOLAR ANALOGS 16 Cyg A AND B FROM KEPLER OBSERVATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Metcalfe, T. S.; Dogan, G. [High Altitude Observatory, NCAR, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 (United States); Chaplin, W. J.; Garcia, R. A.; Basu, S.; Deheuvels, S.; Miglio, A. [Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kohn Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States); Appourchaux, T. [Institut d' Astrophysique Spatiale, Univ Paris-Sud, UMR8617, CNRS, Batiment 121, 91405 Orsay Cedex (France); Brandao, I. [Centro de Astrofisica and Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Creevey, O. L.; Salabert, D. [Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR7293, Observatoire de la Cote d' Azur, Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4 (France); Eggenberger, P. [Observatoire de Geneve, Universite de Geneve, 51 Ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny (Switzerland); Karoff, C. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Stello, D.; Benomar, O. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Y Latin-Small-Letter-Dotless-I ld Latin-Small-Letter-Dotless-I z, M.; Celik, Z. [Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Ege University, Bornova, 35100 Izmir (Turkey); Antia, H. M. [Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005 (India); Howe, R. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Regulo, C. [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); and others

2012-03-20

The evolved solar-type stars 16 Cyg A and B have long been studied as solar analogs, yielding a glimpse into the future of our own Sun. The orbital period of the binary system is too long to provide meaningful dynamical constraints on the stellar properties, but asteroseismology can help because the stars are among the brightest in the Kepler field. We present an analysis of three months of nearly uninterrupted photometry of 16 Cyg A and B from the Kepler space telescope. We extract a total of 46 and 41 oscillation frequencies for the two components, respectively, including a clear detection of octupole (l = 3) modes in both stars. We derive the properties of each star independently using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal, fitting the individual oscillation frequencies and other observational constraints simultaneously. We evaluate the systematic uncertainties from an ensemble of results generated by a variety of stellar evolution codes and fitting methods. The optimal models derived by fitting each component individually yield a common age (t = 6.8 {+-} 0.4 Gyr) and initial composition (Z{sub i} = 0.024 {+-} 0.002, Y{sub i} = 0.25 {+-} 0.01) within the uncertainties, as expected for the components of a binary system, bolstering our confidence in the reliability of asteroseismic techniques. The longer data sets that will ultimately become available will allow future studies of differential rotation, convection zone depths, and long-term changes due to stellar activity cycles.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Fundamental parameters of Kepler stars (Silva Aguirre+, 2015)

Science.gov (United States)

Silva Aguirre, V.; Davies, G. R.; Basu, S.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Creevey, O.; Metcalfe, T. S.; Bedding, T. R.; Casagrande, L.; Handberg, R.; Lund, M. N.; Nissen, P. E.; Chaplin, W. J.; Huber, D.; Serenelli, A. M.; Stello, D.; van Eylen, V.; Campante, T. L.; Elsworth, Y.; Gilliland, R. L.; Hekker, S.; Karoff, C.; Kawaler, S. D.; Kjeldsen, H.; Lundkvist, M. S.

2016-02-01

Our sample has been extracted from the 77 exoplanet host stars presented in Huber et al. (2013, Cat. J/ApJ/767/127). We have made use of the full time-base of observations from the Kepler satellite to uniformly determine precise fundamental stellar parameters, including ages, for a sample of exoplanet host stars where high-quality asteroseismic data were available. We devised a Bayesian procedure flexible in its input and applied it to different grids of models to study systematics from input physics and extract statistically robust properties for all stars. (4 data files).

Data preparation for asteroseismology with TESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lund Mikkel N.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission. Following its scheduled launch in 2017, TESS will focus on detecting exoplanets around the nearest and brightest stars in the sky, for which detailed follow-up observations are possible. TESS will, as the NASA Kepler mission, include a asteroseismic program that will be organized within the TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium (TASC, building on the success of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC. Within TASC data for asteroseismic analysis will be prepared by the TASC Working Group 0 (WG-0, who will facilitate data to the community via the TESS Asteroseismic Science Operations Center (TASOC, again building on the success of the corresponding KASOC platform for Kepler. Here, we give an overview of the steps being taken within WG-0 to prepare for the upcoming TESS mission.

Data preparation for asteroseismology with TESS

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Mikkel N.; Handberg, Rasmus; Kjeldsen, Hans; Chaplin, William J.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen

2017-10-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission. Following its scheduled launch in 2017, TESS will focus on detecting exoplanets around the nearest and brightest stars in the sky, for which detailed follow-up observations are possible. TESS will, as the NASA Kepler mission, include a asteroseismic program that will be organized within the TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium (TASC), building on the success of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC). Within TASC data for asteroseismic analysis will be prepared by the TASC Working Group 0 (WG-0), who will facilitate data to the community via the TESS Asteroseismic Science Operations Center (TASOC), again building on the success of the corresponding KASOC platform for Kepler. Here, we give an overview of the steps being taken within WG-0 to prepare for the upcoming TESS mission.

REVISED STELLAR PROPERTIES OF KEPLER TARGETS FOR THE QUARTER 1-16 TRANSIT DETECTION RUN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huber, Daniel [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Aguirre, Victor Silva [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Matthews, Jaymie M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada); Pinsonneault, Marc H. [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, OH 43210 (United States); Gaidos, Eric [Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); García, Rafael A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Hekker, Saskia [Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, D-37077 Göttingen (Germany); Mathur, Savita [Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); Mosser, Benoit [LESIA, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis, Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, F-92195 Meudon cedex (France); Torres, Guillermo [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Bastien, Fabienne A. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 1807 Station B, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Bedding, Timothy R. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Chaplin, William J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Demory, Brice-Olivier [Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Fleming, Scott W., E-mail: daniel.huber@nasa.gov [Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); and others

2014-03-01

We present revised properties for 196,468 stars observed by the NASA Kepler mission and used in the analysis of Quarter 1-16 (Q1-Q16) data to detect and characterize transiting planets. The catalog is based on a compilation of literature values for atmospheric properties (temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) derived from different observational techniques (photometry, spectroscopy, asteroseismology, and exoplanet transits), which were then homogeneously fitted to a grid of Dartmouth stellar isochrones. We use broadband photometry and asteroseismology to characterize 11,532 Kepler targets which were previously unclassified in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). We report the detection of oscillations in 2762 of these targets, classifying them as giant stars and increasing the number of known oscillating giant stars observed by Kepler by ∼20% to a total of ∼15,500 stars. Typical uncertainties in derived radii and masses are ∼40% and ∼20%, respectively, for stars with photometric constraints only, and 5%-15% and ∼10% for stars based on spectroscopy and/or asteroseismology, although these uncertainties vary strongly with spectral type and luminosity class. A comparison with the Q1-Q12 catalog shows a systematic decrease in radii of M dwarfs, while radii for K dwarfs decrease or increase depending on the Q1-Q12 provenance (KIC or Yonsei-Yale isochrones). Radii of F-G dwarfs are on average unchanged, with the exception of newly identified giants. The Q1-Q16 star properties catalog is a first step toward an improved characterization of all Kepler targets to support planet-occurrence studies.

The First APOKASC Catalog of Kepler Dwarf and Subgiant Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Serenelli, Aldo; Johnson, Jennifer; Huber, Daniel; Pinsonneault, Marc; Ball, Warrick H.; Tayar, Jamie; Silva Aguirre, Victor; Basu, Sarbani; Troup, Nicholas; Hekker, Saskia; Kallinger, Thomas; Stello, Dennis; Davies, Guy R.; Lund, Mikkel N.; Mathur, Savita; Mosser, Benoit; Stassun, Keivan G.; Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne; García, Rafael A.; Handberg, Rasmus; Holtzman, Jon; Hearty, Fred; García-Hernández, D. A.; Gaulme, Patrick; Zamora, Olga

2017-12-01

We present the first APOKASC catalog of spectroscopic and asteroseismic data for dwarfs and subgiants. Asteroseismic data for our sample of 415 objects have been obtained by the Kepler mission in short (58.5 s) cadence, and light curves span from 30 up to more than 1000 days. The spectroscopic parameters are based on spectra taken as part of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment and correspond to Data Release 13 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We analyze our data using two independent {T}{eff} scales, the spectroscopic values from DR13 and those derived from SDSS griz photometry. We use the differences in our results arising from these choices as a test of systematic temperature uncertainties and find that they can lead to significant differences in the derived stellar properties. Determinations of surface gravity ({log}g), mean density ( ), radius (R), mass (M), and age (τ) for the whole sample have been carried out by means of (stellar) grid-based modeling. We have thoroughly assessed random and systematic error sources in the spectroscopic and asteroseismic data, as well as in the grid-based modeling determination of the stellar quantities provided in the catalog. We provide stellar properties determined for each of the two {T}{eff} scales. The median combined (random and systematic) uncertainties are 2% (0.01 dex; {log}g), 3.4% ( ), 2.6% (R), 5.1% (M), and 19% (τ) for the photometric {T}{eff} scale and 2% ({log}g), 3.5% ( ), 2.7% (R), 6.3% (M), and 23% (τ) for the spectroscopic scale. We present comparisons with stellar quantities in the asteroseismic catalog by Chaplin et al. that highlight the importance of having metallicity measurements for determining stellar parameters accurately. Finally, we compare our results with those coming from a variety of sources, including stellar radii determined from TGAS parallaxes and asteroseismic analyses based on individual frequencies. We find a very good agreement for all inferred quantities

ROTATION PERIODS AND AGES OF SOLAR ANALOGS AND SOLAR TWINS REVEALED BY THE KEPLER MISSION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Do Nascimento Jr, J.-D.; Meibom, S.; García, R. A.; Salabert, D.; Ceillier, T.; Mathur, S.; Anthony, F.; Da Costa, J. S.; Castro, M.; Barnes, S. A.

2014-01-01

A new sample of solar analogs and twin candidates has been constructed and studied, paying particular attention to their light curves from NASA's Kepler mission. This Letter aims to assess their evolutionary status, derive their rotation and ages, and identify those which are solar analogs or solar twin candidates. We separate out the subgiants that compose a large fraction of the asteroseismic sample, and which show an increase in the average rotation period as the stars ascend the subgiant branch. The rotation periods of the dwarfs, ranging from 6 to 30 days and averaging 19 days, allow us to assess their individual evolutionary states on the main sequence and to derive their ages using gyrochronology. These ages are found to be in agreement with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.79 with independent asteroseismic ages, where available. As a result of this investigation, we are able to identify 34 stars as solar analogs and 22 of them as solar twin candidates

ROTATION PERIODS AND AGES OF SOLAR ANALOGS AND SOLAR TWINS REVEALED BY THE KEPLER MISSION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Do Nascimento Jr, J.-D.; Meibom, S. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); García, R. A.; Salabert, D.; Ceillier, T. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM,CNRS, Univ. Paris Diderot-IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Mathur, S. [Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street Suite 205, Boulder CO 80301 (United States); Anthony, F.; Da Costa, J. S.; Castro, M. [Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN, Dep. de Física Teórica e Experimental, DFTE, CP 1641, 59072-970 Natal, RN (Brazil); Barnes, S. A., E-mail: jdonascimento@cfa.harvard.edu [Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics, Potsdam D-14467 (Germany)

2014-08-01

A new sample of solar analogs and twin candidates has been constructed and studied, paying particular attention to their light curves from NASA's Kepler mission. This Letter aims to assess their evolutionary status, derive their rotation and ages, and identify those which are solar analogs or solar twin candidates. We separate out the subgiants that compose a large fraction of the asteroseismic sample, and which show an increase in the average rotation period as the stars ascend the subgiant branch. The rotation periods of the dwarfs, ranging from 6 to 30 days and averaging 19 days, allow us to assess their individual evolutionary states on the main sequence and to derive their ages using gyrochronology. These ages are found to be in agreement with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.79 with independent asteroseismic ages, where available. As a result of this investigation, we are able to identify 34 stars as solar analogs and 22 of them as solar twin candidates.

Towards a Fundamental Understanding of Short Period Eclipsing Binary Systems Using Kepler Data

Science.gov (United States)

Prsa, Andrej

Kepler's ultra-high precision photometry is revolutionizing stellar astrophysics. We are seeing intrinsic phenomena on an unprecedented scale, and interpreting them is both a challenge and an exciting privilege. Eclipsing binary stars are of particular significance for stellar astrophysics because precise modeling leads to fundamental parameters of the orbiting components: masses, radii, temperatures and luminosities to better than 1-2%. On top of that, eclipsing binaries are ideal physical laboratories for studying other physical phenomena, such as asteroseismic properties, chromospheric activity, proximity effects, mass transfer in close binaries, etc. Because of the eclipses, the basic geometry is well constrained, but a follow-up spectroscopy is required to get the dynamical masses and the absolute scale of the system. A conjunction of Kepler photometry and ground- based spectroscopy is a treasure trove for eclipsing binary star astrophysics. This proposal focuses on a carefully selected set of 100 short period eclipsing binary stars. The fundamental goal of the project is to study the intrinsic astrophysical effects typical of short period binaries in great detail, utilizing Kepler photometry and follow-up spectroscopy to devise a robust and consistent set of modeling results. The complementing spectroscopy is being secured from 3 approved and fully funded programs: the NOAO 4-m echelle spectroscopy at Kitt Peak (30 nights; PI Prsa), the 10- m Hobby-Eberly Telescope high-resolution spectroscopy (PI Mahadevan), and the 2.5-m Sloan Digital Sky Survey III spectroscopy (PI Mahadevan). The targets are prioritized by the projected scientific yield. Short period detached binaries host low-mass (K- and M- type) components for which the mass-radius relationship is sparsely populated and still poorly understood, as the radii appear up to 20% larger than predicted by the population models. We demonstrate the spectroscopic detection viability in the secondary

KEPLER-21b: A 1.6 R{sub Earth} PLANET TRANSITING THE BRIGHT OSCILLATING F SUBGIANT STAR HD 179070

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howell, Steve B. [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States); Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Quinn, Samuel N. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Metcalfe, Travis S. [High Altitude Observatory and Scientific Computing Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307 (United States); Monteiro, Mario J. P. F. G. [Centro de Astrofisica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Appourchaux, Thierry [Institut d' Astrophysique Spatiale, Universite Paris XI-CNRS (UMR8617), Batiment 121, 91405 Orsay Cedex (France); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Creevey, Orlagh L. [Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Quirion, Pierre-Olivier [Canadian Space Agency, 6767 Boulevard de l' Aeroport, Saint-Hubert, QC, J3Y 8Y9 (Canada); Stello, Denis [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Kjeldsen, Hans; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Garcia, Rafael A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Universite Paris Diderot-IRFU/SAp, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); and others

2012-02-20

We present Kepler observations of the bright (V = 8.3), oscillating star HD 179070. The observations show transit-like events which reveal that the star is orbited every 2.8 days by a small, 1.6 R{sub Earth} object. Seismic studies of HD 179070 using short cadence Kepler observations show that HD 179070 has a frequency-power spectrum consistent with solar-like oscillations that are acoustic p-modes. Asteroseismic analysis provides robust values for the mass and radius of HD 179070, 1.34 {+-} 0.06 M{sub Sun} and 1.86 {+-} 0.04 R{sub Sun }, respectively, as well as yielding an age of 2.84 {+-} 0.34 Gyr for this F5 subgiant. Together with ground-based follow-up observations, analysis of the Kepler light curves and image data, and blend scenario models, we conservatively show at the >99.7% confidence level (3{sigma}) that the transit event is caused by a 1.64 {+-} 0.04 R{sub Earth} exoplanet in a 2.785755 {+-} 0.000032 day orbit. The exoplanet is only 0.04 AU away from the star and our spectroscopic observations provide an upper limit to its mass of {approx}10 M{sub Earth} (2{sigma}). HD 179070 is the brightest exoplanet host star yet discovered by Kepler.

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Per-Target Flux-Level Transit Injection Tests of TPS for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Christopher J.; Catanzarite, Joseph

2017-01-01

Quantifying the ability of a transiting planet survey to recover transit signals has commonly been accomplished through Monte-Carlo injection of transit signals into the observed data and subsequent running of the signal search algorithm (Gilliland et al., 2000; Weldrake et al., 2005; Burke et al., 2006). In order to characterize the performance of the Kepler pipeline (Twicken et al., 2016; Jenkins et al., 2017) on a sample of over 200,000 stars, two complementary injection and recovery tests are utilized:1. Injection of a single transit signal per target into the image or pixel-level data, hereafter referred to as pixel-level transit injection (PLTI), with subsequent processing through the Photometric Analysis (PA), Presearch Data Conditioning (PDC), Transiting Planet Search (TPS), and Data Validation (DV) modules of the Kepler pipeline. The PLTI quantification of the Kepler pipeline's completeness has been described previously by Christiansen et al. (2015, 2016); the completeness of the final SOC 9.3 Kepler pipeline acting on the Data Release 25 (DR25) light curves is described by Christiansen (2017).2. Injection of multiple transit signals per target into the normalized flux time series data with a subsequent transit search using a stream-lined version of the Transiting Planet Search (TPS) module. This test, hereafter referred to as flux-level transit injection (FLTI), is the subject of this document. By running a heavily modified version of TPS, FLTI is able to perform many injections on selected targets and determine in some detail which injected signals are recoverable. Significant numerical efficiency gains are enabled by precomputing the data conditioning steps at the onset of TPS and limiting the search parameter space (i.e., orbital period, transit duration, and ephemeris zero-point) to a small region around each injected transit signal.The PLTI test has the advantage that it follows transit signals through all processing steps of the Kepler pipeline, and

A Distant Mirror: Solar Oscillations Observed on Neptune by the Kepler K2 Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Gaulme, P.; Rowe, J. F.; Bedding, T. R.; Benomar, O.; Corsaro, E.; Davies, G. R.; Hale, S. J.; Howe, R.; Garcia, R. A.; Huber, D.;

A DISTANT MIRROR: SOLAR OSCILLATIONS OBSERVED ON NEPTUNE BY THE KEPLER K 2 MISSION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gaulme, P.; Jackiewicz, J. [Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 4500, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001 (United States); Rowe, J. F. [Institut de recherche sur les exoplanètes, iREx, Département de physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada); Bedding, T. R.; Huber, D. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Benomar, O. [Center for Space Science, NYUAD Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates); Corsaro, E.; Garcia, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DRF-CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Davies, G. R. [INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Hale, S. J.; Howe, R. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B152TT (United Kingdom); Jiménez, A. [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Mathur, S. [Center for Extrasolar Planetary Systems, Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite #205, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); Mosser, B. [LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, F-92195 Meudon (France); Appourchaux, T.; Boumier, P.; Leibacher, J., E-mail: gaulme@nmsu.edu [Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris-Sud and CNRS (UMR 8617), Bâtiment 121, F-91405 Orsay cedex (France); and others

2016-12-10

Starting in 2014 December, Kepler K 2 observed Neptune continuously for 49 days at a 1 minute cadence. The goals consisted of studying its atmospheric dynamics, detecting its global acoustic oscillations, and those of the Sun, which we report on here. We present the first indirect detection of solar oscillations in intensity measurements. Beyond the remarkable technical performance, it indicates how Kepler would see a star like the Sun. The result from the global asteroseismic approach, which consists of measuring the oscillation frequency at maximum amplitude ν {sub max} and the mean frequency separation between mode overtones Δ ν , is surprising as the ν {sub max} measured from Neptune photometry is larger than the accepted value. Compared to the usual reference ν {sub max,⊙} = 3100 μ Hz, the asteroseismic scaling relations therefore make the solar mass and radius appear larger by 13.8 ± 5.8% and 4.3 ± 1.9%, respectively. The higher ν {sub max} is caused by a combination of the value of ν {sub max,⊙}, being larger at the time of observations than the usual reference from SOHO /VIRGO/SPM data (3160 ± 10 μ Hz), and the noise level of the K 2 time series, being 10 times larger than VIRGO’s. The peak-bagging method provides more consistent results: despite a low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we model 10 overtones for degrees ℓ = 0, 1, 2. We compare the K 2 data with simultaneous SOHO /VIRGO/SPM photometry and BiSON velocity measurements. The individual frequencies, widths, and amplitudes mostly match those from VIRGO and BiSON within 1 σ, except for the few peaks with the lowest S/N.

Deep asteroseismic sounding of the compact hot B subdwarf pulsator KIC02697388 from Kepler time series photometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Charpinet, S.; Van Grootel, Valerie; Fontaine, G.

2011-01-01

of the sdBVs star KIC02697388 monitored with Kepler, using the rich pulsation spectrum uncovered during the ~27-day-long exploratory run Q2.3. Methods: We analyse new high-S/N spectroscopy of KIC02697388 using appropriate NLTE model atmospheres to provide accurate atmospheric parameters for this star. We...... also reanalyse the Kepler light curve using standard prewhitening techniques. On this basis, we apply a forward modelling technique using our latest generation of sdB models. The simultaneous match of the independent periods observed in KIC02697388 with those of models leads objectively...... that this mode can be accounted for particularly well by our optimal seismic models, both in terms of frequency match and nonadiabatic properties. The seismic analysis leads us to identify two model solutions that can both account for the observed pulsation properties of KIC02697388. Despite this remaining...

ALMOST ALL OF KEPLER'S MULTIPLE-PLANET CANDIDATES ARE PLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Kinemuchi, Karen; Koch, David G.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Adams, Elisabeth; Fressin, Francois; Geary, John; Holman, Matthew J.; Ragozzine, Darin; Buchhave, Lars A.; Ciardi, David R.; Cochran, William D.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Ford, Eric B.; Morehead, Robert C.; Gilliland, Ronald L.

2012-01-01

We present a statistical analysis that demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) indeed represent true, physically associated transiting planets. Binary stars provide the primary source of false positives among Kepler planet candidates, implying that false positives should be nearly randomly distributed among Kepler targets. In contrast, true transiting planets would appear clustered around a smaller number of Kepler targets if detectable planets tend to come in systems and/or if the orbital planes of planets encircling the same star are correlated. There are more than one hundred times as many Kepler planet candidates in multi-candidate systems as would be predicted from a random distribution of candidates, implying that the vast majority are true planets. Most of these multis are multiple-planet systems orbiting the Kepler target star, but there are likely cases where (1) the planetary system orbits a fainter star, and the planets are thus significantly larger than has been estimated, or (2) the planets orbit different stars within a binary/multiple star system. We use the low overall false-positive rate among Kepler multis, together with analysis of Kepler spacecraft and ground-based data, to validate the closely packed Kepler-33 planetary system, which orbits a star that has evolved somewhat off of the main sequence. Kepler-33 hosts five transiting planets, with periods ranging from 5.67 to 41 days.

THE ATMOSPHERES OF THE HOT-JUPITERS KEPLER-5b AND KEPLER-6b OBSERVED DURING OCCULTATIONS WITH WARM-SPITZER AND KEPLER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Desert, Jean-Michel; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Latham, David W. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Knutson, Heather A. [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States); Deming, Drake [Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Borucki, William J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Brown, Timothy M. [Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States); Caldwell, Douglas [SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States); Ford, Eric B. [Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W. [Berkeley Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Seager, Sara, E-mail: jdesert@cfa.harvard.edu [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02159 (United States)

2011-11-01

This paper reports the detection and the measurements of occultations of the two transiting hot giant exoplanets Kepler-5b and Kepler-6b by their parent stars. The observations are obtained in the near-infrared with Warm-Spitzer Space Telescope and at optical wavelengths by combining more than a year of Kepler photometry. The investigation consists of constraining the eccentricities of these systems and of obtaining broadband emergent photometric data for individual planets. For both targets, the occultations are detected at the 3{sigma} level at each wavelength with mid-occultation times consistent with circular orbits. The brightness temperatures of these planets are deduced from the infrared observations and reach T{sub Spitzer} = 1930 {+-} 100 K and T{sub Spitzer} = 1660 {+-} 120 K for Kepler-5b and Kepler-6b, respectively. We measure optical geometric albedos A{sub g} in the Kepler bandpass and find A{sub g} = 0.12 {+-} 0.04 for Kepler-5b and A{sub g} = 0.11 {+-} 0.04 for Kepler-6b, leading to upper an limit for the Bond albedo of A{sub B} {<=} 0.17 in both cases. The observations for both planets are best described by models for which most of the incident energy is redistributed on the dayside, with only less than 10% of the absorbed stellar flux redistributed to the nightside of these planets.

FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF STARS USING ASTEROSEISMOLOGY FROM KEPLER AND CoRoT AND INTERFEROMETRY FROM THE CHARA ARRAY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huber, D.; Ireland, M. J.; Bedding, T. R.; Maestro, V.; White, T. R. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Brandao, I. M.; Sousa, S. G.; Cunha, M. S. [Centro de Astrofo Latin-Small-Letter-Dotless-I sica and Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, P-4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Piau, L. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823-2320 (United States); Bruntt, H.; Aguirre, V. Silva; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Casagrande, L. [Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, The Australian National University, ACT 2611 (Australia); Molenda-Zakowicz, J. [Astronomical Institute of the University of Wroclaw, ul. Kopernika 11, 51-622 Wroclaw (Poland); Barclay, T. [Bay Area Environmental Research Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Burke, C. J. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Chaplin, W. J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); De Ridder, J. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, K. U. Leuven, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Farrington, C. D. [Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3969, Atlanta, GA 30302 (United States); Frasca, A., E-mail: daniel.huber@nasa.gov [INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, I-95123 Catania (Italy); and others

2012-11-20

We present results of a long-baseline interferometry campaign using the PAVO beam combiner at the CHARA Array to measure the angular sizes of five main-sequence stars, one subgiant and four red giant stars for which solar-like oscillations have been detected by either Kepler or CoRoT. By combining interferometric angular diameters, Hipparcos parallaxes, asteroseismic densities, bolometric fluxes, and high-resolution spectroscopy, we derive a full set of near-model-independent fundamental properties for the sample. We first use these properties to test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power ({nu}{sub max}) and the large frequency separation ({Delta}{nu}). We find excellent agreement within the observational uncertainties, and empirically show that simple estimates of asteroseismic radii for main-sequence stars are accurate to {approx}< 4%. We furthermore find good agreement of our measured effective temperatures with spectroscopic and photometric estimates with mean deviations for stars between T {sub eff} = 4600-6200 K of -22 {+-} 32 K (with a scatter of 97 K) and -58 {+-} 31 K (with a scatter of 93 K), respectively. Finally, we present a first comparison with evolutionary models, and find differences between observed and theoretical properties for the metal-rich main-sequence star HD 173701. We conclude that the constraints presented in this study will have strong potential for testing stellar model physics, in particular when combined with detailed modeling of individual oscillation frequencies.

Tutorial: Asteroseismic Stellar Modelling with AIMS

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Mikkel N.; Reese, Daniel R.

The goal of aims (Asteroseismic Inference on a Massive Scale) is to estimate stellar parameters and credible intervals/error bars in a Bayesian manner from a set of asteroseismic frequency data and so-called classical constraints. To achieve reliable parameter estimates and computational efficiency, it searches through a grid of pre-computed models using an MCMC algorithm—interpolation within the grid of models is performed by first tessellating the grid using a Delaunay triangulation and then doing a linear barycentric interpolation on matching simplexes. Inputs for the modelling consist of individual frequencies from peak-bagging, which can be complemented with classical spectroscopic constraints. aims is mostly written in Python with a modular structure to facilitate contributions from the community. Only a few computationally intensive parts have been rewritten in Fortran in order to speed up calculations.

Asteroseismic Investigations of the Binary System HD 176465

Science.gov (United States)

Gai, Ning; Basu, Sarbani; Tang, Yanke

2018-04-01

HD 176465 is a binary system for which both components are solar-like pulsators and oscillation frequencies were observed by the Kepler mission. In this paper, we have modeled the asteroseismic and spectroscopic data of the stars, and have determined their convection-zone helium abundances using the signatures left by the He II ionization zone on the mode frequencies. As expected, we find that the components of the binary are of the same age within uncertainties (3.087 ± 0.580 Gyr and 3.569 ± 0.912 Gyr); they also have the same initial helium abundance (Y init = 0.253 ± 0.006 and 0.254 ± 0.008). Their current metallicity ([Fe/H] = ‑0.275 ± 0.04 and ‑0.285 ± 0.04) is also the same within errors. Fits to the signature of the He II acoustic glitch yield current helium abundances of Y A = 0.224 ± 0.006 and Y B = 0.233 ± 0.008 for the two components. Analyzing the complete ensemble of models generated for this investigation, we find that both the amplitude and acoustic depth of the glitch signature arising from the second helium ionization zone and the base of the convection zone (CZ) are functions of mass. We show that the acoustic depths of these glitches are positively correlated with each other. The analysis can help us to detect the internal structure and constrain the chemical compositions.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: LUMINOSITY CLASS, PLANET OCCURRENCE, AND PLANET-METALLICITY RELATION OF THE COOLEST KEPLER TARGET STARS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mann, Andrew W.; Hilton, Eric J. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Gaidos, Eric [Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Lepine, Sebastien, E-mail: amann@ifa.hawaii.edu [Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024 (United States)

2012-07-01

We estimate the stellar parameters of late K- and early M-type Kepler target stars. We obtain medium-resolution visible spectra of 382 stars with K{sub P} - J > 2 ({approx_equal}K5 and later spectral type). We determine luminosity class by comparing the strength of gravity-sensitive indices (CaH, K I, Ca II, and Na I) to their strength in a sample of stars of known luminosity class. We find that giants constitute 96% {+-} 1% of the bright (K{sub P} < 14) Kepler target stars, and 7% {+-} 3% of dim (K{sub P} > 14) stars, significantly higher than fractions based on the stellar parameters quoted in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). The KIC effective temperatures are systematically (110{sup +15}{sub -35} K) higher than temperatures we determine from fitting our spectra to PHOENIX stellar models. Through Monte Carlo simulations of the Kepler exoplanet candidate population, we find a planet occurrence of 0.36 {+-} 0.08 when giant stars are properly removed, somewhat higher than when a KIC log g > 4 criterion is used (0.27 {+-} 0.05). Last, we show that there is no significant difference in g - r color (a probe of metallicity) between late-type Kepler stars with transiting Earth-to-Neptune-size exoplanet candidates and dwarf stars with no detected transits. We show that a previous claimed offset between these two populations is most likely an artifact of including a large number of misidentified giants.

KEPLER SCIENCE OPERATIONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haas, Michael R.; Bryson, Steve T.; Dotson, Jessie L.; Koch, David G.; Smith, Marcie; Sobeck, Charles K.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey E.; Hall, Jennifer; Klaus, Todd C.; Middour, Chris; Thompson, Richard S.; Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey; Stober, Jeremy

2010-01-01

Kepler's mission design includes a comprehensive plan for commissioning and science operations. The commissioning phase completed all critical tasks and accomplished all mission objectives within a week of the pre-launch plan. Since the start of science data collection, the nominal timeline has been interrupted by two safe-mode events, several losses of fine point, and some small pointing adjustments. The most important anomalies are understood and mitigated, so Kepler's technical performance has improved significantly over this period, and the prognosis for mission success is excellent. The Kepler data archive is established and hosting data for the science team, guest observers, and the public. The first data to become publicly available include the monthly full-frame images and the light curves for targets that are dropped from the exoplanet program or released after publication. Data are placed in the archive on a quarterly basis; the Kepler Results Catalog will be released annually starting in 2011.

DETECTION OF SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS FROM KEPLER PHOTOMETRY OF THE OPEN CLUSTER NGC 6819

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stello, Dennis; Bedding, Timothy R.; Huber, Daniel; Basu, Sarbani; Bruntt, Hans; Mosser, BenoIt; Barban, Caroline; Goupil, Marie-Jo; Stevens, Ian R.; Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Hekker, Saskia; Brown, Timothy M.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen; Kjeldsen, Hans; Arentoft, Torben; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Ballot, Jerome; GarcIa, Rafael A.; Mathur, Savita

2010-01-01

Asteroseismology of stars in clusters has been a long-sought goal because the assumption of a common age, distance, and initial chemical composition allows strong tests of the theory of stellar evolution. We report results from the first 34 days of science data from the Kepler Mission for the open cluster NGC 6819-one of the four clusters in the field of view. We obtain the first clear detections of solar-like oscillations in the cluster red giants and are able to measure the large frequency separation, Δν, and the frequency of maximum oscillation power, ν max . We find that the asteroseismic parameters allow us to test cluster membership of the stars, and even with the limited seismic data in hand, we can already identify four possible non-members despite their having a better than 80% membership probability from radial velocity measurements. We are also able to determine the oscillation amplitudes for stars that span about 2 orders of magnitude in luminosity and find good agreement with the prediction that oscillation amplitudes scale as the luminosity to the power of 0.7. These early results demonstrate the unique potential of asteroseismology of the stellar clusters observed by Kepler.

IMAGING STARSPOT EVOLUTION ON KEPLER TARGET KIC 5110407 USING LIGHT-CURVE INVERSION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roettenbacher, Rachael M.; Monnier, John D.; Harmon, Robert O.; Barclay, Thomas; Still, Martin

2013-01-01

The Kepler target KIC 5110407, a K-type star, shows strong quasi-periodic light curve fluctuations likely arising from the formation and decay of spots on the stellar surface rotating with a period of 3.4693 days. Using an established light-curve inversion algorithm, we study the evolution of the surface features based on Kepler space telescope light curves over a period of two years (with a gap of .25 years). At virtually all epochs, we detect at least one large spot group on the surface causing a 1%-10% flux modulation in the Kepler passband. By identifying and tracking spot groups over a range of inferred latitudes, we measured the surface differential rotation to be much smaller than that found for the Sun. We also searched for a correlation between the 17 stellar flares that occurred during our observations and the orientation of the dominant surface spot at the time of each flare. No statistically significant correlation was found except perhaps for the very brightest flares, suggesting that most flares are associated with regions devoid of spots or spots too small to be clearly discerned using our reconstruction technique. While we may see hints of long-term changes in the spot characteristics and flare statistics within our current data set, a longer baseline of observation will be needed to detect the existence of a magnetic cycle in KIC 5110407.

Asteroseismic modelling of solar-type stars: internal systematics from input physics and surface correction methods

Science.gov (United States)

Nsamba, B.; Campante, T. L.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Cunha, M. S.; Rendle, B. M.; Reese, D. R.; Verma, K.

2018-04-01

Asteroseismic forward modelling techniques are being used to determine fundamental properties (e.g. mass, radius, and age) of solar-type stars. The need to take into account all possible sources of error is of paramount importance towards a robust determination of stellar properties. We present a study of 34 solar-type stars for which high signal-to-noise asteroseismic data is available from multi-year Kepler photometry. We explore the internal systematics on the stellar properties, that is, associated with the uncertainty in the input physics used to construct the stellar models. In particular, we explore the systematics arising from: (i) the inclusion of the diffusion of helium and heavy elements; and (ii) the uncertainty in solar metallicity mixture. We also assess the systematics arising from (iii) different surface correction methods used in optimisation/fitting procedures. The systematics arising from comparing results of models with and without diffusion are found to be 0.5%, 0.8%, 2.1%, and 16% in mean density, radius, mass, and age, respectively. The internal systematics in age are significantly larger than the statistical uncertainties. We find the internal systematics resulting from the uncertainty in solar metallicity mixture to be 0.7% in mean density, 0.5% in radius, 1.4% in mass, and 6.7% in age. The surface correction method by Sonoi et al. and Ball & Gizon's two-term correction produce the lowest internal systematics among the different correction methods, namely, ˜1%, ˜1%, ˜2%, and ˜8% in mean density, radius, mass, and age, respectively. Stellar masses obtained using the surface correction methods by Kjeldsen et al. and Ball & Gizon's one-term correction are systematically higher than those obtained using frequency ratios.

ALMOST ALL OF KEPLER'S MULTIPLE-PLANET CANDIDATES ARE PLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Kinemuchi, Karen; Koch, David G. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W. [Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Adams, Elisabeth; Fressin, Francois; Geary, John; Holman, Matthew J.; Ragozzine, Darin [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100, Copenhagen (Denmark); Ciardi, David R. [Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Cochran, William D. [Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Ford, Eric B.; Morehead, Robert C. [University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States); Gilliland, Ronald L., E-mail: Jack.Lissauer@nasa.gov [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); and others

2012-05-10

We present a statistical analysis that demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) indeed represent true, physically associated transiting planets. Binary stars provide the primary source of false positives among Kepler planet candidates, implying that false positives should be nearly randomly distributed among Kepler targets. In contrast, true transiting planets would appear clustered around a smaller number of Kepler targets if detectable planets tend to come in systems and/or if the orbital planes of planets encircling the same star are correlated. There are more than one hundred times as many Kepler planet candidates in multi-candidate systems as would be predicted from a random distribution of candidates, implying that the vast majority are true planets. Most of these multis are multiple-planet systems orbiting the Kepler target star, but there are likely cases where (1) the planetary system orbits a fainter star, and the planets are thus significantly larger than has been estimated, or (2) the planets orbit different stars within a binary/multiple star system. We use the low overall false-positive rate among Kepler multis, together with analysis of Kepler spacecraft and ground-based data, to validate the closely packed Kepler-33 planetary system, which orbits a star that has evolved somewhat off of the main sequence. Kepler-33 hosts five transiting planets, with periods ranging from 5.67 to 41 days.

DISCOVERY OF A RED GIANT WITH SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS IN AN ECLIPSING BINARY SYSTEM FROM KEPLER SPACE-BASED PHOTOMETRY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hekker, S.; Debosscher, J.; De Ridder, J.; Aerts, C.; Van Winckel, H.; Beck, P. G.; Blomme, J.; Huber, D.; Hidas, M. G.; Stello, D.; Bedding, T. R.; Gilliland, R. L.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Kjeldsen, H.; Brown, T. M.; Borucki, W. J.; Koch, D.; Jenkins, J. M.; Southworth, J.; Pigulski, A.

2010-01-01

Oscillating stars in binary systems are among the most interesting stellar laboratories, as these can provide information on the stellar parameters and stellar internal structures. Here we present a red giant with solar-like oscillations in an eclipsing binary observed with the NASA Kepler satellite. We compute stellar parameters of the red giant from spectra and the asteroseismic mass and radius from the oscillations. Although only one eclipse has been observed so far, we can already determine that the secondary is a main-sequence F star in an eccentric orbit with a semi-major axis larger than 0.5 AU and orbital period longer than 75 days.

Kepler red-clump stars in the field and in open clusters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossini, D.; Miglio, A.; Salaris, M.

2017-01-01

Convective mixing in helium-core-burning (HeCB) stars is one of the outstanding issues in stellar modelling. The precise asteroseismic measurements of gravity-mode period spacing (Delta Pi(1)) have opened the door to detailed studies of the near-core structure of such stars, which had not been...... possible before. Here, we provide stringent tests of various core-mixing scenarios against the largely unbiased population of red-clump stars belonging to the old-open clusters monitored by Kepler, and by coupling the updated precise inference on Delta Pi(1) in thousands of field stars with spectroscopic...... constraints. We find that models with moderate overshooting successfully reproduce the range observed of Delta Pi(1) in clusters. In particular, we show that there is no evidence for the need to extend the size of the adiabatically stratified core, at least at the beginning of the HeCB phase. This conclusion...

INITIAL DATA RELEASE OF THE KEPLER-INT SURVEY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greiss, S.; Steeghs, D.; Gaensicke, B. T. [Department of Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics group, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL Coventry (United Kingdom); Martin, E. L. [INTA-CSIC Centro de Astrobiologia, Carretera de Ajalvir km 4, 28550 Torrejon de Ardoz (Spain); Groot, P. J.; Verbeek, K.; Jonker, P. G.; Scaringi, S. [Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen (Netherlands); Irwin, M. J.; Gonzalez-Solares, E. [Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA Cambridge (United Kingdom); Greimel, R. [Institut fuer Physik, Karl-Franzen Universitaet Graz, Universitaetsplatz 5, 8010 Graz (Austria); Knigge, C. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ (United Kingdom); Ostensen, R. H. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven (Belgium); Drew, J. E.; Farnhill, H. [Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB (United Kingdom); Drake, J.; Wright, N. J. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Ripepi, V. [INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, Naples I-80131 (Italy); Southworth, J. [Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Newcastle-under-Lyme ST5 5BG (United Kingdom); Still, M., E-mail: s.greiss@warwick.ac.uk [NASA Ames Research Center, M/S 244-40, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); and others

2012-07-15

This paper describes the first data release of the Kepler-INT Survey (KIS) that covers a 116 deg{sup 2} region of the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. The Kepler field is the target of the most intensive search for transiting planets to date. Despite the fact that the Kepler mission provides superior time-series photometry, with an enormous impact on all areas of stellar variability, its field lacks optical photometry complete to the confusion limit of the Kepler instrument necessary for selecting various classes of targets. For this reason, we follow the observing strategy and data reduction method used in the IPHAS and UVEX galactic plane surveys in order to produce a deep optical survey of the Kepler field. This initial release concerns data taken between 2011 May and August, using the Isaac Newton Telescope on the island of La Palma. Four broadband filters were used, U, g, r, i, as well as one narrowband one, H{alpha}, reaching down to a 10{sigma} limit of {approx}20th mag in the Vega system. Observations covering {approx}50 deg{sup 2}, thus about half of the field, passed our quality control thresholds and constitute this first data release. We derive a global photometric calibration by placing the KIS magnitudes as close as possible to the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) photometry. The initial data release catalog containing around 6 million sources from all the good photometric fields is available for download from the KIS Web site (www.astro.warwick.ac.uk/research/kis/) as well as via MAST (KIS magnitudes can be retrieved using the MAST enhanced target search page http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/kepler{sub f}ov/search.php and also via Casjobs at MAST Web site http://mastweb.stsci.edu/kplrcasjobs/).

INITIAL DATA RELEASE OF THE KEPLER-INT SURVEY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greiss, S.; Steeghs, D.; Gänsicke, B. T.; Martín, E. L.; Groot, P. J.; Verbeek, K.; Jonker, P. G.; Scaringi, S.; Irwin, M. J.; González-Solares, E.; Greimel, R.; Knigge, C.; Østensen, R. H.; Drew, J. E.; Farnhill, H.; Drake, J.; Wright, N. J.; Ripepi, V.; Southworth, J.; Still, M.

2012-01-01

This paper describes the first data release of the Kepler-INT Survey (KIS) that covers a 116 deg 2 region of the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. The Kepler field is the target of the most intensive search for transiting planets to date. Despite the fact that the Kepler mission provides superior time-series photometry, with an enormous impact on all areas of stellar variability, its field lacks optical photometry complete to the confusion limit of the Kepler instrument necessary for selecting various classes of targets. For this reason, we follow the observing strategy and data reduction method used in the IPHAS and UVEX galactic plane surveys in order to produce a deep optical survey of the Kepler field. This initial release concerns data taken between 2011 May and August, using the Isaac Newton Telescope on the island of La Palma. Four broadband filters were used, U, g, r, i, as well as one narrowband one, Hα, reaching down to a 10σ limit of ∼20th mag in the Vega system. Observations covering ∼50 deg 2 , thus about half of the field, passed our quality control thresholds and constitute this first data release. We derive a global photometric calibration by placing the KIS magnitudes as close as possible to the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) photometry. The initial data release catalog containing around 6 million sources from all the good photometric fields is available for download from the KIS Web site (www.astro.warwick.ac.uk/research/kis/) as well as via MAST (KIS magnitudes can be retrieved using the MAST enhanced target search page http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/kepler_fov/search.php and also via Casjobs at MAST Web site http://mastweb.stsci.edu/kplrcasjobs/).

K2P2- A photometry pipeline for the K2 mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Mikkel N.; Handberg, Rasmus; Davies, Guy R.

2015-01-01

With the loss of a second reaction wheel, resulting in the inability to point continuously and stably at the same field of view, the NASA Kepler satellite recently entered a new mode of observation known as the K2 mission. The data from this redesigned mission present a specific challenge......; the targets systematically drift in position on a ~6 hour time scale, inducing a significant instrumental signal in the photometric time series --- this greatly impacts the ability to detect planetary signals and perform asteroseismic analysis. Here we detail our version of a reduction pipeline for K2 target...... the KASOC filter (Handberg & Lund 2014), thus rendering the time series ready for asteroseismic analysis; computes power spectra for all targets, and identifies potential contaminations between targets. From a test of our pipeline on a sample of targets from the K2 campaign 0, the recovery of data...

Photometry Using Kepler "Superstamps" of Open Clusters NGC 6791 & NGC 6819

Science.gov (United States)

Kuehn, Charles A.; Drury, Jason A.; Bellamy, Beau R.; Stello, Dennis; Bedding, Timothy R.; Reed, Mike; Quick, Breanna

2015-09-01

The Kepler space telescope has proven to be a gold mine for the study of variable stars. Usually, Kepler only reads out a handful of pixels around each pre-selected target star, omitting a large number of stars in the Kepler field. Fortunately, for the open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819, Kepler also read out larger "superstamps" which contained complete images of the central region of each cluster. These cluster images can be used to study additional stars in the open clusters that were not originally on Kepler's target list. We discuss our work on using two photometric techniques to analyze these superstamps and present sample results from this project to demonstrate the value of this technique for a wide variety of variable stars.

Exoplanet Population Distribution from Kepler Data

Science.gov (United States)

Traub, Wesley A.

2015-08-01

The underlying population of exoplanets around stars in the Kepler sample can be inferred by binning the Kepler planets in radius and period, invoking an empirical noise model, assuming a model exoplanet distribution function, randomly assigning planets to each of the Kepler target stars, asking whether each planet’s transit signal could be detected by Kepler, binning the resulting simulated detections, comparing the simulations with the observed data sample, and iterating on the model parameters until a satisfactory fit is obtained. The process is designed to simulate Kepler’s observing procedure. The key assumption is that the distribution function is continuous and the product of separable functions of period and radius. Any additional suspected biases in the sample can be handled by adjusting the noise model. The first advantage of this overall procedure is that the actual detection process is simulated as closely as possible, on a target by target basis, so the resulting estimated population should be closer to the actual population than by any other method of analysis. The second advantage is that the resulting distribution function can be extended to values of period and radius that go beyond the sample space, including, for example, application to estimating eta-sub-Earth, and also estimating the expected science yields of future direct-imaging exoplanet missions such as WFIRST-AFTA.

Kepler-91b: a planet at the end of its life. Planet and giant host star properties via light-curve variations

Science.gov (United States)

Lillo-Box, J.; Barrado, D.; Moya, A.; Montesinos, B.; Montalbán, J.; Bayo, A.; Barbieri, M.; Régulo, C.; Mancini, L.; Bouy, H.; Henning, T.

2014-02-01

Context. The evolution of planetary systems is intimately linked to the evolution of their host stars. Our understanding of the whole planetary evolution process is based on the wide planet diversity observed so far. Only a few tens of planets have been discovered orbiting stars ascending the red giant branch. Although several theories have been proposed, the question of how planets die remains open owing to the small number statistics, making it clear that the sample of planets around post-main sequence stars needs to be enlarged. Aims: In this work we study the giant star Kepler-91 (KOI-2133) in order to determine the nature of a transiting companion. This system was detected by the Kepler Space Telescope, which identified small dims in its light curve with a period of 6.246580 ± 0.000082 days. However, its planetary confirmation is needed due to the large pixel size of the Kepler camera, which can hide other stellar configurations able to mimic planet-like transit events. Methods: We analysed Kepler photometry to 1) re-calculate transit parameters; 2) study the light-curve modulations; and 3) to perform an asteroseismic analysis (accurate stellar parameter determination) by identifying solar-like oscillations on the periodogram. We also used a high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum obtained with the Calar Alto Fiber-fed Échelle spectrograph (CAFE) to measure stellar properties. Additionally, false-positive scenarios were rejected by obtaining high-resolution images with the AstraLux lucky imaging camera on the 2.2 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory. Results: We confirm the planetary nature of the object transiting the star Kepler-91 by deriving a mass of Mp=0.88+0.17-0.33 MJup and a planetary radius of Rp=1.384+0.011-0.054 RJup. Asteroseismic analysis produces a stellar radius of R⋆ = 6.30 ± 0.16 R⊙ and a mass of M⋆ = 1.31 ± 0.10 M⊙. We find that its eccentric orbit (e=0.066+0.013-0.017) is just 1.32+0.07-0.22 R⋆ away from

Deep learning classification in asteroseismology using an improved neural network: results on 15 000 Kepler red giants and applications to K2 and TESS data

Science.gov (United States)

Hon, Marc; Stello, Dennis; Yu, Jie

2018-05-01

Deep learning in the form of 1D convolutional neural networks have previously been shown to be capable of efficiently classifying the evolutionary state of oscillating red giants into red giant branch stars and helium-core burning stars by recognizing visual features in their asteroseismic frequency spectra. We elaborate further on the deep learning method by developing an improved convolutional neural network classifier. To make our method useful for current and future space missions such as K2, TESS, and PLATO, we train classifiers that are able to classify the evolutionary states of lower frequency resolution spectra expected from these missions. Additionally, we provide new classifications for 8633 Kepler red giants, out of which 426 have previously not been classified using asteroseismology. This brings the total to 14983 Kepler red giants classified with our new neural network. We also verify that our classifiers are remarkably robust to suboptimal data, including low signal-to-noise and incorrect training truth labels.

Amplitudes of solar-like oscillations: Constraints from red giants in open clusters observed by Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel; Kallinger, Thomas

2011-01-01

implies that the stellar parameters can be measured to much higher precision than what is usually achievable for single stars. This makes clusters ideal for exploring the relation between the mode amplitude of solar-like oscillations and the global stellar properties. We have analyzed data obtained......Scaling relations that link asteroseismic quantities to global stellar properties are important for gaining understanding of the intricate physics that underpins stellar pulsations. The common notion that all stars in an open cluster have essentially the same distance, age, and initial composition...... with NASA's Kepler space telescope to study solar-like oscillations in 100 red giant stars located in either of the three open clusters, NGC 6791, NGC 6819, and NGC 6811. By fitting the measured amplitudes to predictions from simple scaling relations that depend on luminosity, mass, and effective...

Impact of gaps in the asteroseismic characterization of pulsating stars. I. The efficiency of pre-whitening

Science.gov (United States)

Pascual-Granado, J.; Suárez, J. C.; Garrido, R.; Moya, A.; Hernández, A. García; Rodón, J. R.; Lares-Martiz, M.

2018-06-01

Context. It is known that the observed distribution of frequencies in CoRoT and Kepler δ Scuti stars has no parallelism with any theoretical model. Pre-whitening is a widespread technique in the analysis of time series with gaps from pulsating stars located in the classical instability strip, such as δ Scuti stars. However, some studies have pointed out that this technique might introduce biases in the results of the frequency analysis. Aims: This work aims at studying the biases that can result from pre-whitening in asteroseismology. The results will depend on the intrinsic range and distribution of frequencies of the stars. The periodic nature of the gaps in CoRoT observations, only in the range of the pulsational frequency content of the δ Scuti stars, is shown to be crucial to determining their oscillation frequencies, the first step in performing asteroseismology of these objects. Hence, here we focus on the impact of pre-whitening on the asteroseismic characterization of δ Scuti stars. Methods: We select a sample of 15 δ Scuti stars observed by the CoRoT satellite, for which ultra-high-quality photometric data have been obtained by its seismic channel. In order to study the impact on the asteroseismic characterization of δ Scuti stars we perform the pre-whitening procedure on three datasets: gapped data, linearly interpolated data, and data with gaps interpolated using Autoregressive and Moving Average models (ARMA). Results: The different results obtained show that at least in some cases pre-whitening is not an efficient procedure for the deconvolution of the spectral window. Therefore, in order to reduce the effect of the spectral window to a minimum, in addition to performing a pre-whitening of the data, it is necessary to interpolate with an algorithm that is aimed to preserve the original frequency content. Tables 5-49 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http

Close-up of primary and secondary asteroseismic CoRoT targets and the ground-based follow-up observations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Uytterhoeven, K; Poretti, E; Rainer, M; Mantegazza, L [INAF-Brera Astronomical Observatory, Via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (Italy); Zima, W; Aerts, C; Morel, T; Lefever, K [Institute of Astronomy, KULeuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven (Belgium); Miglio, A [Institut d' Astrophysique et de Geophysique de l' Universite de Liege, Allee du 6 Aout 17, 4000 Liege (Belgium); Amado, P J; MartIn-Ruiz, S [Instituto de AstrofIsica de AndalucIa (CSIC), Apartado 3004, 18080 Granada (Spain); Mathias, P; Valtier, J C [Observatoire de la Cote d' Azur, GEMINI, CNRS, Universite Nice Sophia-Antipolis, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4 (France); Paparo, M; Benkoe, J M [Konkoly Observatory, PO Box 67, 1525 Budapest (Hungary)], E-mail: katrien.uytterhoeven@brera.inaf.it

2008-10-15

To optimise the science results of the asteroseismic part of the CoRoT satellite mission a complementary simultaneous ground-based observational campaign is organised for selected CoRoT targets. The observations include both high-resolution spectroscopic and multicolour photometric data. We present the preliminary results of the analysis of the ground-based observations of three targets. A line-profile analysis of 216 high-resolution FEROS spectra of the {delta} Sct star HD 50844 reveals more than ten pulsation frequencies in the frequency range 5-18 d{sup -1}, including possibly one radial fundamental mode (6.92 d{sup -1}). Based on more than 600 multi-colour photometric datapoints of the {beta} Cep star HD 180642, spanning about three years and obtained with different telescopes and different instruments, we confirm the presence of a dominant radial mode {nu}{sub 1} = 5.48695 d{sup -1}, and detect also its first two harmonics. We find evidence for a second mode {nu}{sub 2} = 0.3017 d{sup -1}, possibly a g-mode, and indications for two more frequencies in the 7-8 d{sup -1} domain. From Stromgren photometry we find evidence for the hybrid 5 Sct/{gamma} Dor character of the F0 star HD 44195, as frequencies near 3 d{sup -1} and 21 d{sup -1} are detected simultaneously in the different filters.

RED GIANTS IN ECLIPSING BINARY AND MULTIPLE-STAR SYSTEMS: MODELING AND ASTEROSEISMIC ANALYSIS OF 70 CANDIDATES FROM KEPLER DATA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaulme, P.; McKeever, J.; Rawls, M. L.; Jackiewicz, J.; Mosser, B.; Guzik, J. A.

2013-01-01

Red giant stars are proving to be an incredible source of information for testing models of stellar evolution, as asteroseismology has opened up a window into their interiors. Such insights are a direct result of the unprecedented data from space missions CoRoT and Kepler as well as recent theoretical advances. Eclipsing binaries are also fundamental astrophysical objects, and when coupled with asteroseismology, binaries provide two independent methods to obtain masses and radii and exciting opportunities to develop highly constrained stellar models. The possibility of discovering pulsating red giants in eclipsing binary systems is therefore an important goal that could potentially offer very robust characterization of these systems. Until recently, only one case has been discovered with Kepler. We cross-correlate the detected red giant and eclipsing-binary catalogs from Kepler data to find possible candidate systems. Light-curve modeling and mean properties measured from asteroseismology are combined to yield specific measurements of periods, masses, radii, temperatures, eclipse timing variations, core rotation rates, and red giant evolutionary state. After using three different techniques to eliminate false positives, out of the 70 systems common to the red giant and eclipsing-binary catalogs we find 13 strong candidates (12 previously unknown) to be eclipsing binaries, one to be a non-eclipsing binary with tidally induced oscillations, and 10 more to be hierarchical triple systems, all of which include a pulsating red giant. The systems span a range of orbital eccentricities, periods, and spectral types F, G, K, and M for the companion of the red giant. One case even suggests an eclipsing binary composed of two red giant stars and another of a red giant with a δ-Scuti star. The discovery of multiple pulsating red giants in eclipsing binaries provides an exciting test bed for precise astrophysical modeling, and follow-up spectroscopic observations of many of the

Models of red giants in the CoRoT asteroseismology fields combining asteroseismic and spectroscopic constraints - The open cluster NGC 6633 and field stars-

Science.gov (United States)

Lagarde, Nadège; Miglio, Andrea; Eggenberger, Patrick; Morel, Thierry; Montalbàn, Josefina; Mosser, Benoit

2015-08-01

The availability of asteroseismic constraints for a large sample of red giant stars from the CoRoT and Kepler missions paves the way for various statistical studies of the seismic properties of stellar populations.We use the first detailed spectroscopic study of CoRoT red-giant stars (Morel et al 2014) to compare theoretical stellar evolution models to observations of the open cluster NGC 6633 and field stars.In order to explore the effects of rotation-induced mixing and thermohaline instability, we compare surface abundances of carbon isotopic ratio and lithium with stellar evolution predictions. These chemicals are sensitive to extra-mixing on the red-giant branch.We estimate mass, radius, and distance for each star using the seismic constraints. We note that the Hipparcos and seismic distances are different. However, the uncertainties are such that this may not be significant. Although the seismic distances for the cluster members are self consistent they are somewhat larger than the Hipparcos distance. This is an issue that should be considered elsewhere. Models including thermohaline instability and rotation-induced mixing, together with the seismically determined masses can explain the chemical properties of red-giants targets. Tighter constraints on the physics of the models would be possible if there were detailed knowledge of the core rotation rate and the asymptotic period spacing.

Atmospheres of Two Super-Puffs: Transmission Spectra of Kepler 51b and Kepler 51d

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Jessica; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Desert, Jean-Michel; Deck, Katherine; Fabrycky, Daniel; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Line, Michael R.; Lopez, Eric; Masuda, Kento; Morley, Caroline; Sanchis Ojeda, Roberto; Winn, Joshua N.

2018-06-01

The Kepler 51 system hosts three transiting, extremely low-mass, low-density exoplanets. These planets orbit a young G type star at periods of 45, 85 and 130 days, placing them outside of the regime for the inflated hot-Jupiters. Instead, the Kepler 51 planets are part of a rare class of exoplanets: the super-puffs. Models suggest these H/He-rich planets formed outside of the snow-line and migrated inwards, which might imply abundant water in their atmospheres. Because Kepler 51b and 51d have low surface gravities, they also have scale heights 10x larger than a typical hot-Jupiter, making them prime targets for atmospheric investigation. Kepler 51c, while also possessing a large scale height, only grazes its star during transit. We are also presented with a unique opportunity to study two super-puffs in very different temperature regimes around the same star. Therefore, we observed two transits each of both Kepler 51b and 51d with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 G141 grism spectroscopy. Using these data we created spectroscopic light curves that allow us to compute a transmission spectrum for each planet. We conclude that both planets have a flat transmission spectrum with a precision better than 0.6 scale heights between 1.1 and 1.7 microns. We also analyzed the transit timing variations of each planet by combining re-fitted Kepler mid-transit times with our measured HST times. From these additional timing points, we are able to better constrain the planetary masses and the dynamics of the system. With these updated masses and revisited stellar parameters, we determine precise measurements on the densities of these planets. We will present these results as well as discuss the implications for high altitude aerosols in both Kepler 51b and 51d.

PLANET HUNTERS: ASSESSING THE KEPLER INVENTORY OF SHORT-PERIOD PLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwamb, Megan E.; Lintott, Chris J.; Lynn, Stuart; Smith, Arfon M.; Simpson, Robert J.; Fischer, Debra A.; Giguere, Matthew J.; Brewer, John M.; Parrish, Michael; Schawinski, Kevin

2012-01-01

We present the results from a search of data from the first 33.5 days of the Kepler science mission (Quarter 1) for exoplanet transits by the Planet Hunters citizen science project. Planet Hunters enlists members of the general public to visually identify transits in the publicly released Kepler light curves via the World Wide Web. Over 24,000 volunteers reviewed the Kepler Quarter 1 data set. We examine the abundance of ≥2 R ⊕ planets on short-period ( ⊕ Planet Hunters ≥85% efficient at identifying transit signals for planets with periods less than 15 days for the Kepler sample of target stars. Our high efficiency rate for simulated transits along with recovery of the majority of Kepler ≥4 R ⊕ planets suggests that the Kepler inventory of ≥4 R ⊕ short-period planets is nearly complete.

Transit Recovery of Kepler-167e: Providing JWST with an Unprecedented Jupiter-analog Exoplanet Target

Science.gov (United States)

Dalba, Paul; Muirhead, Philip; Tamburo, Patrick

2018-05-01

The Kepler Mission has uncovered a handful of long-period transiting exoplanets that orbit in the cold outer reaches of their systems, despite their low transit probabilities. Recent work suggests that cold gas giant exoplanet atmospheres are amenable to transmission spectroscopy (the analysis of the transit depth versus wavelength) enabling novel tests of planetary formation and evolution theories. Of particular scientific interest is Kepler-167e, a low-eccentricity Jupiter-analog exoplanet with a 1,071-day orbital period residing well beyond the snow-line. Transmission spectroscopy of Kepler-167e from JWST can reveal the composition of this planet's atmosphere, constrain its heavy-element abundance, and identify atmospheric photochemical processes. JWST characterization also enables unprecedented direct comparison with Jupiter and Saturn, which show a striking diversity in physical properties that is best investigated through comparative exoplanetology. Since Kepler only observed two transits of Kepler-167e, it is not known if this exoplanet exhibits transit timing variations (TTVs). About half of Kepler's long-period exoplanets have TTVs of up to 40 hours. Such a large uncertainty jeopardizes attempts to characterize the atmosphere of this unique Jovian exoplanet with JWST. To mitigate this risk, the upcoming third transit of Kepler-167e must be observed to test for TTVs. We propose a simple 10-hour, single-channel observation to capture ingress or egress of the next transit of Kepler-167e in December 2018. In the absence of TTVs, our observation will reduce the ephemeris uncertainty from an unknown value to approximately 3 minutes, thereby removing the risk in future transit observations with JWST. The excellent photometric precision of Spitzer is sufficient to identify the transit of Kepler-167e. Given the timing and nature of this program, Spitzer is the only observatory--on the ground or in space--that can make this pivotal observation.

Kadenza: Kepler/K2 Raw Cadence Data Reader

Science.gov (United States)

Barentsen, Geert; Cardoso, José Vinícius de Miranda

2018-03-01

Kadenza enables time-critical data analyses to be carried out using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. It enables users to convert Kepler's raw data files into user-friendly Target Pixel Files upon downlink from the spacecraft. The primary motivation for this tool is to enable the microlensing, supernova, and exoplanet communities to create quicklook lightcurves for transient events which require rapid follow-up.

Selection, Prioritization, and Characteristics of Kepler Target Stars

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-20

2MASS ) J,H,K 9 http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler L109 Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the...parameters are archived in the KIC together with results from other photometric survey catalogs (e.g., 2MASS , USNO-B, Tycho, and Hipparcos) in order

Asteroseismic observations and modelling of 70 Ophiuchi AB

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eggenberger, P; Miglio, A [Institut d' Astrophysique et de Geophysique de l' Universite de Liege, 17 Allee du 6 Aout, B-4000 Liege (Belgium); Carrier, F [Institute of Astronomy, University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Fernandes, J [Observatorio Astronomico da Universidade de Coimbra e Departamento de Matematica, FCTUC (Portugal); Santos, N C [Centro de AstrofIsica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, P-4150-762 Porto (Portugal)], E-mail: eggenberger@astro.ulg.ac.be

2008-10-15

The analysis of solar-like oscillations for stars belonging to a binary system provides an opportunity to probe the internal stellar structure and to test our knowledge of stellar physics. We present asteroseismic observations of 70 Oph A performed with the HARPS spectrograph together with a comprehensive theoretical calibration of the 70 Ophiuchi system.

The Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline Source Code Road Map

Science.gov (United States)

Wohler, Bill; Jenkins, Jon M.; Twicken, Joseph D.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Clarke, Bruce Donald; Middour, Christopher K.; Quintana, Elisa Victoria; Sanderfer, Jesse Thomas; Uddin, Akm Kamal; Sabale, Anima;

Selecting Pixels for High-Precision Photometry in the Kepler Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Bryson, Steve; Jenkins, J.; Caldwell, D.; Koch, D.; Borucki, W.

2007-12-01

The Kepler Mission is designed to discover and characterize the frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars by observing 100,000 main-sequence stars in a 100 square degree field of view (FOV). Kepler's transit detection method uses a long photometric time series for each target star. Each data point is created by summing several pixels.The data are co-added and stored at a 30 minute cadence that is stored for monthly downlink. Memory and bandwidth constraints prevent the storage of all 95 million pixels in the photometer, so pixels of interest are assigned to each target. We describe the automated method by which each transit target is assigned a set of pixels that are optimal for high precision photometry. This method relies on synthetic images based on the Kepler input catalog combined with a direct measurement of the Kepler systempoint spread function. We cover the PSF measurement process, the rendering of the synthetic image, and the use of the synthetic image to determine the contribution of each pixel to a target's signal-to-noise ratio. The optimal pixels for a target are defined as those pixels which maximize that target's signal-to-noise ratio. Our method includes models of the noise associated with pixel response variations and for spacecraft motion. We describe the process that is used to identify appropriate pixels for modeling the background as well as pixel management, including the specification of pixels for non-transit targets. Funding for this mission provided by NASA's Discovery Program Office, SMD.

Photometry Using Kepler “Superstamps” of Open Clusters NGC 6791 & NGC 6819

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuehn Charles A.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Kepler space telescope has proven to be a gold mine for the study of variable stars. Usually, Kepler only reads out a handful of pixels around each pre-selected target star, omitting a large number of stars in the Kepler field. Fortunately, for the open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819, Kepler also read out larger “superstamps” which contained complete images of the central region of each cluster. These cluster images can be used to study additional stars in the open clusters that were not originally on Kepler’s target list. We discuss our work on using two photometric techniques to analyze these superstamps and present sample results from this project to demonstrate the value of this technique for a wide variety of variable stars.

KEPLER-424 b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Endl, Michael; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas

2014-01-01

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive......-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be "lonely". This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424...... planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1...

Kepler: A Search for Terrestrial Planets. K2 Handbook

Science.gov (United States)

Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Bryson, Steve

2017-01-01

The Kepler spacecraft was repurposed for the K2 mission a year after the failure of the second of Kepler's four reaction wheels in 2013 May. The purpose of this document, the K2 Handbook (K2H), is to describe features of K2 operations, performance, data analysis, and archive products which are common to most K2 campaigns, but different in degree or kind from the corresponding features of the Kepler mission.The K2 Handbook is meant to be read with the following companion documents, which are all publicly available:1. Kepler Instrument Handbook (KSCI-19033) provides information about the design, performance and operational constraints of the instrument and an overview of the types of pixel data that are available.2. Kepler Data Processing Handbook (KSCI-19081) describes how pixels downloaded from the spacecraft are converted by the Kepler Data Processing Pipeline into the data products available at the MAST archive3. Kepler Archive Manual (KDMC-100008) describes the format and content of the data products and how to search for them.4. Kepler Data Characteristics Handbook (KSCI-19040) describes recurring non-astrophysical features of the Kepler data due to instrument signatures, spacecraft events or solar activity and explains how these characteristics are handled by the Kepler pipeline.5. The Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog describes the provenance of the positions and Kepler magnitudes used for target management and aperature photometry.6. K2 Data Release Notes (DRN) are on-line documents available on the K2 science website which describe the data inventory, instrumental signatures and events peculiar to individual observing campaigns.

Kepler: A Search for Terrestrial Planets - Kepler Data Characterization Handbook

Science.gov (United States)

Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Christiansen, J. L.; Jenkins, J. M.; Caldwell, D. A.; Barclay, T.; Bryson, S. T.; Burke, C. J.; Campbell, J.; Catanzarite, J.; Clarke, B. D.;

Kepler

CERN Document Server

Caspar, Max

1993-01-01

A towering figure in intellectual history and one of the fathers of modern astronomy, the great mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) is best known for his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion, which paved the way for a dynamic explanation of the heavenly phenomena. At a time when the Ptolemaic view still prevailed in official circles, Kepler undertook to prove the truth of the Copernican world view and through exceptional perseverance and force of intellect achieved that goal. His epochal intellectual feats are completely and thoroughly described in this splendid work, considered the definitive biography of Kepler. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, the author presents a fascinating and erudite picture of Kepler's scientific accomplishments, his public life (work with Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer; mathematical appointments at Graz, Prague, and Linz; pioneering work with calculus and optics, and more) and his personal life: childhood and youth, financial situation, his mother's tri...

New Kepler Data Products At MAST For Stellar Astrophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Fleming, Scott W.; Shiao, B.; Tseng, S.; Million, C.; Thompson, R.; Seibert, M.; Abney, F.; Donaldson, T.; Dower, T.; Fraquelli, D. A.; Handy, S.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Levay, K.; Matuskey, J.; McLean, B.; Quick, L.; Rogers, A.; Wallace, G.; White, R. L.

2014-01-01

The Kepler Mission has collected high-precision, time-series photometry of over 200,000 stars. The reduced lightcurves, target pixel files, and a variety of catalog metadata are already available at MAST. We present new data products and services at MAST that will further aid researchers as Kepler begins its transition to a legacy mission, particularly in the realm of stellar astrophysics. New photometric catalogs to accompany the Kepler targets have arrived at MAST within the past year, and several more will be coming in the relative future. These include the second half of the Kepler INT survey (U,g,r,i,H_alpha; available now), an improved GALEX source catalog (NUV and FUV; available now), PanSTARRS (g,r,i,z; available soon), and WISE (3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns; planned). We expect searches for variability will become one of the most active areas of archive use, so MAST is including a wide range of variability statistics as part of the archive database. In addition to being searchable through database queries and web forms, each Preview page will now include a summary of these variability indices for each of the target's lightcurves within a Quarter. Along with updated NUV and FUV fluxes, a new tool at MAST called gPhoton will allow users to create time-series lightcurves, including animated movies and intensity images, from any set of GALEX photons with arbitrary aperture and bin sizes. We show some examples of the ways GALEX UV lightcurves generated with gPhoton can be used in conjunction with the Kepler data. Finally, MAST has released an initial version of its Data Discovery Portal. This one-stop, interactive web application gives users the ability to search and access data from any of MAST's missions (HST, GALEX, Kepler, FUSE, IUE, JWST, etc.), as well as any data available through the Virtual Observatory. It includes filtering options, access to interactive displays, an accompanying AstroViewer with data footprints on-sky, the ability to upload your own

Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b.

Science.gov (United States)

Welsh, William F; Orosz, Jerome A; Carter, Joshua A; Fabrycky, Daniel C; Ford, Eric B; Lissauer, Jack J; Prša, Andrej; Quinn, Samuel N; Ragozzine, Darin; Short, Donald R; Torres, Guillermo; Winn, Joshua N; Doyle, Laurance R; Barclay, Thomas; Batalha, Natalie; Bloemen, Steven; Brugamyer, Erik; Buchhave, Lars A; Caldwell, Caroline; Caldwell, Douglas A; Christiansen, Jessie L; Ciardi, David R; Cochran, William D; Endl, Michael; Fortney, Jonathan J; Gautier, Thomas N; Gilliland, Ronald L; Haas, Michael R; Hall, Jennifer R; Holman, Matthew J; Howard, Andrew W; Howell, Steve B; Isaacson, Howard; Jenkins, Jon M; Klaus, Todd C; Latham, David W; Li, Jie; Marcy, Geoffrey W; Mazeh, Tsevi; Quintana, Elisa V; Robertson, Paul; Shporer, Avi; Steffen, Jason H; Windmiller, Gur; Koch, David G; Borucki, William J

2012-01-11

Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally bound pairs of stars (binaries). Although long anticipated, the existence of a 'circumbinary planet' orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery of the planet transiting (that is, passing in front of) Kepler-16. Questions remained, however, about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we report two additional transiting circumbinary planets: Kepler-34 (AB)b and Kepler-35 (AB)b, referred to here as Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, respectively. Each is a low-density gas-giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 b orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, whereas Kepler-35 b orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun's mass) every 131 days. The planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation arising from the orbital motion of the stars. The observed rate of circumbinary planets in our sample implies that more than ∼1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.

Testing Scaling Relations for Solar-like Oscillations from the Main Sequence to Red Giants Using Kepler Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huber, D.; Bedding, T.R.; Stello, D.

2011-01-01

), and oscillation amplitudes. We show that the difference of the Δν-νmax relation for unevolved and evolved stars can be explained by different distributions in effective temperature and stellar mass, in agreement with what is expected from scaling relations. For oscillation amplitudes, we show that neither (L/M) s......We have analyzed solar-like oscillations in ~1700 stars observed by the Kepler Mission, spanning from the main sequence to the red clump. Using evolutionary models, we test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power (νmax), the large frequency separation (Δν...... scaling nor the revised scaling relation by Kjeldsen & Bedding is accurate for red-giant stars, and demonstrate that a revised scaling relation with a separate luminosity-mass dependence can be used to calculate amplitudes from the main sequence to red giants to a precision of ~25%. The residuals show...

ASTEROSEISMIC-BASED ESTIMATION OF THE SURFACE GRAVITY FOR THE LAMOST GIANT STARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Chao; Wu, Yue; Deng, Li-Cai; Wang, Liang; Wang, Wei; Li, Guang-Wei; Fang, Min; Fu, Jian-Ning; Hou, Yong-Hui; Zhang, Yong

2015-01-01

Asteroseismology is one of the most accurate approaches to estimate the surface gravity of a star. However, most of the data from the current spectroscopic surveys do not have asteroseismic measurements, which is very expensive and time consuming. In order to improve the spectroscopic surface gravity estimates for a large amount of survey data with the help of the small subset of the data with seismic measurements, we set up a support vector regression (SVR) model for the estimation of the surface gravity supervised by 1374 Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) giant stars with Kepler seismic surface gravity. The new approach can reduce the uncertainty of the estimates down to about 0.1 dex, which is better than the LAMOST pipeline by at least a factor of 2, for the spectra with signal-to-noise ratio higher than 20. Compared with the log g estimated from the LAMOST pipeline, the revised log g values provide a significantly improved match to the expected distribution of red clump and red giant branch stars from stellar isochrones. Moreover, even the red bump stars, which extend to only about 0.1 dex in log g, can be discriminated from the new estimated surface gravity. The method is then applied to about 350,000 LAMOST metal-rich giant stars to provide improved surface gravity estimates. In general, the uncertainty of the distance estimate based on the SVR surface gravity can be reduced to about 12% for the LAMOST data

ASTEROSEISMIC-BASED ESTIMATION OF THE SURFACE GRAVITY FOR THE LAMOST GIANT STARS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Chao; Wu, Yue; Deng, Li-Cai; Wang, Liang; Wang, Wei; Li, Guang-Wei [Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 A Datun Road, Beijing 100012 (China); Fang, Min [Departamento de Física Teórica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, E-28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid (Spain); Fu, Jian-Ning [Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, 19 Avenue Xinjiekouwai, Beijing 100875 (China); Hou, Yong-Hui; Zhang, Yong, E-mail: liuchao@nao.cas.cn [Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210042 (China)

2015-07-01

Asteroseismology is one of the most accurate approaches to estimate the surface gravity of a star. However, most of the data from the current spectroscopic surveys do not have asteroseismic measurements, which is very expensive and time consuming. In order to improve the spectroscopic surface gravity estimates for a large amount of survey data with the help of the small subset of the data with seismic measurements, we set up a support vector regression (SVR) model for the estimation of the surface gravity supervised by 1374 Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) giant stars with Kepler seismic surface gravity. The new approach can reduce the uncertainty of the estimates down to about 0.1 dex, which is better than the LAMOST pipeline by at least a factor of 2, for the spectra with signal-to-noise ratio higher than 20. Compared with the log g estimated from the LAMOST pipeline, the revised log g values provide a significantly improved match to the expected distribution of red clump and red giant branch stars from stellar isochrones. Moreover, even the red bump stars, which extend to only about 0.1 dex in log g, can be discriminated from the new estimated surface gravity. The method is then applied to about 350,000 LAMOST metal-rich giant stars to provide improved surface gravity estimates. In general, the uncertainty of the distance estimate based on the SVR surface gravity can be reduced to about 12% for the LAMOST data.

Characterizing the observational properties of δ Sct stars in the era of space photometry from the Kepler mission

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Dominic M.; Kurtz, Donald W.

2018-05-01

The δ Sct stars are a diverse group of intermediate-mass pulsating stars located on and near the main sequence within the classical instability strip in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Many of these stars are hybrid stars pulsating simultaneously with pressure and gravity modes that probe the physics at different depths within a star's interior. Using two large ensembles of δ Sct stars observed by the Kepler Space Telescope, the instrumental biases inherent to Kepler mission data and the statistical properties of these stars are investigated. An important focus of this work is an analysis of the relationships between the pulsational and stellar parameters, and their distribution within the classical instability strip. It is found that a non-negligible fraction of main-sequence δ Sct stars exist outside theoretical predictions of the classical instability boundaries, which indicates the necessity of a mass-dependent mixing length parameter to simultaneously explain low and high radial order pressure modes in δ Sct stars within the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Furthermore, a search for regularities in the amplitude spectra of these stars is also presented, specifically the frequency difference between pressure modes of consecutive radial order. In this work, it is demonstrated that an ensemble-based approach using space photometry from the Kepler mission is not only plausible for δ Sct stars, but that it is a valuable method for identifying the most promising stars for mode identification and asteroseismic modelling. The full scientific potential of studying δ Sct stars is as yet unrealized. The ensembles discussed in this paper represent a high-quality data set for future studies of rotation and angular momentum transport inside A and F stars using asteroseismology.

The Kepler Science Operations Center Pipeline Framework Extensions

Science.gov (United States)

Klaus, Todd C.; Cote, Miles T.; McCauliff, Sean; Girouard, Forrest R.; Wohler, Bill; Allen, Christopher; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Bryson, Stephen T.; Middour, Christopher; Caldwell, Douglas A.;

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Kepler planetary candidates. VII. 48-month (Coughlin+, 2016)

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlin, J. L.; Mullally, F.; Thompson, S. E.; Rowe, J. F.; Burke, C. J.; Latham, D. W.; Batalha, N. M.; Ofir, A.; Quarles, B. L.; Henze, C. E.; Wolfgang, A.; Caldwell, D. A.; Bryson, S. T.; Shporer, A.; Catanzarite, J.; Akeson, R.; Barclay, T.; Borucki, W. J.; Boyajian, T. S.; Campbell, J. R.; Christiansen, J. L.; Girouard, F. R.; Haas, M. R.; Howell, S. B.; Huber, D.; Jenkins, J. M.; Li, J.; Patil-Sabale, A.; Quintana, E. V.; Ramirez, S.; Seader, S.; Smith, J. C.; Tenenbaum, P.; Twicken, J. D.; Zamudio, K. A.

2016-07-01

This catalog is based on Kepler's 24th data release (DR24), which includes the processing of all data utilizing version 9.2 of the Kepler pipeline (Jenkins et al. 2010ApJ...724.1108J). This marks the first time that all of the Kepler mission data have been processed consistently with the same version of the Kepler pipeline. Over a period of 48 months (2009 May 13 to 2013 May 11), subdivided into 17 quarters (Q1-Q17), a total of 198646 targets were observed. (7 data files).

Planet Detection: The Kepler Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon M.; Smith, Jeffrey C.; Tenenbaum, Peter; Twicken, Joseph D.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey

2012-03-01

, only ˜0.5% will exhibit transits. By observing such a large number of stars, Kepler is guaranteed to produce a robust null result in the unhappy event that no Earth-size planets are detected in or near the habitable zone. Such a result would indicate that worlds like ours are extremely rare in the Milky Way galaxy and perhaps the cosmos, and that we might be solitary sojourners in the quest to answer the age-old question: "Are we alone?" Kepler is an audacious mission that places rigorous demands on the science pipeline used to process the ever-accumulating, large amount of data and to identify and characterize the minute planetary signatures hiding in the data haystack. Kepler observes over 160,000 stars simultaneously over a field of view (FOV) of 115 square degrees with a focal plane consisting of 42 charge-coupled devices‡ (CCDs), each of which images 2.75 square degrees of sky onto 2200×1024 pixels. The photometer, which contains the CCD array, reads out each CCD every 6.54 s [10,11] and co-adds the images for 29.4 min, called a long cadence (LC) interval. Due to storage and bandwidth constraints, only the pixels of interest, those that contain images of target stars, are saved onboard the solid-state recorder (SSR), which can store 66+ days of data. An average of 32 pixels per star is allowed for up to 170,000 stellar target definitions. In addition, a total of 512 targets are sampled at 58.85-s short cadence (SC) intervals, permitting further characterization of the planet-star systems for the brighter stars with a Kepler magnitude,* Kp, brighter than 12 (Kp machine learning and data mining. First, Section 17.2 gives a brief overview of the SOC science processing pipeline. This includes a special subsection detailing the adaptive, wavelet-based transit detector in the transiting planet search (TPS) pipeline component that performs the automated search through each of the hundreds of thousands of light curves for transit signatures of Earth-size planets

Oscillating Red Giants Observed during Campaign 1 of the Kepler K2 Mission: New Prospects for Galactic Archaeology

Science.gov (United States)

Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel; Sharma, Sanjib; Johnson, Jennifer; Lund, Mikkel N.; Handberg, Rasmus; Buzasi, Derek L.; Silva Aguirre, Victor; Chaplin, William J.; Miglio, Andrea; Pinsonneault, Marc; Basu, Sarbani; Bedding, Tim R.; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Casagrande, Luca; Davies, Guy; Elsworth, Yvonne; Garcia, Rafael A.; Mathur, Savita; Di Mauro, Maria Pia; Mosser, Benoit; Schneider, Donald P.; Serenelli, Aldo; Valentini, Marica

2015-08-01

NASA’s re-purposed Kepler mission—dubbed K2—has brought new scientific opportunities that were not anticipated for the original Kepler mission. One science goal that makes optimal use of K2's capabilities, in particular its 360° ecliptic field of view, is galactic archaeology—the study of the evolution of the Galaxy from the fossil stellar record. The thrust of this research is to exploit high-precision, time-resolved photometry from K2 in order to detect oscillations in red giant stars. This asteroseismic information can provide estimates of stellar radius (hence distance), mass, and age of vast numbers of stars across the Galaxy. Here we present the initial analysis of a subset of red giants, observed toward the north galactic gap, during the mission’s first full science campaign. We investigate the feasibility of using K2 data for detecting oscillations in red giants that span a range in apparent magnitude and evolutionary state (hence intrinsic luminosity). We demonstrate that oscillations are detectable for essentially all cool giants within the {log}g range ˜1.9-3.2. Our detection is complete down to {\\text{Kp}} ˜ 14.5, which results in a seismic sample with little or no detection bias. This sample is ideally suited to stellar population studies that seek to investigate potential shortcomings of contemporary Galaxy models.

AN ASTEROSEISMIC MEMBERSHIP STUDY OF THE RED GIANTS IN THREE OPEN CLUSTERS OBSERVED BY KEPLER: NGC 6791, NGC 6819, AND NGC 6811

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel; Bedding, Timothy R.; Meibom, Soeren; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Grundahl, Frank; Brogaard, Karsten; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen; Hekker, Saskia; Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Mosser, BenoIt; Kallinger, Thomas; Mathur, Savita; GarcIa, Rafael A.; Basu, Sarbani; Molenda-Zakowicz, Joanna; Szabo, Robert; Still, Martin; Jenkins, Jon M.

2011-01-01

Studying star clusters offers significant advances in stellar astrophysics due to the combined power of having many stars with essentially the same distance, age, and initial composition. This makes clusters excellent test benches for verification of stellar evolution theory. To fully exploit this potential, it is vital that the star sample is uncontaminated by stars that are not members of the cluster. Techniques for determining cluster membership therefore play a key role in the investigation of clusters. We present results on three clusters in the Kepler field of view based on a newly established technique that uses asteroseismology to identify fore- or background stars in the field, which demonstrates advantages over classical methods such as kinematic and photometry measurements. Four previously identified seismic non-members in NGC 6819 are confirmed in this study, and three additional non-members are found-two in NGC 6819 and one in NGC 6791. We further highlight which stars are, or might be, affected by blending, which needs to be taken into account when analyzing these Kepler data.

Kepler Data Validation I: Architecture, Diagnostic Tests, and Data Products for Vetting Transiting Planet Candidates

Science.gov (United States)

Twicken, Joseph D.; Catanzarite, Joseph H.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Giroud, Forrest; Jenkins, Jon M.; Klaus, Todd C.; Li, Jie; McCauliff, Sean D.; Seader, Shawn E.; Tennenbaum, Peter;

Kepler Data Validation I—Architecture, Diagnostic Tests, and Data Products for Vetting Transiting Planet Candidates

Science.gov (United States)

Twicken, Joseph D.; Catanzarite, Joseph H.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Girouard, Forrest; Jenkins, Jon M.; Klaus, Todd C.; Li, Jie; McCauliff, Sean D.; Seader, Shawn E.; Tenenbaum, Peter; Wohler, Bill; Bryson, Stephen T.; Burke, Christopher J.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Haas, Michael R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Sanderfer, Dwight T.

2018-06-01

The Kepler Mission was designed to identify and characterize transiting planets in the Kepler Field of View and to determine their occurrence rates. Emphasis was placed on identification of Earth-size planets orbiting in the Habitable Zone of their host stars. Science data were acquired for a period of four years. Long-cadence data with 29.4 min sampling were obtained for ∼200,000 individual stellar targets in at least one observing quarter in the primary Kepler Mission. Light curves for target stars are extracted in the Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline, and are searched for transiting planet signatures. A Threshold Crossing Event is generated in the transit search for targets where the transit detection threshold is exceeded and transit consistency checks are satisfied. These targets are subjected to further scrutiny in the Data Validation (DV) component of the Pipeline. Transiting planet candidates are characterized in DV, and light curves are searched for additional planets after transit signatures are modeled and removed. A suite of diagnostic tests is performed on all candidates to aid in discrimination between genuine transiting planets and instrumental or astrophysical false positives. Data products are generated per target and planet candidate to document and display transiting planet model fit and diagnostic test results. These products are exported to the Exoplanet Archive at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, and are available to the community. We describe the DV architecture and diagnostic tests, and provide a brief overview of the data products. Transiting planet modeling and the search for multiple planets on individual targets are described in a companion paper. The final revision of the Kepler Pipeline code base is available to the general public through GitHub. The Kepler Pipeline has also been modified to support the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission which is expected to commence in 2018.

Five kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Steffen..[], Jason H.; Batalha, N. M.; Broucki, W J.

2010-01-01

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets a...

Kepler Ground-Based Photometry Proof-of-Concept

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Timothy M.; Latham, D.; Howell, S.; Everett, M.

2004-01-01

We report on our efforts to evaluate the feasibility of using the 4-Shooter CCD camera on the 48-inch reflector at the Whipple Observatory to carry out a multi-band photometric survey of the Kepler target region. We also include recommendations for future work. We were assigned 36 nights with the &hooter during 2003 for this feasibility study. Most of the time during the first two dozen nights was dedicated to the development of procedures, test exposures, and a reconnaissance across the Kepler field. The final 12 nights in September and October 2003 were used for "production" observing in the middle of the Kepler field using the full complement of seven filters (SDSS u, g, r, i, z, plus our special Gred and D51 intermediate-band filters). Nine of these 12 nights were clear and photometric, and production observations were obtained at 109 pointings, corresponding to 14.6 square degrees.

Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Welsh, William F.; Orosz, Jerome A.; Carter, Joshua A.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Ford, Eric B.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Prša, Andrej; Quinn, Samuel N.; Ragozzine, Darin; Short, Donald R.; Torres, Guillermo; Winn, Joshua N.; Doyle, Laurance R.; Barclay, Thomas; Batalha, Natalie; Bloemen, Steven; Brugamyer, Erik; Buchhave, Lars A.; Caldwell, Caroline; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Ciardi, David R.; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Gautier III, Thomas N.; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Haas, Michael R.; Hall, Jennifer R.; Holman, Matthew J.; Howard, Andrew W.; Howell, Steve B.; Isaacson, Howard; Jenkins, Jon M.; Klaus, Todd C.; Latham, David W.; Li, Jie; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Mazeh, Tsevi; Quintana, Elisa V.; Robertson, Paul; Shporer, Avi; Steffen, Jason H.; Windmiller, Gur; Koch, David G.; Borucki, William J.

2012-01-11

Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally-bound pairs of stars called 'binary stars'. While long anticipated, the existence of a 'circumbinary planet' orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery of Kepler-16. Incontrovertible evidence was provided by the miniature eclipses ('transits') of the stars by the planet. However, questions remain about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we present two additional transiting circumbinary planets, Kepler-34 and Kepler-35. Each is a low-density gas giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, while Kepler-35 orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun's mass) every 131 days. Due to the orbital motion of the stars, the planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation. The observed rate of circumbinary planets implies > ~1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.

Global Erratum for Kepler Q0-Q17 and K2 C0-C5 Short Cadence Data

Science.gov (United States)

Caldwell, Douglas; Van Cleve, Jeffrey E.

2016-01-01

An accounting error has scrambled much of the short-cadence collateral smear data used to correct for the effects of Keplers shutterless readout. This error has been present since launch and affects approximately half of all short-cadence targets observed by Kepler and K2 to date. The resulting calibration errors are present in both the short-cadence target pixel files and the short-cadence light curves for Kepler Data Releases 1-24 and K2 Data Releases 1-7. This error does not affect long-cadence data. Since it will take some time to correct this error and reprocess all Kepler and K2 data, a list of affected targets is provided. Even though the affected targets are readily identified, the science impact for any particular target may be difficult to assess. Since the smear signal is often small compared to the target signal, the effect is negligible for many targets. However, the smear signal is scene-dependent, so time varying signals can be introduced into any target by the other stars falling on the same CCD column. Some tips on how to assess the severity of the calibration error are provided in this document.

INTERNAL ROTATION OF THE RED-GIANT STAR KIC 4448777 BY MEANS OF ASTEROSEISMIC INVERSION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Di Mauro, M. P.; Cardini, D. [INAF, IAPS Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Roma (Italy); Ventura, R.; Paternò, L. [INAF, Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, Catania (Italy); Stello, D. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney (Australia); Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Hekker, S. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Dziembowski, W. A. [Warsaw University Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warsaw (Poland); Beck, P. G.; De Smedt, K.; Tkachenko, A. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium); Bloemen, S. [Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Davies, G. R.; Garcia, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Univ. Paris Diderot, IRFU/Sap, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Elsworth, Y. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham (United Kingdom); Mosser, B. [LESIA, PSL Research University, CNRS, Universitè Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon Cedex (France)

2016-01-20

We study the dynamics of the stellar interior of the early red-giant star KIC 4448777 by asteroseismic inversion of 14 splittings of the dipole mixed modes obtained from Kepler observations. In order to overcome the complexity of the oscillation pattern typical of red-giant stars, we present a procedure to extract the rotational splittings from the power spectrum. We find not only that the core rotates from a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 17 times faster than the surface, confirming previous inversion results generated for other red giants (Deheuvels et al.), but we also estimate the variation of the angular velocity within the helium core with a spatial resolution of 0.001R and verify the hypothesis of a sharp discontinuity in the inner stellar rotation. The results show that the entire core rotates rigidly and provide evidence for an angular velocity gradient around the base of the hydrogen-burning shell; however, we do not succeed in characterizing the rotational slope, due to the intrinsic limits of the applied techniques. The angular velocity, from the edge of the core, appears to decrease with increasing distance from the center, reaching an average value in the convective envelope of 68 ± 22 nHz. We conclude that a set of data that includes only dipolar modes is sufficient to infer quite accurately the rotation of a red giant not only in the dense core but also, with a lower level of confidence, in part of the radiative region and in the convective envelope.

Planet Occurrence within 0.25 AU of Solar-type Stars from Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Howard, A.W.; Geoffrey, G.W.; Bryson, S.T.

2012-01-01

We report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius, orbital period, and stellar effective temperature for orbital periods less than 50 days around solar-type (GK) stars. These results are based on the 1235 planets (formally "planet candidates") from the Kepler mission that include...... a nearly complete set of detected planets as small as 2 R ⊕. For each of the 156,000 target stars, we assess the detectability of planets as a function of planet radius, R p, and orbital period, P, using a measure of the detection efficiency for each star. We also correct for the geometric probability...... of transit, R /a. We consider first Kepler target stars within the "solar subset" having T eff = 4100-6100 K, log g = 4.0-4.9, and Kepler magnitude Kp planets down to 2 R...

SPECKLE CAMERA OBSERVATIONS FOR THE NASA KEPLER MISSION FOLLOW-UP PROGRAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, Steve B.; Everett, Mark E.; Sherry, William; Horch, Elliott; Ciardi, David R.

2011-01-01

We present the first results from a speckle imaging survey of stars classified as candidate exoplanet host stars discovered by the Kepler mission. We use speckle imaging to search for faint companions or closely aligned background stars that could contribute flux to the Kepler light curves of their brighter neighbors. Background stars are expected to contribute significantly to the pool of false positive candidate transiting exoplanets discovered by the Kepler mission, especially in the case that the faint neighbors are eclipsing binary stars. Here, we describe our Kepler follow-up observing program, the speckle imaging camera used, our data reduction, and astrometric and photometric performance. Kepler stars range from R = 8 to 16 and our observations attempt to provide background non-detection limits 5-6 mag fainter and binary separations of ∼0.05-2.0 arcsec. We present data describing the relative brightness, separation, and position angles for secondary sources, as well as relative plate limits for non-detection of faint nearby stars around each of 156 target stars. Faint neighbors were found near 10 of the stars.

SPECTROSCOPY OF NEW AND POORLY KNOWN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES IN THE KEPLER FIELD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, Steve B.; Still, Martin; Everett, Mark E.; Seebode, Sally A.; Szkody, Paula; Wood, Matt; Ramsay, Gavin; Cannizzo, John; Smale, Alan

2013-01-01

The NASA Kepler mission has been in science operation since 2009 May and is providing high precision, high cadence light curves of over 150,000 targets. Prior to launch, nine cataclysmic variables were known to lie within Kepler's field of view. We present spectroscopy for seven systems, four of which were newly discovered since launch. All of the stars presented herein have been observed by, or are currently being observed by, the Kepler space telescope. Three historic systems and one new candidate could not be detected at their sky position and two candidates are called into question as to their true identity.

Modeling Kepler Transit Light Curves as False Positives: Rejection of Blend Scenarios for Kepler-9, and Validation of Kepler-9 d, a Super-Earth-Size Planet in a Multiple System

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Guillermo; Fressin, Francois; Batalha, Natalie M.; Borucki, William J.; Brown, Timothy M.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Charbonneau, David; Ciardi, David R.; Dunham, Edward W.;

Kepler Stellar Properties Catalog Update for Q1-Q17 DR25 Transit Search

Science.gov (United States)

Mathur, Savita; Huber, Daniel

2016-01-01

Huber et al. (2014) presented revised stellar properties for 196,468 Kepler targets, which were used for the Q1-Q16 TPSDV planet search (Tenenbaum et al. 2014). The catalog was based on atmospheric properties (i.e., temperature (Teff), surface gravity (log(g)), and metallicity ([FeH])) published in the literature using a variety of methods (e.g., asteroseismology, spectroscopy, exoplanet transits, photometry), which were then homogeneously fitted to a grid of Dartmouth (DSEP) isochrones (Dotter et al. 2008). The catalog was updated in early 2015 for the Q1-Q17 Data Release (DR) 24 transit search (Seader et al. 2015) based on the latest classifications of Kepler targets in the literature at that time. The methodology followed Huber et al. (2014). Here we provide updated stellar properties of 197,096 Kepler targets. Like the previous catalog, this update is based on atmospheric properties that were either published in the literature or provided by the Kepler community follow-up program (CFOP). The input values again come from different methods: asteroseismology, spectroscopy, flicker, and photometry. This catalog update was developed to support the SOC 9.3 TPSDV planet search (Twicken et al. 2016), which is expected to be the final search and data release by the Kepler project.In this document, we describe the method and the inputs that were used to build the catalog. The methodology follows Huber et al. (2014) with a few improvements as described in Section 2.

ASTEROSEISMOLOGY OF THE OPEN CLUSTERS NGC 6791, NGC 6811, AND NGC 6819 FROM 19 MONTHS OF KEPLER PHOTOMETRY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Corsaro, Enrico; Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel; Bedding, Timothy R.; Benomar, Othman; White, Timothy R.; Bonanno, Alfio; Brogaard, Karsten; Kallinger, Thomas; Mosser, Benoit; Basu, Sarbani; Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Mathur, Savita; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; García, Rafael A.; Hekker, Saskia; Kjeldsen, Hans; Meibom, Søren; Hall, Jennifer R.

2012-01-01

We studied solar-like oscillations in 115 red giants in the three open clusters, NGC 6791, NGC 6811, and NGC 6819, based on photometric data covering more than 19 months with NASA's Kepler space telescope. We present the asteroseismic diagrams of the asymptotic parameters δν 02 , δν 01 , and ε, which show clear correlation with fundamental stellar parameters such as mass and radius. When the stellar populations from the clusters are compared, we see evidence for a difference in mass of the red giant branch stars and possibly a difference in structure of the red clump stars, from our measurements of the small separations δν 02 and δν 01 . Ensemble échelle diagrams and upper limits to the linewidths of l = 0 modes as a function of Δν of the clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 are also shown, together with the correlation between the l = 0 ridge width and the T eff of the stars. Lastly, we distinguish between red giant branch and red clump stars through the measurement of the period spacing of mixed dipole modes in 53 stars among all the three clusters to verify the stellar classification from the color-magnitude diagram. These seismic results also allow us to identify a number of special cases, including evolved blue stragglers and binaries, as well as stars in late He-core burning phases, which can be potentially interesting targets for detailed theoretical modeling.

The Kepler and K2 Near-Infrared Transit Survey (KNITS)

Science.gov (United States)

Colon, Knicole; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Barentsen, Geert; Cardoso, Jose Vinicius de Miranda; Vanderburg, Andrew

2018-01-01

NASA's Kepler mission discovered a plethora of transiting exoplanets after observing a single region of the Galaxy for four years. After a second reaction wheel failed, NASA's Kepler spacecraft was repurposed as K2 to observe different fields along the ecliptic in ~80 day campaigns. To date, K2 has discovered ~130 exoplanets along with another ~400 candidates. The exoplanets that have been confirmed or validated from Kepler and K2 have been primarily subject to spectroscopic observations, high-resolution imaging, or statistical methods. However, most of these, along with all the remaining candidate exoplanets, have had no follow-up transit photometry. In addition, recent studies have shown that for single-planet systems, statistical validation alone can be unreliable and additional follow-up observations are required to reveal the true nature of the system. I will present the latest results from an ongoing program to use the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory for near-infrared transit photometry of Kepler and K2 exoplanets and candidates. Our program of high-precision, high-cadence, high-spatial-resolution near-infrared transit photometry is providing new measurements of the transit ephemerides and planetary radii as well as weeding out false positives lurking within the candidate lists. To date, 25 K2 and 5 Kepler targets have been observed with WIYN. I will also describe upcoming observations with WIYN that will take place in January 2018 as part of a campaign to observe exoplanet transits in the near-infrared simultaneously with the Kepler spacecraft during K2 Campaign 16. Our program ultimately provides a vetted sample of exoplanets that could be targeted in the future by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and also demonstrates WIYN’s capabilities for observations of exoplanets to be discovered by NASA's all-sky Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).Data presented herein were obtained at the WIYN Observatory from

KEPLER-1647B: THE LARGEST AND LONGEST-PERIOD KEPLER TRANSITING CIRCUMBINARY PLANET

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kostov, Veselin B. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Orosz, Jerome A.; Welsh, William F.; Short, Donald R. [Department of Astronomy, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States); Doyle, Laurance R. [SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States); Principia College, IMoP, One Maybeck Place, Elsah, IL 62028 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Haghighipour, Nader [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Quarles, Billy [Department of Physics and Physical Science, The University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE 68849 (United States); Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael [McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas as Austin, Austin, TX 78712-0259 (United States); Ford, Eric B. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 428A Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Gregorio, Joao [Atalaia Group and Crow-Observatory, Portalegre (Portugal); Hinse, Tobias C. [Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Advanced Astronomy and Space Science Division, Daejeon 305-348 (Korea, Republic of); Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley, 501 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Jenkins, Jon M. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Jensen, Eric L. N. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081 (United States); Kane, Stephen [Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States); Kull, Ilya, E-mail: veselin.b.kostov@nasa.gov [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv (Israel); and others

2016-08-10

We report the discovery of a new Kepler transiting circumbinary planet (CBP). This latest addition to the still-small family of CBPs defies the current trend of known short-period planets orbiting near the stability limit of binary stars. Unlike the previous discoveries, the planet revolving around the eclipsing binary system Kepler-1647 has a very long orbital period (∼1100 days) and was at conjunction only twice during the Kepler mission lifetime. Due to the singular configuration of the system, Kepler-1647b is not only the longest-period transiting CBP at the time of writing, but also one of the longest-period transiting planets. With a radius of 1.06 ± 0.01 R {sub Jup}, it is also the largest CBP to date. The planet produced three transits in the light curve of Kepler-1647 (one of them during an eclipse, creating a syzygy) and measurably perturbed the times of the stellar eclipses, allowing us to measure its mass, 1.52 ± 0.65 M {sub Jup}. The planet revolves around an 11-day period eclipsing binary consisting of two solar-mass stars on a slightly inclined, mildly eccentric ( e {sub bin} = 0.16), spin-synchronized orbit. Despite having an orbital period three times longer than Earth’s, Kepler-1647b is in the conservative habitable zone of the binary star throughout its orbit.

KEPLER-1647B: THE LARGEST AND LONGEST-PERIOD KEPLER TRANSITING CIRCUMBINARY PLANET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kostov, Veselin B.; Orosz, Jerome A.; Welsh, William F.; Short, Donald R.; Doyle, Laurance R.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Haghighipour, Nader; Quarles, Billy; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; Ford, Eric B.; Gregorio, Joao; Hinse, Tobias C.; Isaacson, Howard; Jenkins, Jon M.; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Kane, Stephen; Kull, Ilya

2016-01-01

We report the discovery of a new Kepler transiting circumbinary planet (CBP). This latest addition to the still-small family of CBPs defies the current trend of known short-period planets orbiting near the stability limit of binary stars. Unlike the previous discoveries, the planet revolving around the eclipsing binary system Kepler-1647 has a very long orbital period (∼1100 days) and was at conjunction only twice during the Kepler mission lifetime. Due to the singular configuration of the system, Kepler-1647b is not only the longest-period transiting CBP at the time of writing, but also one of the longest-period transiting planets. With a radius of 1.06 ± 0.01 R Jup , it is also the largest CBP to date. The planet produced three transits in the light curve of Kepler-1647 (one of them during an eclipse, creating a syzygy) and measurably perturbed the times of the stellar eclipses, allowing us to measure its mass, 1.52 ± 0.65 M Jup . The planet revolves around an 11-day period eclipsing binary consisting of two solar-mass stars on a slightly inclined, mildly eccentric ( e bin = 0.16), spin-synchronized orbit. Despite having an orbital period three times longer than Earth’s, Kepler-1647b is in the conservative habitable zone of the binary star throughout its orbit.

SPECTROSCOPY OF NEW AND POORLY KNOWN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES IN THE KEPLER FIELD

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howell, Steve B.; Still, Martin [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Everett, Mark E. [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States); Seebode, Sally A. [San Mateo High School, San Mateo, CA 94401 (United States); Szkody, Paula [Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Wood, Matt [Physics and Astronomy Department, Texas A and M University-Commerce, Commerce, TX 75429 (United States); Ramsay, Gavin [Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG (United Kingdom); Cannizzo, John [CRESST and Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Smale, Alan [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

2013-04-15

The NASA Kepler mission has been in science operation since 2009 May and is providing high precision, high cadence light curves of over 150,000 targets. Prior to launch, nine cataclysmic variables were known to lie within Kepler's field of view. We present spectroscopy for seven systems, four of which were newly discovered since launch. All of the stars presented herein have been observed by, or are currently being observed by, the Kepler space telescope. Three historic systems and one new candidate could not be detected at their sky position and two candidates are called into question as to their true identity.

DETECTION OF SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS, OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS, AND STELLAR MODELS FOR θ CYG, THE BRIGHTEST STAR OBSERVED BY THE KEPLER MISSION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guzik, J. A. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, XTD-NTA, MS T-082, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Houdek, G.; Chaplin, W. J.; Antoci, V.; Bedding, T. R.; Huber, D.; Kjeldsen, H. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Smalley, B. [Astrophysics Group, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG (United Kingdom); Kurtz, D. W. [Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE (United Kingdom); Gilliland, R. L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Mullally, F.; Rowe, J. F. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Bryson, S. T.; Still, M. D. [NASA Ames Research Center, Bldg. 244, MS-244-30, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Appourchaux, T. [Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Universitè de Paris Sud–CNRS, Batiment 121, F-91405 ORSAY Cedex (France); Basu, S. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Benomar, O. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Garcia, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DRF—CNRS—Univ. Paris Diderot—IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Latham, D. W. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Metcalfe, T. S. [Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); and others

2016-11-01

θ Cygni is an F3 spectral type magnitude V = 4.48 main-sequence star that was the brightest star observed by the original Kepler spacecraft mission. Short-cadence (58.8 s) photometric data using a custom aperture were first obtained during Quarter 6 (2010 June–September) and subsequently in Quarters 8 and 12–17. We present analyses of solar-like oscillations based on Q6 and Q8 data, identifying angular degree l = 0, 1, and 2 modes with frequencies of 1000–2700 μ Hz, a large frequency separation of 83.9 ± 0.4 μ Hz, and maximum oscillation amplitude at frequency ν {sub max} = 1829 ± 54 μ Hz. We also present analyses of new ground-based spectroscopic observations, which, combined with interferometric angular diameter measurements, give T {sub eff} = 6697 ± 78 K, radius 1.49 ± 0.03 R {sub ⊙}, [Fe/H] = -0.02 ± 0.06 dex, and log g = 4.23 ± 0.03. We calculate stellar models matching these constraints using the Yale Rotating Evolution Code and the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal. The best-fit models have masses of 1.35–1.39 M {sub ⊙} and ages of 1.0–1.6 Gyr. θ Cyg’s T {sub eff} and log g place it cooler than the red edge of the γ Doradus instability region established from pre- Kepler ground-based observations, but just at the red edge derived from pulsation modeling. The pulsation models show γ Dor gravity modes driven by the convective blocking mechanism, with frequencies of 1–3 cycles per day (11 to 33 μ Hz). However, gravity modes were not seen in Kepler data; one signal at 1.776 cycles per day (20.56 μ Hz) may be attributable to a faint, possibly background, binary.

THE POSSIBLE MOON OF KEPLER-90g IS A FALSE POSITIVE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kipping, D. M.; Torres, G.; Buchhave, L. A. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Huang, X.; Bakos, G. Á. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 05844 (United States); Nesvorný, D. [Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302 (United States); Schmitt, A. R., E-mail: dkipping@cfa.harvard.edu

2015-01-20

The discovery of an exomoon would provide deep insights into planet formation and the habitability of planetary systems, with transiting examples being particularly sought after. Of the hundreds of Kepler planets now discovered, the seven-planet system Kepler-90 is unusual for exhibiting an unidentified transit-like signal in close proximity to one of the transits of the long-period gas-giant Kepler-90g, as noted by Cabrera et al. As part of the ''Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler'' project, we investigate this possible exomoon signal and find it passes all conventional photometric, dynamical, and centroid diagnostic tests. However, pixel-level light curves indicate that the moon-like signal occurs on nearly all of the target's pixels, which we confirm using a novel way of examining pixel-level data which we dub the ''transit centroid''. This test reveals that the possible exomoon to Kepler-90g is likely a false positive, perhaps due to a cosmic ray induced sudden pixel sensitivity dropout. This work highlights the extreme care required for seeking non-periodic low-amplitude transit signals, such as exomoons.

Kepler's Final Survey Catalog

Science.gov (United States)

Mullally, S. E.

2017-12-01

The Kepler mission was designed to detect transiting exoplanets and has succeeded in finding over 4000 candidates. These candidates include approximately 50 terrestrial-sized worlds near to the habitable zone of their GKM dwarf stars (shown in figure against the stellar temperature). However not all transit detections are created equal. False positives, such as background eclipsing binaries, can mimic the signal of a transiting planet. Additionally, at Kepler's detection limit noise, either from the star or from the detector, can create signals that also mimic a transiting planet. For the data release 25 Kepler catalog we simulated these false alarms and determined how often known false alarms are called candidates. When this reliability information is combined with our studies of catalog completeness, this catalog can be used to understand the occurrence rate of exoplanets, even for the small, temperate planet candidates found by Kepler. I will discuss the automated methods we used to create and characterize this latest catalog, highlighting how we balanced the completeness and reliability of the long period candidates. While Kepler has been very successful at detecting transiting terrestrial-sized exoplanets, many of these detections are around stars that are too dim for successful follow-up work. Future missions will pick up where Kepler left off and find small planets around some of the brightest and smallest stars.

Transiting Planets from Kepler, K2 & TESS

Science.gov (United States)

Lissauer, Jack

2018-01-01

NASA's Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, has been a resounding success. More than 4000 planet candidates have been identified using data from Kepler primary mission, which ended in 2013, and greater than 2000 of these candidates have been verified as bona fide exoplanets. After the loss of two reaction wheels ended the primary mission, the Kepler spacecraft was repurposed in 2014 to observe many fields on the sky for short periods. This new mission, dubbed K2, has led to the discovery of greater than 600 planet candidates, approximately 200 of which have been verified to date; most of these exoplanets are closer to us than the majority of exoplanets discovered by the primary Kepler mission. TESS, launching in 2018, will survey most of the sky for exoplanets, with emphasis on those orbiting nearby and/or bright host stars, making these planets especially well-suited for follow-up observations with other observatories to characterize atmospheric compositions and other properties. More than one-third of the planet candidates found by NASA's are associated with target stars that have more than one planet candidate, and such 'multis' account for the majority of candidates that have been verified as true planets. The large number of multis tells us that flat multiplanet systems like our Solar System are common. Virtually all of the candidate planetary systems are stable, as tested by numerical integrations that assume a physically motivated mass-radius relationship. Statistical studies performed on these candidate systems reveal a great deal about the architecture of planetary systems, including the typical spacing of orbits and flatness. The characteristics of several of the most interesting confirmed Kepler & K2 multi-planet systems will also be discussed.

CANDIDATE PLANETS IN THE HABITABLE ZONES OF KEPLER STARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaidos, Eric

2013-01-01

A key goal of the Kepler mission is the discovery of Earth-size transiting planets in ''habitable zones'' where stellar irradiance maintains a temperate climate on an Earth-like planet. Robust estimates of planet radius and irradiance require accurate stellar parameters, but most Kepler systems are faint, making spectroscopy difficult and prioritization of targets desirable. The parameters of 2035 host stars were estimated by Bayesian analysis and the probabilities p HZ that 2738 candidate or confirmed planets orbit in the habitable zone were calculated. Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Program models were compared to photometry from the Kepler Input Catalog, priors for stellar mass, age, metallicity and distance, and planet transit duration. The analysis yielded probability density functions for calculating confidence intervals of planet radius and stellar irradiance, as well as p HZ . Sixty-two planets have p HZ > 0.5 and a most probable stellar irradiance within habitable zone limits. Fourteen of these have radii less than twice the Earth; the objects most resembling Earth in terms of radius and irradiance are KOIs 2626.01 and 3010.01, which orbit late K/M-type dwarf stars. The fraction of Kepler dwarf stars with Earth-size planets in the habitable zone (η ⊕ ) is 0.46, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.31-0.64. Parallaxes from the Gaia mission will reduce uncertainties by more than a factor of five and permit definitive assignments of transiting planets to the habitable zones of Kepler stars.

Asteroseismic measurement of surface-to-core rotation in a main-sequence star*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kurtz Donald W.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We have discovered rotationally split core g-mode triplets and surface p-mode triplets and quintuplets in a terminal age main-sequence A star, KIC 11145123, that shows both δ Sct p-mode pulsations and γ Dor g-mode pulsations. This gives the first robust determination of the rotation of the deep core and surface of a main-sequence star, essentially model-independently. We find its rotation to be nearly uniform with a period near 100 d, but we show with high confidence that the surface rotates slightly faster than the core. A strong angular momentum transfer mechanism must be operating to produce the nearly rigid rotation, and a mechanism other than viscosity must be operating to produce a more rapidly rotating surface than core. Our asteroseismic result, along with previous asteroseismic constraints on internal rotation in some B stars, and measurements of internal rotation in some subgiant, giant and white dwarf stars, has made angular momentum transport in stars throughout their lifetimes an observational science.

Five Kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steffen, Jason H.; /Fermilab; Batalha, Natalie M.; /San Jose State U.; Borucki, William J.; /NASA, Ames; Buchhave, Lars A.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys. /Bohr Inst.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; /NASA, Ames /SETI Inst., Mtn. View; Cochran, William D.; /Texas U.; Endl, Michael; /Texas U.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Fressin, Francois; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Ford, Eric B.; /Florida U.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; /UC, Santa Cruz, Phys. Dept. /NASA, Ames

2010-06-01

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets and provide new insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. We discuss the methods used to identify multiple transiting objects from the Kepler photometry as well as the false-positive rejection methods that have been applied to these data. One system shows transits from three distinct objects while the remaining four systems show transits from two objects. Three systems have planet candidates that are near mean motion commensurabilities - two near 2:1 and one just outside 5:2. We discuss the implications that multitransiting systems have on the distribution of orbital inclinations in planetary systems, and hence their dynamical histories; as well as their likely masses and chemical compositions. A Monte Carlo study indicates that, with additional data, most of these systems should exhibit detectable transit timing variations (TTV) due to gravitational interactions - though none are apparent in these data. We also discuss new challenges that arise in TTV analyses due to the presence of more than two planets in a system.

THE KEPLER PIXEL RESPONSE FUNCTION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bryson, Stephen T.; Haas, Michael R.; Dotson, Jessie L.; Koch, David G.; Borucki, William J.; Tenenbaum, Peter; Jenkins, Jon M.; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Klaus, Todd; Gilliland, Ronald L.

2010-01-01

Kepler seeks to detect sequences of transits of Earth-size exoplanets orbiting solar-like stars. Such transit signals are on the order of 100 ppm. The high photometric precision demanded by Kepler requires detailed knowledge of how the Kepler pixels respond to starlight during a nominal observation. This information is provided by the Kepler pixel response function (PRF), defined as the composite of Kepler's optical point-spread function, integrated spacecraft pointing jitter during a nominal cadence and other systematic effects. To provide sub-pixel resolution, the PRF is represented as a piecewise-continuous polynomial on a sub-pixel mesh. This continuous representation allows the prediction of a star's flux value on any pixel given the star's pixel position. The advantages and difficulties of this polynomial representation are discussed, including characterization of spatial variation in the PRF and the smoothing of discontinuities between sub-pixel polynomial patches. On-orbit super-resolution measurements of the PRF across the Kepler field of view are described. Two uses of the PRF are presented: the selection of pixels for each star that maximizes the photometric signal-to-noise ratio for that star, and PRF-fitted centroids which provide robust and accurate stellar positions on the CCD, primarily used for attitude and plate scale tracking. Good knowledge of the PRF has been a critical component for the successful collection of high-precision photometry by Kepler.

Photometric Analysis in the Kepler Science Operations Center Pipeline

Science.gov (United States)

Twicken, Joseph D.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Tenenbaum, Peter; Wu, Hayley; Jenkins, Jon M.; Girouard, Forrest; Klaus, Todd C.

2010-01-01

We describe the Photometric Analysis (PA) software component and its context in the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) pipeline. The primary tasks of this module are to compute the photometric flux and photocenters (centroids) for over 160,000 long cadence (thirty minute) and 512 short cadence (one minute) stellar targets from the calibrated pixels in their respective apertures. We discuss the science algorithms for long and short cadence PA: cosmic ray cleaning; background estimation and removal; aperture photometry; and flux-weighted centroiding. We discuss the end-to-end propagation of uncertainties for the science algorithms. Finally, we present examples of photometric apertures, raw flux light curves, and centroid time series from Kepler flight data. PA light curves, centroid time series, and barycentric timestamp corrections are exported to the Multi-mission Archive at Space Telescope [Science Institute] (MAST) and are made available to the general public in accordance with the NASA/Kepler data release policy.

Mass and age of red giant branch stars observed with LAMOST and Kepler

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yaqian; Xiang, Maosheng; Bi, Shaolan; Liu, Xiaowei; Yu, Jie; Hon, Marc; Sharma, Sanjib; Li, Tanda; Huang, Yang; Liu, Kang; Zhang, Xianfei; Li, Yaguang; Ge, Zhishuai; Tian, Zhijia; Zhang, Jinghua; Zhang, Jianwei

2018-04-01

Obtaining accurate and precise masses and ages for large numbers of giant stars is of great importance for unraveling the assemblage history of the Galaxy. In this paper, we estimate masses and ages of 6940 red giant branch (RGB) stars with asteroseismic parameters deduced from Kepler photometry and stellar atmospheric parameters derived from LAMOST spectra. The typical uncertainties of mass is a few per cent, and that of age is ˜20 per cent. The sample stars reveal two separate sequences in the age-[α/Fe] relation - a high-α sequence with stars older than ˜8 Gyr and a low-α sequence composed of stars with ages ranging from younger than 1 Gyr to older than 11 Gyr. We further investigate the feasibility of deducing ages and masses directly from LAMOST spectra with a machine learning method based on kernel based principal component analysis, taking a sub-sample of these RGB stars as a training data set. We demonstrate that ages thus derived achieve an accuracy of ˜24 per cent. We also explored the feasibility of estimating ages and masses based on the spectroscopically measured carbon and nitrogen abundances. The results are quite satisfactory and significantly improved compared to the previous studies.

Kepler planet-detection mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borucki...[], William J.; Koch, David; Buchhave, Lars C. Astrup

2010-01-01

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet’s surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler...... is one of the lowest-density planets (~0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets....

Preliminary Results of Autotuning GEMM Kernels for the NVIDIA Kepler Architecture- GeForce GTX 680

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurzak, Jakub [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Luszczek, Pitor [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Tomov, Stanimire [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Dongarra, Jack [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)

2012-04-01

Kepler is the newest GPU architecture from NVIDIA, and the GTX 680 is the first commercially available graphics card based on that architecture. Matrix multiplication is a canonical computational kernel, and often the main target of initial optimization efforts for a new chip. This article presents preliminary results of automatically tuning matrix multiplication kernels for the Kepler architecture using the GTX 680 card.

Amplitude modulation in δ Sct stars: statistics from an ensemble of Kepler targets

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Dominic M.; Kurtz, Donald W.; Breger, Michel; Murphy, Simon J.; Holdsworth, Daniel L.

2017-10-01

The results of a search for amplitude modulation of pulsation modes in 983 δ Sct stars, which have effective temperatures between 6400 ⩽ Teff ⩽ 10 000 K in the Kepler Input Catalogue and were continuously observed by the Kepler Space Telescope for 4 yr, are presented. A total of 603 δ Sct stars (61.3 per cent) are found to exhibit at least one pulsation mode that varies significantly in amplitude over 4 yr. Furthermore, it is found that amplitude modulation is not restricted to a specific region within the classical instability strip in the HR diagram, therefore its cause is not necessarily dependent on stellar parameters such as Teff or log g. On the other hand, many δ Sct stars show constant pulsation amplitudes demonstrating that the cause of pulsational non-linearity in these stars is not well understood.

The Kepler Data Processing Handbook: A Field Guide to Prospecting for Habitable Worlds

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon M.

2017-01-01

The Kepler telescope hurtled into orbit in March 2009, initiating NASA's first mission to discover Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars. Kepler simultaneously collected data for approximately 165,000 target stars at a time over its four-year mission, identifying over 4700 planet candidates, over 2300 confirmed or validated planets, and over 2100 eclipsing binaries. While Kepler was designed to discover exoplanets, the long-term, ultrahigh photometric precision measurements it achieved made it a premier observational facility for stellar astrophysics, especially in the field of asteroseismology, and for variable stars, such as RR Lyrae. The Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) was developed at NASA Ames Research Center to process the data acquired by Kepler from pixel-level calibrations all the way to identifying transiting planet signatures and subjecting them to a suite of diagnostic tests to establish or break confidence in their planetary nature. Detecting small, rocky planets transiting Sun-like stars presents a variety of daunting challenges, including achieving an unprecedented photometric precision of 20 ppm on 6.5-hour timescales, and supporting the science operations, management, processing, and repeated reprocessing of the accumulating data stream. A newly revised and expanded version of the Kepler Data Processing Handbook (KDPH) has been released to support the legacy archival products. The KDPH details the theory, design and performance of the algorithms supporting each data processing step. This paper presents an overview of the KDPH and features illustrations of several key algorithms in the Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline. Kepler was selected as the 10th mission of the Discovery Program. Funding for this mission is provided by NASA, Science Mission Directorate.

Johannes Kepler and his contribution to Applied Mathematics

Science.gov (United States)

Pichler, Franz

The worldwide renown of Johannes Kepler is based above all on his contribution to astronomy. The 3 Kepler's Laws relating to the planets are well known and will ensure that his name is remembered by future generations. Besides his astronomical work, Kepler also made important contributions in the fields of theology, physics, phylosophy and mathematics. The actual paper discusses the advances by Kepler in the application of mathematics to the solution of "real life problems". The author made a concise account of some of the disciples by Kepler: Klug, Wieleitner, Caspar, Hammer, paying particular attention to works published by Kepler while he was living in Linz (1612-1628). The Kepler's contribution to applied mathematics is an example supremely worthy of emulation, the author concludes.

Backup to the Future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmus, Handberg; Conrad, Anders S.; Svendsen, Michael

2017-01-01

What if something horrible happens in the future? Great Scott! Do we have a backup? Is a backup even enough? At the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Operations Center (KASOC) we have a goal that all data and information from Kepler and KASC is preserved for the future. The benchmark is that the data ...... should be useful for, at least, the next 50 years. But how do we ensure that hundreds of terabytes of data are understandable or even readable in half a century?...

Orbits of the n-dimensional Kepler-Coulomb problem and universality of the Kepler laws

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oender, M; Vercin, A

2006-01-01

In the standard classical mechanics textbooks used at undergraduate and graduate levels, no attention is paid to the dimensional aspects of the Kepler-Coulomb problem. We have shown that the orbits of the n-dimensional classical Kepler-Coulomb problem are the usual conic sections in a fixed two-dimensional subspace and the Kepler laws with their well-known forms are valid independent of dimension. The basic characteristics of motion in a central force field are also established in an arbitrary dimension. The approach followed is easily accessible to late undergraduate and recent graduate students

High Resolution Active Optics Observations from the Kepler Follow-up Observation Program

Science.gov (United States)

Gautier, Thomas N.; Ciardi, D. R.; Marcy, G. W.; Hirsch, L.

2014-01-01

The ground based follow-up observation program for candidate exoplanets discovered with the Kepler observatory has supported a major effort for high resolution imaging of candidate host stars using adaptive optics wave-front correction (AO), speckle imaging and lucky imaging. These images allow examination of the sky as close as a few tenths of an arcsecond from the host stars to detect background objects that might be the source of the Kepler transit signal instead of the host star. This poster reports on the imaging done with AO cameras on the Keck, Palomar 5m and Shane 3m (Lick Observatory) which have been used to obtain high resolution images of over 500 Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) exoplanet candidate host stars. All observations were made at near infrared wavelengths in the J, H and K bands, mostly using the host target star as the AO guide star. Details of the sensitivity to background objects actually attained by these observations and the number of background objects discovered are presented. Implications to the false positive rate of the Kepler candidates are discussed.

Obliquity Variations of Habitable Zone Planets Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f

Science.gov (United States)

Shan, Yutong; Li, Gongjie

2018-06-01

Obliquity variability could play an important role in the climate and habitability of a planet. Orbital modulations caused by planetary companions and the planet’s spin axis precession due to the torque from the host star may lead to resonant interactions and cause large-amplitude obliquity variability. Here we consider the spin axis dynamics of Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f, both of which reside in the habitable zone around their host stars. Using N-body simulations and secular numerical integrations, we describe their obliquity evolution for particular realizations of the planetary systems. We then use a generalized analytic framework to characterize regions in parameter space where the obliquity is variable with large amplitude. We find that the locations of variability are fine-tuned over the planetary properties and system architecture in the lower-obliquity regimes (≲40°). As an example, assuming a rotation period of 24 hr, the obliquities of both Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f are stable below ∼40°, whereas the high-obliquity regions (60°–90°) allow moderate variabilities. However, for some other rotation periods of Kepler-62f or Kepler-186f, the lower-obliquity regions could become more variable owing to resonant interactions. Even small deviations from coplanarity (e.g., mutual inclinations ∼3°) could stir peak-to-peak obliquity variations up to ∼20°. Undetected planetary companions and/or the existence of a satellite could also destabilize the low-obliquity regions. In all cases, the high-obliquity region allows for moderate variations, and all obliquities corresponding to retrograde motion (i.e., >90°) are stable.

Variations on a theme by Kepler

CERN Document Server

Guillemin, Victor W

2006-01-01

This book is based on the Colloquium Lectures presented by Shlomo Sternberg in 1990. The authors delve into the mysterious role that groups, especially Lie groups, play in revealing the laws of nature by focusing on the familiar example of Kepler motion: the motion of a planet under the attraction of the sun according to Kepler's laws. Newton realized that Kepler's second law-that equal areas are swept out in equal times-has to do with the fact that the force is directed radially to the sun. Kepler's second law is really the assertion of the conservation of angular momentum, reflecting the rot

Kepler-9

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holman...[], Matthew J.; Fabrycky, D. C.; Ragozzine, D.

2010-01-01

-velocity observations show that these two planets are the most massive objects orbiting close to the star and substantially improve the estimates of their masses. After removing the signal of the two confirmed giant planets, we identified an additional transiting super-Earth–size planet candidate with a period of 1......The Kepler spacecraft is monitoring more than 150,000 stars for evidence of planets transiting those stars. We report the detection of two Saturn-size planets that transit the same Sun-like star, based on 7 months of Kepler observations. Their 19.2- and 38.9-day periods are presently increasing...

Establishing the accuracy of asteroseismic mass and radius estimates of giant stars - I. Three eclipsing systems at [Fe/H] ˜ -0.3 and the need for a large high-precision sample

Science.gov (United States)

Brogaard, K.; Hansen, C. J.; Miglio, A.; Slumstrup, D.; Frandsen, S.; Jessen-Hansen, J.; Lund, M. N.; Bossini, D.; Thygesen, A.; Davies, G. R.; Chaplin, W. J.; Arentoft, T.; Bruntt, H.; Grundahl, F.; Handberg, R.

2018-05-01

We aim to establish and improve the accuracy level of asteroseismic estimates of mass, radius, and age of giant stars. This can be achieved by measuring independent, accurate, and precise masses, radii, effective temperatures and metallicities of long period eclipsing binary stars with a red giant component that displays solar-like oscillations. We measured precise properties of the three eclipsing binary systems KIC 7037405, KIC 9540226, and KIC 9970396 and estimated their ages be 5.3 ± 0.5, 3.1 ± 0.6, and 4.8 ± 0.5 Gyr. The measurements of the giant stars were compared to corresponding measurements of mass, radius, and age using asteroseismic scaling relations and grid modelling. We found that asteroseismic scaling relations without corrections to Δν systematically overestimate the masses of the three red giants by 11.7 per cent, 13.7 per cent, and 18.9 per cent, respectively. However, by applying theoretical correction factors fΔν according to Rodrigues et al. (2017), we reached general agreement between dynamical and asteroseismic mass estimates, and no indications of systematic differences at the precision level of the asteroseismic measurements. The larger sample investigated by Gaulme et al. (2016) showed a much more complicated situation, where some stars show agreement between the dynamical and corrected asteroseismic measures while others suggest significant overestimates of the asteroseismic measures. We found no simple explanation for this, but indications of several potential problems, some theoretical, others observational. Therefore, an extension of the present precision study to a larger sample of eclipsing systems is crucial for establishing and improving the accuracy of asteroseismology of giant stars.

Analysing Solar-like Oscillations with an Automatic Pipeline

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mathur, S.; Garcia, R. A.; Regulo, C.; Ballot, J.; Salabert, D.; Chaplin, W. J.

2009-01-01

The Kepler mission will provide a huge amount of asteroseismic data during the next few years, among which hundreds of solar-like stars will be targeted. The amount of stars and their observation length represent a step forward in the comprehension of the stellar evolution that has already been initiated by CoRoT and MOST missions. Up to now, the slow cadence of observed targets allowed an individual and personalized analysis of each star. During the survey phase of Kepler, this will be impossible. This is the reason why, within the AsteroFLAG team, we have been developing automatic pipelines for the Kepler solar-like oscillation stars. Our code starts by finding the frequency-range where p-mode power is present and, after fitting the background, it looks for the mode amplitudes as well as the central frequency of the p-mode hump. A good estimation of the large separation can thus be inferred in this region. If the signal to noise is high enough, the code obtains the characteristics of the p modes by doing a global fitting on the power spectrum. Here, we will first describe a few features of this pipeline and its application to AsteroFLAG synthetic data to check the validity of the code.

PEPSI deep spectra. III. Chemical analysis of the ancient planet-host star Kepler-444

Science.gov (United States)

Mack, C. E.; Strassmeier, K. G.; Ilyin, I.; Schuler, S. C.; Spada, F.; Barnes, S. A.

2018-04-01

Context. With the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), we obtained a spectrum with PEPSI, its new optical high-resolution échelle spectrograph. The spectrum has very high resolution and a high signal-to-noise (S/N) and is of the K0V host Kepler-444, which is known to host five sub-Earth-sized rocky planets. The spectrum has a resolution of R ≈ 250 000, a continuous wavelength coverage from 4230 Å to 9120 Å, and an S/N between 150-550:1 (blue to red). Aim. We performed a detailed chemical analysis to determine the photospheric abundances of 18 chemical elements. These were used to place constraints on the bulk composition of the five rocky planets. Methods: Our spectral analysis employs the equivalent-width method for most of our spectral lines, but we used spectral synthesis to fit a small number of lines that required special care. In both cases, we derived our abundances using the MOOG spectral analysis package and Kurucz model atmospheres. Results: We find no correlation between elemental abundance and condensation temperature among the refractory elements (TC > 950 K). In addition, using our spectroscopic stellar parameters and isochrone fitting, we find an age of 10 ± 1.5 Gyr, which is consistent with the asteroseismic age of 11 ± 1 Gyr. Finally, from the photospheric abundances of Mg, Si, and Fe, we estimate that the typical Fe-core mass fraction for the rocky planets in the Kepler-444 system is approximately 24%. Conclusions: If our estimate of the Fe-core mass fraction is confirmed by more detailed modeling of the disk chemistry and simulations of planet formation and evolution in the Kepler-444 system, then this would suggest that rocky planets in more metal-poor and α-enhanced systems may tend to be less dense than their counterparts of comparable size in more metal-rich systems. Based on data acquired with PEPSI using the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the United States, Italy, and

Modelling the autocovariance of the power spectrum of a solar-type oscillator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Campante , T.L.; Karoff, Christoffer

2010-01-01

tool in the analysis of the more than 1000 solar-type stars expected to be observed as part of the Kepler Asteroseismic Investigation (KAI). We apply the aforementioned procedure to simulations of the Sun. Assuming different apparent magnitudes, we address the issues of how accurately and how precisely...

The masses of retired A stars with asteroseismology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

North, Thomas S. H.; Campante, Tiago L.; Miglio, Andrea

2017-01-01

We investigate the masses of 'retired A stars' using asteroseismic detections on seven low-luminosity red-giant and sub-giant stars observed by the NASA Kepler and K2 missions. Our aim is to explore whether masses derived from spectroscopy and isochrone fitting may have been systematically overes...

Kepler Data Release 25 Notes (Q0-Q17)

Science.gov (United States)

Mullally, Susan E.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas Stewart; Barentsen, Geert; Clarke, Bruce Donald; Bryson, Stephen T.; Burke, Christopher James; Campbell, Jennifer Roseanna; Catanzarite, Joseph H.; Christiansen, Jessie;

Processing and Managing the Kepler Mission's Treasure Trove of Stellar and Exoplanet Data

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon M.

2016-01-01

The Kepler telescope launched into orbit in March 2009, initiating NASAs first mission to discover Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars. Kepler simultaneously collected data for 160,000 target stars at a time over its four-year mission, identifying over 4700 planet candidates, 2300 confirmed or validated planets, and over 2100 eclipsing binaries. While Kepler was designed to discover exoplanets, the long term, ultra- high photometric precision measurements it achieved made it a premier observational facility for stellar astrophysics, especially in the field of asteroseismology, and for variable stars, such as RR Lyraes. The Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) was developed at NASA Ames Research Center to process the data acquired by Kepler from pixel-level calibrations all the way to identifying transiting planet signatures and subjecting them to a suite of diagnostic tests to establish or break confidence in their planetary nature. Detecting small, rocky planets transiting Sun-like stars presents a variety of daunting challenges, from achieving an unprecedented photometric precision of 20 parts per million (ppm) on 6.5-hour timescales, supporting the science operations, management, processing, and repeated reprocessing of the accumulating data stream. This paper describes how the design of the SOC meets these varied challenges, discusses the architecture of the SOC and how the SOC pipeline is operated and is run on the NAS Pleiades supercomputer, and summarizes the most important pipeline features addressing the multiple computational, image and signal processing challenges posed by Kepler.

Asteroseismology with Kepler and SONG

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.

2012-01-01

The NASA Kepler mission was designed to characterise extra-solar planetary systems but the observing technique, photometric detection of transits, makes the mission ideally suited also for asteroseismology. Since the launch of the mission in March 2009 Kepler has provided a treasure trove...

DETECTION OF POTENTIAL TRANSIT SIGNALS IN 16 QUARTERS OF KEPLER MISSION DATA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tenenbaum, Peter; Jenkins, Jon M.; Seader, Shawn; Burke, Christopher J.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Rowe, Jason F.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.; Li, Jie; Quintana, Elisa V.; Smith, Jeffrey C.; Thompson, Susan E.; Twicken, Joseph D.; Haas, Michael R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Hunter, Roger C.; Sanderfer, Dwight T.; Campbell, Jennifer R.; Girouard, Forrest R.

2014-01-01

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in 4 yr of photometry data acquired by the Kepler mission. The targets of the search include 111,800 stars which were observed for the entire interval and 85,522 stars which were observed for a subset of the interval. We found that 9743 targets contained at least one signal consistent with the signature of a transiting or eclipsing object where the criteria for detection are periodicity of the detected transits, adequate signal-to-noise ratio, and acceptance by a number of tests which reject false positive detections. When targets that had produced a signal were searched repeatedly, an additional 6542 signals were detected on 3223 target stars, for a total of 16,285 potential detections. Comparison of the set of detected signals with a set of known and vetted transit events in the Kepler field of view shows that the recovery rate for these signals is 96.9%. The ensemble properties of the detected signals are reviewed

DETECTION OF POTENTIAL TRANSIT SIGNALS IN 16 QUARTERS OF KEPLER MISSION DATA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tenenbaum, Peter; Jenkins, Jon M.; Seader, Shawn; Burke, Christopher J.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Rowe, Jason F.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.; Li, Jie; Quintana, Elisa V.; Smith, Jeffrey C.; Thompson, Susan E.; Twicken, Joseph D. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94305 (United States); Haas, Michael R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Hunter, Roger C.; Sanderfer, Dwight T. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94305 (United States); Campbell, Jennifer R.; Girouard, Forrest R., E-mail: peter.tenenbaum@nasa.gov [Orbital Sciences Corporation/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94305 (United States); and others

2014-03-01

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in 4 yr of photometry data acquired by the Kepler mission. The targets of the search include 111,800 stars which were observed for the entire interval and 85,522 stars which were observed for a subset of the interval. We found that 9743 targets contained at least one signal consistent with the signature of a transiting or eclipsing object where the criteria for detection are periodicity of the detected transits, adequate signal-to-noise ratio, and acceptance by a number of tests which reject false positive detections. When targets that had produced a signal were searched repeatedly, an additional 6542 signals were detected on 3223 target stars, for a total of 16,285 potential detections. Comparison of the set of detected signals with a set of known and vetted transit events in the Kepler field of view shows that the recovery rate for these signals is 96.9%. The ensemble properties of the detected signals are reviewed.

Reuse for Research: Curating Astrophysical Datasets for Future Researchers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Conrad, Anders Sparre; Rasmus, Handberg; Svendsen, Michael

2017-01-01

“Our data are going to be valuable for science for the next 50 years, so please make sure you preserve them and keep them accessible for active research for at least that period.” These were approximately the words used by the principal investigator of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium ...

Chemical Abundances of M-Dwarfs from the Apogee Survey. I. The Exoplanet Hosting Stars Kepler-138 and Kepler-186

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souto, D.; Cunha, K. [Observatório Nacional, Rua General José Cristino, 77, 20921-400 São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); García-Hernández, D. A.; Zamora, O.; Prieto, C. Allende; Jönsson, H.; Pérez, A. E. García [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Vía Lactea S/N, E-38205, La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Smith, V. V. [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States); Mahadevan, S. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University (United States); Blake, C. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States); Johnson, J. A.; Pinsonneault, M. [Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Holtzman, J. [New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States); Majewski, S. R.; Sobeck, J. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States); Shetrone, M. [University of Texas at Austin, McDonald Observatory (United States); Teske, J. [Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC 20015 (United States); Nidever, D. [Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104 (United States); Schiavon, R. [Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5RF (United Kingdom); and others

2017-02-01

We report the first detailed chemical abundance analysis of the exoplanet-hosting M-dwarf stars Kepler-138 and Kepler-186 from the analysis of high-resolution ( R ∼ 22,500) H -band spectra from the SDSS-IV–APOGEE survey. Chemical abundances of 13 elements—C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, and Fe—are extracted from the APOGEE spectra of these early M-dwarfs via spectrum syntheses computed with an improved line list that takes into account H{sub 2}O and FeH lines. This paper demonstrates that APOGEE spectra can be analyzed to determine detailed chemical compositions of M-dwarfs. Both exoplanet-hosting M-dwarfs display modest sub-solar metallicities: [Fe/H]{sub Kepler-138} = −0.09 ± 0.09 dex and [Fe/H]{sub Kepler-186} = −0.08 ± 0.10 dex. The measured metallicities resulting from this high-resolution analysis are found to be higher by ∼0.1–0.2 dex than previous estimates from lower-resolution spectra. The C/O ratios obtained for the two planet-hosting stars are near-solar, with values of 0.55±0.10 for Kepler-138 and 0.52±0.12 for Kepler-186. Kepler-186 exhibits a marginally enhanced [Si/Fe] ratio.

The Kepler Dichotomy in Planetary Disks: Linking Kepler Observables to Simulations of Late-stage Planet Formation

Science.gov (United States)

Moriarty, John; Ballard, Sarah

2016-11-01

NASA’s Kepler Mission uncovered a wealth of planetary systems, many with planets on short-period orbits. These short-period systems reside around 50% of Sun-like stars and are similarly prevalent around M dwarfs. Their formation and subsequent evolution is the subject of active debate. In this paper, we simulate late-stage, in situ planet formation across a grid of planetesimal disks with varying surface density profiles and total mass. We compare simulation results with observable characteristics of the Kepler sample. We identify mixture models with different primordial planetesimal disk properties that self-consistently recover the multiplicity, radius, period and period ratio, and duration ratio distributions of the Kepler planets. We draw three main conclusions. (1) We favor a “frozen-in” narrative for systems of short-period planets, in which they are stable over long timescales, as opposed to metastable. (2) The “Kepler dichotomy,” an observed phenomenon of the Kepler sample wherein the architectures of planetary systems appear to either vary significantly or have multiple modes, can naturally be explained by formation within planetesimal disks with varying surface density profiles. Finally, (3) we quantify the nature of the “Kepler dichotomy” for both GK stars and M dwarfs, and find that it varies with stellar type. While the mode of planet formation that accounts for high multiplicity systems occurs in 24% ± 7% of planetary systems orbiting GK stars, it occurs in 63% ± 16% of planetary systems orbiting M dwarfs.

Quantization of the Linearized Kepler Problem

OpenAIRE

Guerrero, Julio; Perez, Jose Miguel

2003-01-01

The linearized Kepler problem is considered, as obtained from the Kustaanheimo-Stiefel (K-S)transformation, both for negative and positive energies. The symmetry group for the Kepler problem turns out to be SU(2,2). For negative energies, the Hamiltonian of Kepler problem can be realized as the sum of the energies of four harmonic oscillator with the same frequency, with a certain constrain. For positive energies, it can be realized as the sum of the energies of four repulsive oscillator with...

Recon Spectroscopy with TRES

Science.gov (United States)

Latham, David W.; TRES Team

2018-01-01

The Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph (TRES) on the 1.5-m Tillinghast Reflector at the Fred L. Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins has been a workhorse for reconnaissance spectroscopy of transiting-planet candidates identified by a variety of ground- and space-based photometric surveys, including Vulcan, TrES, HATNet, KELT, QES, Kepler, and K2. In support of NASA missions, quick-look classifications of effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, line broadening due to rotation, and absolute radial velocity have been uploaded to ExoFOP at NExScI on a timely schedule. More careful results derived using the Stellar Parameter Classification (SPC) tool can be provided in support of publications. For example, SPC results for effective temperature and metallicity have been used extensively to help constrain asteroseismic analyses of Kepler and K2 targets. TRES has also been used effectively for orbital solutions, Rossiter-McLaughlin observations, and Doppler tomography of large planets orbiting brighter. We look forward to continuing this work on TESS Objects of Interest.

Kepler photometry of the prototypical Blazhko star RR Lyr: an old friend seen in a new light

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolenberg, Katrien; Bryson, S.; Szabó, R.

2011-01-01

We present our analysis of the long-cadence Kepler data for the well-studied Blazhko star RR Lyr, gathered during the first two quarters of the satellite's observations and covering a total of 127 d. Besides being of great importance for our understanding of RR Lyrae stars in general, these RR Lyr...... data can be regarded as a case study for observations of bright stars with Kepler. Kepler can perform high-precision photometry on targets like RR Lyr, as the saturated flux is conserved to a very high degree. The Kepler data on RR Lyr are revolutionary in several respects. Even with long......-cadence sampling (one measurement per 29.4 min), the unprecedented precision (star's extreme light-curve variations in detail. The multiplet structures at the main frequency and its harmonics, typical for Blazhko stars, are clearly detected up...

Homogeneous Photodynamical Analysis of Kepler's Multiply-Transiting Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ragozzine, Darin

To search for planets more like our own, NASA s Kepler Space Telescope ( Kepler ) discovered thousands of exoplanet candidates that cross in front of ( transit ) their parent stars (e.g., Twicken et al. 2016). The Kepler exoplanet data represent an incredible observational leap forward as evidenced by hundreds of papers with thousands of citations. In particular, systems with multiple transiting planets combine the determination of physical properties of exoplanets (e.g., radii), the context provided by the system architecture, and insights from orbital dynamics. Such systems are the most information-rich exoplanetary systems (Ragozzine & Holman 2010). Thanks to Kepler s revolutionary dataset, understanding these Multi-Transiting Systems (MTSs) enables a wide variety of major science questions. In conclusion, existing analyses of MTSs are incomplete and suboptimal and our efficient and timely proposal will provide significant scientific gains ( 100 new mass measurements and 100 updated mass measurements). Furthermore, our homogeneous analysis enables future statistical analyses, including those necessary to characterize the small planet mass-radius relation with implications for understanding the formation, evolution, and habitability of planets. The overarching goal of this proposal is a complete homogeneous investigation of Kepler MTSs to provide detailed measurements (or constraints) on exoplanetary physical and orbital properties. Current investigations do not exploit the full power of the Kepler data; here we propose to use better data (Short Cadence observations), better methods (photodynamical modeling), and a better statistical method (Bayesian Differential Evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo) in a homogenous analysis of all 700 Kepler MTSs. These techniques are particularly valuable for understanding small terrestrial planets. We propose to extract the near-maximum amount of information from these systems through a series of three research objectives

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Kepler pipeline transit signal recovery. III. (Christiansen+, 2016)

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, J. L.; Clarke, B. D.; Burke, C. J.; Jenkins, J. M.; Bryson, S. T.; Coughlin, J. L.; Mullally, F.; Thompson, S. E.; Twicken, J. D.; Batalha, N. M.; Haas, M. R.; Catanzarite, J.; Campbell, J. R.; Uddin, A. K.; Zamudio, K.; Smith, J. C.; Henze, C. E.

2018-03-01

Here we describe the third transit injection experiment, which tests the entire Kepler observing baseline (Q1-Q17) for the first time across all 84 CCD channels. It was performed to measure the sensitivity of the Kepler pipeline used to generate the Q1-Q17 Data Release 24 (DR24) catalog of Kepler Objects of Interest (Coughlin et al. 2016, J/ApJS/224/12) available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive (Akeson et al. 2013PASP..125..989A). The average detection efficiency describes the likelihood that the Kepler pipeline would successfully recover a given transit signal. To measure this property we perform a Monte Carlo experiment where we inject the signatures of simulated transiting planets around 198154 target stars, one per star, across the focal plane starting with the Q1-Q17 DR24 calibrated pixels. The simulated transits are generated using the Mandel & Agol (2002ApJ...580L.171M) model. Of the injections, 159013 resulted in three or more injected transits (the minimum required for detection by the pipeline) and were used for the subsequent analysis. (1 data file).

New asteroseismic scaling relations based on the Hayashi track relation applied to red giant branch stars in NGC 6791 and NGC 6819

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, T.; Li, Y.; Hekker, S.

2014-01-01

Stellar mass M, radius R, and gravity g are important basic parameters in stellar physics. Accurate values for these parameters can be obtained from the gravitational interaction between stars in multiple systems or from asteroseismology. Stars in a cluster are thought to be formed coevally from the same interstellar cloud of gas and dust. The cluster members are therefore expected to have some properties in common. These common properties strengthen our ability to constrain stellar models and asteroseismically derived M, R, and g when tested against an ensemble of cluster stars. Here we derive new scaling relations based on a relation for stars on the Hayashi track (√(T eff )∼g p R q ) to determine the masses and metallicities of red giant branch stars in open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 from the global oscillation parameters Δν (the large frequency separation) and ν max (frequency of maximum oscillation power). The Δν and ν max values are derived from Kepler observations. From the analysis of these new relations we derive: (1) direct observational evidence that the masses of red giant branch stars in a cluster are the same within their uncertainties, (2) new methods to derive M and z of the cluster in a self-consistent way from Δν and ν max , with lower intrinsic uncertainties, and (3) the mass dependence in the Δν - ν max relation for red giant branch stars.

Kepler's Philosophy and the New Astronomy

CERN Document Server

Martens, Rhonda

2009-01-01

Johannes Kepler contributed importantly to every field he addressed. He changed the face of astronomy by abandoning principles that had been in place for two millennia, made important discoveries in optics and mathematics, and was an uncommonly good philosopher. Generally, however, Kepler's philosophical ideas have been dismissed as irrelevant and even detrimental to his legacy of scientific accomplishment. Here, Rhonda Martens offers the first extended study of Kepler's philosophical views and shows how those views helped him construct and justify the new astronomy.Martens notes that since Ke

Kepler AutoRegressive Planet Search

Science.gov (United States)

Caceres, Gabriel Antonio; Feigelson, Eric

2016-01-01

The Kepler AutoRegressive Planet Search (KARPS) project uses statistical methodology associated with autoregressive (AR) processes to model Kepler lightcurves in order to improve exoplanet transit detection in systems with high stellar variability. We also introduce a planet-search algorithm to detect transits in time-series residuals after application of the AR models. One of the main obstacles in detecting faint planetary transits is the intrinsic stellar variability of the host star. The variability displayed by many stars may have autoregressive properties, wherein later flux values are correlated with previous ones in some manner. Our analysis procedure consisting of three steps: pre-processing of the data to remove discontinuities, gaps and outliers; AR-type model selection and fitting; and transit signal search of the residuals using a new Transit Comb Filter (TCF) that replaces traditional box-finding algorithms. The analysis procedures of the project are applied to a portion of the publicly available Kepler light curve data for the full 4-year mission duration. Tests of the methods have been made on a subset of Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) systems, classified both as planetary `candidates' and `false positives' by the Kepler Team, as well as a random sample of unclassified systems. We find that the ARMA-type modeling successfully reduces the stellar variability, by a factor of 10 or more in active stars and by smaller factors in more quiescent stars. A typical quiescent Kepler star has an interquartile range (IQR) of ~10 e-/sec, which may improve slightly after modeling, while those with IQR ranging from 20 to 50 e-/sec, have improvements from 20% up to 70%. High activity stars (IQR exceeding 100) markedly improve. A periodogram based on the TCF is constructed to concentrate the signal of these periodic spikes. When a periodic transit is found, the model is displayed on a standard period-folded averaged light curve. Our findings to date on real

Chaos in Kepler's Multiple Planet Systems and K2s Observations of the Atmospheres of Uranus Neptune

Science.gov (United States)

Lissauer, Jack J.

2016-01-01

More than one-third of the 4700 planet candidates found by NASA's Kepler spacecraft during its prime mission are associated with target stars that have more than one planet candidate, and such "multis" account for the vast majority of candidates that have been verified as true planets. The large number of multis tells us that flat multiplanet systems like our Solar System are common. Virtually all of the candidate planetary systems are stable, as tested by numerical integrations that assume a physically motivated mass-radius relationship, but some of the systems lie in chaotic regions close to instability. The characteristics of some of the most interesting confirmed Kepler multi-planet systems will be discussed. The Kepler spacecraft's 'second life' in theK2 mission has allowed it to obtain long time-series observations of Solar System targets, including the giant planets Uranus & Neptune. These observations show variability caused by the chaotic weather patterns on Uranus & Neptune.

PHOTOMETRIC VARIABILITY IN KEPLER TARGET STARS: THE SUN AMONG STARS-A FIRST LOOK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basri, Gibor; Walkowicz, Lucianne M.; Batalha, Natalie; Jenkins, Jon; Borucki, William J.; Koch, David; Caldwell, Doug; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Dupree, Andrea K.; Latham, David W.; Meibom, Soeren; Howell, Steve; Brown, Tim

2010-01-01

The Kepler mission provides an exciting opportunity to study the light curves of stars with unprecedented precision and continuity of coverage. This is the first look at a large sample of stars with photometric data of a quality that has heretofore been only available for our Sun. It provides the first opportunity to compare the irradiance variations of our Sun to a large cohort of stars ranging from very similar to rather different stellar properties, at a wide variety of ages. Although Kepler data are in an early phase of maturity, and we only analyze the first month of coverage, it is sufficient to garner the first meaningful measurements of our Sun's variability in the context of a large cohort of main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood. We find that nearly half of the full sample is more active than the active Sun, although most of them are not more than twice as active. The active fraction is closer to a third for the stars most similar to the Sun, and rises to well more than half for stars cooler than mid-K spectral types.

KEPLER-10 c: A 2.2 EARTH RADIUS TRANSITING PLANET IN A MULTIPLE SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fressin, Francois; Torres, Guillermo; Desert, Jean-Michel; Charbonneau, David; Holman, Matthew J.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Rowe, Jason F.; Allen, Christopher; Borucki, William J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Henze, Christopher E.; Brown, Timothy M.; Ciardi, David R.; Cochran, William D.; Deming, Drake; Dunham, Edward W.; Gautier III, Thomas N.; Gilliland, Ronald L.

2011-01-01

The Kepler mission has recently announced the discovery of Kepler-10 b, the smallest exoplanet discovered to date and the first rocky planet found by the spacecraft. A second, 45 day period transit-like signal present in the photometry from the first eight months of data could not be confirmed as being caused by a planet at the time of that announcement. Here we apply the light curve modeling technique known as BLENDER to explore the possibility that the signal might be due to an astrophysical false positive (blend). To aid in this analysis we report the observation of two transits with the Spitzer Space Telescope at 4.5 μm. When combined, they yield a transit depth of 344 ± 85 ppm that is consistent with the depth in the Kepler passband (376 ± 9 ppm, ignoring limb darkening), which rules out blends with an eclipsing binary of a significantly different color than the target. Using these observations along with other constraints from high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, we are able to exclude the vast majority of possible false positives. We assess the likelihood of the remaining blends, and arrive conservatively at a false alarm rate of 1.6 x 10 -5 that is small enough to validate the candidate as a planet (designated Kepler-10 c) with a very high level of confidence. The radius of this object is measured to be R p = 2.227 +0.052 -0.057 R + (in which the error includes the uncertainty in the stellar properties), but currently available radial-velocity measurements only place an upper limit on its mass of about 20 M + . Kepler-10 c represents another example (with Kepler-9 d and Kepler-11 g) of statistical 'validation' of a transiting exoplanet, as opposed to the usual 'confirmation' that can take place when the Doppler signal is detected or transit timing variations are measured. It is anticipated that many of Kepler's smaller candidates will receive a similar treatment since dynamical confirmation may be difficult or impractical with the sensitivity of

Activity indicators and stellar parameters of the Kepler targets. An application of the ROTFIT pipeline to LAMOST-Kepler stellar spectra

Science.gov (United States)

Frasca, A.; Molenda-Żakowicz, J.; De Cat, P.; Catanzaro, G.; Fu, J. N.; Ren, A. B.; Luo, A. L.; Shi, J. R.; Wu, Y.; Zhang, H. T.

2016-10-01

Aims: A comprehensive and homogeneous determination of stellar parameters for the stars observed by the Kepler space telescope is necessary for statistical studies of their properties. As a result of the large number of stars monitored by Kepler, the largest and more complete databases of stellar parameters published to date are multiband photometric surveys. The LAMOST-Kepler survey, whose spectra are analyzed in the present paper, was the first large spectroscopic project, which started in 2011 and aimed at filling that gap. In this work we present the results of our analysis, which is focused on selecting spectra with emission lines and chromospherically active stars by means of the spectral subtraction of inactive templates. The spectroscopic determination of the atmospheric parameters for a large number of stars is a by-product of our analysis. Methods: We have used a purposely developed version of the code ROTFIT for the determination of the stellar parameters by exploiting a wide and homogeneous collection of real star spectra, namely the Indo US library. We provide a catalog with the atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, and [Fe/H]), radial velocity (RV), and an estimate of the projected rotation velocity (vsini). For cool stars (Teff≤ 6000 K), we also calculated the Hα and Ca II-IRT fluxes, which are important proxies of chromospheric activity. Results: We have derived the RV and atmospheric parameters for 61 753 spectra of 51 385 stars. The average uncertainties, which we estimate from the stars observed more than once, are about 12 km s-1, 1.3%, 0.05 dex, and 0.06 dex for RV, Teff, log g, and [Fe/H], respectively, although they are larger for the spectra with a very low signal-to-noise ratio. Literature data for a few hundred stars (mainly from high-resolution spectroscopy) were used to peform quality control of our results. The final accuracy of the RV is about 14 km s-1. The accuracy of the Teff, log g, and [Fe/H] measurements is about 3.5%, 0.3 dex

Mining the Kepler Data using Machine Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Walkowicz, Lucianne; Howe, A. R.; Nayar, R.; Turner, E. L.; Scargle, J.; Meadows, V.; Zee, A.

2014-01-01

Kepler's high cadence and incredible precision has provided an unprecedented view into stars and their planetary companions, revealing both expected and novel phenomena and systems. Due to the large number of Kepler lightcurves, the discovery of novel phenomena in particular has often been serendipitous in the course of searching for known forms of variability (for example, the discovery of the doubly pulsating elliptical binary KOI-54, originally identified by the transiting planet search pipeline). In this talk, we discuss progress on mining the Kepler data through both supervised and unsupervised machine learning, intended to both systematically search the Kepler lightcurves for rare or anomalous variability, and to create a variability catalog for community use. Mining the dataset in this way also allows for a quantitative identification of anomalous variability, and so may also be used as a signal-agnostic form of optical SETI. As the Kepler data are exceptionally rich, they provide an interesting counterpoint to machine learning efforts typically performed on sparser and/or noisier survey data, and will inform similar characterization carried out on future survey datasets.

Physical Properties of Kepler's Super-Earths

Science.gov (United States)

Sasselov, Dimitar D.; Kepler Science Team

2011-01-01

Planets in the radius range from about 1.25 to 2 Re, referred to as Super-Earth-sized planets, do not exist in our Solar System. Their physical properties as determined by theoretical modeling are expected to differ in many ways from our Solar System experience. The Kepler Mission is going to discover many such planets and determine their orbits and radii. For some of them follow-up observations may determine masses, and for a few of them asteroseismology of their stars from the Kepler light curve may determine an age. I will discuss theoretical models for such planets and how they could be constrained by the anticipated Kepler Mission observations.

Jacobi-Maupertuis metric and Kepler equation

Science.gov (United States)

Chanda, Sumanto; Gibbons, Gary William; Guha, Partha

This paper studies the application of the Jacobi-Eisenhart lift, Jacobi metric and Maupertuis transformation to the Kepler system. We start by reviewing fundamentals and the Jacobi metric. Then we study various ways to apply the lift to Kepler-related systems: first as conformal description and Bohlin transformation of Hooke’s oscillator, second in contact geometry and third in Houri’s transformation [T. Houri, Liouville integrability of Hamiltonian systems and spacetime symmetry (2016), www.geocities.jp/football_physician/publication.html], coupled with Milnor’s construction [J. Milnor, On the geometry of the Kepler problem, Am. Math. Mon. 90 (1983) 353-365] with eccentric anomaly.

Probing the Deep End of the Milky Way with New Oscillating Kepler Giants

Science.gov (United States)

Mathur, Savita; García, Rafael A.; Huber, Daniel; Regulo, Clara; Stello, Dennis; Beck, Paul G.; Houmani, Kenza; Salabert, David

2017-10-01

The Kepler mission has been a success in both exoplanet search and stellar physics studies. Red giants have actually been quite a highlight in the Kepler scene. The Kepler long and almost continuous four-year observations allowed us to detect oscillations in more than 15,000 red giants targeted by the mission. However by looking at the power spectra of 45,000 stars classified as dwarfs according to the Q1-16 Kepler star properties catalog, we detected red-giant like oscillations in 850 stars. Even though this is a small addition to the known red-giant sample, these misclassified stars represent a goldmine for galactic archeology studies. Indeed they happen to be fainter (down to Kp 16) and more distant (d>10kPc) than the known red giants, opening the possibility to probe unknown regions of our Galaxy. The faintness of these red giants with detected oscillations is very promising for detecting acoustic modes in red giants observed with K2 and TESS. In this talk, I will present this new sample of red giants with their revised stellar parameters derived from asteroseismology. Then I will discuss about the distribution of their masses, distances, and evolutionary states compared to the previously known sample of red giants.

Kepler planet-detection mission: introduction and first results.

Science.gov (United States)

Borucki, William J; Koch, David; Basri, Gibor; Batalha, Natalie; Brown, Timothy; Caldwell, Douglas; Caldwell, John; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Cochran, William D; DeVore, Edna; Dunham, Edward W; Dupree, Andrea K; Gautier, Thomas N; Geary, John C; Gilliland, Ronald; Gould, Alan; Howell, Steve B; Jenkins, Jon M; Kondo, Yoji; Latham, David W; Marcy, Geoffrey W; Meibom, Søren; Kjeldsen, Hans; Lissauer, Jack J; Monet, David G; Morrison, David; Sasselov, Dimitar; Tarter, Jill; Boss, Alan; Brownlee, Don; Owen, Toby; Buzasi, Derek; Charbonneau, David; Doyle, Laurance; Fortney, Jonathan; Ford, Eric B; Holman, Matthew J; Seager, Sara; Steffen, Jason H; Welsh, William F; Rowe, Jason; Anderson, Howard; Buchhave, Lars; Ciardi, David; Walkowicz, Lucianne; Sherry, William; Horch, Elliott; Isaacson, Howard; Everett, Mark E; Fischer, Debra; Torres, Guillermo; Johnson, John Asher; Endl, Michael; MacQueen, Phillip; Bryson, Stephen T; Dotson, Jessie; Haas, Michael; Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey; Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Twicken, Joseph D; Quintana, Elisa V; Clarke, Bruce D; Allen, Christopher; Li, Jie; Wu, Haley; Tenenbaum, Peter; Verner, Ekaterina; Bruhweiler, Frederick; Barnes, Jason; Prsa, Andrej

2010-02-19

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (approximately 0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

The architecture and formation of the Kepler-30 planetary system

Science.gov (United States)

Panichi, F.; Goździewski, K.; Migaszewski, C.; Szuszkiewicz, E.

2018-04-01

We study the orbital architecture, physical characteristics of planets, formation and long-term evolution of the Kepler-30 planetary system, detected and announced in 2012 by the KEPLER team. We show that the Kepler-30 system belongs to a particular class of very compact and quasi-resonant, yet long-term stable planetary systems. We re-analyse the light curves of the host star spanning Q1-Q17 quarters of the KEPLER mission. A huge variability of the Transit Timing Variations (TTV) exceeding 2 days is induced by a massive Jovian planet located between two Neptune-like companions. The innermost pair is near to the 2:1 mean motion resonance (MMR), and the outermost pair is close to higher order MMRs, such as 17:7 and 7:3. Our re-analysis of photometric data allows us to constrain, better than before, the orbital elements, planets' radii and masses, which are 9.2 ± 0.1, 536 ± 5, and 23.7 ± 1.3 Earth masses for Kepler-30b, Kepler-30c and Kepler-30d, respectively. The masses of the inner planets are determined within ˜1% uncertainty. We infer the internal structures of the Kepler-30 planets and their bulk densities in a wide range from (0.19 ± 0.01) g.cm-3 for Kepler-30d, (0.96 ± 0.15) g.cm-3 for Kepler-30b, to (1.71 ± 0.13) g.cm-3 for the Jovian planet Kepler-30c. We attempt to explain the origin of this unique planetary system and a deviation of the orbits from exact MMRs through the planetary migration scenario. We anticipate that the Jupiter-like planet plays an important role in determining the present dynamical state of this system.

Music of the heavens Kepler's harmonic astronomy

CERN Document Server

Stephenson, Bruce

2014-01-01

Valued today for its development of the third law of planetary motion, Harmonice mundi (1619) was intended by Kepler to expand on ancient efforts to discern a Creator's plan for the planetary system--an arrangement thought to be based on harmonic relationships. Challenging critics who characterize Kepler's theories of harmonic astronomy as ""mystical,"" Bruce Stephenson offers the first thorough technical analysis of the music the astronomer thought the heavens made, and the logic that led him to find musical patterns in his data. In so doing, Stephenson illuminates crucial aspects of Kepler'

Statistical eclipses of close-in Kepler sub-Saturns

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sheets, Holly A.; Deming, Drake, E-mail: hsheets@astro.umd.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 (United States)

2014-10-20

We present a method to detect small atmospheric signals in Kepler's planet candidate light curves by averaging light curves for multiple candidates with similar orbital and physical characteristics. Our statistical method allows us to measure unbiased physical properties of Kepler's planet candidates, even for candidates whose individual signal-to-noise precludes the detection of their secondary eclipse. We detect a secondary eclipse depth of 3.83{sub −1.11}{sup +1.10} ppm for a group of 31 sub-Saturn (R < 6 R {sub ⊕}) planet candidates with the greatest potential for a reflected light signature ((R{sub p} /a){sup 2} > 10 ppm). Including Kepler-10b in this group increases the depth to 5.08{sub −0.72}{sup +0.71} ppm. For a control group with (R{sub p} /a){sup 2} < 1 ppm, we find a depth of 0.36 ± 0.37 ppm, consistent with no detection. We also analyze the light curve of Kepler-10b and find an eclipse depth of 7.08 ± 1.06 ppm. If the eclipses are due solely to reflected light, this corresponds to a geometric albedo of 0.22 ± 0.06 for our group of close-in sub-Saturns, 0.37 ± 0.05 if including Kepler-10b in the group, and 0.60 ± 0.09 for Kepler-10b alone. Including a thermal emission model does not change the geometric albedo appreciably, assuming A{sub B} = (3/2)*A{sub g} . Our result for Kepler-10b is consistent with previous works. Our result for close-in sub-Saturns shows that Kepler-10b is unusually reflective, but our analysis is consistent with the results of Demory for super-Earths. Our results also indicate that hot Neptunes are typically more reflective than hot Jupiters.

MAGNETIC ACTIVITY ANALYSIS FOR A SAMPLE OF G-TYPE MAIN SEQUENCE KEPLER TARGETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mehrabi, Ahmad [Department of Physics, Bu Ali Sina University, 65178, 016016, Hamedan (Iran, Islamic Republic of); He, Han [National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Khosroshahi, Habib, E-mail: mehrabi@basu.ac.ir [School of Astronomy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), 19395-5531, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2017-01-10

The variation of a stellar light curve owing to rotational modulation by magnetic features (starspots and faculae) on the star’s surface can be used to investigate the magnetic properties of the host star. In this paper, we use the periodicity and magnitude of the light-curve variation as two proxies to study the stellar magnetic properties for a large sample of G-type main sequence Kepler targets, for which the rotation periods were recently determined. By analyzing the correlation between the two magnetic proxies, it is found that: (1) the two proxies are positively correlated for most of the stars in our sample, and the percentages of negative, zero, and positive correlations are 4.27%, 6.81%, and 88.91%, respectively; (2) negative correlation stars cannot have a large magnitude of light-curve variation; and (3) with the increase of rotation period, the relative number of positive correlation stars decreases and the negative correlation one increases. These results indicate that stars with shorter rotation period tend to have positive correlation between the two proxies, and a good portion of the positive correlation stars have a larger magnitude of light-curve variation (and hence more intense magnetic activities) than negative correlation stars.

Kepler's first rocky planet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Batalha, N.M.; Borucki, W.J.; Bryson, S.T.

2011-01-01

NASA's Kepler Mission uses transit photometry to determine the frequency of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The mission reached a milestone toward meeting that goal: the discovery of its first rocky planet, Kepler-10b. Two distinct sets of transit events were...... tests on the photometric and pixel flux time series established the viability of the planet candidates triggering ground-based follow-up observations. Forty precision Doppler measurements were used to confirm that the short-period transit event is due to a planetary companion. The parent star is bright...

Limits On Undetected Planets in the Six Transiting Planets Kepler-11 System

Science.gov (United States)

Lissauer, Jack

2017-01-01

The Kepler-11 has five inner planets ranging from approx. 2 - 1 times as massive Earth in a tightly-packed configuration, with orbital periods between 10 and 47 days. A sixth planet, Kepler-11 g, with a period of118 days, is also observed. The spacing between planets Kepler-11 f and Kepler-11 g is wide enough to allow room for a planet to orbit stably between them. We compare six and seven planet fits to measured transit timing variations (TTVs) of the six known planets. We find that in most cases an additional planet between Kepler-11 f and Kepler-11 g degrades rather than enhances the fit to the TTV data, and where the fit is improved, the improvement provides no significant evidence of a planet between Kepler-11 f and Kepler-11 g. This implies that any planet in this region must be low in mass. We also provide constraints on undiscovered planets orbiting exterior to Kepler-11 g. representations will be described.

The Albedos of Kepler's Close-in super-Earths

OpenAIRE

Demory, Brice-Olivier

2014-01-01

Exoplanet research focusing on the characterization of super-Earths is currently limited to those handful targets orbiting bright stars that are amenable to detailed study. This Letter proposes to look at alternative avenues to probe the surface and atmospheric properties of this category of planets, known to be ubiquitous in our galaxy. I conduct Markov Chain Monte Carlo lightcurve analyses for 97 Kepler close-in $R_P \\lesssim 2.0 R_{\\oplus}$ super-Earth candidates with the aim to detect the...

A Bewildering and Dynamic Picture of Exoplanetary Systems Identified by the Kepler Mission (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, J. M.

2013-12-01

notion of the habitable zone for single stars and static planetary system configurations. This talk will provide an overview of the science results from the Kepler Mission and the work ahead to derive the frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars from the treasure trove of Kepler data. NASA's quest for exoplanets continues with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, slated for launch in May 2017 by NASA's Explorer Program. TESS will conduct an all- sky transit survey to identify the 1000 best small exoplanets in the solar neighborhood for follow up observations and characterization. TESS's targets will include all F, G, K dwarfs from +4 to +12 magnitude and all M dwarfs known within ~200 light-years. 500,000 target stars will be observed over two years with ~500 square degrees observed continuously for a year in each hemisphere in the James Webb Space Telescopes continuously viewable zones. Since the typical TESS target star is 5 magnitudes brighter than that of Kepler and 10 times closer, TESS discoveries will afford significant opportunities to measure the masses of the exoplanets and to characterize their atmospheres with JWST, ELTs and other exoplanet explorers. TESS' discoveries will raise new questions regarding habitability that will be open to investigation through active efforts to characterize their atmospheres and search for biomarkers. Funding for this mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Hydrodynamic Simulations of Kepler's Supernova Remnant

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, Jessica; Blondin, John; Borkowski, Kazik; Reynolds, Stephen

2018-01-01

Kepler’s supernova remnant contains unusual features that strongly suggest an origin in a single-degenerate Type Ia explosion, including anisotropic circumstellar medium (CSM), a strong brightness gradient, and spatially varying expansion proper motions. We present 3Dhydrodynamic simulations to test a picture in which Kepler's progenitor binary emitted a strong asymmetric wind, densest in the orbital plane, while the system moved at high velocity through the ISM. We simulate the creation of the presupernova environment as well as the supernova blast wave, using the VH-1 grid-based hydrodynamics code. We first modeled an anisotropic wind to create an asymmetric bowshock around the progenitor, then the blast wave from thesupernova. The final simulation places both previous model pieces onto a single grid and allows the blast wave to expand into the bowshock. Models were completed on a Yin-Yang grids with matching angular resolutions. By manipulating parameters that control the asymmetry of the system, we attempted to find conditions that recreated the current state of Kepler. We analyzed these models by comparing images of Kepler from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to line-of-sight projections from the model results. We also present comparisons of simulated expansion velocities with recent observations of X-ray proper motions from Chandra images. We were able to produce models that contained similar features to those seen in Kepler. We find the greatest resemblance to Kepler images with a presupernova wind with an equator-to-pole density contrast of 3 and a moderately disk-like CSM at a 5° angle between equatorial plane and system motion.

AMPLITUDES OF SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS: CONSTRAINTS FROM RED GIANTS IN OPEN CLUSTERS OBSERVED BY KEPLER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stello, Dennis; Huber, Daniel; Bedding, Timothy R.; Benomar, Othman; Kallinger, Thomas; Basu, Sarbani; Mosser, BenoIt; Hekker, Saskia; Mathur, Savita; GarcIa, Rafael A.; Kjeldsen, Hans; Grundahl, Frank; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Joergen; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Verner, Graham A.; Chaplin, William J.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Meibom, Soeren; Molenda-Zakowicz, Joanna; Szabo, Robert

2011-01-01

Scaling relations that link asteroseismic quantities to global stellar properties are important for gaining understanding of the intricate physics that underpins stellar pulsations. The common notion that all stars in an open cluster have essentially the same distance, age, and initial composition implies that the stellar parameters can be measured to much higher precision than what is usually achievable for single stars. This makes clusters ideal for exploring the relation between the mode amplitude of solar-like oscillations and the global stellar properties. We have analyzed data obtained with NASA's Kepler space telescope to study solar-like oscillations in 100 red giant stars located in either of the three open clusters, NGC 6791, NGC 6819, and NGC 6811. By fitting the measured amplitudes to predictions from simple scaling relations that depend on luminosity, mass, and effective temperature, we find that the data cannot be described by any power of the luminosity-to-mass ratio as previously assumed. As a result we provide a new improved empirical relation which treats luminosity and mass separately. This relation turns out to also work remarkably well for main-sequence and subgiant stars. In addition, the measured amplitudes reveal the potential presence of a number of previously unknown unresolved binaries in the red clump in NGC 6791 and NGC 6819, pointing to an interesting new application for asteroseismology as a probe into the formation history of open clusters.

The more the merrier: grid based modelling of Kepler dwarfs with 5-dimensional stellar grids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serenelli Aldo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present preliminary results of our grid based modelling (GBM of the dwarf/subgiant sample of stars observed with Kepler including global asteroseismic parameters. GBM analysis in this work is based on a large grid of stellar models that is characterized by five independent parameters: model mass and age, initial metallicity (Zini, initial helium (Yini, and mixing length parameter (αMLT. Using this grid relaxes assumptions used in all previous GBM work where the initial composition is determined by a single parameter and that αMLT is fixed to a solar-calibrated value. The new grid allows us to study, for example, the impact of different galactic chemical enrichment models on the determination of stellar parameters such as mass radius and age. Also, it allows to include new results from stellar atmosphere models on αMLT in the GBM analysis in a simple manner. Alternatively, it can be tested if global asteroseismology is a useful tool to constraint our ignorance on quantities such as Yini and αMLT. Initial findings show that mass determination is robust with respect to freedom in the latter quantities, with a 4.4% maximum deviation for extreme assumptions regarding prior information on Yini – Zini relations and aMLT. On the other hand, tests carried out so far seem to indicate that global seismology does not have much power to constrain Yini – Zni relations of αMLT values without resourcing to additional information.

From emblems to diagrams: Kepler's new pictorial language of scientific representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen-Morris, Raz

2009-01-01

Kepler's treatise on optics of 1604 furnished, along with technical solutions to problems in medieval perspective, a mathematically-based visual language for the observation of nature. This language, based on Kepler's theory of retinal pictures, ascribed a new role to geometrical diagrams. This paper examines Kepler's pictorial language against the backdrop of alchemical emblems that flourished in and around the court of Rudolf II in Prague. It highlights the cultural context in which Kepler's optics was immersed, and the way in which Kepler attempted to demarcate his new science from other modes of the investigation of nature.

Kepler-Astronomer in Astrology and Astrologer in Astronomy

Science.gov (United States)

Fempl-Madjarevic, Jasna

The author is discussing a very complicated subject: the astrological aspects in the scientific activity of Johannes Kepler. Sometimes Kepler is considered the last astronomer which confused astrology with astronomy. In fact he composed horoscopes, but he was conscious finally that the astrology was a confusion. The author is discussing also the mistic aspects of the scientifc creation by Kepler. Particularly she emphasized that the "Mysterium Cosmographicum" is one of such works. Meanwhile, that work led to discovery of famous third laws of planets motion.

STELLAR EVIDENCE THAT THE SOLAR DYNAMO MAY BE IN TRANSITION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metcalfe, Travis S.; Egeland, Ricky; Van Saders, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Precise photometry from the Kepler space telescope allows not only the measurement of rotation in solar-type field stars, but also the determination of reliable masses and ages from asteroseismology. These critical data have recently provided the first opportunity to calibrate rotation–age relations for stars older than the Sun. The evolutionary picture that emerges is surprising: beyond middle-age the efficiency of magnetic braking is dramatically reduced, implying a fundamental change in angular momentum loss beyond a critical Rossby number (Ro ∼ 2). We compile published chromospheric activity measurements for the sample of Kepler asteroseismic targets that were used to establish the new rotation–age relations. We use these data along with a sample of well-characterized solar analogs from the Mount Wilson HK survey to develop a qualitative scenario connecting the evolution of chromospheric activity to a fundamental shift in the character of differential rotation. We conclude that the Sun may be in a transitional evolutionary phase, and that its magnetic cycle might represent a special case of stellar dynamo theory.

STELLAR EVIDENCE THAT THE SOLAR DYNAMO MAY BE IN TRANSITION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Metcalfe, Travis S. [Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder CO 80301 (United States); Egeland, Ricky [High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder CO 80307 (United States); Van Saders, Jennifer [Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena CA 91101 (United States)

2016-07-20

Precise photometry from the Kepler space telescope allows not only the measurement of rotation in solar-type field stars, but also the determination of reliable masses and ages from asteroseismology. These critical data have recently provided the first opportunity to calibrate rotation–age relations for stars older than the Sun. The evolutionary picture that emerges is surprising: beyond middle-age the efficiency of magnetic braking is dramatically reduced, implying a fundamental change in angular momentum loss beyond a critical Rossby number (Ro ∼ 2). We compile published chromospheric activity measurements for the sample of Kepler asteroseismic targets that were used to establish the new rotation–age relations. We use these data along with a sample of well-characterized solar analogs from the Mount Wilson HK survey to develop a qualitative scenario connecting the evolution of chromospheric activity to a fundamental shift in the character of differential rotation. We conclude that the Sun may be in a transitional evolutionary phase, and that its magnetic cycle might represent a special case of stellar dynamo theory.

High-precision abundances of elements in Kepler LEGACY stars. Verification of trends with stellar age

Science.gov (United States)

Nissen, P. E.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Collet, R.; Grundahl, F.; Slumstrup, D.

2017-12-01

Context. A previous study of solar twin stars has revealed the existence of correlations between some abundance ratios and stellar age providing new knowledge about nucleosynthesis and Galactic chemical evolution. Aims: High-precision abundances of elements are determined for stars with asteroseismic ages in order to test the solar twin relations. Methods: HARPS-N spectra with signal-to-noise ratios S/N ≳ 250 and MARCS model atmospheres were used to derive abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn, and Y in ten stars from the Kepler LEGACY sample (including the binary pair 16 Cyg A and B) selected to have metallicities in the range - 0.15 LTE iron abundances derived from Fe I and Fe II lines. Available non-LTE corrections were also applied when deriving abundances of the other elements. Results: The abundances of the Kepler stars support the [X/Fe]-age relations previously found for solar twins. [Mg/Fe], [Al/Fe], and [Zn/Fe] decrease by 0.1 dex over the lifetime of the Galactic thin disk due to delayed contribution of iron from Type Ia supernovae relative to prompt production of Mg, Al, and Zn in Type II supernovae. [Y/Mg] and [Y/Al], on the other hand, increase by 0.3 dex, which can be explained by an increasing contribution of s-process elements from low-mass AGB stars as time goes on. The trends of [C/Fe] and [O/Fe] are more complicated due to variations of the ratio between refractory and volatile elements among stars of similar age. Two stars with about the same age as the Sun show very different trends of [X/H] as a function of elemental condensation temperature Tc and for 16 Cyg, the two components have an abundance difference, which increases with Tc. These anomalies may be connected to planet-star interactions. Based on spectra obtained with HARPS-N@TNG under programme A33TAC_1.Tables 1 and 2 are also available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http

Determining distances using asteroseismic methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aguirre, Victor Silva; Casagrande, L.; Basu, Sarbina

2013-01-01

Asteroseismology has been extremely successful in determining the properties of stars in different evolutionary stages with a remarkable level of precision. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the r......Asteroseismology has been extremely successful in determining the properties of stars in different evolutionary stages with a remarkable level of precision. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification...... fluxes, and thus distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. Applying our method to a sample of solar-like oscillators in the {\\it Kepler} field that have accurate {\\it Hipparcos} parallaxes, we find agreement in our distance determinations to better than 5%. Comparison with measurements...

Visualization of Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Meishu; Su, Jun; Wang, Weiguo; Lu, Jianlong

2017-01-01

For this article, we use a 3D printer to print a surface similar to universal gravitation for demonstrating and investigating Kepler's laws of planetary motion describing the motion of a small ball on the surface. This novel experimental method allows Kepler's laws of planetary motion to be visualized and will contribute to improving the…

Kepler Confirmation of Multi-Planet Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Cochran, W. D.

2011-10-01

The NASA Kepler spacecraft has detected 170 candidate multi-planet systems in the first two quarters of data released in February 2011 by Borucki et al. (2011). These systems comprise 115 double candidate systems, 45 triple candidate sys- tems, and 10 systems with 4 or more candidate planets. The architecture and dynamics of these systems were discussed by Lissauer et al. (2011), and a comparison of candidates in single- and multi-planet systems was presented by Latham et al. (2011). Proceeding from "planetary candidate" systems to confirmed and validated multi-planet systems is a difficult process, as most of these systems orbit stars too faint to obtain extremely precise (1ms-1) radial velocity confimation. Here, we discuss in detail the use of transit timing vari- ations (cf. e.g. Holman et al., 2010) to confirm planets near a mean motion resonance. We also discuss extensions to the BLENDER validation (Torres et al., 2004, 2011; Fressin et al., 2011) to validate planets in multi-planet systems. Kepler was competitively selected as the tenth Discovery mission. Funding for the Kepler Mis- sion is provided by NASA's Science Mission Direc- torate. We are deeply grateful for the very hard work of the entire Kepler team.

KEPLER-15b: A HOT JUPITER ENRICHED IN HEAVY ELEMENTS AND THE FIRST KEPLER MISSION PLANET CONFIRMED WITH THE HOBBY-EBERLY TELESCOPE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Endl, Michael; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Cochran, William D.; Brugamyer, Erik J.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Rowe, Jason; Lucas, Phillip; Isaacson, Howard; Bryson, Steve; Howell, Steve B.; Borucki, William J.; Caldwell, Douglas; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Haas, Michael R.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Hansen, Terese; Ciardi, David R.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Everett, Mark; Ford, Eric B.

2011-01-01

We report the discovery of Kepler-15b (KOI-128), a new transiting exoplanet detected by NASA's Kepler mission. The transit signal with a period of 4.94 days was detected in the quarter 1 (Q1) Kepler photometry. For the first time, we have used the High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) to determine the mass of a Kepler planet via precise radial velocity (RV) measurements. The 24 HET/HRS RVs and 6 additional measurements from the Fibre-fed Échelle Spectrograph spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope reveal a Doppler signal with the same period and phase as the transit ephemeris. We used one HET/HRS spectrum of Kepler-15 taken without the iodine cell to determine accurate stellar parameters. The host star is a metal-rich ([Fe/H] = 0.36 ± 0.07) G-type main-sequence star with T eff = 5515 ± 124 K. The semi-amplitude K of the RV orbit is 78.7 +8.5 –9.5 m s –1 , which yields a planet mass of 0.66 ± 0.1 M Jup . The planet has a radius of 0.96 ± 0.06 R Jup and a mean bulk density of 0.9 ± 0.2 g cm –3 . The radius of Kepler-15b is smaller than the majority of transiting planets with similar mass and irradiation level. This suggests that the planet is more enriched in heavy elements than most other transiting giant planets. For Kepler-15b we estimate a heavy element mass of 30-40 M ⊕ .

geoKepler Workflow Module for Computationally Scalable and Reproducible Geoprocessing and Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Cowart, C.; Block, J.; Crawl, D.; Graham, J.; Gupta, A.; Nguyen, M.; de Callafon, R.; Smarr, L.; Altintas, I.

2015-12-01

The NSF-funded WIFIRE project has developed an open-source, online geospatial workflow platform for unifying geoprocessing tools and models for for fire and other geospatially dependent modeling applications. It is a product of WIFIRE's objective to build an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure for real-time and data-driven simulation, prediction and visualization of wildfire behavior. geoKepler includes a set of reusable GIS components, or actors, for the Kepler Scientific Workflow System (https://kepler-project.org). Actors exist for reading and writing GIS data in formats such as Shapefile, GeoJSON, KML, and using OGC web services such as WFS. The actors also allow for calling geoprocessing tools in other packages such as GDAL and GRASS. Kepler integrates functions from multiple platforms and file formats into one framework, thus enabling optimal GIS interoperability, model coupling, and scalability. Products of the GIS actors can be fed directly to models such as FARSITE and WRF. Kepler's ability to schedule and scale processes using Hadoop and Spark also makes geoprocessing ultimately extensible and computationally scalable. The reusable workflows in geoKepler can be made to run automatically when alerted by real-time environmental conditions. Here, we show breakthroughs in the speed of creating complex data for hazard assessments with this platform. We also demonstrate geoKepler workflows that use Data Assimilation to ingest real-time weather data into wildfire simulations, and for data mining techniques to gain insight into environmental conditions affecting fire behavior. Existing machine learning tools and libraries such as R and MLlib are being leveraged for this purpose in Kepler, as well as Kepler's Distributed Data Parallel (DDP) capability to provide a framework for scalable processing. geoKepler workflows can be executed via an iPython notebook as a part of a Jupyter hub at UC San Diego for sharing and reporting of the scientific analysis and results from

The Scattering Outcomes of Kepler Circumbinary Planets: Planet Mass Ratio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gong, Yan-Xiang; Ji, Jianghui, E-mail: yxgong@pmo.ac.cn, E-mail: jijh@pmo.ac.cn [CAS Key Laboratory of Planetary Sciences, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)

2017-11-01

Recent studies reveal that the free eccentricities of Kepler-34b and Kepler-413b are much larger than their forced eccentricities, implying that scattering events may take place in their formation. The observed orbital configuration of Kepler-34b cannot be well reproduced in disk-driven migration models, whereas a two-planet scattering scenario can play a significant role of shaping the planetary configuration. These studies indicate that circumbinary planets discovered by Kepler may have experienced scattering process. In this work, we extensively investigate the scattering outcomes of circumbinary planets focusing on the effects of planet mass ratio . We find that the planetary mass ratio and the the initial relative locations of planets act as two important parameters that affect the eccentricity distribution of the surviving planets. As an application of our model, we discuss the observed orbital configurations of Kepler-34b and Kepler-413b. We first adopt the results from the disk-driven models as the initial conditions, then simulate the scattering process that occurs in the late evolution stage of circumbinary planets. We show that the present orbital configurations of Kepler-34b and Kepler-413b can be well reproduced when considering a two unequal-mass planet ejection model. Our work further suggests that some of the currently discovered circumbinary single-planet systems may be survivors of original multiple-planet systems. The disk-driven migration and scattering events occurring in the late stage both play an irreplaceable role in sculpting the final systems.

First Kepler results on compact pulsators - VI. Targets in the final half of the survey phase

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østensen, Roy H.; Silvotti, Roberto; Charpinet, S.

2011-01-01

We present results from the final 6 months of a survey to search for pulsations in white dwarfs (WDs) and hot subdwarf stars with the Kepler spacecraft. Spectroscopic observations are used to separate the objects into accurate classes, and we explore the physical parameters of the subdwarf B (sdB...

Kepler's cosmological synthesis astrology, mechanism and the soul

CERN Document Server

Boner, Patrick J

2013-01-01

Spanning the course of his career, this book brings new light to Kepler's vitalistic views and their central place in his world picture. It challenges our view of Kepler as a nascent mechanical philosopher who fell back on an older form of physics.

CHARACTERIZING THE COOL KOIs. IV. KEPLER-32 AS A PROTOTYPE FOR THE FORMATION OF COMPACT PLANETARY SYSTEMS THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swift, Jonathan J.; Johnson, John Asher; Morton, Timothy D.; Montet, Benjamin T.; Muirhead, Philip S.; Crepp, Justin R.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.

2013-01-01

The Kepler space telescope has opened new vistas in exoplanet discovery space by revealing populations of Earth-sized planets that provide a new context for understanding planet formation. Approximately 70% of all stars in the Galaxy belong to the diminutive M dwarf class, several thousand of which lie within Kepler's field of view, and a large number of these targets show planet transit signals. The Kepler M dwarf sample has a characteristic mass of 0.5 M ☉ representing a stellar population twice as common as Sun-like stars. Kepler-32 is a typical star in this sample that presents us with a rare opportunity: five planets transit this star, giving us an expansive view of its architecture. All five planets of this compact system orbit their host star within a distance one-third the size of Mercury's orbit, with the innermost planet positioned a mere 4.3 stellar radii from the stellar photosphere. New observations limit possible false positive scenarios, allowing us to validate the entire Kepler-32 system making it the richest known system of transiting planets around an M dwarf. Based on considerations of the stellar dust sublimation radius, a minimum mass protoplanetary nebula, and the near period commensurability of three adjacent planets, we propose that the Kepler-32 planets formed at larger orbital radii and migrated inward to their present locations. The volatile content inferred for the Kepler-32 planets and order of magnitude estimates for the disk migration rates suggest that these planets may have formed beyond the snow line and migrated in the presence of a gaseous disk. If true, then this would place an upper limit on their formation time of ∼10 Myr. The Kepler-32 planets are representative of the full ensemble of planet candidates orbiting the Kepler M dwarfs for which we calculate an occurrence rate of 1.0 ± 0.1 planet per star. The formation of the Kepler-32 planets therefore offers a plausible blueprint for the formation of one of the largest

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Robovetter Completeness and Effectiveness for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlin, Jeffrey L.

2017-01-01

In general, the Kepler pipeline identifies a list of Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs), which are periodic flux decrements meeting certain criteria (Jenkins, 2017). These TCEs are reviewed and those that appear consistent with astrophysically transiting or eclipsing systems are classified as Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs). Further review is given to KOIs, which are then dispositioned as Planet Candidates (PCs) or False Positive (FPs). FPs are further denoted by four major flags that indicate if the signal is Not Transit-Like (NTL), due to a Stellar Eclipse (SS; previously referred to as Significant Secondary), and/or due to contamination from a source other than the target as evidenced by a Centroid Offset (CO) oran Ephemeris Match (EM) with another object. This entire TCE review process is known as dispositioning or vetting.In the first five Kepler mission planet candidate catalogs (Borucki et al., 2011a,b; Batalha et al., 2013; Burke et al., 2014; Rowe et al., 2015), TCEs were manually examined on an individual basis and dispositioned using various plots and quantitative diagnostic tests (see e.g., Coughlin, 2017). In the sixth catalog, Mullally et al. (2015a) employed partial automation via simple parameter cuts to automatically disposition a large fraction of TCEs as not transit-like. Mullally et al. (2015a) also used an automated technique known as the centroid Robovetter (Mullally, 2017) to automatically identify some FP KOIs due to centroid offsets - a telltale signature of light contamination from another target. The remaining targets were manually dispositioned. In the seventh catalog, Coughlin et al. (2016) automated theentire dispositioning process using what is collectively known simply as the Robovetter.In the eighth and final mission catalog, Thompson et al. (2017) use a revised Robovetter to automate the dispositioning of all TCEs with an emphasis on creating a catalog suitable for accurately determining planet occurrence rates. In order to

THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN THE KEPLER SEARCH VOLUME

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, Marshall C. [Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Redfield, Seth [Astronomy Department, Van Vleck Observatory, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459 (United States); Jensen, Adam G., E-mail: mjohnson@astro.as.utexas.edu [Department of Physics and Physical Science, University of Nebraska-Kearney, Bruner Hall of Science, 2401 11th Ave, Kearney, NE 68849 (United States)

2015-07-10

The properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) surrounding a planetary system can impact planetary climate through a number of mechanisms, including changing the size of the astrosphere (one of the major shields for cosmic rays) as well as direct deposition of material into planetary atmospheres. In order to constrain the ambient ISM conditions for exoplanetary systems, we present observations of interstellar Na i and K i absorption toward seventeen early type stars in the Kepler prime mission field of view (FOV). We identify 39 Na i and 8 K i velocity components, and attribute these to 11 ISM clouds. Six of these are detected toward more than one star, and for these clouds we put limits on the cloud properties, including distance and hydrogen number density. We identify one cloud with significant (≳1.5 cm{sup −3}) hydrogen number density located within the nominal ∼100 pc boundary of the Local Bubble. We identify systems with confirmed planets within the Kepler FOV that could lie within these ISM clouds, and estimate upper limits on the astrosphere sizes of these systems under the assumption that they do lie within these clouds. Under this condition, the Kepler-20, 42, and 445 multiplanet systems could have compressed astrospheres much smaller than the present-day heliosphere. Among the known habitable zone planet hosts, Kepler-186 could have an astrosphere somewhat smaller than the heliosphere, while Kepler-437 and KOI-4427 could have astrospheres much larger than the heliosphere. The thick disk star Kepler-444 may have an astrosphere just a few AU in radius.

The Kepler DB, a Database Management System for Arrays, Sparse Arrays and Binary Data

Science.gov (United States)

McCauliff, Sean; Cote, Miles T.; Girouard, Forrest R.; Middour, Christopher; Klaus, Todd C.; Wohler, Bill

2010-01-01

The Kepler Science Operations Center stores pixel values on approximately six million pixels collected every 30-minutes, as well as data products that are generated as a result of running the Kepler science processing pipeline. The Kepler Database (Kepler DB) management system was created to act as the repository of this information. After one year of ight usage, Kepler DB is managing 3 TiB of data and is expected to grow to over 10 TiB over the course of the mission. Kepler DB is a non-relational, transactional database where data are represented as one dimensional arrays, sparse arrays or binary large objects. We will discuss Kepler DB's APIs, implementation, usage and deployment at the Kepler Science Operations Center.

The Kepler DB: a database management system for arrays, sparse arrays, and binary data

Science.gov (United States)

McCauliff, Sean; Cote, Miles T.; Girouard, Forrest R.; Middour, Christopher; Klaus, Todd C.; Wohler, Bill

2010-07-01

The Kepler Science Operations Center stores pixel values on approximately six million pixels collected every 30 minutes, as well as data products that are generated as a result of running the Kepler science processing pipeline. The Kepler Database management system (Kepler DB)was created to act as the repository of this information. After one year of flight usage, Kepler DB is managing 3 TiB of data and is expected to grow to over 10 TiB over the course of the mission. Kepler DB is a non-relational, transactional database where data are represented as one-dimensional arrays, sparse arrays or binary large objects. We will discuss Kepler DB's APIs, implementation, usage and deployment at the Kepler Science Operations Center.

SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates: a joint photometric, spectroscopic and dynamical analysis of the Kepler-117 system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno G.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We present the analysis of the multi-planetary system Kepler-117, which is part of our program of observations of Kepler planets. This system is composed of a ~ 30 MEarth planet in a ~ 19 days orbit and a ~ 2 MJ planet orbiting in ~ 51 days. Both the orbits have low eccentricity. The planets are not close to an exact low-order mean motion resonance, but exhibit significant transit timing variations (TTVs nevertheless. We perform a combined Markov Chain Monte Carlo fit on all the available data: the Kepler photometry, the TTVs, the radial velocities we obtained with SOPHIE/OHP and the stellar parameters. The prime result is that the modelling of the TTVs allows to increase the precision on the system parameters which are not constrained by the radial velocities alone.

Confirmation of 5 SN in the Kepler/K2 C16 Field with Gemini

Science.gov (United States)

Margheim, S.; Tucker, B. E.; Garnavich, P. M.; Rest, A.; Narayan, G.; Smith, K. W.; Smartt, S.; Kasen, D.; Shaya, E.; Mushotzky, R.; Olling, R.; Villar, A.; Forster, F.; Zenteno, A.; James, D.; Smith, R. Chris

2018-01-01

We report new spectroscopic classifications by KEGS of supernova discovered by Pan-STARRS1 during a targeted search of the Kepler/K2 Campaign 16 field using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on both the Gemini North Observatory on Mauna Kea, and the Gemini South Observatory on Cerro Pachon.

12000 rotation periods of Kepler stars (Nielsen+, 2013)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, M. B.; Gizon, L.; Schunker, H.

2013-01-01

Rotation periods of 12253 stars in the Kepler field. The periods are determined by the brightness variations, from star spots or active regions, in the light curves of the white light photometry obtained by the Kepler spacecraft. The median absolute deviation from the median (MAD) of the periods...... shows the scatter of periods for each star, over 6 or more (out of 8 analyzed) Kepler quarters. The g-r color index, E(B-V), radius, surface gravity, and effective temperature are from the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). Column 9 (TF) indicates whether or not the msMAP data for a given star satisfies...... the selection criteria described in section 2. Of these, there are 86 stars with periods from the msMAP data that differ from the period derived from the PDCMAP data by more than one frequency resolution element (1/90d-1). For these stars the msMAP periods are therefore given in column 10 as a none-zero value...

Transit Timing Variation analysis with Kepler light curves of KOI 227 and Kepler 93b

Science.gov (United States)

Dulz, Shannon; Reed, Mike

2017-01-01

By searching for transit signals in approximately 150,000 stars, NASA’s Kepler Space telescope found thousands of exoplanets over its primary mission from 2009 to 2013 (Tenenbaum et al. 2014, ApJS, 211, 6). Yet, a detailed follow-up examination of Kepler light curves may contribute more evidence on system dynamics and planetary atmospheres of these objects. Kepler’s continuous observing of these systems over the mission duration produced light curves of sufficient duration to allow for the search for transit timing variations. Transit timing variations over the course of many orbits may indicate a precessing orbit or the existence of a non-transiting third body such as another exoplanet. Flux contributions of the planet just prior to secondary eclipse may provide a measurement of bond albedo from the day-side of the transiting planet. Any asymmetries of the transit shape may indicate thermal asymmetries which can measure upper atmosphere motion of the planet. These two factors can constrain atmospheric models of close orbiting exoplanets. We first establish our procedure with the well-documented TTV system, KOI 227 (Nesvorny et al. 2014, ApJ, 790, 31). Using the test case of KOI 227, we analyze Kepler-93b for TTVs and day-side flux contributions. Kepler-93b is likely a rocky planet with R = 1.50 ± 0.03 Earth Radii and M = 2.59 ± 2.0 Earth Masses (Marcy et al. 2014, ApJS, 210, 20). This research is funded by a NASA EPSCoR grant.

What asteroseismology can do for exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Van Eylen Vincent

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We describe three useful applications of asteroseismology in the context of exoplanet science: (1 the detailed characterisation of exoplanet host stars; (2 the measurement of stellar inclinations; and (3 the determination of orbital eccentricity from transit duration making use of asteroseismic stellar densities. We do so using the example system Kepler-410 [1]. This is one of the brightest (V = 9.4 Kepler exoplanet host stars, containing a small (2.8 R⊕ transiting planet in a long orbit (17.8 days, and one or more additional non-transiting planets as indicated by transit timing variations. The validation of Kepler-410 (KOI-42 was complicated due to the presence of a companion star, and the planetary nature of the system was confirmed after analyzing a Spitzer transit observation as well as ground-based follow-up observations.

Kepler's relation to the Jesuits-A study of his correspondence with Paul Guldin.

Science.gov (United States)

Schuppener, Georg

1997-12-01

First, this article provides a survey of the kind of relationship that existed between Kepler and the Jesuits. Afterwards, it is pondered upon the likelihood of their having been in direct contact with each other while Kepler lived in Prague. The second part of the article is devoted to an investigation into the correspondence between Kepler and Paul Guldin as an example. Thus, the paper describes the key issues of those letters and concludes from this Guldin's attitude to Kepler and the resulting commitment to Kepler's affairs. Finally, the article examines whether the assumption that Kepler and Guldin later discontinued their correspondence intensionally is verifiable and plausible.

KIC 9821622: An interesting lithium-rich giant in the Kepler field

Science.gov (United States)

Jofré, E.; Petrucci, R.; García, L.; Gómez, M.

2015-12-01

We report the discovery of a new exceptional young lithium-rich giant, KIC 9821622, in the Kepler field that exhibits an unusually large enhancement of α, Fe-peak, and r-process elements. From high-resolution spectra obtained with GRACES at Gemini North, we derived fundamental parameters and detailed chemical abundances of 23 elements from equivalent widths and synthesis analysis. By combining atmospheric stellar parameters with available asteroseismic data, we obtained the stellar mass, radius, and age. The data analysis reveals that KIC 9821622 is a Li-rich (A(Li)NLTE = 1.80 ± 0.2) intermediate-mass giant star (M = 1.64 M⊙) located at the red giant branch near the luminosity bump. We find unexpectedly elevated abundances of Fe-peak and r-process elements. In addition, as previously reported, we find that this is a young star (2.37 Gyr) with unusually high abundances of α-elements ([α/Fe] = 0.31). The evolutionary status of KIC 9821622 suggests that its Li-rich nature is the result of internal fresh Li that is synthesized through the Cameron-Fowler mechanism near the luminosity bump. However, its peculiar enhancement of α, Fe-peak, and r-process elements opens the possibility of external contamination by material enriched by a supernova explosion. Although it is less likely, planet accretion cannot be ruled out. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina).Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

BEER ANALYSIS OF KEPLER AND CoRoT LIGHT CURVES. I. DISCOVERY OF KEPLER-76b: A HOT JUPITER WITH EVIDENCE FOR SUPERROTATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faigler, S.; Tal-Or, L.; Mazeh, T.; Latham, D. W.; Buchhave, L. A.

2013-01-01

We present the first case in which the BEER algorithm identified a hot Jupiter in the Kepler light curve, and its reality was confirmed by orbital solutions based on follow-up spectroscopy. The companion Kepler-76b was identified by the BEER algorithm, which detected the BEaming (sometimes called Doppler boosting) effect together with the Ellipsoidal and Reflection/emission modulations (BEER), at an orbital period of 1.54 days, suggesting a planetary companion orbiting the 13.3 mag F star. Further investigation revealed that this star appeared in the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog with estimated primary and secondary eclipse depths of 5 × 10 –3 and 1 × 10 –4 , respectively. Spectroscopic radial velocity follow-up observations with Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph and SOPHIE confirmed Kepler-76b as a transiting 2.0 ± 0.26 M Jup hot Jupiter. The mass of a transiting planet can be estimated from either the beaming or the ellipsoidal amplitude. The ellipsoidal-based mass estimate of Kepler-76b is consistent with the spectroscopically measured mass while the beaming-based estimate is significantly inflated. We explain this apparent discrepancy as evidence for the superrotation phenomenon, which involves eastward displacement of the hottest atmospheric spot of a tidally locked planet by an equatorial superrotating jet stream. This phenomenon was previously observed only for HD 189733b in the infrared. We show that a phase shift of 10.°3 ± 2.°0 of the planet reflection/emission modulation, due to superrotation, explains the apparently inflated beaming modulation, resolving the ellipsoidal/beaming amplitude discrepancy. Kepler-76b is one of very few confirmed planets in the Kepler light curves that show BEER modulations and the first to show superrotation evidence in the Kepler band. Its discovery illustrates for the first time the ability of the BEER algorithm to detect short-period planets and brown dwarfs.

On the Nature of Small Planets around the Coolest Kepler Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Gaidos, Eric; Fischer, Debra A.; Mann, Andrew W.; Lépine, Sébastien

2012-02-01

We constrain the densities of Earth- to Neptune-size planets around very cool (Te = 3660-4660 K) Kepler stars by comparing 1202 Keck/HIRES radial velocity measurements of 150 nearby stars to a model based on Kepler candidate planet radii and a power-law mass-radius relation. Our analysis is based on the presumption that the planet populations around the two sets of stars are the same. The model can reproduce the observed distribution of radial velocity variation over a range of parameter values, but, for the expected level of Doppler systematic error, the highest Kolmogorov-Smirnov probabilities occur for a power-law index α ≈ 4, indicating that rocky-metal planets dominate the planet population in this size range. A single population of gas-rich, low-density planets with α = 2 is ruled out unless our Doppler errors are >=5 m s-1, i.e., much larger than expected based on observations and stellar chromospheric emission. If small planets are a mix of γ rocky planets (α = 3.85) and 1 - γ gas-rich planets (α = 2), then γ > 0.5 unless Doppler errors are >=4 m s-1. Our comparison also suggests that Kepler's detection efficiency relative to ideal calculations is less than unity. One possible source of incompleteness is target stars that are misclassified subgiants or giants, for which the transits of small planets would be impossible to detect. Our results are robust to systematic effects, and plausible errors in the estimated radii of Kepler stars have only moderate impact. Some data were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and made possible by the financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Johannes Kepler on Christmas

Science.gov (United States)

Kemp, Martin

2009-12-01

Kepler's interpretation of the supernova of 1604, De Stella Nova, interwove the science of astronomy with astrology and theology in an attempt to determine the correct birthdate of Jesus, explains Martin Kemp.

Reverberation Mapping of the Kepler target KA1858+48

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Liuyi; Barth, A. J.; Malkan, M. A.; Cenko, S. B.; Clubb, K. I.; Filippenko, A. V.; Gates, E. L.; Horst, J.; Joner, M. D.; Leonard, D. C.; Sand, D. J.

2013-01-01

KA1858+48 is a Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping program designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in KA1858+48. We obtained spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope during dark runs from late winter through fall of 2012, by requesting an observation on each night that the Kast Spectrograph was mounted on the telescope. We also obtained V-band images from the Nickel 1 m telescope at Lick Observatory, the 0.9 m telescope at Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory, the Faulkes Telescope North at the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, the KAIT telescope at Lick Observatory, and the 1 m telescope at Mt. Laguna Observatory. The H-beta light curve shows a lag time of approximately 12 days with respect to the V-band continuum flux variations. We will present the continuum and emission-line light curves, cross-correlation lag measurements, and a preliminary estimate of the black hole mass in KA1858+48.

THE NEPTUNE-SIZED CIRCUMBINARY PLANET KEPLER-38b

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Orosz, Jerome A.; Welsh, William F.; Short, Donald R.; Windmiller, Gur [Department of Astronomy, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States); Carter, Joshua A.; Torres, Guillermo; Geary, John C. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Brugamyer, Erik; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; MacQueen, Phillip [McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-0259 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark); Ford, Eric B. [Astronomy Department, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Sciences Center, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States); Agol, Eric [Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Barclay, Thomas; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Clarke, Bruce D. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Doyle, Laurance R. [SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Haghighipour, Nader [Institute for Astronomy and NASA Astrobiology Institute University of Hawaii-Manoa, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); and others

2012-10-20

We discuss the discovery and characterization of the circumbinary planet Kepler-38b. The stellar binary is single-lined, with a period of 18.8 days, and consists of a moderately evolved main-sequence star (M{sub A} = 0.949 {+-} 0.059 M {sub Sun} and R{sub A} = 1.757 {+-} 0.034 R {sub Sun }) paired with a low-mass star (M{sub B} = 0.249 {+-} 0.010 M {sub Sun} and R{sub B} = 0.2724 {+-} 0.0053 R {sub Sun }) in a mildly eccentric (e = 0.103) orbit. A total of eight transits due to a circumbinary planet crossing the primary star were identified in the Kepler light curve (using Kepler Quarters 1-11), from which a planetary period of 105.595 {+-} 0.053 days can be established. A photometric dynamical model fit to the radial velocity curve and Kepler light curve yields a planetary radius of 4.35 {+-} 0.11 R {sub Circled-Plus }, or equivalently 1.12 {+-} 0.03 R {sub Nep}. Since the planet is not sufficiently massive to observably alter the orbit of the binary from Keplerian motion, we can only place an upper limit on the mass of the planet of 122 M {sub Circled-Plus} (7.11 M {sub Nep} or equivalently 0.384 M {sub Jup}) at 95% confidence. This upper limit should decrease as more Kepler data become available.

THE NEPTUNE-SIZED CIRCUMBINARY PLANET KEPLER-38b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orosz, Jerome A.; Welsh, William F.; Short, Donald R.; Windmiller, Gur; Carter, Joshua A.; Torres, Guillermo; Geary, John C.; Brugamyer, Erik; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; MacQueen, Phillip; Buchhave, Lars A.; Ford, Eric B.; Agol, Eric; Barclay, Thomas; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Doyle, Laurance R.; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Haghighipour, Nader

2012-01-01

We discuss the discovery and characterization of the circumbinary planet Kepler-38b. The stellar binary is single-lined, with a period of 18.8 days, and consists of a moderately evolved main-sequence star (M A = 0.949 ± 0.059 M ☉ and R A = 1.757 ± 0.034 R ☉ ) paired with a low-mass star (M B = 0.249 ± 0.010 M ☉ and R B = 0.2724 ± 0.0053 R ☉ ) in a mildly eccentric (e = 0.103) orbit. A total of eight transits due to a circumbinary planet crossing the primary star were identified in the Kepler light curve (using Kepler Quarters 1-11), from which a planetary period of 105.595 ± 0.053 days can be established. A photometric dynamical model fit to the radial velocity curve and Kepler light curve yields a planetary radius of 4.35 ± 0.11 R ⊕ , or equivalently 1.12 ± 0.03 R Nep . Since the planet is not sufficiently massive to observably alter the orbit of the binary from Keplerian motion, we can only place an upper limit on the mass of the planet of 122 M ⊕ (7.11 M Nep or equivalently 0.384 M Jup ) at 95% confidence. This upper limit should decrease as more Kepler data become available.

FORMING CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS: N-BODY SIMULATIONS OF KEPLER-34

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lines, S.; Leinhardt, Z. M.; Paardekooper, S.; Baruteau, C.; Thebault, P.

2014-01-01

Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial protoplanetary disk. Elevated impact velocities and orbit crossings from eccentricity oscillations are the primary contributors to high energy, potentially destructive collisions that inhibit the growth of aspiring planets. In this work, we conduct high-resolution, inter-particle gravity enabled N-body simulations to investigate the feasibility of planetesimal growth in the Kepler-34 system. We improve upon previous work by including planetesimal disk self-gravity and an extensive collision model to accurately handle inter-planetesimal interactions. We find that super-catastrophic erosion events are the dominant mechanism up to and including the orbital radius of Kepler-34(AB)b, making in situ growth unlikely. It is more plausible that Kepler-34(AB)b migrated from a region beyond 1.5 AU. Based on the conclusions that we have made for Kepler-34, it seems likely that all of the currently known circumbinary planets have also migrated significantly from their formation location with the possible exception of Kepler-47(AB)c

FORMING CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS: N-BODY SIMULATIONS OF KEPLER-34

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lines, S.; Leinhardt, Z. M. [School of Physics, University of Bristol, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL (United Kingdom); Paardekooper, S.; Baruteau, C. [DAMTP, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA (United Kingdom); Thebault, P., E-mail: stefan.lines@bristol.ac.uk [LESIA-Observatoire de Paris, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot, F-92195 Meudon Cedex (France)

2014-02-10

Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial protoplanetary disk. Elevated impact velocities and orbit crossings from eccentricity oscillations are the primary contributors to high energy, potentially destructive collisions that inhibit the growth of aspiring planets. In this work, we conduct high-resolution, inter-particle gravity enabled N-body simulations to investigate the feasibility of planetesimal growth in the Kepler-34 system. We improve upon previous work by including planetesimal disk self-gravity and an extensive collision model to accurately handle inter-planetesimal interactions. We find that super-catastrophic erosion events are the dominant mechanism up to and including the orbital radius of Kepler-34(AB)b, making in situ growth unlikely. It is more plausible that Kepler-34(AB)b migrated from a region beyond 1.5 AU. Based on the conclusions that we have made for Kepler-34, it seems likely that all of the currently known circumbinary planets have also migrated significantly from their formation location with the possible exception of Kepler-47(AB)c.

Forming Circumbinary Planets: N-body Simulations of Kepler-34

Science.gov (United States)

Lines, S.; Leinhardt, Z. M.; Paardekooper, S.; Baruteau, C.; Thebault, P.

2014-02-01

Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial protoplanetary disk. Elevated impact velocities and orbit crossings from eccentricity oscillations are the primary contributors to high energy, potentially destructive collisions that inhibit the growth of aspiring planets. In this work, we conduct high-resolution, inter-particle gravity enabled N-body simulations to investigate the feasibility of planetesimal growth in the Kepler-34 system. We improve upon previous work by including planetesimal disk self-gravity and an extensive collision model to accurately handle inter-planetesimal interactions. We find that super-catastrophic erosion events are the dominant mechanism up to and including the orbital radius of Kepler-34(AB)b, making in situ growth unlikely. It is more plausible that Kepler-34(AB)b migrated from a region beyond 1.5 AU. Based on the conclusions that we have made for Kepler-34, it seems likely that all of the currently known circumbinary planets have also migrated significantly from their formation location with the possible exception of Kepler-47(AB)c.

TESTING SCALING RELATIONS FOR SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS FROM THE MAIN SEQUENCE TO RED GIANTS USING KEPLER DATA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huber, D.; Bedding, T. R.; Stello, D. [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Hekker, S. [Astronomical Institute ' Anton Pannekoek' , University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam (Netherlands); Mathur, S. [High Altitude Observatory, NCAR, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 (United States); Mosser, B. [LESIA, CNRS, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Universite Denis, Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon cedex (France); Verner, G. A.; Elsworth, Y. P.; Hale, S. J.; Chaplin, W. J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Bonanno, A. [INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania (Italy); Buzasi, D. L. [Eureka Scientific, 2452 Delmer Street Suite 100, Oakland, CA 94602-3017 (United States); Campante, T. L. [Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Kallinger, T. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada); Silva Aguirre, V. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching (Germany); De Ridder, J. [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, K.U.Leuven (Belgium); Garcia, R. A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS, Universite Paris 7 Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Appourchaux, T. [Institut d' Astrophysique Spatiale, UMR 8617, Universite Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex (France); Frandsen, S. [Danish AsteroSeismology Centre (DASC), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Houdek, G., E-mail: dhuber@physics.usyd.edu.au [Institute of Astronomy, University of Vienna, 1180 Vienna (Austria); and others

2011-12-20

We have analyzed solar-like oscillations in {approx}1700 stars observed by the Kepler Mission, spanning from the main sequence to the red clump. Using evolutionary models, we test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power ({nu}{sub max}), the large frequency separation ({Delta}{nu}), and oscillation amplitudes. We show that the difference of the {Delta}{nu}-{nu}{sub max} relation for unevolved and evolved stars can be explained by different distributions in effective temperature and stellar mass, in agreement with what is expected from scaling relations. For oscillation amplitudes, we show that neither (L/M){sup s} scaling nor the revised scaling relation by Kjeldsen and Bedding is accurate for red-giant stars, and demonstrate that a revised scaling relation with a separate luminosity-mass dependence can be used to calculate amplitudes from the main sequence to red giants to a precision of {approx}25%. The residuals show an offset particularly for unevolved stars, suggesting that an additional physical dependency is necessary to fully reproduce the observed amplitudes. We investigate correlations between amplitudes and stellar activity, and find evidence that the effect of amplitude suppression is most pronounced for subgiant stars. Finally, we test the location of the cool edge of the instability strip in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram using solar-like oscillations and find the detections in the hottest stars compatible with a domain of hybrid stochastically excited and opacity driven pulsation.

OBJECTS IN KEPLER'S MIRROR MAY BE LARGER THAN THEY APPEAR: BIAS AND SELECTION EFFECTS IN TRANSITING PLANET SURVEYS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaidos, Eric; Mann, Andrew W.

2013-01-01

Statistical analyses of large surveys for transiting planets such as the Kepler mission must account for systematic errors and biases. Transit detection depends not only on the planet's radius and orbital period, but also on host star properties. Thus, a sample of stars with transiting planets may not accurately represent the target population. Moreover, targets are selected using criteria such as a limiting apparent magnitude. These selection effects, combined with uncertainties in stellar radius, lead to biases in the properties of transiting planets and their host stars. We quantify possible biases in the Kepler survey. First, Eddington bias produced by a steep planet radius distribution and uncertainties in stellar radius results in a 15%-20% overestimate of planet occurrence. Second, the magnitude limit of the Kepler target catalog induces Malmquist bias toward large, more luminous stars and underestimation of the radii of about one-third of candidate planets, especially those larger than Neptune. Third, because metal-poor stars are smaller, stars with detected planets will be very slightly (<0.02 dex) more metal-poor than the target average. Fourth, uncertainties in stellar radii produce correlated errors in planet radius and stellar irradiation. A previous finding, that highly irradiated giants are more likely to have 'inflated' radii, remains significant, even accounting for this effect. In contrast, transit depth is negatively correlated with stellar metallicity even in the absence of any intrinsic correlation, and a previous claim of a negative correlation between giant planet transit depth and stellar metallicity is probably an artifact.

Kepler-22b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borucki, William J.; Koch, David G.; Batalha, Natalie

2012-01-01

A search of the time-series photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft reveals a transiting planet candidate orbiting the 11th magnitude G5 dwarf KIC 10593626 with a period of 290 days. The characteristics of the host star are well constrained by high-resolution spectroscopy combined with an astero...

Discovery and Rossiter-McLauglin effect of exoplanet kepler-8b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jenkins...[], Jon M.; Borucki, W.J.; Koch, D. G.

2010-01-01

We report on the discovery and the Rossiter-McLaughlin (R-M) effect of Kepler-8b, a transiting planet identified by the NASA Kepler Mission. Kepler photometry and Keck-HIRES radial velocities yield the radius and mass of the planet around this F8IV subgiant host star. The planet has a radius R P...

Asteroseismic Determination of Obliquities of the Exoplanet Systems Kepler-50 and Kepler-65

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chaplin, W. J.; Sanchis-Ojeda, R.; Campante, T. L.

2013-01-01

Results on the obliquity of exoplanet host stars - the angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis - provide important diagnostic information for theories describing planetary formation. Here we present the first application of asteroseismology to the problem of stellar obl...

Asteroseismic Determination of Obliquities of the Exoplanet Systems Kepler-50 and Kepler-65

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chaplin, W.J.; Sanchis-Ojeda, R.; Campante, T.L.; Handberg, R.; Stello, D.; Winn, J.N.; Basu, S.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Davies, G.R.; Metcalfe, T.S.; Buchhave, L.A.; Fischer, D.A.; Bedding, T.R.; Cochran, W.D.; Elsworth, Y.; Gilliland, R.L.; Hekker, S.; Huber, D.; Isaacson, H.; Karoff, C.; Kawaler, S.D.; Kjeldsen, H.; Latham, D.W.; Lund, M.N.; Lundkvist, M.; Marcy, G.W.; Miglio, A.; Barclay, T.; Lissauer, J.J.

2013-01-01

Results on the obliquity of exoplanet host stars?the angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis?provide important diagnostic information for theories describing planetary formation. Here we present the first application of asteroseismology to the problem of stellar obliquity

Validation of small Kepler transiting planet candidates in or near the habitable zone

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Torres, Guillermo; Kane, Stephen R.; Rowe, Jason F.

2017-01-01

A main goal of NASA's Kepler Mission is to establish the frequency of potentially habitable Earth-size planets (). Relatively few such candidates identified by the mission can be confirmed to be rocky via dynamical measurement of their mass. Here we report an effort to validate 18 of them...... statistically using the BLENDER technique, by showing that the likelihood they are true planets is far greater than that of a false positive. Our analysis incorporates follow-up observations including high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and information from...... the analysis of the flux centroids of the Kepler observations themselves. Although many of these candidates have been previously validated by others, the confidence levels reported typically ignore the possibility that the planet may transit a star different from the target along the same line of sight...

Take off with NASA's Kepler Mission!: The Search for Other "Earths"

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, David; DeVore, Edna K.; Gould, Alan; Harman, Pamela

2009-01-01

Humans have long wondered about life in the universe. Are we alone? Is Earth unique? What is it that makes our planet a habitable one, and are there others like Earth? NASA's Kepler Mission seeks the answers to these questions. Kepler is a space-based, specially designed 0.95 m aperture telescope. Launching in 2009, Kepler is NASA's first mission…

KEPLER PLANETS: A TALE OF EVAPORATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Owen, James E.; Wu, Yanqin

2013-01-01

Inspired by the Kepler mission's planet discoveries, we consider the thermal contraction of planets close to their parent star, under the influence of evaporation. The mass-loss rates are based on hydrodynamic models of evaporation that include both X-ray and EUV irradiation. We find that only low mass planets with hydrogen envelopes are significantly affected by evaporation, with evaporation being able to remove massive hydrogen envelopes inward of ∼0.1 AU for Neptune-mass objects, while evaporation is negligible for Jupiter-mass objects. Moreover, most of the evaporation occurs in the first 100 Myr of stars' lives when they are more chromospherically active. We construct a theoretical population of planets with varying core masses, envelope masses, orbital separations, and stellar spectral types, and compare this population with the sizes and densities measured for low-mass planets, both in the Kepler mission and from radial velocity surveys. This exercise leads us to conclude that evaporation is the driving force of evolution for close-in Kepler planets. In fact, some 50% of the Kepler planet candidates may have been significantly eroded. Evaporation explains two striking correlations observed in these objects: a lack of large radius/low density planets close to the stars and a possible bimodal distribution in planet sizes with a deficit of planets around 2 R ⊕ . Planets that have experienced high X-ray exposures are generally smaller than this size, and those with lower X-ray exposures are typically larger. A bimodal planet size distribution is naturally predicted by the evaporation model, where, depending on their X-ray exposure, close-in planets can either hold on to hydrogen envelopes ∼0.5%-1% in mass or be stripped entirely. To quantitatively reproduce the observed features, we argue that not only do low-mass Kepler planets need to be made of rocky cores surrounded with hydrogen envelopes, but few of them should have initial masses above 20 M ⊕ and

KEPLER PLANETS: A TALE OF EVAPORATION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Owen, James E. [Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8 (Canada); Wu, Yanqin, E-mail: jowen@cita.utoronto.ca, E-mail: wu@astro.utoronto.ca [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)

2013-10-01

Inspired by the Kepler mission's planet discoveries, we consider the thermal contraction of planets close to their parent star, under the influence of evaporation. The mass-loss rates are based on hydrodynamic models of evaporation that include both X-ray and EUV irradiation. We find that only low mass planets with hydrogen envelopes are significantly affected by evaporation, with evaporation being able to remove massive hydrogen envelopes inward of ∼0.1 AU for Neptune-mass objects, while evaporation is negligible for Jupiter-mass objects. Moreover, most of the evaporation occurs in the first 100 Myr of stars' lives when they are more chromospherically active. We construct a theoretical population of planets with varying core masses, envelope masses, orbital separations, and stellar spectral types, and compare this population with the sizes and densities measured for low-mass planets, both in the Kepler mission and from radial velocity surveys. This exercise leads us to conclude that evaporation is the driving force of evolution for close-in Kepler planets. In fact, some 50% of the Kepler planet candidates may have been significantly eroded. Evaporation explains two striking correlations observed in these objects: a lack of large radius/low density planets close to the stars and a possible bimodal distribution in planet sizes with a deficit of planets around 2 R{sub ⊕}. Planets that have experienced high X-ray exposures are generally smaller than this size, and those with lower X-ray exposures are typically larger. A bimodal planet size distribution is naturally predicted by the evaporation model, where, depending on their X-ray exposure, close-in planets can either hold on to hydrogen envelopes ∼0.5%-1% in mass or be stripped entirely. To quantitatively reproduce the observed features, we argue that not only do low-mass Kepler planets need to be made of rocky cores surrounded with hydrogen envelopes, but few of them should have initial masses above

Kepler's third law and the oscillator's isochronism

Science.gov (United States)

Gorringe, V. M.; Leach, P. G. L.

1993-11-01

Two classes of differential equations which have Kepler-like and oscillatorlike elliptical orbits are shown to have generalizations of the conserved angular momentum, energy, and Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector (Jauch-Hill-Fradkin tensor for the oscillator case). Both possess a generator of self-similar transformations and the related period-semimajor axis relation is a generalization of Kepler's third law in which the constant of proportionality depends explicitly on the eccentricity of the orbit.

Kepler's laws with introduction to differential calculus

OpenAIRE

Plakhotnyk, Makar

2017-01-01

We explain the solution of the following two problems: obtaining of Kepler's laws from Newton's laws (so called two bodies problem) and obtaining the fourth Newton's law (the formula for gravitation) as a corollary of Kepler's laws. This small book is devoted to the scholars, who are interested in physics and mathematics. We also make a series of digressions, where explain some technique of the higher mathematics, which are used in the proofs.

Absolute densities in exoplanetary systems. Photodynamical modelling of Kepler-138.

Science.gov (United States)

Almenara, J. M.; Díaz, R. F.; Dorn, C.; Bonfils, X.; Udry, S.

2018-04-01

In favourable conditions, the density of transiting planets in multiple systems can be determined from photometry data alone. Dynamical information can be extracted from light curves, providing modelling is done self-consistently, i.e. using a photodynamical model, which simulates the individual photometric observations instead of the more generally used transit times. We apply this methodology to the Kepler-138 planetary system. The derived planetary bulk densities are a factor of two more precise than previous determinations, and we find a discrepancy in the stellar bulk density with respect to a previous study. This leads, in turn, to a discrepancy in the determination of masses and radii of the star and the planets. In particular, we find that interior planet, Kepler-138 b, has a size in between Mars and the Earth. Given our mass and density estimates, we characterize the planetary interiors using a generalized Bayesian inference model. This model allows us to quantify for interior degeneracy and calculate confidence regions of interior parameters such as thicknesses of the core, the mantle, and ocean and gas layers. We find that Kepler-138 b and Kepler-138 d have significantly thick volatile layers, and that the gas layer of Kepler-138 b is likely enriched. On the other hand, Kepler-138 c can be purely rocky.

Comparing the asteroseismic properties of pulsating extremely low-mass pre-white dwarf stars and δ Scuti stars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arias J.P.Sánchez

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present the first results of a detailed comparison between the pulsation properties of pulsating Extremely Low-Mass pre-white dwarf stars (the pre-ELMV variable stars and δ Scuti stars. The instability domains of these very different kinds of stars nearly overlap in the log Teff vs. log g diagram, leading to a degeneracy in the classification of the stars. Our aim is to provide asteroseismic tools for their correct classification.

Kepler AutoRegressive Planet Search (KARPS)

Science.gov (United States)

Caceres, Gabriel

2018-01-01

One of the main obstacles in detecting faint planetary transits is the intrinsic stellar variability of the host star. The Kepler AutoRegressive Planet Search (KARPS) project implements statistical methodology associated with autoregressive processes (in particular, ARIMA and ARFIMA) to model stellar lightcurves in order to improve exoplanet transit detection. We also develop a novel Transit Comb Filter (TCF) applied to the AR residuals which provides a periodogram analogous to the standard Box-fitting Least Squares (BLS) periodogram. We train a random forest classifier on known Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) using select features from different stages of this analysis, and then use ROC curves to define and calibrate the criteria to recover the KOI planet candidates with high fidelity. These statistical methods are detailed in a contributed poster (Feigelson et al., this meeting).These procedures are applied to the full DR25 dataset of NASA’s Kepler mission. Using the classification criteria, a vast majority of known KOIs are recovered and dozens of new KARPS Candidate Planets (KCPs) discovered, including ultra-short period exoplanets. The KCPs will be briefly presented and discussed.

Large amplitude change in spot-induced rotational modulation of the Kepler Ap star KIC 2569073

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drury, Jason A.; Murphy, Simon J.; Derekas, Aliz

2017-01-01

An investigation of the 200 x 200 pixel 'superstamp' images of the centres of the open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 allows for the identification and study of many variable stars that were not included in the Kepler target list. KIC 2569073 (V= 14.22), is a particularly interesting variable Ap ...

Management and Systems Engineering of the Kepler Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Fanson, James; Livesay, Leslie; Frerking, Margaret; Cooke, Brian

2010-01-01

Kepler is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zones around stars other than the sun. Selected for implementation in 2001 and launched in 2009, Kepler seeks to determine whether Earth-like planets are common or rare in the galaxy. The investigation requires a large, space-based photometer capable of simultaneously measuring the brightnesses of 100,000 stars at part-per-million level of precision. This paper traces the development of the mission from the perspective of project management and systems engineering and describes various methodologies and tools that were found to be effective. The experience of the Kepler development is used to illuminate lessons that can be applied to future missions.

Kepler Observations of Transiting Hot Compact Objects

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-20

1998) and a sample of extremely light WDs are shown with black o’s. The open circle near KOI-81b is the millisecond pulsar companion discovered by...Follow-up observations are planned as well as contin- ued with the Kepler instrument to help unravel their nature. Funding for this Discovery mission is... discoveries possible. Facilities: Kepler REFERENCES Bassa, C. G., van Kerkwijk, M. H., Koester, D., & Verbunt, F. 2006, A&A, 456, 295 Beech, M. 1989, Ap&SS

Kepler Science Operations Center Pipeline Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Klaus, Todd C.; McCauliff, Sean; Cote, Miles T.; Girouard, Forrest R.; Wohler, Bill; Allen, Christopher; Middour, Christopher; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Jenkins, Jon M.

2010-01-01

The Kepler mission is designed to continuously monitor up to 170,000 stars at a 30 minute cadence for 3.5 years searching for Earth-size planets. The data are processed at the Science Operations Center (SOC) at NASA Ames Research Center. Because of the large volume of data and the memory and CPU-intensive nature of the analysis, significant computing hardware is required. We have developed generic pipeline framework software that is used to distribute and synchronize the processing across a cluster of CPUs and to manage the resulting products. The framework is written in Java and is therefore platform-independent, and scales from a single, standalone workstation (for development and research on small data sets) to a full cluster of homogeneous or heterogeneous hardware with minimal configuration changes. A plug-in architecture provides customized control of the unit of work without the need to modify the framework itself. Distributed transaction services provide for atomic storage of pipeline products for a unit of work across a relational database and the custom Kepler DB. Generic parameter management and data accountability services are provided to record the parameter values, software versions, and other meta-data used for each pipeline execution. A graphical console allows for the configuration, execution, and monitoring of pipelines. An alert and metrics subsystem is used to monitor the health and performance of the pipeline. The framework was developed for the Kepler project based on Kepler requirements, but the framework itself is generic and could be used for a variety of applications where these features are needed.

Asteroseismic estimate of helium abundance of a solar analog binary system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Verma, Kuldeep; Antia, H. M. [Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005 (India); Faria, João P.; Monteiro, Mário J. P. F. G. [Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Basu, Sarbani [Astronomy Department, Yale University, P. O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 065208101 (United States); Mazumdar, Anwesh [Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, V. N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd, Mumbai 400088 (India); Appourchaux, Thierry [Institut d' Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris XI-CNRS (UMR8617), Batiment 121, F-91405 Orsay Cedex (France); Chaplin, William J. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT (United Kingdom); García, Rafael A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Metcalfe, Travis S. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark)

2014-08-01

16 Cyg A and B are among the brightest stars observed by Kepler. What makes these stars more interesting is that they are solar analogs. 16 Cyg A and B exhibit solar-like oscillations. In this work we use oscillation frequencies obtained using 2.5 yr of Kepler data to determine the current helium abundance of these stars. For this we use the fact that the helium ionization zone leaves a signature on the oscillation frequencies and that this signature can be calibrated to determine the helium abundance of that layer. By calibrating the signature of the helium ionization zone against models of known helium abundance, the helium abundance in the envelope of 16 Cyg A is found to lie in the range of 0.231 to 0.251 and that of 16 Cyg B lies in the range of 0.218 to 0.266.

HEK. VI. On the Dearth of Galilean Analogs in Kepler, and the Exomoon Candidate Kepler-1625b I

Science.gov (United States)

Teachey, A.; Kipping, D. M.; Schmitt, A. R.

2018-01-01

Exomoons represent an outstanding challenge in modern astronomy, with the potential to provide rich insights into planet formation theory and habitability. In this work, we stack the phase-folded transits of 284 viable moon hosting Kepler planetary candidates, in order to search for satellites. These planets range from Earth- to Jupiter-sized and from ∼0.1 to 1.0 au in separation—so-called “warm” planets. Our data processing includes two-pass harmonic detrending, transit timing variations, model selection, and careful data quality vetting to produce a grand light curve with an rms of 5.1 ppm. We find that the occurrence rate of Galilean analog moon systems for planets orbiting between ∼0.1 and 1.0 au can be constrained to be η population of short-period moons with radii ∼0.5 R ⊕ orbiting at 5–10 planetary radii. However, we stress that the low Bayes factor of just 2 in this region means it should be treated as no more than a hint at this time. Splitting our data into various physically motivated subsets reveals no strong signal. The dearth of Galilean analogs around warm planets places the first strong constraint on exomoon formation models to date. Finally, we report evidence for an exomoon candidate Kepler-1625b I, which we briefly describe ahead of scheduled observations of the target with the Hubble Space Telescope.

KEPLER ECLIPSING BINARY STARS. III. CLASSIFICATION OF KEPLER ECLIPSING BINARY LIGHT CURVES WITH LOCALLY LINEAR EMBEDDING

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matijevič, Gal; Prša, Andrej; Orosz, Jerome A.; Welsh, William F.; Bloemen, Steven; Barclay, Thomas

2012-01-01

We present an automated classification of 2165 Kepler eclipsing binary (EB) light curves that accompanied the second Kepler data release. The light curves are classified using locally linear embedding, a general nonlinear dimensionality reduction tool, into morphology types (detached, semi-detached, overcontact, ellipsoidal). The method, related to a more widely used principal component analysis, produces a lower-dimensional representation of the input data while preserving local geometry and, consequently, the similarity between neighboring data points. We use this property to reduce the dimensionality in a series of steps to a one-dimensional manifold and classify light curves with a single parameter that is a measure of 'detachedness' of the system. This fully automated classification correlates well with the manual determination of morphology from the data release, and also efficiently highlights any misclassified objects. Once a lower-dimensional projection space is defined, the classification of additional light curves runs in a negligible time and the method can therefore be used as a fully automated classifier in pipeline structures. The classifier forms a tier of the Kepler EB pipeline that pre-processes light curves for the artificial intelligence based parameter estimator.

Kepler-424 b: A "Lonely" Hot Jupiter that Found a Companion

Science.gov (United States)

Endl, Michael; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Isaacson, Howard; Buchhave, Lars A.; Brugamyer, Erik; Robertson, Paul; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Havel, Mathieu; Lucas, Phillip; Howell, Steve B.; Fischer, Debra; Quintana, Elisa; Ciardi, David R.

2014-11-01

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be "lonely". This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to \\upsilon Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M ⊕. Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Identifying Exoplanets with Deep Learning: A Five-planet Resonant Chain around Kepler-80 and an Eighth Planet around Kepler-90

Science.gov (United States)

Shallue, Christopher J.; Vanderburg, Andrew

2018-02-01

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars, but these planets are on the very edge of the mission’s detection sensitivity. Accurately determining the occurrence rate of these planets will require automatically and accurately assessing the likelihood that individual candidates are indeed planets, even at low signal-to-noise ratios. We present a method for classifying potential planet signals using deep learning, a class of machine learning algorithms that have recently become state-of-the-art in a wide variety of tasks. We train a deep convolutional neural network to predict whether a given signal is a transiting exoplanet or a false positive caused by astrophysical or instrumental phenomena. Our model is highly effective at ranking individual candidates by the likelihood that they are indeed planets: 98.8% of the time it ranks plausible planet signals higher than false-positive signals in our test set. We apply our model to a new set of candidate signals that we identified in a search of known Kepler multi-planet systems. We statistically validate two new planets that are identified with high confidence by our model. One of these planets is part of a five-planet resonant chain around Kepler-80, with an orbital period closely matching the prediction by three-body Laplace relations. The other planet orbits Kepler-90, a star that was previously known to host seven transiting planets. Our discovery of an eighth planet brings Kepler-90 into a tie with our Sun as the star known to host the most planets.

Spectroscopic and asteroseismic analysis of the remarkable main-sequence A star KIC 11145123

Science.gov (United States)

Takada-Hidai, Masahide; Kurtz, Donald W.; Shibahashi, Hiromoto; Murphy, Simon J.; Takata, Masao; Saio, Hideyuki; Sekii, Takashi

2017-10-01

A spectroscopic analysis was carried out to clarify the properties of KIC 11145123 - the first main-sequence star with a directly measured core-to-surface rotation profile - based on spectra observed with the High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) of the Subaru telescope. The atmospheric parameters (Teff = 7600 K, log g = 4.2, ξ = 3.1 km s-1 and [Fe/H] = -0.71 dex), the radial and rotation velocities, and elemental abundances were obtained by analysing line strengths and fitting line profiles, which were calculated with a 1D LTE model atmosphere. The main properties of KIC 11145123 are: (1) a low [Fe/H] = -0.71 ± 0.11 dex and a high radial velocity of -135.4 ± 0.2 km s-1. These are remarkable among late-A stars. Our best asteroseismic models with this low [Fe/H] have slightly high helium abundance and low masses of 1.4 M⊙. All of these results strongly suggest that KIC 11145123 is a Population II blue straggler; (2) the projected rotation velocity confirms the asteroseismically predicted slow rotation of the star; (3) comparisons of abundance patterns between KIC 11145123 and Am, Ap, and blue stragglers show that KIC 11145123 is neither an Am star nor an Ap star, but has abundances consistent with a blue straggler. We conclude that the remarkably long 100-d rotation period of this star is a consequence of it being a blue straggler, but both pathways for the formation of blue stragglers - merger and mass loss in a binary system - pose difficulties for our understanding of the exceedingly slow rotation. In particular, we show that there is no evidence of any secondary companion star, and we put stringent limits on the possible mass of any such purported companion through the phase modulation technique.

PyKE3: data analysis tools for NASA's Kepler, K2, and TESS missions

Science.gov (United States)

Hedges, Christina L.; Cardoso, Jose Vinicius De Miranda; Barentsen, Geert; Gully-Santiago, Michael A.; Cody, Ann Marie; Barclay, Thomas; Still, Martin; BAY AREA ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH IN

2018-01-01

The PyKE package is a set of easy to use tools for working with Kepler/K2 data. This includes tools to correct light curves for cotrending basis vectors, turn the raw Target Pixel File data into motion corrected light curves, check for exoplanet false positives and run new PSF photometry. We are now releasing PyKE 3, which is compatible with Python 3, is pip installable and no longer depends on PyRAF. Tools are available both as Python routines and from the command line. New tutorials are available and under construction for users to learn about Kepler and K2 data and how to best use it for their science goals. PyKE is open source and welcomes contributions from the community. Routines and more information are available on the PyKE repository on GitHub.

A new asteroseismic diagnostic for internal rotation in γ Doradus stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ouazzani, Rhita-Maria; Salmon, S. J. A. J.; Antoci, V.

2017-01-01

to rotation. In this paper, we define a new seismic diagnostic for rotation in γ Doradus stars which are too rapidly rotating to present rotational splittings. Based on the non-uniformity of their period spacings, we define the observable Σ as the slope of the period spacing when plotted as a function......With four years of nearly continuous photometry from Kepler, we are finally in a good position to apply asteroseismology to γ Doradus stars. In particular, several analyses have demonstrated the possibility to detect non-uniform period spacings, which have been predicted to be directly related...... of period. We provide a one-to-one relation between this observable Σ and the internal rotation, which applies widely in the instability strip of γ Doradus stars. We apply the diagnostic to a handful of stars observed by Kepler. Thanks to g modes in γ Doradus stars, we are now able to determine the internal...

Asteroseismic modelling of the solar-type subgiant star β Hydri

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandão, I.M.; Dogan, Gülnur; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen

2011-01-01

Context. Comparing models and data of pulsating stars is a powerful way to understand the stellar structure better. Moreover, such comparisons are necessary to make improvements to the physics of the stellar models, since they do not yet perfectly represent either the interior or especially...... the surface layers of stars. Because β Hydri is an evolved solar-type pulsator with mixed modes in its frequency spectrum, it is very interesting for asteroseismic studies. Aims: The goal of the present work is to search for a representative model of the solar-type star β Hydri, based on up-to-date non...... frequencies of β Hydri: (i) we assume that the best model is the one that reproduces the star's interior based on the radial oscillation frequencies alone, to which we have applied the correction for the near-surface effects; (ii) we assume that the best model is the one that produces the lowest value...

Kepler and the Star of Bethlehem

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Rahlf

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a famous astronomer. But like other astronomers he had a problem to find work that would guarantee a regular income. So he was lucky to get work as "Styrian landscape mathematician" in Graz. One of his tasks was to write an annual calendar of weather forecasts and policital developments on the basis of astrological facts. He correctly predicted a conflict with the Osmanic Empire, although it is not clear whether the stars or the newspapers were the cause for that. Both his horoscope for Wallenstein and his book "Warnung an die Gegner der Astrologie" are well known. Kepler believed in some aspects of astrology, the influence of the planets for example. He deduced this front his ideas about physics. He neglected other aspects of astrology. e.g. the significance of the zodiac. In 1604 Kepler observed a new star and believed in a connection to a special and very rare planetary conjunction. After a Jupiter-Saturn-conjunction Jupiter met Mars. Kepler speculated that the star of Bethlehem might be a new star which was generated after a similar conjunction and recalculated it for 6/7 BC. Nowadays examples of both astronomical (and astrological) interpretations of the star of Bethlehem exist. The best known is the three time conjunction of 6/7 BC. But the interpretation of Martin (1980) for 213 BC seems equally excellent. Vardaman (1989) takes the Halley comet of 12 BC to be the star of Bethlehem. Other speculations arise from two Novae in the years 5 and 4 BC, tabulated in sources from the Far East. But historians tell us that there is no need fo a real star. The text in Matthew, book 2 is a legend. What is important in regard to the understanding of the star of Bethlehem is the "sidus Julium" the comet which could be seen in the sky during Caesar's funeral and the match of the King of Armenia Tiridates to Nero in Rome during. There was no real star over Bethlehem. All we have are interesting speculations, like those by Kepler.

A POTENTIAL SUPER-VENUS IN THE KEPLER-69 SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kane, Stephen R.; Gelino, Dawn M.; Barclay, Thomas

2013-01-01

Transiting planets have greatly expanded and diversified the exoplanet field. These planets provide greater access to characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and structure. The Kepler mission has been particularly successful in expanding the exoplanet inventory, even to planets smaller than the Earth. The orbital period sensitivity of the Kepler data is now extending into the habitable zones of their host stars, and several planets larger than the Earth have been found to lie therein. Here we examine one such proposed planet, Kepler-69c. We provide new orbital parameters for this planet and an in-depth analysis of the habitable zone. We find that, even under optimistic conditions, this 1.7 R ⊕ planet is unlikely to be within the habitable zone of Kepler-69. Furthermore, the planet receives an incident flux of 1.91 times the solar constant, which is similar to that received by Venus. We thus suggest that this planet is likely a super-Venus rather than a super-Earth in terms of atmospheric properties and habitability, and we propose follow-up observations to disentangle the ambiguity.

A POTENTIAL SUPER-VENUS IN THE KEPLER-69 SYSTEM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kane, Stephen R.; Gelino, Dawn M. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech, MS 100-22, 770 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Barclay, Thomas, E-mail: skane@ipac.caltech.edu [NASA Ames Research Center, M/S 244-30, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)

2013-06-20

Transiting planets have greatly expanded and diversified the exoplanet field. These planets provide greater access to characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and structure. The Kepler mission has been particularly successful in expanding the exoplanet inventory, even to planets smaller than the Earth. The orbital period sensitivity of the Kepler data is now extending into the habitable zones of their host stars, and several planets larger than the Earth have been found to lie therein. Here we examine one such proposed planet, Kepler-69c. We provide new orbital parameters for this planet and an in-depth analysis of the habitable zone. We find that, even under optimistic conditions, this 1.7 R{sub Circled-Plus} planet is unlikely to be within the habitable zone of Kepler-69. Furthermore, the planet receives an incident flux of 1.91 times the solar constant, which is similar to that received by Venus. We thus suggest that this planet is likely a super-Venus rather than a super-Earth in terms of atmospheric properties and habitability, and we propose follow-up observations to disentangle the ambiguity.

The high albedo of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demory, B.-O.; Seager, S.; Madhusudhan, N.

2011-01-01

Hot Jupiters are expected to be dark from both observations (albedo upper limits) and theory (alkali metals and/or TiO and VO absorption). However, only a handful of hot Jupiters have been observed with high enough photometric precision at visible wavelengths to investigate these expectations....... The NASA Kepler mission provides a means to widen the sample and to assess the extent to which hot Jupiter albedos are low. We present a global analysis of Kepler-7 b based on Q0-Q4 data, published radial velocities, and asteroseismology constraints. We measure an occultation depth in the Kepler bandpass...

Comment on 'Conservative discretizations of the Kepler motion'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cieslinski, Jan L

2010-01-01

We show that the exact integrator for the classical Kepler motion, recently found by Kozlov (2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 4529-39), can be derived in a simple natural way, using a well-known exact discretization of the harmonic oscillator. We also draw attention to important earlier references, where the exact discretization of the four-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator has been applied to the perturbed Kepler problem. (comments and replies)

A SEMI-ANALYTICAL MODEL OF VISIBLE-WAVELENGTH PHASE CURVES OF EXOPLANETS AND APPLICATIONS TO KEPLER- 7 B AND KEPLER- 10 B

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Renyu [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Demory, Brice-Olivier [Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, J.J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom); Seager, Sara; Lewis, Nikole [Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Showman, Adam P., E-mail: renyu.hu@jpl.nasa.gov [Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2015-03-20

Kepler has detected numerous exoplanet transits by measuring stellar light in a single visible-wavelength band. In addition to detection, the precise photometry provides phase curves of exoplanets, which can be used to study the dynamic processes on these planets. However, the interpretation of these observations can be complicated by the fact that visible-wavelength phase curves can represent both thermal emission and scattering from the planets. Here we present a semi-analytical model framework that can be applied to study Kepler and future visible-wavelength phase curve observations of exoplanets. The model efficiently computes reflection and thermal emission components for both rocky and gaseous planets, considering both homogeneous and inhomogeneous surfaces or atmospheres. We analyze the phase curves of the gaseous planet Kepler- 7 b and the rocky planet Kepler- 10 b using the model. In general, we find that a hot exoplanet’s visible-wavelength phase curve having a significant phase offset can usually be explained by two classes of solutions: one class requires a thermal hot spot shifted to one side of the substellar point, and the other class requires reflective clouds concentrated on the same side of the substellar point. Particularly for Kepler- 7 b, reflective clouds located on the west side of the substellar point can best explain its phase curve. The reflectivity of the clear part of the atmosphere should be less than 7% and that of the cloudy part should be greater than 80%, and the cloud boundary should be located at 11° ± 3° to the west of the substellar point. We suggest single-band photometry surveys could yield valuable information on exoplanet atmospheres and surfaces.

Detecting planets in Kepler lightcurves using methods developed for CoRoT.

Science.gov (United States)

Grziwa, S.; Korth, J.; Pätzold, M.

2011-10-01

Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the second space telescope dedicated to the search for extrasolar planets. NASA released 150.000 lightcurves to the public in 2010 and announced that Kepler has found 1.235 candidates. The Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research (RIU-PF) is one of the detection groups from the CoRoT space mission. RIU-PF developed the software package EXOTRANS for the detection of transits in stellar lightcurves. EXOTRANS is designed for the fast automated processing of huge amounts of data and was easily adapted to the analysis of Kepler lightcurves. The use of different techniques and philosophies helps to find more candidates and to rule out others. We present the analysis of the Kepler lightcurves with EXOTRANS. Results of our filter (trend, harmonic) and detection (dcBLS) techniques are compared with the techniques used by Kepler (PDC, TPS). The different approaches to rule out false positives are discussed and additional candidates found by EXOTRANS are presented.

The mass and age of the first SONG target: the red giant 46 LMi

Science.gov (United States)

Frandsen, S.; Fredslund Andersen, M.; Brogaard, K.; Jiang, C.; Arentoft, T.; Grundahl, F.; Kjeldsen, H.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Weiss, E.; Pallé, P.; Antoci, V.; Kjærgaard, P.; Sørensen, A. N.; Skottfelt, J.; Jørgensen, U. G.

2018-05-01

Context. The Stellar Observation Network Group (SONG) is an initiative to build a worldwide network of 1m telescopes with high-precision radial-velocity spectrographs. Here we analyse the first radial-velocity time series of a red-giant star measured by the SONG telescope at Tenerife. The asteroseismic results demonstrate a major increase in the achievable precision of the parameters for red-giant stars obtainable from ground-based observations. Reliable tests of the validity of these results are needed, however, before the accuracy of the parameters can be trusted. Aims: We analyse the first SONG time series for the star 46 LMi, which has a precise parallax and an angular diameter measured from interferometry, and therefore a good determination of the stellar radius. We use asteroseismic scaling relations to obtain an accurate mass, and modelling to determine the age. Methods: A 55-day time series of high-resolution, high S/N spectra were obtained with the first SONG telescope. We derive the asteroseismic parameters by analysing the power spectrum. To give a best guess on the large separation of modes in the power spectrum, we have applied a new method which uses the scaling of Kepler red-giant stars to 46 LMi. Results: Several methods have been applied: classical estimates, seismic methods using the observed time series, and model calculations to derive the fundamental parameters of 46 LMi. Parameters determined using the different methods are consistent within the uncertainties. We find the following values for the mass M (scaling), radius R (classical), age (modelling), and surface gravity (combining mass and radius): M = 1.09 ± 0.04M⊙, R = 7.95 ± 0.11R⊙ age t = 8.2 ± 1.9 Gy, and logg = 2.674 ± 0.013. Conclusions: The exciting possibilities for ground-based asteroseismology of solar-like oscillations with a fully robotic network have been illustrated with the results obtained from just a single site of the SONG network. The window function is still a

Validation and Initial Characterization of the Long-period Planet Kepler-1654 b

Science.gov (United States)

Beichman, C. A.; Giles, H. A. C.; Akeson, R.; Ciardi, D.; Christiansen, J.; Isaacson, H.; Marcy, G. M.; Sinukoff, E.; Greene, T.; Fortney, J. J.; Crossfield, I.; Hu, R.; Howard, A. W.; Petigura, E. A.; Knutson, H. A.

2018-04-01

Fewer than 20 transiting Kepler planets have periods longer than one year. Our early search of the Kepler light curves revealed one such system, Kepler-1654b (originally KIC 8410697b), which shows exactly two transit events and whose second transit occurred only five days before the failure of the second of two reaction wheels brought the primary Kepler mission to an end. A number of authors have also examined light curves from the Kepler mission searching for long-period planets and identified this candidate. Starting in 2014 September, we began an observational program of imaging, reconnaissance spectroscopy, and precision radial velocity (RV) measurements that confirm with a high degree of confidence that Kepler-1654b is a bona fide transiting planet orbiting a mature G5V star (T eff = 5580 K, [Fe/H] = ‑0.08) with a semimajor axis of 2.03 au, a period of 1047.84 days, and a radius of 0.82 ± 0.02 R Jup. RV measurements using Keck’s HIRES spectrometer obtained over 2.5 years set a limit to the planet’s mass of <0.5 (3σ) M Jup. The bulk density of the planet is similar to that of Saturn or possibly lower. We assess the suitability of temperate gas giants like Kepler-1654b for transit spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope, as their relatively cold equilibrium temperatures (T pl ∼ 200 K) make them interesting from the standpoint of exoplanet atmospheric physics. Unfortunately, these low temperatures also make the atmospheric scale heights small and thus transmission spectroscopy challenging. Finally, the long time between transits can make scheduling JWST observations difficult—as is the case with Kepler-1654b.

Red giants seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Mosser, B.; Samadi, R.; Belkacem, K.

2013-11-01

The space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler are indiscreet. With their asteroseismic programs, they tell us what is hidden deep inside the stars. Waves excited just below the stellar surface travel throughout the stellar interior and unveil many secrets: how old is the star, how big, how massive, how fast (or slow) its core is dancing. This paper intends to paparazze the red giants according to the seismic pictures we have from their interiors.

Kepler-6b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dunham..[], Edward W.; Borucki, W. J.; Koch, D. G.

2010-01-01

We announce the discovery of Kepler-6b, a transiting hot Jupiter orbiting a star with unusually high metallicity, . The planet's mass is about 2/3 that of Jupiter, M P = 0.67 M J, and the radius is 30% larger than that of Jupiter, R P = 1.32 R J, resulting in a density of ¿P = 0.35 g cm–3, a fairly...

CHANGING PHASES OF ALIEN WORLDS: PROBING ATMOSPHERES OF KEPLER PLANETS WITH HIGH-PRECISION PHOTOMETRY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Esteves, Lisa J.; Mooij, Ernst J. W. De [Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4 (Canada); Jayawardhana, Ray, E-mail: esteves@astro.utoronto.ca, E-mail: demooij@astro.utoronto.ca, E-mail: rayjay@yorku.ca [Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario L3T 3R1 (Canada)

2015-05-10

We present a comprehensive analysis of planetary phase variations, including possible planetary light offsets, using eighteen quarters of data from the Kepler space telescope. Our analysis found fourteen systems with significant detections in each of the phase curve components: planet’s phase function, secondary eclipse, Doppler boosting, and ellipsoidal variations. We model the full phase curve simultaneously, including primary and secondary transits, and derive albedos, day- and night-side temperatures and planet masses. Most planets manifest low optical geometric albedos (< 0.25), with the exception of Kepler-10b, Kepler-91b, and KOI-13b. We find that KOI-13b, with a small eccentricity of 0.0006 ± 0.0001, is the only planet for which an eccentric orbit is favored. We detect a third harmonic for HAT-P-7b for the first time, and confirm the third harmonic for KOI-13b reported in Esteves et al.: both could be due to their spin–orbit misalignments. For six planets, we report a planetary brightness peak offset from the substellar point: of those, the hottest two (Kepler-76b and HAT-P-7b) exhibit pre-eclipse shifts or on the evening-side, while the cooler four (Kepler-7b, Kepler-8b, Kepler-12b, and Kepler-41b) peak post-eclipse or on the morning-side. Our findings dramatically increase the number of Kepler planets with detected planetary light offsets, and provide the first evidence in the Kepler data for a correlation between the peak offset direction and the planet’s temperature. Such a correlation could arise if thermal emission dominates light from hotter planets that harbor hot spots shifted toward the evening-side, as theoretically predicted, while reflected light dominates cooler planets with clouds on the planet’s morning-side.

Masses, radii, and orbits of small Kepler planets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard; Howard, Andrew W.

2014-01-01

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurement...

Formation, tidal evolution, and habitability of the Kepler-186 system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolmont, Emeline; Raymond, Sean N.; Selsis, Franck; Hersant, Franck; Von Paris, Philip; Quintana, Elisa V.; Barclay, Thomas

2014-01-01

The Kepler-186 system consists of five planets orbiting an early M dwarf. The planets have physical radii of 1.0-1.50 R ⊕ and orbital periods of 4-130 days. The 1.1 R ⊕ Kepler-186f with a period of 130 days is of particular interest. Its insolation of roughly 0.32 S ⊕ places it within the surface liquid water habitable zone (HZ). We present a multifaceted study of the Kepler-186 system, using two sets of parameters which are consistent with the data and also self-consistent. First, we show that the distribution of planet masses can be roughly reproduced if the planets were accreted from a high surface density disk presumably sculpted by an earlier phase of migration. However, our simulations predict the existence of one to two undetected planets between planets e and f. Next, we present a dynamical analysis of the system including the effect of tides. The timescale for tidal evolution is short enough that the four inner planets must have small obliquities and near-synchronous rotation rates. The tidal evolution of Kepler-186f is slow enough that its current spin state depends on a combination of its initial spin state, its dissipation rate, and the stellar age. Finally, we study the habitability of Kepler-186f with a one-dimensional climate model. The planet's surface temperature can be raised above 273 K with 0.5-5 bars of CO 2 , depending on the amount of N 2 present. Kepler-186f represents a case study of an Earth-sized planet in the cooler regions of the HZ of a cool star.

CONSTRAINING THE RADIATION AND PLASMA ENVIRONMENT OF THE KEPLER CIRCUMBINARY HABITABLE-ZONE PLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuluaga, Jorge I. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Mason, Paul A. [New Mexico State University—DACC, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States); Cuartas-Restrepo, Pablo A. [FACom—Instituto de Física—FCEN, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellín (Colombia)

2016-02-20

The discovery of many planets using the Kepler telescope includes 10 planets orbiting eight binary stars. Three binaries, Kepler-16, Kepler-47, and Kepler-453, have at least one planet in the circumbinary habitable zone (BHZ). We constrain the level of high-energy radiation and the plasma environment in the BHZ of these systems. With this aim, BHZ limits in these Kepler binaries are calculated as a function of time, and the habitability lifetimes are estimated for hypothetical terrestrial planets and/or moons within the BHZ. With the time-dependent BHZ limits established, a self-consistent model is developed describing the evolution of stellar activity and radiation properties as proxies for stellar aggression toward planetary atmospheres. Modeling binary stellar rotation evolution, including the effect of tidal interaction between stars in binaries, is key to establishing the environment around these systems. We find that Kepler-16 and its binary analogs provide a plasma environment favorable for the survival of atmospheres of putative Mars-sized planets and exomoons. Tides have modified the rotation of the stars in Kepler-47, making its radiation environment less harsh in comparison to the solar system. This is a good example of the mechanism first proposed by Mason et al. Kepler-453 has an environment similar to that of the solar system with slightly better than Earth radiation conditions at the inner edge of the BHZ. These results can be reproduced and even reparameterized as stellar evolution and binary tidal models progress, using our online tool http://bhmcalc.net.

CONSTRAINING THE RADIATION AND PLASMA ENVIRONMENT OF THE KEPLER CIRCUMBINARY HABITABLE-ZONE PLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuluaga, Jorge I.; Mason, Paul A.; Cuartas-Restrepo, Pablo A.

2016-01-01

The discovery of many planets using the Kepler telescope includes 10 planets orbiting eight binary stars. Three binaries, Kepler-16, Kepler-47, and Kepler-453, have at least one planet in the circumbinary habitable zone (BHZ). We constrain the level of high-energy radiation and the plasma environment in the BHZ of these systems. With this aim, BHZ limits in these Kepler binaries are calculated as a function of time, and the habitability lifetimes are estimated for hypothetical terrestrial planets and/or moons within the BHZ. With the time-dependent BHZ limits established, a self-consistent model is developed describing the evolution of stellar activity and radiation properties as proxies for stellar aggression toward planetary atmospheres. Modeling binary stellar rotation evolution, including the effect of tidal interaction between stars in binaries, is key to establishing the environment around these systems. We find that Kepler-16 and its binary analogs provide a plasma environment favorable for the survival of atmospheres of putative Mars-sized planets and exomoons. Tides have modified the rotation of the stars in Kepler-47, making its radiation environment less harsh in comparison to the solar system. This is a good example of the mechanism first proposed by Mason et al. Kepler-453 has an environment similar to that of the solar system with slightly better than Earth radiation conditions at the inner edge of the BHZ. These results can be reproduced and even reparameterized as stellar evolution and binary tidal models progress, using our online tool http://bhmcalc.net

Kepler-424 b: A 'lonely' hot Jupiter that found A companion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Endl, Michael; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Havel, Mathieu; Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa; Isaacson, Howard; Buchhave, Lars A.; Brugamyer, Erik; Robertson, Paul; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Lucas, Phillip; Fischer, Debra; Ciardi, David R.

2014-01-01

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be l onely . This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to υ Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M ⊕ .

Kepler-424 b: A 'lonely' hot Jupiter that found A companion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Endl, Michael [McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Caldwell, Douglas A.; Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Havel, Mathieu; Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Brugamyer, Erik [Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Robertson, Paul [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Pennsylvania State University (United States); Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J. [McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Lucas, Phillip [Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB (United Kingdom); Fischer, Debra [Department of Astronomy, Yale University (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2014-11-10

Hot Jupiter systems provide unique observational constraints for migration models in multiple systems and binaries. We report on the discovery of the Kepler-424 (KOI-214) two-planet system, which consists of a transiting hot Jupiter (Kepler-424b) in a 3.31 day orbit accompanied by a more massive outer companion in an eccentric (e = 0.3) 223 day orbit. The outer giant planet, Kepler-424c, is not detected transiting the host star. The masses of both planets and the orbital parameters for the second planet were determined using precise radial velocity (RV) measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) and its High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS). In stark contrast to smaller planets, hot Jupiters are predominantly found to be lacking any nearby additional planets; they appear to be {sup l}onely{sup .} This might be a consequence of these systems having a highly dynamical past. The Kepler-424 planetary system has a hot Jupiter in a multiple system, similar to υ Andromedae. We also present our results for Kepler-422 (KOI-22), Kepler-77 (KOI-127), Kepler-43 (KOI-135), and Kepler-423 (KOI-183). These results are based on spectroscopic data collected with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the Keck 1 telescope, and HET. For all systems, we rule out false positives based on various follow-up observations, confirming the planetary nature of these companions. We performed a comparison with planetary evolutionary models which indicate that these five hot Jupiters have heavy element contents between 20 and 120 M {sub ⊕}.

Star Classification for the Kepler Input Catalog: From Images to Stellar Parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, T. M.; Everett, M.; Latham, D. W.; Monet, D. G.

2005-12-01

The Stellar Classification Project is a ground-based effort to screen stars within the Kepler field of view, to allow removal of stars with large radii (and small potential transit signals) from the target list. Important components of this process are: (1) An automated photometry pipeline estimates observed magnitudes both for target stars and for stars in several calibration fields. (2) Data from calibration fields yield extinction-corrected AB magnitudes (with g, r, i, z magnitudes transformed to the SDSS system). We merge these with 2MASS J, H, K magnitudes. (3) The Basel grid of stellar atmosphere models yields synthetic colors, which are transformed to our photometric system by calibration against observations of stars in M67. (4) We combine the r magnitude and stellar galactic latitude with a simple model of interstellar extinction to derive a relation connecting {Teff, luminosity} to distance and reddening. For models satisfying this relation, we compute a chi-squared statistic describing the match between each model and the observed colors. (5) We create a merit function based on the chi-squared statistic, and on a Bayesian prior probability distribution which gives probability as a function of Teff, luminosity, log(Z), and height above the galactic plane. The stellar parameters ascribed to a star are those of the model that maximizes this merit function. (6) Parameter estimates are merged with positional and other information from extant catalogs to yield the Kepler Input Catalog, from which targets will be chosen. Testing and validation of this procedure are underway, with encouraging initial results.

Investigation of the binary fraction among candidate A-F type hybrid stars detected by Kepler

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lampens P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We are currently monitoring up to 40 Kepler candidate δ Scuti-γ Doradus (resp. γ Doradus-δ Scuti hybrid stars in radial velocity in order to identify the physical cause behind the low frequencies observed in the periodograms based on the ultra-high accuracy Kepler space photometry. The presence of low frequency variability in unevolved or slightly evolved oscillating A/F-type stars can generally be explained in three ways: either 1 the star is an (undetected binary or multiple system, or 2 the star is a g-mode pulsator (i.e. a genuine hybrid, or 3 the star’s atmosphere displays an asymmetric intensity distribution (caused by spots, i.e. chemical anomalies, or by (very high rotation, which is detected through rotational modulation. Our targets were selected from the globally characterized variable A/F-type stars of the Kepler mission [7]. We observe each star at least 4 times unevenly spread over a time lapse up to 2 months with the HERMES spectrograph [6]. In the case of composite, multiple-lined spectra, these observations also provide the atmospheric properties of each component. Our principal goal is to estimate the fraction of short-period, spectroscopic systems in the sample.

NO TIMING VARIATIONS OBSERVED IN THIRD TRANSIT OF SNOW-LINE EXOPLANET KEPLER-421b

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalba, Paul A.; Muirhead, Philip S.

2016-01-01

We observed Kepler-421 during the anticipated third transit of the snow-line exoplanet Kepler-421b in order to constrain the existence and extent of transit timing variations (TTVs). Previously, the Kepler spacecraft only observed two transits of Kepler-421b, leaving the planet’s transit ephemeris unconstrained. Our visible light, time-series observations from the 4.3 m Discovery Channel Telescope were designed to capture pre-transit baseline and the partial transit of Kepler-421b, barring significant TTVs. We use the light curves to assess the probabilities of various transit models using both the posterior odds ratio and the Bayesian Information Criterion, and find that a transit model with no TTVs is favored to 3.6 σ confidence. These observations suggest that Kepler-421b is either alone in its system or is only experiencing minor dynamic interactions with an unseen companion. With the Kepler-421b ephemeris constrained, we calculate future transit times and discuss the opportunity to characterize the atmosphere of this cold, long-period exoplanet via transmission spectroscopy. Our investigation emphasizes the difficulties associated with observing long-period exoplanet transits and the consequences that arise from failing to refine transit ephemerides.

Precision Astrophysics Experiments with the Kepler Satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Jackiewicz, Jason

2012-10-01

Long photometric observations from space of tens of thousands of stars, such as those provided by Kepler, offer unique opportunities to carry out ensemble astrophysics as well as detailed studies of individual objects. One of the primary tools at our disposal for understanding pulsating stars is asteroseismology, which uses observed stellar oscillation frequencies to determine interior properties. This can provide very strict constraints on theories of stellar evolution, structure, and the population characteristics of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. This talk will focus on several of the exciting insights Kepler has enabled through asteroseismology of stars across the H-R diagram.

Asteroseismology with NASA's Kepler Mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huber, Daniel; Chaplin, W. J.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.

2013-01-01

The measurement of stellar oscillations - also called asteroseismology - is among the most powerful observational tools to study the structure and evolution of stars. The high precision photometry collected by the Kepler space telescope has revolutionized asteroseismology over the past few years...

The astronomer and the witch Johannes Kepler's fight for his mother

CERN Document Server

Rublack, Ulinka

2015-01-01

The extraordinary tale of Johannes Kepler, one of the most admired astronomers of all time, and the six long years spent defending his mother from her neighbours' accusations of witchcraft. A story which takes us to the heart of Kepler's changing world.

Kepler's theory of force and his medical sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Regier, Jonathan

2014-01-01

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) makes extensive use of souls and spiritus in his natural philosophy. Recent studies have highlighted their importance in his accounts of celestial generation and astrology. In this study, I would like to address two pressing issues. The first is Kepler's context. The biological side of his natural philosophy is not naively Aristotelian. Instead, he is up to date with contemporary discussions in medically flavored natural philosophy. I will examine his relationship to Melanchthon's anatomical-theological Liber de anima (1552) and to Jean Femel's very popular Physiologia (1567), two Galenic sources with a noticeable impact on how he understands the functions of life. The other issue that will direct my article is force at a distance. Medical ideas deeply inform Kepler's theories of light and solar force (virtus motrix). It will become clear that they are not a hindrance even to the hardcore of his celestial physics. Instead, he makes use of soul and spiritus in order to develop a fully mathematized dynamics.

Formation, tidal evolution, and habitability of the Kepler-186 system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolmont, Emeline; Raymond, Sean N.; Selsis, Franck; Hersant, Franck [Univ. Bordeaux, Laboratoire d' Astrophysique de Bordeaux, UMR 5804, F-33270 Floirac (France); Von Paris, Philip [Institut für Planetenforschung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Rutherfordstrasse 2, D-12489 Berlin (Germany); Quintana, Elisa V. [SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States); Barclay, Thomas, E-mail: bolmont@obs.u-bordeaux1.fr [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)

2014-09-20

The Kepler-186 system consists of five planets orbiting an early M dwarf. The planets have physical radii of 1.0-1.50 R {sub ⊕} and orbital periods of 4-130 days. The 1.1 R {sub ⊕} Kepler-186f with a period of 130 days is of particular interest. Its insolation of roughly 0.32 S {sub ⊕} places it within the surface liquid water habitable zone (HZ). We present a multifaceted study of the Kepler-186 system, using two sets of parameters which are consistent with the data and also self-consistent. First, we show that the distribution of planet masses can be roughly reproduced if the planets were accreted from a high surface density disk presumably sculpted by an earlier phase of migration. However, our simulations predict the existence of one to two undetected planets between planets e and f. Next, we present a dynamical analysis of the system including the effect of tides. The timescale for tidal evolution is short enough that the four inner planets must have small obliquities and near-synchronous rotation rates. The tidal evolution of Kepler-186f is slow enough that its current spin state depends on a combination of its initial spin state, its dissipation rate, and the stellar age. Finally, we study the habitability of Kepler-186f with a one-dimensional climate model. The planet's surface temperature can be raised above 273 K with 0.5-5 bars of CO{sub 2}, depending on the amount of N{sub 2} present. Kepler-186f represents a case study of an Earth-sized planet in the cooler regions of the HZ of a cool star.

Humans Need Not Apply: Robotization of Kepler Planet Candidate Vetting

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlin, Jeffrey; Mullally, Fergal; Thompson, Susan E.; Kepler Team

2015-01-01

Until now, the vast majority of Kepler planet candidate vetting has been performed by a dedicated team of humans. While human expertise has been invaluable in understanding the nuances of Kepler data, human vetting is very time-consuming and can be inconsistent. Over 20,000 threshold crossing events have been produced by the latest pipeline run on all 17 quarters of Kepler mission data, and many more artificial planet transits have been injected to estimate completeness. Given these large numbers, human vetting is no longer feasible on a reasonable time-scale, and would be difficult to characterize. We have created automated vetting programs known as "robovetters" that are specifically designed to mimic the decision-making process employed by the humans. They analyze both the light curve and pixel-level data in order to produce specific reasons for identifying false positives. We present benchmark tests on the Q1-Q16 Kepler planet catalog, which was vetted by humans, and present preliminary robovetter results based on a recent transit-search of the newly reprocessed Q1-Q17 data set.

Multiplicity and properties of Kepler planet candidates: High spatial imaging and RV studies*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aceituno J.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The Kepler space telescope is discovering thousands of new planet candidates. However, a follow up program is needed in order to reject false candidates and to fully characterize the bona-fide exoplanets. Our main aims are: 1./ Detect and analyze close companions inside the typical Kepler PSF to study if they are the responsible of the dim in the Kepler light curves, 2./ Study the change in the stellar and planetary parameters due to the presence of an unresolved object, 3./ Help to validate those Kepler Objects of Interest that do not present any object inside the Kepler PSF and 4./ Study the multiplicity rate in planet host candidates. Such a large sample of observed planet host candidates allows us to do statistics about the presence of close (visual or bounded companions to the harboring star. We present here Lucky Imaging observations for a total amount of 98 Kepler Objects of Interest. This technique is based on the acquisition of thousands of very short exposure time images. Then, a selection and combination of a small amount of the best quality frames provides a high resolution image with objects having a 0.1 arcsec PSF. We applied this technique to carry out observations in the Sloan i and Sloan z filters of our Kepler candidates. We find blended objects inside the Kepler PSF for a significant percentage of KOIs. On one hand, only 58.2% of the hosts do not present any object within 6 arcsec. On the other hand, we have found 19 companions closer than 3 arcsec in 17 KOIs. According to their magnitudes and i − z color, 8 of them could be physically bounded to the host star. We are also collecting high-spectral resolution spectroscopuy in order to derive the planet properties.

TERRESTRIAL, HABITABLE-ZONE EXOPLANET FREQUENCY FROM KEPLER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Traub, Wesley A.

2012-01-01

Data from Kepler's first 136 days of operation are analyzed to determine the distribution of exoplanets with respect to radius, period, and host-star spectral type. The analysis is extrapolated to estimate the percentage of terrestrial, habitable-zone (HZ) exoplanets. The Kepler census is assumed to be complete for bright stars (magnitude 0.5 Earth radius and periods β–1 , with β ≅ 0.71 ± 0.08; and an extrapolation to longer periods gives the frequency of terrestrial planets in the HZs of FGK stars as η ⊕ ≅ (34 ± 14)%. Thus about one-third of FGK stars are predicted to have at least one terrestrial, HZ planet.

Asteroseismology of KIC 7107778: a binary comprising almost identical subgiants

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yaguang; Bedding, Timothy R.; Li, Tanda; Bi, Shaolan; Murphy, Simon J.; Corsaro, Enrico; Chen, Li; Tian, Zhijia

2018-05-01

We analyse an asteroseismic binary system: KIC 7107778, a non-eclipsing, unresolved target, with solar-like oscillations in both components. We used Kepler short cadence time series spanning nearly 2 yr to obtain the power spectrum. Oscillation mode parameters were determined using Bayesian inference and a nested sampling Monte Carlo algorithm with the DIAMONDS package. The power profiles of the two components fully overlap, indicating their close similarity. We modelled the two stars with MESA and calculated oscillation frequencies with GYRE. Stellar fundamental parameters (mass, radius, and age) were estimated by grid modelling with atmospheric parameters and the oscillation frequencies of l = 0, 2 modes as constraints. Most l = 1 mixed modes were identified with models searched using a bisection method. Stellar parameters for the two sub-giant stars are MA = 1.42 ± 0.06 M⊙, MB = 1.39 ± 0.03 M⊙, RA = 2.93 ± 0.05 R⊙, RB = 2.76 ± 0.04 R⊙, tA = 3.32 ± 0.54 Gyr and tB = 3.51 ± 0.33 Gyr. The mass difference of the system is ˜1 per cent. The results confirm their simultaneous birth and evolution, as is expected from binary formation. KIC 7107778 comprises almost identical twins, and is the first asteroseismic sub-giant binary to be detected.

A Search for Lost Planets in the Kepler Multi-Planet Systems and the Discovery of the Long-Period, Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Kepler-150 f

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitt, Joseph R.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Fischer, Debra A.

2017-01-01

The vast majority of the 4700 confirmed planets and planet candidates discovered by the Kepler space telescope were first found by the Kepler pipeline. In the pipeline, after a transit signal is found, all data points associated with those transits are removed, creating a Swiss cheese-like light curve full of holes, which is then used for subsequent transit searches. These holes could render an additional planet undetectable (or lost). We examine a sample of 114 stars with 3+ confirmed planets to see the effect that this Swiss cheesing may have. A simulation determined that the probability that a transiting planet is lost due to the transit masking is low, but non-neglible, reaching a plateau at approximately 3.3% lost in the period range of P = 400 - 500 days. We then model the transits in all quarters of each star and subtract out the transit signals, restoring the in-transit data points, and use the Kepler pipeline to search the transit-subtracted (i.e., transit-cleaned) light curves. However, the pipeline did not discover any credible new transit signals. This demonstrates the validity and robustness of the Kepler pipelines choice to use transit masking over transit subtraction. However, a follow-up visual search through all the transit-subtracted data, which allows for easier visual identification of new transits, revealed the existence of a new, Neptune-sized exoplanet. Kepler-150 f (P = 637.2 days, RP = 3.86 R earth) is confirmed using a combination of false positive probability analysis, transit duration analysis, and the planet multiplicity argument.

A SEARCH FOR LOST PLANETS IN THE KEPLER MULTI-PLANET SYSTEMS AND THE DISCOVERY OF A LONG PERIOD, NEPTUNE-SIZED EXOPLANET KEPLER-150 F.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitt, Joseph R; Jenkins, Jon M; Fischer, Debra A

2017-04-01

The vast majority of the 4700 confirmed planets and planet candidates discovered by the Kepler space telescope were first found by the Kepler pipeline. In the pipeline, after a transit signal is found, all data points associated with those transits are removed, creating a "Swiss cheese"-like light curve full of holes, which is then used for subsequent transit searches. These holes could render an additional planet undetectable (or "lost"). We examine a sample of 114 stars with 3+ confirmed planets to see the effect that this "Swiss cheesing" may have. A simulation determined that the probability that a transiting planet is lost due to the transit masking is low, but non-neglible, reaching a plateau at ~3.3% lost in the period range of P = 400 - 500 days. We then model the transits in all quarters of each star and subtract out the transit signals, restoring the in-transit data points, and use the Kepler pipeline to search the transit-subtracted (i.e., transit-cleaned) light curves. However, the pipeline did not discover any credible new transit signals. This demonstrates the validity and robustness of the Kepler pipeline's choice to use transit masking over transit subtraction. However, a follow-up visual search through all the transit-subtracted data, which allows for easier visual identification of new transits, revealed the existence of a new, Neptune-sized exoplanet. Kepler-150 f ( P = 637.2 days, R P = 3.86 R ⊕ ) is confirmed using a combination of false positive probability analysis, transit duration analysis, and the planet multiplicity argument.

Johannes Kepler - And the New Astronomy

Science.gov (United States)

Voelkel, James R.

1999-11-01

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is remembered as one of the greatest medieval astronomers in the tradition of Copernicus and Galileo, a man who made major contributions to physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Born in Germany and trained as a theologian, Kepler did not hesitate to challenge church doctrine by supporting the iconoclastic theory of a Sun-centered solar system. As Imperial Mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperor, he conducted careful observations of the night sky, which led to his discovery of the three Laws of Planetary Motion and the orbit of Mars. He also devised the Rudolphine Tables on planetary movements, and made key improvements to the telescope. Voelkel vividly describes the scientific achievements, providing enough background in physics and trigonometry so even beginners can enjoy this book. The author also gives us a captivating account of Kepler's tumultuous life, plagued by misery, disease, and fervent religious prosecution by the Catholic Church.Oxford Portraits in Science is an ongoing series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Ensemble Asteroseismology of Solar-Type Stars with the NASA Kepler Mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chaplin, William J.; Kjeldsen, Hans; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen

2011-01-01

In addition to its search for extrasolar planets, the NASA Kepler mission provides exquisite data on stellar oscillations. We report the detections of oscillations in 500 solar-type stars in the Kepler field of view, an ensemble that is large enough to allow statistical studies of intrinsic stellar...

Ensemble asteroseismology of solar-type stars with the NASA Kepler mission

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chaplin, W.J.; Kjeldsen, H.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Basu, S.; Miglio, A.; Appourchaux, T.; Bedding, T.R.; Elsworth, Y.; Garcia, R.A.; Gilliland, R.L.; Girardi, L.; Houdek, G.; Karoff, C.; Kawaler, S.D.; Metcalfe, T.S.; Molenda-Zakowicz, J.; Monteiro, M.J.P.F.G.; Thompson, M.J.; Verner, G.A.; Ballot, J.; Bonanno, A.; Brandao, I.M.; Broomhall, A.M.; Bruntt, H.; Campante, T.L.; Corsaro, E.; Creevey, O.L.; Esch, L.; Gai, N.; Gaulme, P.; Hale, S.J.; Handberg, R.; Hekker, S.; Huber, D.; Jimenez, A.; Mathur, S.; Mazumdar, A.; Mosser, B.; New, R.; Pinsonneault, M.H.; Pricopi, D.; Quirion, P.O.; Regulo, C.; Salabert, D.; Serenelli, A.M.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Sousa, S.G.; Stello, D.; Stevens, I.R.; Suran, M.D.; Uytterhoeven, K.; White, T.R.; Borucki, W.J.; Brown, T.M.; Jenkins, J.M.; Kinemuchi, K.; Van Cleve, J.; Klaus, T.C.

2011-01-01

In addition to its search for extrasolar planets, the NASA Kepler mission provides exquisite data on stellar oscillations. We report the detections of oscillations in 500 solar-type stars in the Kepler field of view, an ensemble that is large enough to allow statistical studies of intrinsic stellar

A PSF photometry tool for NASA's Kepler, K2, and TESS missions

Science.gov (United States)

Cardoso, Jose Vinicius De Miranda; Barentsen, Geert; Hedges, Christina L.; Gully-Santiago, Michael A.; Cody, Ann Marie; Montet, Ben

2018-01-01

NASA's Kepler and K2 missions have impacted all areas of astrophysics in unique and important ways by delivering high-precision time series data on asteroids, stars, and galaxies. For example, both the official Kepler pipeline and the various community-owned pipelines have been successful at discovering a myriad of transiting exoplanets around a wide range of stellar types. However, the existing pipelines tend to focus on studying isolated stars using simple aperture photometry, and often perform sub-optimally in crowded fields where objects are blended. To address this issue, we present a Point Spread Function (PSF) photometry toolkit for Kepler and K2 which is able to extract light curves from crowded regions, such as the Beehive Cluster, the Lagoon Nebula, and the M67 globular cluster, which were all recently observed by Kepler. We present a detailed discussion on the theory, the practical use, and demonstrate our tool on various levels of crowding. Finally, we discuss the future use of the tool on data from the TESS mission. The code is open source and available on GitHub as part of the PyKE toolkit for Kepler/K2 data analysis.

Kepler-68: Three Planets, One with a Density between that of Earth and Ice Giants

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gilliland, R.L.; Marcy, G.W.; Rowe, J.F.; Rogers, L.; Torres, G.; Fressin, F.; Lopez, E.D.; Buchhave, L.A.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Désert, J.M.; Henze, C.E.; Isaacson, H.; Jenkins, J.M.; Lissauer, J.J.; Chaplin, W.J.; Basu, S.; Metcalfe, T.S.; Elsworth, Y.; Handberg, R.; Hekker, S.; Huber, D.; Karoff, C.; Kjeldsen, H.; Lund, M.N.; Lundkvist, M.; Miglio, A.; Charbonneau, D.; Ford, E.B.; Fortney, J.J.; Haas, M.R.; Howard, A.W.; Howell, S.B.; Ragozzine, D.; Thompson, S.E.

2013-01-01

NASA's Kepler Mission has revealed two transiting planets orbiting Kepler-68. Follow-up Doppler measurements have established the mass of the innermost planet and revealed a third Jovian-mass planet orbiting beyond the two transiting planets. Kepler-68b, in a 5.4 day orbit, has Mp_{\\rm

A high false positive rate for Kepler planetary candidates of giant stars using asterodensity profiling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sliski, David H.; Kipping, David M.

2014-01-01

Asterodensity profiling (AP) is a relatively new technique for studying transit light curves. By comparing the mean stellar density derived from the transit light curve to that found through an independent method, AP provides information on several useful properties such as orbital eccentricity and blended light. We present an AP survey of 41 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs), with a single transiting candidate, for which the target star's mean stellar density has been measured using asteroseismology. The ensemble distribution of the AP measurements for the 31 dwarf stars in our sample shows excellent agreement with the spread expected if the KOIs were genuine and have realistic eccentricities. In contrast, the same test for the 10 giants in our sample reveals significant incompatibility at >4σ confidence. While extreme eccentricities could be invoked, this hypothesis requires four of the KOIs to contact their host star at periastron passage, including the recently claimed confirmation of Kepler-91b. After carefully examining several hypotheses, we conclude that the most plausible explanation is that the transiting objects orbit a different star to that measured with asteroseismology—cases we define as false-positives. Based on the AP distribution, we estimate a false-positive rate (FPR) for Kepler's giant stars with a single transiting object of FPR ≅ 70% ± 30%.

MARVELS Radial Velocity Solutions to Seven Kepler Eclipsing Binaries

Science.gov (United States)

Heslar, Michael Francis; Thomas, Neil B.; Ge, Jian; Ma, Bo; Herczeg, Alec; Reyes, Alan; SDSS-III MARVELS Team

2016-01-01

Eclipsing binaries serve momentous purposes to improve the basis of understanding aspects of stellar astrophysics, such as the accurate calculation of the physical parameters of stars and the enigmatic mass-radius relationship of M and K dwarfs. We report the investigation results of 7 eclipsing binary candidates, initially identified by the Kepler mission, overlapped with the radial velocity observations from the SDSS-III Multi-Object APO Radial-Velocity Exoplanet Large-Area Survey (MARVELS). The RV extractions and spectroscopic solutions of these eclipsing binaries were generated by the University of Florida's 1D data pipeline with a median RV precision of ~60-100 m/s, which was utilized for the DR12 data release. We performed the cross-reference fitting of the MARVELS RV data and the Kepler photometric fluxes obtained from the Kepler Eclipsing Binary Catalog (V2) and modelled the 7 eclipsing binaries in the BinaryMaker3 and PHOEBE programs. This analysis accurately determined the absolute physical and orbital parameters of each binary. Most of the companion stars were determined to have masses of K and M dwarf stars (0.3-0.8 M⊙), and allowed for an investigation into the mass-radius relationship of M and K dwarfs. Among the cases are KIC 9163796, a 122.2 day period "heartbeat star", a recently-discovered class of eccentric binaries known for tidal distortions and pulsations, with a high eccentricity (e~0.75) and KIC 11244501, a 0.29 day period, contact binary with a double-lined spectrum and mass ratio (q~0.45). We also report on the possible reclassification of 2 Kepler eclipsing binary candidates as background eclipsing binaries based on the analysis of the flux measurements, flux ratios of the spectroscopic and photometric solutions, the differences in the FOVs, the image processing of Kepler, and RV and spectral analysis of MARVELS.

Planet Occurrence within 0.25 AU of Solar-type Stars from Kepler

OpenAIRE

Howard, Andrew W.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Rowe, Jason F.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Borucki, William J.; Koch, David G.; Dunham, Edward W.; Gautier III, Thomas N.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Cochran, William D.; Latham, David W.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Torres, Guillermo

2011-01-01

We report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius (R_p), orbital period (P), and stellar effective temperature (Teff) for P < 50 day orbits around GK stars. These results are based on the 1,235 planets (formally "planet candidates") from the Kepler mission that include a nearly complete set of detected planets as small as 2 Earth radii (Re). For each of the 156,000 target stars we assess the detectability of planets as a function of R_p and P. We also correct for the geomet...

DISCOVERY OF A NEW AM CVn SYSTEM WITH THE KEPLER SATELLITE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fontaine, G.; Brassard, P.; Dufour, P.; Bergeron, P.; Green, E. M.; Hubeny, I.; Guvenen, B.; O'Malley, C. J.; Charpinet, S.; Van Grootel, V.; Steeghs, D.; Marsh, T. R.; Aerts, C.; Oestensen, R. H.; Bloemen, S.; Randall, S. K.; Silvotti, R.; Howell, S. B.; Baran, A.; Kepler, S. O.

2011-01-01

We report the discovery of a new AM CVn system on the basis of broadband photometry obtained with the Kepler satellite supplemented by ground-based optical spectroscopy. Initially retained on Kepler target lists as a potential compact pulsator, the blue object SDSS J190817.07+394036.4 (KIC 004547333) has turned out to be a high-state AM CVn star showing the He-dominated spectrum of its accretion disk significantly reddened by interstellar absorption. We constructed new grids of NLTE synthetic spectra for accretion disks in order to analyze our spectroscopic observations. From this analysis, we infer preliminary estimates of the rate of mass transfer, the inclination angle of the disk, and the distance to the system. The AM CVn nature of the system is also evident in the Kepler light curve, from which we extracted 11 secure periodicities. The luminosity variations are dominated by a basic periodicity of 938.507 s, likely to correspond to a superhump modulation. The light curve folded on the period of 938.507 s exhibits a pulse shape that is very similar to the superhump wavefront seen in AM CVn itself, which is a high-state system and the prototype of the class. Our Fourier analysis also suggests the likely presence of a quasi-periodic oscillation similar to those already observed in some high-state AM CVn systems. Furthermore, some very low-frequency, low-amplitude aperiodic photometric activity is likely present, which is in line with what is expected in accreting binary systems. Inspired by previous work, we further looked for and found some intriguing numerical relationships between the 11 secure detected frequencies, in the sense that we can account for all of them in terms of only three basic clocks. This is further evidence in favor of the AM CVn nature of the system.

PLANETARY CANDIDATES OBSERVED BY KEPLER IV: PLANET SAMPLE FROM Q1-Q8 (22 MONTHS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, Christopher J.; Mullally, F.; Rowe, Jason F.; Thompson, Susan E.; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Haas, Michael R.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Borucki, William J.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Ciardi, David R.; Still, Martin; Barclay, Thomas; Chaplin, William J.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Cochran, William D.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.

2014-01-01

We provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon nearly two years of high-precision photometry (i.e., Q1-Q8). From an initial list of nearly 13,400 threshold crossing events, 480 new host stars are identified from their flux time series as consistent with hosting transiting planets. Potential transit signals are subjected to further analysis using the pixel-level data, which allows background eclipsing binaries to be identified through small image position shifts during transit. We also re-evaluate Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) 1-1609, which were identified early in the mission, using substantially more data to test for background false positives and to find additional multiple systems. Combining the new and previous KOI samples, we provide updated parameters for 2738 Kepler planet candidates distributed across 2017 host stars. From the combined Kepler planet candidates, 472 are new from the Q1-Q8 data examined in this study. The new Kepler planet candidates represent ∼40% of the sample with R P ∼ 1 R ⊕ and represent ∼40% of the low equilibrium temperature (T eq < 300 K) sample. We review the known biases in the current sample of Kepler planet candidates relevant to evaluating planet population statistics with the current Kepler planet candidate sample

A Framework for Propagation of Uncertainties in the Kepler Data Analysis Pipeline

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Bruce D.; Allen, Christopher; Bryson, Stephen T.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Cote, Miles T.; Girouard, Forrest; Jenkins, Jon M.; Klaus, Todd C.; Li, Jie;

A novel hybrid algorithm of GSA with Kepler algorithm for numerical optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soroor Sarafrazi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available It is now well recognized that pure algorithms can be promisingly improved by hybridization with other techniques. One of the relatively new metaheuristic algorithms is Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA which is based on the Newton laws. In this paper, to enhance the performance of GSA, a novel algorithm called “Kepler”, inspired by the astrophysics, is introduced. The Kepler algorithm is based on the principle of the first Kepler law. The hybridization of GSA and Kepler algorithm is an efficient approach to provide much stronger specialization in intensification and/or diversification. The performance of GSA–Kepler is evaluated by applying it to 14 benchmark functions with 20–1000 dimensions and the optimal approximation of linear system as a practical optimization problem. The results obtained reveal that the proposed hybrid algorithm is robust enough to optimize the benchmark functions and practical optimization problems.

The KMTNet/K2-C9 (Kepler) Data Release

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, H.-W.; Hwang, K.-H.; Kim, D.-J.; Albrow, M. D.; Cha, S.-M.; Chung, S.-J.; Gould, A.; Han, C.; Jung, Y. K.; Kim, S.-L.; Lee, C.-U.; Lee, D.-J.; Lee, Y.; Park, B.-G.; Pogge, R. W.; Ryu, Y.-H.; Shin, I.-G.; Shvartzvald, Y.; Yee, J. C.; Zang, W.; Zhu, W.; KMTNet Collaboration

2018-05-01

We present Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) light curves for microlensing-event candidates in the Kepler K2 C9 field having peaks within three effective timescales of the Kepler observations. These include 181 “clear microlensing” and 84 “possible microlensing” events found by the KMTNet event finder, plus 56 other events found by OGLE and/or MOA that were not found by KMTNet. All data for the first two classes are immediately available for public use without restriction.

KIC2569073, A second Cepheid in the Kepler FOV

Science.gov (United States)

Drury, Jason A.; Kuehn, Charles A.; Bellamy, Beau R.; Stello, Dennis; Bedding, Timothy R.

2015-09-01

One particularly interesting new variable discovered via Kepler's 200x200 pixel superstamp images is KIC2569073. With a period of 14.66 days and 0.04mag variability it is only the second Cepheid in the Kepler field, or a rotationally modulated variable. We discuss its classification as a Type II W Virginis Class Cepheid, and present the cycle-to-cycle period variations of this star, as well as the first direct observations of granulation noise within a Cepheid.

ROTATIONAL SYNCHRONIZATION MAY ENHANCE HABITABILITY FOR CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS: KEPLER BINARY CASE STUDIES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mason, Paul A.; Zuluaga, Jorge I.; Cuartas-Restrepo, Pablo A.; Clark, Joni M.

2013-01-01

We report a mechanism capable of reducing (or increasing) stellar activity in binary stars, thereby potentially enhancing (or destroying) circumbinary habitability. In single stars, stellar aggression toward planetary atmospheres causes mass-loss, which is especially detrimental for late-type stars, because habitable zones are very close and activity is long lasting. In binaries, tidal rotational breaking reduces magnetic activity, thus reducing harmful levels of X-ray and ultraviolet (XUV) radiation and stellar mass-loss that are able to erode planetary atmospheres. We study this mechanism for all confirmed circumbinary (p-type) planets. We find that main sequence twins provide minimal flux variation and in some cases improved environments if the stars rotationally synchronize within the first Gyr. Solar-like twins, like Kepler 34 and Kepler 35, provide low habitable zone XUV fluxes and stellar wind pressures. These wide, moist, habitable zones may potentially support multiple habitable planets. Solar-type stars with lower mass companions, like Kepler 47, allow for protected planets over a wide range of secondary masses and binary periods. Kepler 38 and related binaries are marginal cases. Kepler 64 and analogs have dramatically reduced stellar aggression due to synchronization of the primary, but are limited by the short lifetime. Kepler 16 appears to be inhospitable to planets due to extreme XUV flux. These results have important implications for estimates of the number of stellar systems containing habitable planets in the Galaxy and allow for the selection of binaries suitable for follow-up searches for habitable planets

ROTATIONAL SYNCHRONIZATION MAY ENHANCE HABITABILITY FOR CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS: KEPLER BINARY CASE STUDIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mason, Paul A. [Department of Physics, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968 (United States); Zuluaga, Jorge I.; Cuartas-Restrepo, Pablo A. [FACom-Instituto de Fisica-FCEN, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellin (Colombia); Clark, Joni M. [Department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, New Mexico State University-DACC, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States)

2013-09-10

We report a mechanism capable of reducing (or increasing) stellar activity in binary stars, thereby potentially enhancing (or destroying) circumbinary habitability. In single stars, stellar aggression toward planetary atmospheres causes mass-loss, which is especially detrimental for late-type stars, because habitable zones are very close and activity is long lasting. In binaries, tidal rotational breaking reduces magnetic activity, thus reducing harmful levels of X-ray and ultraviolet (XUV) radiation and stellar mass-loss that are able to erode planetary atmospheres. We study this mechanism for all confirmed circumbinary (p-type) planets. We find that main sequence twins provide minimal flux variation and in some cases improved environments if the stars rotationally synchronize within the first Gyr. Solar-like twins, like Kepler 34 and Kepler 35, provide low habitable zone XUV fluxes and stellar wind pressures. These wide, moist, habitable zones may potentially support multiple habitable planets. Solar-type stars with lower mass companions, like Kepler 47, allow for protected planets over a wide range of secondary masses and binary periods. Kepler 38 and related binaries are marginal cases. Kepler 64 and analogs have dramatically reduced stellar aggression due to synchronization of the primary, but are limited by the short lifetime. Kepler 16 appears to be inhospitable to planets due to extreme XUV flux. These results have important implications for estimates of the number of stellar systems containing habitable planets in the Galaxy and allow for the selection of binaries suitable for follow-up searches for habitable planets.

On the connections between the classical and quantum-mechanical Kepler problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahl, J.P.; Jorgensen, T.G.

1993-01-01

The Runge-Lenz vector, which accounts for the accidental degeneracy of the non-relativistic Kepler problem, has been the subject matter of many studies, both in quantum mechanics and in classical mechanics. Much less attention has been paid to the Johnson-Lippmann operator which accounts for the accidental degeneracy of the relativistic Kepler problem in Dirac's quantum-mechanical description. In the present communication we discuss the properties of the Johnson-Lippmann operator. We show its relation to the non-relativistic Runge-Lenz vector and draw a connection to Sommerfield's early discussion of the relativistic Kepler problem. This enables us, inter alia, to give an explanation of the apparent coincidence of the energy expressions of the two theories

Anisotropic inharmonic Higgs oscillator and related (MICZ-)Kepler-like systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nersessian, Armen; Yeghikyan, Vahagn

2008-01-01

We propose the integrable (pseudo)spherical generalization of the four-dimensional anisotropic oscillator with additional nonlinear potential. Performing its Kustaanheimo-Stiefel transformation we then obtain the pseudospherical generalization of the MICZ-Kepler system with linear and cos θ potential terms. We also present the generalization of the parabolic coordinates, in which this system admits the separation of variables. Finally, we get the spherical analog of the presented MICZ-Kepler-like system

Which of Kepler's Stars Flare?

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-12-01

The habitability of distant exoplanets is dependent upon many factors one of which is the activity of their host stars. To learn about which stars are most likely to flare, a recent study examines tens of thousands of stellar flares observed by Kepler.Need for a Broader SampleArtists rendering of a flaring dwarf star. [NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger]Most of our understanding of what causes a star to flare is based on observations of the only star near enough to examine in detail the Sun. But in learning from a sample size of one, a challenge arises: we must determine which conclusions are unique to the Sun (or Sun-like stars), and which apply to other stellar types as well.Based on observations and modeling, astronomers think that stellar flares result from the reconnection of magnetic field lines in a stars outer atmosphere, the corona. The magnetic activity is thought to be driven by a dynamo caused by motions in the stars convective zone.HR diagram of the Kepler stars, with flaring main-sequence (yellow), giant (red) and A-star (green) stars in the authors sample indicated. [Van Doorsselaere et al. 2017]To test whether these ideas are true generally, we need to understand what types of stars exhibit flares, and what stellar properties correlate with flaring activity. A team of scientists led by Tom Van Doorsselaere (KU Leuven, Belgium) has now used an enormous sample of flares observed by Kepler to explore these statistics.Intriguing TrendsVan Doorsselaere and collaborators used a new automated flare detection and characterization algorithm to search through the raw light curves from Quarter 15 of the Kepler mission, building a sample of 16,850 flares on 6,662 stars. They then used these to study the dependence of the flare occurrence rate, duration, energy, and amplitude on the stellar spectral type and rotation period.This large statistical study led the authors to several interesting conclusions, including:Flare star incidence rate as a a

DISCOVERY OF A ZZ CETI IN THE KEPLER MISSION FIELD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hermes, J. J.; Winget, D. E.; Mullally, Fergal; Howell, Steve B.; Oestensen, R. H.; Bloemen, S.; Williams, Kurtis A.; Telting, John; Southworth, John; Everett, Mark

2011-01-01

We report the discovery of the first identified pulsating DA white dwarf, WD J1916+3938 (Kepler ID 4552982), in the field of the Kepler mission. This ZZ Ceti star was first identified through ground-based, time-series photometry, and follow-up spectroscopy confirms that it is a hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarf with T eff = 11,129 ± 115 K and log g = 8.34 ± 0.06, placing it within the empirical ZZ Ceti instability strip. The object shows up to 0.5% amplitude variability at several periods between 800 and 1450 s. Extended Kepler observations of WD J1916+3938 could yield the best light curve, to date, of any pulsating white dwarf, allowing us to directly study the interior of an evolved object representative of the fate of the majority of stars in our Galaxy.

K2: Extending Kepler's Power to the Ecliptic-Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog

Science.gov (United States)

Huber, Daniel; Bryson, Stephen T.

2017-01-01

This document describes the Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC) for the K2 mission (Howell et al. 2014). The primary purpose of this catalog is to provide positions and Kepler magnitudes for target management and aperture photometry. The Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog is hosted at MAST (http://archive.stsci.edu/k2/epic/search.php) and should be used for selecting targets when ever possible. The EPIC is updated for future K2 campaigns as their fields of view are finalized and the associated target management is completed. Table 0 summarizes the EPIC updates to date and the ID range for each. The main algorithms used to construct the EPIC are described in Sections 2 through 4. The details for individual campaigns are described in the subsequent sections, with the references listed in the last section. Further details can be found in Huber et al. (2016).

Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters.

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, Jason H; Ragozzine, Darin; Fabrycky, Daniel C; Carter, Joshua A; Ford, Eric B; Holman, Matthew J; Rowe, Jason F; Welsh, William F; Borucki, William J; Boss, Alan P; Ciardi, David R; Quinn, Samuel N

2012-05-22

We present the results of a search for planetary companions orbiting near hot Jupiter planet candidates (Jupiter-size candidates with orbital periods near 3 d) identified in the Kepler data through its sixth quarter of science operations. Special emphasis is given to companions between the 21 interior and exterior mean-motion resonances. A photometric transit search excludes companions with sizes ranging from roughly two-thirds to five times the size of the Earth, depending upon the noise properties of the target star. A search for dynamically induced deviations from a constant period (transit timing variations) also shows no significant signals. In contrast, comparison studies of warm Jupiters (with slightly larger orbits) and hot Neptune-size candidates do exhibit signatures of additional companions with these same tests. These differences between hot Jupiters and other planetary systems denote a distinctly different formation or dynamical history.

Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, Jason H.; Ragozzine, Darin; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Carter, Joshua A.; Ford, Eric B.; Holman, Matthew J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Welsh, William F.; Borucki, William J.; Boss, Alan P.; Ciardi, David R.; Quinn, Samuel N.

2012-01-01

We present the results of a search for planetary companions orbiting near hot Jupiter planet candidates (Jupiter-size candidates with orbital periods near 3 d) identified in the Kepler data through its sixth quarter of science operations. Special emphasis is given to companions between the 2∶1 interior and exterior mean-motion resonances. A photometric transit search excludes companions with sizes ranging from roughly two-thirds to five times the size of the Earth, depending upon the noise properties of the target star. A search for dynamically induced deviations from a constant period (transit timing variations) also shows no significant signals. In contrast, comparison studies of warm Jupiters (with slightly larger orbits) and hot Neptune-size candidates do exhibit signatures of additional companions with these same tests. These differences between hot Jupiters and other planetary systems denote a distinctly different formation or dynamical history. PMID:22566651

KEPLER Mission: development and overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borucki, William J

2016-01-01

The Kepler Mission is a space observatory launched in 2009 by NASA to monitor 170 000 stars over a period of four years to determine the frequency of Earth-size and larger planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars, the size and orbital distributions of these planets, and the types of stars they orbit. Kepler is the tenth in the series of NASA Discovery Program missions that are competitively-selected, PI-directed, medium-cost missions. The Mission concept and various instrument prototypes were developed at the Ames Research Center over a period of 18 years starting in 1983. The development of techniques to do the 10 ppm photometry required for Mission success took years of experimentation, several workshops, and the exploration of many ‘blind alleys’ before the construction of the flight instrument. Beginning in 1992 at the start of the NASA Discovery Program, the Kepler Mission concept was proposed five times before its acceptance for mission development in 2001. During that period, the concept evolved from a photometer in an L2 orbit that monitored 6000 stars in a 50 sq deg field-of-view (FOV) to one that was in a heliocentric orbit that simultaneously monitored 170 000 stars with a 105 sq deg FOV. Analysis of the data to date has detected over 4600 planetary candidates which include several hundred Earth-size planetary candidates, over a thousand confirmed planets, and Earth-size planets in the habitable zone (HZ). These discoveries provide the information required for estimates of the frequency of planets in our galaxy. The Mission results show that most stars have planets, many of these planets are similar in size to the Earth, and that systems with several planets are common. Although planets in the HZ are common, many are substantially larger than Earth. (review article)

Kepler Asteroseismology of Red-giant Stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.

2012-01-01

The Kepler mission, launched in March 2009, has revolutionized asteroseismology, providing detailed observations of thousands of stars. This has allowed in-depth analyses of stars ranging from compact hot subdwarfs to red giants, and including the detection of solar-like oscillations in hundreds ...

Devil in the Details: Investigating Astrophysical Phenomena with Kepler Light Curves

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon Michael; SOC, Kepler; SO, Kepler; Kepler Science Team

2011-05-01

The light curves produced by the Kepler photometer are unprecedented in their photometric precision, completeness, and contiguity. Moreover, although Kepler was designed to detect 100 ppm changes in brightness corresponding to transits of Earth-size planets crossing Sun-size stars, the Kepler light curves preserve intrinsic intensity variations across a large dynamic range, including those of RR Lyrae stars, which can increase their brightness by more than a factor of two over a few hours. The large dynamic range and phenomenal photometric precision of Kepler promises to revolutionize the study of intrinsic stellar variability and a wide variety of variable stars on timescales from minutes to several years. In this paper, we describe the science pipeline processing that produces the uncorrected and the systematic error-corrected light curves, and give examples of residual instrumental artifacts that can be found in the data, such as those caused by thermal changes due to the position of the spacecraft with relation to the sun or heaters cycling on and off on various spacecraft components (which can change the shape of the telescope and alter its focus), as well as examples of processing artifacts that can occur. We also describe algorithms in development that promise to improve our ability to identify and remove instrumental signatures and further reduce the incidence of processing artifacts in the archival light curves, thereby increasing the usability of the corrected light curves for astrophysical investigations. Kepler was selected as the 10th mission of the Discovery Program. Funding for this mission is provided by the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

Asteroseismic estimate of helium abundance of 16 Cyg A, B

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Verma Kuldeep

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The helium ionization zone in a star leaves a characteristic signature on its oscillation frequencies, which can be used to estimate the helium content in the envelope of the star. We use the oscillation frequencies of 16 Cyg A and B, obtained using 2.5 years of Kepler data, to estimate the envelope helium abundance of these stars. We find the envelope helium abundance to lie in the range 0.231–0.251 for 16 Cyg A and 0.218–0.266 for 16 Cyg B.

Oscillation mode linewidths of main-sequence and subgiant stars observed by Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appourchaux, T.; Benomar, O.; Gruberbauer, M.

2012-01-01

Solar-like oscillations have been observed by {{\\it Kepler}} and CoRoT in several solar-type stars. We study the variations of stellar p-mode linewidth as a function of effective temperature. Time series of 9 months of Kepler data have been used. The power spectra of 42 cool main-sequence stars a...

Kepler-1649b: An Exo-Venus in the Solar Neighborhood

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Angelo, Isabel; Rowe, Jason F.; Huber, Daniel [SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States); Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Burningham, Ben; Barclay, Thomas [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Still, Martin [Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, 625 2nd Street, Suite 209, Petaluma, CA 94952 (United States); Mann, Andrew W. [Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA (United States); Kane, Stephen R., E-mail: isabelangelo@berkeley.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States)

2017-04-01

The Kepler mission has revealed that Earth-sized planets are common, and dozens have been discovered to orbit in or near their host star’s habitable zone. A major focus in astronomy is to determine which of these exoplanets are likely to have Earth-like properties that are amenable to follow-up with both ground- and future space-based surveys, with an ultimate goal of probing their atmospheres to look for signs of life. Venus-like atmospheres will be of particular interest in these surveys. While Earth and Venus evolved to have similar sizes and densities, it remains unclear what factors led to the dramatic divergence of their atmospheres. Studying analogs to both Earth and Venus can thus shed light on the limits of habitability and the potential for life on known exoplanets. Here, we present the discovery and confirmation of Kepler-1649b, an Earth-sized planet orbiting a nearby M5V star that receives incident flux at a level similar to that of Venus. We present our methods for characterizing the star, using a combination of point-spread function photometry, ground-based spectroscopy, and imaging, to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-1649b. Planets like Kepler-1649b will be prime candidates for atmospheric and habitability studies in the next generation of space missions.

Kepler-1649b: An Exo-Venus in the Solar Neighborhood

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelo, Isabel; Rowe, Jason F.; Huber, Daniel; Howell, Steve B.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Burningham, Ben; Barclay, Thomas; Still, Martin; Mann, Andrew W.; Ciardi, David R.; Kane, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

The Kepler mission has revealed that Earth-sized planets are common, and dozens have been discovered to orbit in or near their host star’s habitable zone. A major focus in astronomy is to determine which of these exoplanets are likely to have Earth-like properties that are amenable to follow-up with both ground- and future space-based surveys, with an ultimate goal of probing their atmospheres to look for signs of life. Venus-like atmospheres will be of particular interest in these surveys. While Earth and Venus evolved to have similar sizes and densities, it remains unclear what factors led to the dramatic divergence of their atmospheres. Studying analogs to both Earth and Venus can thus shed light on the limits of habitability and the potential for life on known exoplanets. Here, we present the discovery and confirmation of Kepler-1649b, an Earth-sized planet orbiting a nearby M5V star that receives incident flux at a level similar to that of Venus. We present our methods for characterizing the star, using a combination of point-spread function photometry, ground-based spectroscopy, and imaging, to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-1649b. Planets like Kepler-1649b will be prime candidates for atmospheric and habitability studies in the next generation of space missions.

X-ray surface brightness of Kepler's supernova remnant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, R.L.; Long, K.S.

1983-01-01

We have observed Kepler's supernova remnant (SNR) with the imaging instruments on board the Einstein Observatory. The 0.15-4.5 keV flux incident on the Earth is 1.2 x 10 - 10 ergs cm - 2 s - 1 ; the flux corrected for interstellar absorption is 3.4 x 10 - 10 ergs cm - 2 s - 1 (L/sub x/ = 1.0 x 10 36 ergs s - 1 at D = 5 kpc) if the absorbing column density is N/sub H/ = 2.8 x 10 21 cm - 2 . The remnant is circular and shows a strong shell which is at least 5 times brighter in the north than in the south. The X-ray observations do not unambiguously determine whether the remnant is in the adiabatic or the free expansion phase. If the remnant is in the adiabatic phase, the density of the interstellar medium (ISM) ( 2 /sub e/>/sup 1/2/) surrounding Kepler's SNR must be about 5 cm - 3 . If the remnant is in the free expansion phase, where most of the emission arises from shock-heated ejecta, the ISM density must still be relatively high, n/sub i/> or approx. =0.1 cm - 3 . Even if the ISM is very inhomogeneous, with very many small, dense clouds, we show that the mean density of the ISM must be greater than approx.0.1 cm - 3 . In any case, the density of the x-ray emitting gas must be high ( 2 /sub e/>/sup 1/2/ > or approx. =10 cm - 3 ), and the temperature must be fairly low (T/sub e/ 7 K). The relatively high ISM density which is required is surprising in view of Kepler's distance above the galactic plane, approx.600 pc. Possibly the ISM around Kepler's SNR and around other type i SNRs is dominated by the mass lost from the presupernova star

The Kepler follow-up observation program

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gautier...[], T.N.; Batalha, N.M.; Borucki, W. J.

2010-01-01

The Kepler Mission was launched on March 6, 2009 to perform a photometric survey of more than 100,000 dwarf stars to search for terrestrial-size planets with the transit technique. Follow-up observations of planetary candidates identified by detection of transit-like events are needed both...

Observations of Hot-Jupiter occultations combining Spitzer and Kepler photometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Knutson H.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We present the status of an ongoing program which aim at measuring occultations by their parent stars of transiting hot giant exoplanets discovered recently by Kepler. The observations are obtained in the near infrared with WarmSpitzer Space Telescope and at optical wavelengths by combining more than a year of Kepler photometry. The investigation consists of measuring the mid-occultation times and the relative occultation depths in each band-passes. Our measurements of occultations depths in the Kepler bandpass is turned into the determination of the optical geometric albedo Ag in this wavelength domain. The brightness temperatures of these planets are deduced from the infrared observations. We combine the optical and near infrared planetary emergent fluxes to obtain broad band emergent spectra of individual planet. We finally compare these spectra to hot Jupiter atmospheric models in order broadly distinguishing these atmospheres between different classes of models.

THE HUNT FOR EXOMOONS WITH KEPLER (HEK). I. DESCRIPTION OF A NEW OBSERVATIONAL PROJECT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kipping, D. M.; Bakos, G. Á.; Buchhave, L.; Nesvorný, D.; Schmitt, A.

2012-01-01

Two decades ago, empirical evidence concerning the existence and frequency of planets around stars, other than our own, was absent. Since that time, the detection of extrasolar planets from Jupiter-sized to, most recently, Earth-sized worlds has blossomed and we are finally able to shed light on the plurality of Earth-like, habitable planets in the cosmos. Extrasolar moons may also be frequently habitable worlds, but their detection or even systematic pursuit remains lacking in the current literature. Here, we present a description of the first systematic search for extrasolar moons as part of a new observational project called 'The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler' (HEK). The HEK project distills the entire list of known transiting planet candidates found by Kepler (2326 at the time of writing) down to the most promising candidates for hosting a moon. Selected targets are fitted using a multimodal nested sampling algorithm coupled with a planet-with-moon light curve modeling routine. By comparing the Bayesian evidence of a planet-only model to that of a planet-with-moon, the detection process is handled in a Bayesian framework. In the case of null detections, upper limits derived from posteriors marginalized over the entire prior volume will be provided to inform the frequency of large moons around viable planetary hosts, η leftmoon. After discussing our methodologies for target selection, modeling, fitting, and vetting, we provide two example analyses.

3D spin-orbit angle of Kepler-25 and HAT-P-7

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benomar Othman

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The number of discovered exoplanets now exceeds 1500, mostly due to the Kepler space instrument observations. Many of these planet orbit in less than a week around their host stars. This implies that the inward migration of those planets is a basic ingredient of successful theories of planet formation and evolution. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the observed periods, which lead to different orbit eccentricity and obliquity distributions. Here we summarise and discuss the results of obliquities for two Kepler stars: HAT-P-7 and Kepler-25. These are interesting stellar systems as we could carry out a joint analysis using asteroseismology, transit lightcurve and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in order to measure the three dimensional obliquity.

Exosat observations of the Kepler supernova remnant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, A.; Peacock, A.; Arnaud, M.; Ballet, J.; Rothenflug, R.

1989-01-01

The medium-energy experiment on board Exosat was used to measure the X-ray spectrum of the Kepler supernova remnant over the range 1.5-10 keV. An Fe emission line was clearly resolved with an energy of about 6.5 keV and equivalent width of about 1.8 keV. This was superposed on a continuum with a temperature of 5.0(+3.8, -1.9) keV. The medium-energy spectrum is shown to be consistent with a model in which the Kepler SNR is presently in a Sedov phase of evolution, the 5 keV continuum arises from the shocked interstellar/circumstellar medium, and thermal (but not ionization) equilibrium exists between electrons and ions behind the primary shock front. However, in this case, an overabundance of iron by more than 6 times cosmic is required. 28 refs

Detecting Close-In Extrasolar Giant Planets with the Kepler Photometer via Scattered Light

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, J. M.; Doyle, L. R.; Kepler Discovery Mission Team

2003-05-01

NASA's Kepler Mission will be launched in 2007 primarily to search for transiting Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of solar-like stars. In addition, it will be poised to detect the reflected light component from close-in extrasolar giant planets (CEGPs) similar to 51 Peg b. Here we use the DIARAD/SOHO time series along with models for the reflected light signatures of CEGPs to evaluate Kepler's ability to detect such planets. We examine the detectability as a function of stellar brightness, stellar rotation period, planetary orbital inclination angle, and planetary orbital period, and then estimate the total number of CEGPs that Kepler will detect over its four year mission. The analysis shows that intrinsic stellar variability of solar-like stars is a major obstacle to detecting the reflected light from CEGPs. Monte Carlo trials are used to estimate the detection threshold required to limit the total number of expected false alarms to no more than one for a survey of 100,000 stellar light curves. Kepler will likely detect 100-760 51 Peg b-like planets by reflected light with orbital periods up to 7 days. LRD was supported by the Carl Sagan Chair at the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, a division of the SETI Institute. JMJ received support from the Kepler Mission Photometer and Science Office at NASA Ames Research Center.

PLANET OCCURRENCE WITHIN 0.25 AU OF SOLAR-TYPE STARS FROM KEPLER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howard, Andrew W.; Marcy, Geoffrey W. [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Bryson, Stephen T.; Rowe, Jason F.; Borucki, William J.; Koch, David G.; Lissauer, Jack J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Jenkins, Jon M.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Caldwell, Douglas A. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Batalha, Natalie M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192 (United States); Dunham, Edward W. [Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States); Gautier, Thomas N. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Cochran, William D. [Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 (United States); Latham, David W.; Torres, Guillermo [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Brown, Timothy M. [Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University (Denmark); Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jorgen, E-mail: howard@astro.berkeley.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); and others

2012-08-01

We report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius, orbital period, and stellar effective temperature for orbital periods less than 50 days around solar-type (GK) stars. These results are based on the 1235 planets (formally 'planet candidates') from the Kepler mission that include a nearly complete set of detected planets as small as 2 R{sub Circled-Plus }. For each of the 156,000 target stars, we assess the detectability of planets as a function of planet radius, R{sub p}, and orbital period, P, using a measure of the detection efficiency for each star. We also correct for the geometric probability of transit, R{sub *}/a. We consider first Kepler target stars within the 'solar subset' having T{sub eff} = 4100-6100 K, log g 4.0-4.9, and Kepler magnitude Kp < 15 mag, i.e., bright, main-sequence GK stars. We include only those stars having photometric noise low enough to permit detection of planets down to 2 R{sub Circled-Plus }. We count planets in small domains of R{sub p} and P and divide by the included target stars to calculate planet occurrence in each domain. The resulting occurrence of planets varies by more than three orders of magnitude in the radius-orbital period plane and increases substantially down to the smallest radius (2 R{sub Circled-Plus }) and out to the longest orbital period (50 days, {approx}0.25 AU) in our study. For P < 50 days, the distribution of planet radii is given by a power law, df/dlog R = k{sub R}R{sup {alpha}} with k{sub R} = 2.9{sup +0.5}{sub -0.4}, {alpha} = -1.92 {+-} 0.11, and R {identical_to} R{sub p}/R{sub Circled-Plus }. This rapid increase in planet occurrence with decreasing planet size agrees with the prediction of core-accretion formation but disagrees with population synthesis models that predict a desert at super-Earth and Neptune sizes for close-in orbits. Planets with orbital periods shorter than 2 days are extremely rare; for R{sub p} > 2 R{sub Circled-Plus} we measure an

Validation of Kepler's multiple planet candidates. II. Refined statistical framework and descriptions of systems of special interest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Rowe, Jason F.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel; Borucki, William J.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Kolbl, Rea; Agol, Eric; Carter, Joshua A.; Torres, Guillermo; Ford, Eric B.; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Star, Kimberly M.; Steffen, Jason H.

2014-01-01

We extend the statistical analysis performed by Lissauer et al. in 2012, which demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) represents true transiting planets, and we develop therefrom a procedure to validate large numbers of planet candidates in multis as bona fide exoplanets. We show that this statistical framework correctly estimates the abundance of false positives already identified around Kepler targets with multiple sets of transit-like signatures based on their abundance around targets with single sets of transit-like signatures. We estimate the number of multis that represent split systems of one or more planets orbiting each component of a binary star system. We use the high reliability rate for multis to validate more than one dozen particularly interesting multi-planet systems herein. Hundreds of additional multi-planet systems are validated in a companion paper by Rowe et al. We note that few very short period (P < 1.6 days) planets orbit within multiple transiting planet systems and discuss possible reasons for their absence. There also appears to be a shortage of planets with periods exceeding a few months in multis.

Validation of Kepler's multiple planet candidates. II. Refined statistical framework and descriptions of systems of special interest

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Rowe, Jason F.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel; Borucki, William J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Kolbl, Rea [Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Agol, Eric [Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Carter, Joshua A.; Torres, Guillermo [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Ford, Eric B.; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Star, Kimberly M. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Steffen, Jason H., E-mail: Jack.Lissauer@nasa.gov [Department of Physics and Astronomy/CIERA, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)

2014-03-20

We extend the statistical analysis performed by Lissauer et al. in 2012, which demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) represents true transiting planets, and we develop therefrom a procedure to validate large numbers of planet candidates in multis as bona fide exoplanets. We show that this statistical framework correctly estimates the abundance of false positives already identified around Kepler targets with multiple sets of transit-like signatures based on their abundance around targets with single sets of transit-like signatures. We estimate the number of multis that represent split systems of one or more planets orbiting each component of a binary star system. We use the high reliability rate for multis to validate more than one dozen particularly interesting multi-planet systems herein. Hundreds of additional multi-planet systems are validated in a companion paper by Rowe et al. We note that few very short period (P < 1.6 days) planets orbit within multiple transiting planet systems and discuss possible reasons for their absence. There also appears to be a shortage of planets with periods exceeding a few months in multis.

Asteroseismology of solar-type stars with Kepler: II. Stellar modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Metcalfe , T.S.; Karoff, Christoffer

2010-01-01

Observations from the Kepler satellite were recently published for three bright G-type stars, which were monitored during the first 33.5 days of science operations. One of these stars, KIC 11026764, exhibits a characteristic pattern of oscillation frequencies suggesting that the star has evolved...... significantly. We have derived initial estimates of the properties of KIC 11026764 from the oscillation frequencies observed by Kepler, combined with ground-based spectroscopic data. We present preliminary results from detailed modeling of this star, employing a variety of independent codes and analyses...

Kepler: NASA's First Mission Capable of Finding Earth-Size Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Borucki, William J.

2009-01-01

Kepler, a NASA Discovery mission, is a spaceborne telescope designed to search a nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like our sun. The habitable zone is that region around a start where the temperature permits water to be liquid on the surface of a planet. Liquid water is considered essential forth existence of life. Mission Phases: Six mission phases have been defined to describe the different periods of activity during Kepler's mission. These are: launch; commissioning; early science operations, science operations: and decommissioning

Non-adiabatic study of the Kepler subgiant KIC 6442183

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grosjean M.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Thanks to the precision of Kepler observations, [3] were able to measure the linewidth and amplitude of individual modes (including mixed modes in several subgiant power spectra. We perform a forward modelling of a Kepler subgiant based on surface properties and observed frequencies. Non-adiabatic computations including a time- dependent treatment of convection give the lifetimes of radial and non-radial modes. Next, combining the lifetimes and inertias with a stochastic excitation model gives the amplitudes of the modes. We can now directly compare theoretical and observed linewidths and amplitudes of mixed-modes to obtain new constraints on our theoretical models.

Lifting Transit Signals from the Kepler Noise Floor. I. Discovery of a Warm Neptune

Science.gov (United States)

Kunimoto, Michelle; Matthews, Jaymie M.; Rowe, Jason F.; Hoffman, Kelsey

2018-01-01

Light curves from the 4-year Kepler exoplanet hunting mission have been searched for transits by NASA’s Kepler team and others, but there are still important discoveries to be made. We have searched the light curves of 400 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) to find transit signals down to signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) ∼ 6, which is under the limit of S/N ∼ 7.1 that has been commonly adopted as a strict threshold to distinguish between a transit candidate and false alarm. We detect four new and convincing planet candidates ranging in radius from near-Mercury-size to slightly larger than Neptune. We highlight the discovery of KOI-408.05 (period = 637 days; radius = 4.9 R ⊕ incident flux = 0.6 S ⊕), a planet candidate within its host star’s Habitable Zone. We dub this planet a “warm Neptune,” a likely volatile-rich world that deserves closer inspection. KOI-408.05 joins 21 other confirmed and candidate planets in the current Kepler sample with semimajor axes a > 1.4 au. These discoveries are significant as a demonstration that the S/N threshold for detection used by the Kepler project is open to debate.

Kepler Observations and Asteroseismology of θ Cyg, the Brightest StarObservable in the Kepler Field of View

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guzik, Joyce A.; Houdek, G.; Chaplin, W. J.

2012-01-01

-March 2011). We present analyses of the solar-like oscillations first discovered in the Q6 data [1, 2]. We use observational constraints from the literature and recent ground-based observations including angular diameters from optical interferometry in conjunction with the frequency data to derive stellar...... properties (e.g., mass, age, metallicity, extent of convection zones). We also discuss the prospects for detecting longer period gravity-mode pulsations as seen in gamma Doradus variable stars of spectral type A-F, given these constraints. With an effective temperature near 6500 K and near ‘solar’ element....... The calculated envelope convection zone depth depends on the element abundance mixtures adopted for the stellar models [2]. Asteroseismic studies of θ Cyg therefore have potential to shed light on the solar abundance problem [3, 4], as well as to put constraints on the presence and detectability of g...

Spectroscopic follow up of Kepler planet candidates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Latham..[], D. W.; Cochran, W. D.; Marcy, G.W.

2010-01-01

Spectroscopic follow-up observations play a crucial role in the confirmation and characterization of transiting planet candidates identified by Kepler. The most challenging part of this work is the determination of radial velocities with a precision approaching 1 m/s in order to derive masses from...... spectroscopic orbits. The most precious resource for this work is HIRES on Keck I, to be joined by HARPS-North on the William Herschel Telescope when that new spectrometer comes on line in two years. Because a large fraction of the planet candidates are in fact stellar systems involving eclipsing stars...... and not planets, our strategy is to start with reconnaissance spectroscopy using smaller telescopes, to sort out and reject as many of the false positives as possible before going to Keck. During the first Kepler observing season in 2009, more than 100 nights of telescope time were allocated for this work, using...

Auto-Vetting Transiting Planet Candidates Identified by the Kepler Pipeline

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon M.; McCauliff, Sean; Burke, Christopher; Seader, Shawn; Twicken, Joseph; Klaus, Todd; Sanderfer, Dwight; Srivastava, Ashok; Haas, Michael R.

2014-04-01

The Kepler Mission simultaneously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars every 29.4 minutes primarily for the purpose of transit photometry. Over the course of its 3.5-year primary mission Kepler has observed over 190,000 distinct stars, announcing 2,321 planet candidates, 2,165 eclipsing binaries, and 105 confirmed planets. As Kepler moves into its 4-year extended mission, the total number of transit-like features identified in the light curves has increased to as many as ~18,000. This number of signals has become intractable for human beings to inspect by eye in a thorough and timely fashion. To mitigate this problem we are developing machine learning approaches to perform the task of reviewing the diagnostics for each transit signal candidate to establish a preliminary list of planetary candidates ranked from most credible to least credible. Our preliminary results indicate that random forests can classify potential transiting planet signatures with an accuracy of more than 98.6% as measured by the area under a receiver-operating curve.

KEPLER-LIKE MULTI-PLEXING FOR MASS PRODUCTION OF MICROLENS PARALLAXES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gould, Andrew [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Horne, Keith, E-mail: gould@astronomy.ohio-state.edu, E-mail: kdh1@st-andrews.ac.uk [SUPA, University of St Andrews, School of Physics and Astronomy, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9SS (United Kingdom)

2013-12-20

We show that a wide-field Kepler-like satellite in solar orbit could obtain microlens parallaxes for several thousand events per year that are identified from the ground, yielding masses and distances for several dozen planetary events. This is roughly an order of magnitude larger than previously considered narrow-angle designs. Such a satellite would, in addition, roughly double the number of planet detections (and mass/distance determinations). It would also yield a trove of brown-dwarf binaries with masses, distances, and (frequently) full orbits, enable new probes of the stellar mass function, and identify isolated black-hole candidates. We show that the actual Kepler satellite, even with degraded pointing, can demonstrate these capabilities and make substantial initial inroads into the science potential. We discuss several ''Deltas'' to the Kepler satellite aimed at optimizing microlens parallax capabilities. Most of these would reduce costs. The wide-angle approach advocated here has only recently become superior to the old narrow-angle approach, due to the much larger number of ground-based microlensing events now being discovered.

KEPLER-LIKE MULTI-PLEXING FOR MASS PRODUCTION OF MICROLENS PARALLAXES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gould, Andrew; Horne, Keith

2013-01-01

We show that a wide-field Kepler-like satellite in solar orbit could obtain microlens parallaxes for several thousand events per year that are identified from the ground, yielding masses and distances for several dozen planetary events. This is roughly an order of magnitude larger than previously considered narrow-angle designs. Such a satellite would, in addition, roughly double the number of planet detections (and mass/distance determinations). It would also yield a trove of brown-dwarf binaries with masses, distances, and (frequently) full orbits, enable new probes of the stellar mass function, and identify isolated black-hole candidates. We show that the actual Kepler satellite, even with degraded pointing, can demonstrate these capabilities and make substantial initial inroads into the science potential. We discuss several ''Deltas'' to the Kepler satellite aimed at optimizing microlens parallax capabilities. Most of these would reduce costs. The wide-angle approach advocated here has only recently become superior to the old narrow-angle approach, due to the much larger number of ground-based microlensing events now being discovered

Kepler-like Multi-plexing for Mass Production of Microlens Parallaxes

Science.gov (United States)

Gould, Andrew; Horne, Keith

2013-12-01

We show that a wide-field Kepler-like satellite in solar orbit could obtain microlens parallaxes for several thousand events per year that are identified from the ground, yielding masses and distances for several dozen planetary events. This is roughly an order of magnitude larger than previously considered narrow-angle designs. Such a satellite would, in addition, roughly double the number of planet detections (and mass/distance determinations). It would also yield a trove of brown-dwarf binaries with masses, distances, and (frequently) full orbits, enable new probes of the stellar mass function, and identify isolated black-hole candidates. We show that the actual Kepler satellite, even with degraded pointing, can demonstrate these capabilities and make substantial initial inroads into the science potential. We discuss several "Deltas" to the Kepler satellite aimed at optimizing microlens parallax capabilities. Most of these would reduce costs. The wide-angle approach advocated here has only recently become superior to the old narrow-angle approach, due to the much larger number of ground-based microlensing events now being discovered.

Serendipitous discovery of a dwarf Nova in the Kepler field near the G dwarf KIC 5438845

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, Alexander; Ayres, Thomas R.; Neff, James E.; Wells, Mark A.; Kowalski, Adam; Hawley, Suzanne; Berdyugina, Svetlana; Harper, Graham M.; Korhonen, Heidi; Piskunov, Nikolai; Saar, Steven; Walkowicz, Lucianne

2015-01-01

The Kepler satellite provides a unique window into stellar temporal variability by observing a wide variety of stars with multi-year, near-continuous, high precision, optical photometric time series. While most Kepler targets are faint stars with poorly known physical properties, many unexpected discoveries should result from a long photometric survey of such a large area of sky. During our Kepler Guest Observer programs that monitored late-type stars for starspot and flaring variability, we discovered a previously unknown dwarf nova that lies within a few arcseconds of the mid-G dwarf star KIC 5438845. This dwarf nova underwent nine outbursts over a 4 year time span. The two largest outbursts lasted ∼17–18 days and show strong modulations with a 110.8 minute period and a declining amplitude during the outburst decay phase. These properties are characteristic of an SU UMa-type cataclysmic variable. By analogy with other dwarf nova light curves, we associate the 110.8 minute (1.847 hr) period with the superhump period, close to but slightly longer than the orbital period of the binary. No precursor outbursts are seen before the super-outbursts and the overall super-outburst morphology corresponds to Osaki and Meyer “Case B” outbursts, which are initiated when the outer edge of the disk reaches the tidal truncation radius. “Case B” outbursts are rare within the Kepler light curves of dwarf novae. The dwarf nova is undergoing relatively slow mass transfer, as evidenced by the long intervals between outbursts, but the mass transfer rate appears to be steady, because the smaller “normal” outbursts show a strong correlation between the integrated outburst energy and the elapsed time since the previous outburst. At super-outburst maximum the system was at V ∼ 18, but in quiescence it is fainter than V ∼ 22, which will make any detailed quiescent follow-up of this system difficult.

RADIAL VELOCITY MONITORING OF KEPLER HEARTBEAT STARS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shporer, Avi [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Fuller, Jim [TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Mailcode 350-17, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Isaacson, Howard [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720 (United States); Hambleton, Kelly; Prša, Andrej [Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Villanova University, 800 East Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085 (United States); Thompson, Susan E. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Kurtz, Donald W. [Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE (United Kingdom); Howard, Andrew W. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); O’Leary, Ryan M. [JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, 440 UCB, Boulder, 80309-0440 (United States)

2016-09-20

Heartbeat stars (HB stars) are a class of eccentric binary stars with close periastron passages. The characteristic photometric HB signal evident in their light curves is produced by a combination of tidal distortion, heating, and Doppler boosting near orbital periastron. Many HB stars continue to oscillate after periastron and along the entire orbit, indicative of the tidal excitation of oscillation modes within one or both stars. These systems are among the most eccentric binaries known, and they constitute astrophysical laboratories for the study of tidal effects. We have undertaken a radial velocity (RV) monitoring campaign of Kepler HB stars in order to measure their orbits. We present our first results here, including a sample of 22 Kepler HB systems, where for 19 of them we obtained the Keplerian orbit and for 3 other systems we did not detect a statistically significant RV variability. Results presented here are based on 218 spectra obtained with the Keck/HIRES spectrograph during the 2015 Kepler observing season, and they have allowed us to obtain the largest sample of HB stars with orbits measured using a single instrument, which roughly doubles the number of HB stars with an RV measured orbit. The 19 systems measured here have orbital periods from 7 to 90 days and eccentricities from 0.2 to 0.9. We show that HB stars draw the upper envelope of the eccentricity–period distribution. Therefore, HB stars likely represent a population of stars currently undergoing high eccentricity migration via tidal orbital circularization, and they will allow for new tests of high eccentricity migration theories.

RADIAL VELOCITY MONITORING OF KEPLER HEARTBEAT STARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shporer, Avi; Fuller, Jim; Isaacson, Howard; Hambleton, Kelly; Prša, Andrej; Thompson, Susan E.; Kurtz, Donald W.; Howard, Andrew W.; O’Leary, Ryan M.

2016-01-01

Heartbeat stars (HB stars) are a class of eccentric binary stars with close periastron passages. The characteristic photometric HB signal evident in their light curves is produced by a combination of tidal distortion, heating, and Doppler boosting near orbital periastron. Many HB stars continue to oscillate after periastron and along the entire orbit, indicative of the tidal excitation of oscillation modes within one or both stars. These systems are among the most eccentric binaries known, and they constitute astrophysical laboratories for the study of tidal effects. We have undertaken a radial velocity (RV) monitoring campaign of Kepler HB stars in order to measure their orbits. We present our first results here, including a sample of 22 Kepler HB systems, where for 19 of them we obtained the Keplerian orbit and for 3 other systems we did not detect a statistically significant RV variability. Results presented here are based on 218 spectra obtained with the Keck/HIRES spectrograph during the 2015 Kepler observing season, and they have allowed us to obtain the largest sample of HB stars with orbits measured using a single instrument, which roughly doubles the number of HB stars with an RV measured orbit. The 19 systems measured here have orbital periods from 7 to 90 days and eccentricities from 0.2 to 0.9. We show that HB stars draw the upper envelope of the eccentricity–period distribution. Therefore, HB stars likely represent a population of stars currently undergoing high eccentricity migration via tidal orbital circularization, and they will allow for new tests of high eccentricity migration theories.

Elementary derivation of Kepler's laws

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogt, E.

1995-02-01

A simple derivation of all three so-called Kepler Laws is presented in which the orbits, bound and unbound, follow directly and immediately from conservation of energy and angular momentum. The intent is to make this crowning achievement of Newtonian Mechanics easily accessible to students in introductory physics courses. The method is also extended to simplify the derivation of the Rutherford Scattering Law. (author). 4 refs., 3 figs

High-resolution multi-band imaging for validation and characterization of small Kepler planets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Everett, Mark E.; Silva, David R.; Barclay, Thomas; Howell, Steve B.; Ciardi, David R.; Horch, Elliott P.; Crepp, Justin R.

2015-01-01

High-resolution ground-based optical speckle and near-infrared adaptive optics images are taken to search for stars in close angular proximity to host stars of candidate planets identified by the NASA Kepler Mission. Neighboring stars are a potential source of false positive signals. These stars also blend into Kepler light curves, affecting estimated planet properties, and are important for an understanding of planets in multiple star systems. Deep images with high angular resolution help to validate candidate planets by excluding potential background eclipsing binaries as the source of the transit signals. A study of 18 Kepler Object of Interest stars hosting a total of 28 candidate and validated planets is presented. Validation levels are determined for 18 planets against the likelihood of a false positive from a background eclipsing binary. Most of these are validated at the 99% level or higher, including five newly validated planets in two systems: Kepler-430 and Kepler-431. The stellar properties of the candidate host stars are determined by supplementing existing literature values with new spectroscopic characterizations. Close neighbors of seven of these stars are examined using multi-wavelength photometry to determine their nature and influence on the candidate planet properties. Most of the close neighbors appear to be gravitationally bound secondaries, while a few are best explained as closely co-aligned field stars. Revised planet properties are derived for each candidate and validated planet, including cases where the close neighbors are the potential host stars.

Multiple star systems observed with CoRoT and Kepler

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Southworth John

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The CoRoT and Kepler satellites were the first space platforms designed to perform high-precision photometry for a large number of stars. Multiple systems display a wide variety of photometric variability, making them natural benefactors of these missions. I review the work arising from CoRoT and Kepler observations of multiple systems, with particular emphasis on eclipsing binaries containing giant stars, pulsators, triple eclipses and/or low-mass stars. Many more results remain untapped in the data archives of these missions, and the future holds the promise of K2, TESS and PLATO.

Automated Classification of Variable Stars in the Asteroseismology Program of the Kepler Space Mission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blomme, J.; Debosscher, J.; De Ridder, J.

2010-01-01

missions, are capable of identifying the most common types of stellar variability in a reliable way. Many new variables have been discovered, among which a large fraction are eclipsing/ellipsoidal binaries unknown prior to launch. A comparison is made between our classification from the Kepler data...... and the pre-launch class based on data from the ground, showing that the latter needs significant improvement. The noise properties of the Kepler data are compared to those of the exoplanet program of the CoRoT satellite.We find that Kepler improves on CoRoT by a factor of 2–2.3 in point-to-point scatter....

An Accurate Mass Determination for Kepler-1655b, a Moderately Irradiated World with a Significant Volatile Envelope

Science.gov (United States)

Haywood, Raphaëlle D.; Vanderburg, Andrew; Mortier, Annelies; Giles, Helen A. C.; López-Morales, Mercedes; Lopez, Eric D.; Malavolta, Luca; Charbonneau, David; Collier Cameron, Andrew; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.; Dressing, Courtney D.; Nava, Chantanelle; Latham, David W.; Dumusque, Xavier; Lovis, Christophe; Molinari, Emilio; Pepe, Francesco; Sozzetti, Alessandro; Udry, Stéphane; Bouchy, François; Johnson, John A.; Mayor, Michel; Micela, Giusi; Phillips, David; Piotto, Giampaolo; Rice, Ken; Sasselov, Dimitar; Ségransan, Damien; Watson, Chris; Affer, Laura; Bonomo, Aldo S.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Ciardi, David R.; Fiorenzano, Aldo F.; Harutyunyan, Avet

2018-05-01

We present the confirmation of a small, moderately irradiated (F = 155 ± 7 F ⊕) Neptune with a substantial gas envelope in a P = 11.8728787 ± 0.0000085 day orbit about a quiet, Sun-like G0V star Kepler-1655. Based on our analysis of the Kepler light curve, we determined Kepler-1655b’s radius to be 2.213 ± 0.082 R ⊕. We acquired 95 high-resolution spectra with Telescopio Nazionale Galileo/HARPS-N, enabling us to characterize the host star and determine an accurate mass for Kepler-1655b of 5.0{+/- }2.83.1 {M}\\oplus via Gaussian-process regression. Our mass determination excludes an Earth-like composition with 98% confidence. Kepler-1655b falls on the upper edge of the evaporation valley, in the relatively sparsely occupied transition region between rocky and gas-rich planets. It is therefore part of a population of planets that we should actively seek to characterize further.

Eta-Sub-Earth Projection from Kepler Data

Science.gov (United States)

Traub, Wesley A.

2012-01-01

Outline of talk: (1) The Kepler database (2) Biases (3) The radius distribution (4) The period distribution (5) Projecting from the sam ple to the population (6) Extrapolating the period distribution (7) The Habitable Zone (8) Calculating the number of terrestrial, HZ plan ets (10) Conclusions

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Pixel-Level Transit Injection Tests of Pipeline Detection Efficiency for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, Jessie L.

2017-01-01

This document describes the results of the fourth pixel-level transit injection experiment, which was designed to measure the detection efficiency of both the Kepler pipeline (Jenkins 2002, 2010; Jenkins et al. 2017) and the Robovetter (Coughlin 2017). Previous transit injection experiments are described in Christiansen et al. (2013, 2015a,b, 2016).In order to calculate planet occurrence rates using a given Kepler planet catalogue, produced with a given version of the Kepler pipeline, we need to know the detection efficiency of that pipeline. This can be empirically determined by injecting a suite of simulated transit signals into the Kepler data, processing the data through the pipeline, and examining the distribution of successfully recovered transits. This document describes the results for the pixel-level transit injection experiment performed to accompany the final Q1-Q17 Data Release 25 (DR25) catalogue (Thompson et al. 2017)of the Kepler Objects of Interest. The catalogue was generated using the SOC pipeline version 9.3 and the DR25 Robovetter acting on the uniformly processed Q1-Q17 DR25 light curves (Thompson et al. 2016a) and assuming the Q1-Q17 DR25 Kepler stellar properties (Mathur et al. 2017).

COMPARISON OF KEPLER PHOTOMETRIC VARIABILITY WITH THE SUN ON DIFFERENT TIMESCALES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basri, Gibor; Walkowicz, Lucianne M.; Reiners, Ansgar

2013-01-01

We utilize Kepler data to study the precision differential photometric variability of solar-type and cooler stars at different timescales, ranging from half an hour to three months. We define a diagnostic that characterizes the median differential intensity change between data bins of a given timescale. We apply the same diagnostics to Solar and Heliospheric Observatory data that has been rendered comparable to Kepler. The Sun exhibits similar photometric variability on all timescales as comparable solar-type stars in the Kepler field. The previously defined photometric ''range'' serves as our activity proxy (driven by starspot coverage). We revisit the fraction of comparable stars in the Kepler field that are more active than the Sun. The exact active fraction depends on what is meant by ''more active than the Sun'' and on the magnitude limit of the sample of stars considered. This active fraction is between a quarter and a third (depending on the timescale). We argue that a reliable result requires timescales of half a day or longer and stars brighter than M Kep of 14, otherwise non-stellar noise distorts it. We also analyze main sequence stars grouped by temperature from 6500 to 3500 K. As one moves to cooler stars, the active fraction of stars becomes steadily larger (greater than 90% for early M dwarfs). The Sun is a good photometric model at all timescales for those cooler stars that have long-term variability within the span of solar variability.

Kepler-423b: a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting a very old solar-like star

Science.gov (United States)

Gandolfi, D.; Parviainen, H.; Deeg, H. J.; Lanza, A. F.; Fridlund, M.; Prada Moroni, P. G.; Alonso, R.; Augusteijn, T.; Cabrera, J.; Evans, T.; Geier, S.; Hatzes, A. P.; Holczer, T.; Hoyer, S.; Kangas, T.; Mazeh, T.; Pagano, I.; Tal-Or, L.; Tingley, B.

2015-04-01

We report the spectroscopic confirmation of the Kepler object of interest KOI-183.01 (Kepler-423b), a half-Jupiter mass planet transiting an old solar-like star every 2.7 days. Our analysis is the first to combine the full Kepler photometry (quarters 1-17) with high-precision radial velocity measurements taken with the FIES spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope. We simultaneously modelled the photometric and spectroscopic data-sets using Bayesian approach coupled with Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. We found that the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curve of Kepler-423 exhibits quarter-to-quarter systematic variations of the transit depth, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of ~4.3% and seasonal trends reoccurring every four quarters. We attributed these systematics to an incorrect assessment of the quarterly variation of the crowding metric. The host star Kepler-423 is a G4 dwarf with M⋆ = 0.85 ± 0.04 M⊙, R⋆ = 0.95 ± 0.04 R⊙, Teff= 5560 ± 80 K, [M/H] = - 0.10 ± 0.05 dex, and with an age of 11 ± 2 Gyr. The planet Kepler-423b has a mass of Mp= 0.595 ± 0.081MJup and a radius of Rp= 1.192 ± 0.052RJup, yielding a planetary bulk density of ρp = 0.459 ± 0.083 g cm-3. The radius of Kepler-423b is consistent with both theoretical models for irradiated coreless giant planets and expectations based on empirical laws. The inclination of the stellar spin axis suggests that the system is aligned along the line of sight. We detected a tentative secondary eclipse of the planet at a 2σ confidence level (ΔFec = 14.2 ± 6.6 ppm) and found that the orbit might have asmall non-zero eccentricity of 0.019+0.028-0.014. With a Bond albedo of AB = 0.037 ± 0.019, Kepler-423b is one of the gas-giant planets with the lowest albedo known so far. Based on observations obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of

DISCOVERY AND ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION OF GIANT PLANET KEPLER-12b: AN INFLATED RADIUS OUTLIER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fortney, Jonathan J.; Nutzman, Philip; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Désert, Jean-Michel; Buchhave, Lars A.; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, François; Rowe, Jason; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard; Howard, Andrew; Knutson, Heather A.; Ciardi, David; Gautier, Thomas N.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steve B.; Everett, Mark

2011-01-01

We report the discovery of planet Kepler-12b (KOI-20), which at 1.695 ± 0.030 R J is among the handful of planets with super-inflated radii above 1.65 R J . Orbiting its slightly evolved G0 host with a 4.438 day period, this 0.431 ± 0.041 M J planet is the least irradiated within this largest-planet-radius group, which has important implications for planetary physics. The planet's inflated radius and low mass lead to a very low density of 0.111 ± 0.010 g cm –3 . We detect the occultation of the planet at a significance of 3.7σ in the Kepler bandpass. This yields a geometric albedo of 0.14 ± 0.04; the planetary flux is due to a combination of scattered light and emitted thermal flux. We use multiple observations with Warm Spitzer to detect the occultation at 7σ and 4σ in the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bandpasses, respectively. The occultation photometry timing is consistent with a circular orbit at e < 0.01 (1σ) and e < 0.09 (3σ). The occultation detections across the three bands favor an atmospheric model with no dayside temperature inversion. The Kepler occultation detection provides significant leverage, but conclusions regarding temperature structure are preliminary, given our ignorance of opacity sources at optical wavelengths in hot Jupiter atmospheres. If Kepler-12b and HD 209458b, which intercept similar incident stellar fluxes, have the same heavy-element masses, the interior energy source needed to explain the large radius of Kepler-12b is three times larger than that of HD 209458b. This may suggest that more than one radius-inflation mechanism is at work for Kepler-12b or that it is less heavy-element rich than other transiting planets.

The Kepler-10 planetary system revisited by HARPS-N: A hot rocky world and a solid Neptune-mass planet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dumusque, Xavier; Buchhave, Lars A.; Latham, David W.; Charbonneau, David; Dressing, Courtney D.; Gettel, Sara; Lopez-Morales, Mercedes [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Bonomo, Aldo S. [INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20, I-10025 Pino Torinese (Italy); Haywood, Raphaëlle D.; Cameron, Andrew Collier; Horne, Keith [SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews Fife KY16 9SS (United Kingdom); Malavolta, Luca [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia " Galileo Galilei," Universita' di Padova, Vicolo dell' Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova (Italy); Ségransan, Damien; Pepe, Francesco; Udry, Stéphane [Observatoire Astronomique de l' Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Versoix (Switzerland); Molinari, Emilio; Cosentino, Rosario; Fiorenzano, Aldo F. M.; Harutyunyan, Avet [INAF - Fundacin Galileo Galilei, Rambla Jos Ana Fernandez Prez 7, E-38712 Brea Baja (Spain); Figueira, Pedro, E-mail: xdumusque@cfa.harvard.edu [Centro de Astrofìsica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); and others

2014-07-10

Kepler-10b was the first rocky planet detected by the Kepler satellite and confirmed with radial velocity follow-up observations from Keck-HIRES. The mass of the planet was measured with a precision of around 30%, which was insufficient to constrain models of its internal structure and composition in detail. In addition to Kepler-10b, a second planet transiting the same star with a period of 45 days was statistically validated, but the radial velocities were only good enough to set an upper limit of 20 M{sub ⊕} for the mass of Kepler-10c. To improve the precision on the mass for planet b, the HARPS-N Collaboration decided to observe Kepler-10 intensively with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo on La Palma. In total, 148 high-quality radial-velocity measurements were obtained over two observing seasons. These new data allow us to improve the precision of the mass determination for Kepler-10b to 15%. With a mass of 3.33 ± 0.49 M{sub ⊕} and an updated radius of 1.47{sub −0.02}{sup +0.03} R{sub ⊕}, Kepler-10b has a density of 5.8 ± 0.8 g cm{sup –3}, very close to the value predicted by models with the same internal structure and composition as the Earth. We were also able to determine a mass for the 45-day period planet Kepler-10c, with an even better precision of 11%. With a mass of 17.2 ± 1.9 M{sub ⊕} and radius of 2.35{sub −0.04}{sup +0.09} R{sub ⊕}, Kepler-10c has a density of 7.1 ± 1.0 g cm{sup –3}. Kepler-10c appears to be the first strong evidence of a class of more massive solid planets with longer orbital periods.

LAMOST OBSERVATIONS IN THE KEPLER FIELD: SPECTRAL CLASSIFICATION WITH THE MKCLASS CODE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gray, R. O. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 (United States); Corbally, C. J. [Vatican Observatory Research Group, Steward Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85721-0065 (United States); Cat, P. De [Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussel (Belgium); Fu, J. N.; Ren, A. B. [Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, 19 Avenue Xinjiekouwai, Beijing 100875 (China); Shi, J. R.; Luo, A. L.; Zhang, H. T.; Wu, Y.; Cao, Z.; Li, G. [Key Laboratory for Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China); Zhang, Y.; Hou, Y.; Wang, Y. [Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210042 (China)

2016-01-15

The LAMOST-Kepler project was designed to obtain high-quality, low-resolution spectra of many of the stars in the Kepler field with the Large Sky Area Multi Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectroscopic telescope. To date 101,086 spectra of 80,447 objects over the entire Kepler field have been acquired. Physical parameters, radial velocities, and rotational velocities of these stars will be reported in other papers. In this paper we present MK spectral classifications for these spectra determined with the automatic classification code MKCLASS. We discuss the quality and reliability of the spectral types and present histograms showing the frequency of the spectral types in the main table organized according to luminosity class. Finally, as examples of the use of this spectral database, we compute the proportion of A-type stars that are Am stars, and identify 32 new barium dwarf candidates.

"Cosmomorphistic geometry" in the unconscious geometry of Johannes Kepler

Science.gov (United States)

Adam, Adolf

Some mathematical aspects of the Music theory by Johannes Kepler are discussed, paying a special attention to the book "De harmonice mundi". Other scientists interested in Music theory are mentioned throughout the paper: The Pythagorean school, Klaudios Ptolemaios, Leonard Euler, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Christian von Goldbach, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholz, Karl Friedrich Gauss. The relation with the ancient chinese schools of cosmography has been discussed: From the the Pythagorean to the ancient Chinese schools of cosmography we find arithmo-geometrical applications of numbers which are emblematic, hold meaning or represent the essence of things, the author writes. It was Johannes Kepler who taught us this "transconstructive method" of forming classical and ancient begginings of structuralistic thinking into a system from which deductions can readily be made.

First Kepler Results on RR Lyrae Stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolenberg, K.; Szabó, R.; Kurtz, D. W.

2010-01-01

We present the first results of our analyses of selected RR Lyrae stars for which data have been obtained by the Kepler Mission. As expected, we find a significant fraction of the RRab stars to show the Blazhko effect, a still unexplained phenomenon that manifests itself as periodic amplitude and...

Canonical transformations of Kepler trajectories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mostowski, Jan

2010-01-01

In this paper, canonical transformations generated by constants of motion in the case of the Kepler problem are discussed. It is shown that canonical transformations generated by angular momentum are rotations of the trajectory. Particular attention is paid to canonical transformations generated by the Runge-Lenz vector. It is shown that these transformations change the eccentricity of the orbit. A method of obtaining elliptic trajectories from the circular ones with the help of canonical trajectories is discussed.

RADIAL VELOCITY OBSERVATIONS AND LIGHT CURVE NOISE MODELING CONFIRM THAT KEPLER-91b IS A GIANT PLANET ORBITING A GIANT STAR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barclay, Thomas; Huber, Daniel; Rowe, Jason F.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Endl, Michael; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel

2015-01-01

Kepler-91b is a rare example of a transiting hot Jupiter around a red giant star, providing the possibility to study the formation and composition of hot Jupiters under different conditions compared to main-sequence stars. However, the planetary nature of Kepler-91b, which was confirmed using phase-curve variations by Lillo-Box et al., was recently called into question based on a re-analysis of Kepler data. We have obtained ground-based radial velocity observations from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and unambiguously confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-91b by simultaneously modeling the Kepler and radial velocity data. The star exhibits temporally correlated noise due to stellar granulation which we model as a Gaussian Process. We hypothesize that it is this noise component that led previous studies to suspect Kepler-91b to be a false positive. Our work confirms the conclusions presented by Lillo-Box et al. that Kepler-91b is a 0.73 ± 0.13 M Jup planet orbiting a red giant star

Masses, Radii, and Orbits of Small Kepler Planets: The Transition from Gaseous to Rocky Planets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marcy, G.W.; et al., [Unknown; Hekker, S.

2014-01-01

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements,

CONFIRMATION OF HOT JUPITER KEPLER-41b VIA PHASE CURVE ANALYSIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quintana, Elisa V.; Rowe, Jason F.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Morris, Robert L.; Smith, Jeffrey C.; Thompson, Susan E.; Barclay, Thomas; Howell, Steve B.; Borucki, William J.; Sanderfer, Dwight T.; Still, Martin; Ciardi, David R.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Klaus, Todd C.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Shporer, Avi

2013-01-01

We present high precision photometry of Kepler-41, a giant planet in a 1.86 day orbit around a G6V star that was recently confirmed through radial velocity measurements. We have developed a new method to confirm giant planets solely from the photometric light curve, and we apply this method herein to Kepler-41 to establish the validity of this technique. We generate a full phase photometric model by including the primary and secondary transits, ellipsoidal variations, Doppler beaming, and reflected/emitted light from the planet. Third light contamination scenarios that can mimic a planetary transit signal are simulated by injecting a full range of dilution values into the model, and we re-fit each diluted light curve model to the light curve. The resulting constraints on the maximum occultation depth and stellar density combined with stellar evolution models rules out stellar blends and provides a measurement of the planet's mass, size, and temperature. We expect about two dozen Kepler giant planets can be confirmed via this method.

Remarks on the geometric quantization of the Kepler problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaeta, G.; Spera, M.

1988-01-01

The geometric quantization of the (three-dimensional) Kepler problem is readily obtained from the one of the harmonic oscillator using a Segre map. The physical meaning of the latter is discussed. (orig.)

Modelling secondary eclipses of Kepler exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hambálek Lubomír

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We have selected several Kepler objects with potentially the deepest secondary eclipses. By combination of many single phased light-curves (LCs we have produced a smooth LC with a larger SNR and made the secondary eclipses more distinct. This allowed us to measure the depth of primary and secondary minimum with greater accuracy and then to determine stellar and planetary radii by simplex modelling.

LOW FALSE POSITIVE RATE OF KEPLER CANDIDATES ESTIMATED FROM A COMBINATION OF SPITZER AND FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Désert, Jean-Michel; Brown, Timothy M.; Charbonneau, David; Torres, Guillermo; Fressin, François; Ballard, Sarah; Latham, David W.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Borucki, William J.; Knutson, Heather A.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Deming, Drake; Ford, Eric B.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Seager, Sara

2015-01-01

NASA’s Kepler mission has provided several thousand transiting planet candidates during the 4 yr of its nominal mission, yet only a small subset of these candidates have been confirmed as true planets. Therefore, the most fundamental question about these candidates is the fraction of bona fide planets. Estimating the rate of false positives of the overall Kepler sample is necessary to derive the planet occurrence rate. We present the results from two large observational campaigns that were conducted with the Spitzer Space Telescope during the the Kepler mission. These observations are dedicated to estimating the false positive rate (FPR) among the Kepler candidates. We select a sub-sample of 51 candidates, spanning wide ranges in stellar, orbital, and planetary parameter space, and we observe their transits with Spitzer at 4.5 μm. We use these observations to measures the candidate’s transit depths and infrared magnitudes. An authentic planet produces an achromatic transit depth (neglecting the modest effect of limb darkening). Conversely a bandpass-dependent depth alerts us to the potential presence of a blending star that could be the source of the observed eclipse: a false positive scenario. For most of the candidates (85%), the transit depths measured with Kepler are consistent with the transit depths measured with Spitzer as expected for planetary objects, while we find that the most discrepant measurements are due to the presence of unresolved stars that dilute the photometry. The Spitzer constraints on their own yield FPRs between 5% and depending on the Kepler Objects of Interest. By considering the population of the Kepler field stars, and by combining follow-up observations (imaging) when available, we find that the overall FPR of our sample is low. The measured upper limit on the FPR of our sample is 8.8% at a confidence level of 3σ. This observational result, which uses the achromatic property of planetary transit signals that is not investigated

LOW FALSE POSITIVE RATE OF KEPLER CANDIDATES ESTIMATED FROM A COMBINATION OF SPITZER AND FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Désert, Jean-Michel; Brown, Timothy M. [CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, 389-UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Charbonneau, David; Torres, Guillermo; Fressin, François; Ballard, Sarah; Latham, David W. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Bryson, Stephen T.; Borucki, William J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Knutson, Heather A. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Batalha, Natalie M. [San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192 (United States); Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 (United States); Ford, Eric B. [University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Gilliland, Ronald L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Seager, Sara, E-mail: desert@colorado.edu [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02159 (United States)

2015-05-01

NASA’s Kepler mission has provided several thousand transiting planet candidates during the 4 yr of its nominal mission, yet only a small subset of these candidates have been confirmed as true planets. Therefore, the most fundamental question about these candidates is the fraction of bona fide planets. Estimating the rate of false positives of the overall Kepler sample is necessary to derive the planet occurrence rate. We present the results from two large observational campaigns that were conducted with the Spitzer Space Telescope during the the Kepler mission. These observations are dedicated to estimating the false positive rate (FPR) among the Kepler candidates. We select a sub-sample of 51 candidates, spanning wide ranges in stellar, orbital, and planetary parameter space, and we observe their transits with Spitzer at 4.5 μm. We use these observations to measures the candidate’s transit depths and infrared magnitudes. An authentic planet produces an achromatic transit depth (neglecting the modest effect of limb darkening). Conversely a bandpass-dependent depth alerts us to the potential presence of a blending star that could be the source of the observed eclipse: a false positive scenario. For most of the candidates (85%), the transit depths measured with Kepler are consistent with the transit depths measured with Spitzer as expected for planetary objects, while we find that the most discrepant measurements are due to the presence of unresolved stars that dilute the photometry. The Spitzer constraints on their own yield FPRs between 5% and depending on the Kepler Objects of Interest. By considering the population of the Kepler field stars, and by combining follow-up observations (imaging) when available, we find that the overall FPR of our sample is low. The measured upper limit on the FPR of our sample is 8.8% at a confidence level of 3σ. This observational result, which uses the achromatic property of planetary transit signals that is not investigated

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Kepler-80 transit timing observations (MacDonald+, 2016)

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald, M. G.; Ragozzine, D.; Fabrycky, D. C.; Ford, E. B.; Holman, M. J.; Isaacson, H. T.; Lissauer, J. J.; Lopez, E. D.; Mazeh, T.; Rogers, L.; Rowe, J. F.; Steffen, J. H.; Torres, G.

2017-05-01

Kepler-80 was observed photometrically by the Kepler Space Telescope. We had access to several sets of Transit Timing (TT) measurements, including the publicly available data from Rowe & Thompson (arXiv:1504.00707) and Mazeh et al. 2013 (Cat. J/ApJS/208/16). We also had the updated long-cadence TT estimates from the Mazeh group (Holczer et al. 2016, Cat. J/ApJS/225/9) and short-cadence TT data from both co-authors JR and DF. These were all measured using similar methods (see Mazeh et al. 2013, Cat. J/ApJS/208/16) and had no major differences. Spectra were taken of Kepler-80 by Keck and McDonald Observatories, and these spectra and preliminary interpretations are available on the Kepler Community Follow-up Observing Program (CFOP) website (https://cfop.ipac.caltech.edu). We acquired an 1800s high-resolution spectrum with the Keck I telescope and the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on 2011 July 20. The standard California Planet Search setup and data reduction of HIRES was used, resulting in a S/N of 35 at 5500Å. The C2 decker, with dimensions of 0.87''*14'', was used to allow a resolution of ~60000 and sky subtraction. (5 data files).

Stellar dynamism. Activity and rotation of solar stars observed from the Kepler satellite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ceillier, Tugdual

2015-01-01

This thesis concerns the study of seismic solar-like stars' rotation and magnetic activity. We use data from the Kepler satellite to study the rotational history of these stars throughout their evolution. This allows to have a more complete picture of stellar rotation and magnetism. In the first part, we present the context of this PhD: astro-seismology, the seismic study of stars. We continue by describing the tool we developed to measure surface rotation of stars using photometric data from Kepler. We compare it to other methodologies used by the community and show that its efficiency is very high. In the second part, we apply this tool to around 500 main-sequence and sub-giant solar-like stars. We measure surface rotation periods and activity levels for 300 of them. We show that the measured periods and the ages from astro-seismology do not agree well with the standard period-age relationships and propose to modify these relationships for stars older than the Sun. We also use the surface rotation as a constraint to estimate the internal rotation of a small number of seismic targets. We demonstrate that these stars have, like the Sun, a very low differential rotation ratio. In the third part, we apply our surface rotation-measuring tool to the most extensive sample of red giants observed by Kepler, comprising more than 17,000 stars. We identify more than 360 fast rotating red giants and compare our detection rates with the ones predicted by theory to better understand the reasons for this rapid rotation. We also use stellar modelling to reproduce the internal rotation profile of a particular red giant. This allows us to emphasize how important implementing new angular momentum transport mechanisms in stellar evolution codes is. This work offers new results that are useful to a very wide community of stellar physicists. It also puts strong constraints on the evolution of solar-like stars' rotation and magnetic activity. (author) [fr

An Alternative Way to Achieve Kepler's Laws of Equal Areas and Ellipses for the Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Hsiang, W. Y.; Chang, H. C.; Yao, H.; Chen, P. J.

2011-01-01

Kepler's laws of planetary motion are acknowledged as highly significant to the construction of universal gravitation. This paper demonstrates different ways to derive the law of equal areas for the Earth by general geometrical and trigonometric methods, which are much simpler than the original derivation depicted by Kepler. The established law of…

The Resilience of Kepler Systems to Stellar Obliquity

Science.gov (United States)

Spalding, Christopher; Marx, Noah W.; Batygin, Konstantin

2018-04-01

The Kepler mission and its successor K2 have brought forth a cascade of transiting planets. Many of these planetary systems exhibit multiple members, but a large fraction possess only a single transiting example. This overabundance of singles has led to the suggestion that up to half of Kepler systems might possess significant mutual inclinations between orbits, reducing the transiting number (the so-called “Kepler Dichotomy”). In a recent paper, Spalding & Batygin demonstrated that the quadrupole moment arising from a young, oblate star is capable of misaligning the constituent orbits of a close-in planetary system enough to reduce their transit number, provided that the stellar spin axis is sufficiently misaligned with respect to the planetary orbital plane. Moreover, tightly packed planetary systems were shown to be susceptible to becoming destabilized during this process. Here, we investigate the ubiquity of the stellar obliquity-driven instability within systems with a range of multiplicities. We find that most planetary systems analyzed, including those possessing only two planets, underwent instability for stellar spin periods below ∼3 days and stellar tilts of order 30°. Moreover, we are able to place upper limits on the stellar obliquity in systems such as K2-38 (obliquity ≲20°), where other methods of measuring the spin–orbit misalignment are not currently available. Given the known parameters of T-Tauri stars, we predict that up to one-half of super-Earth-mass systems may encounter the instability, in general agreement with the fraction typically proposed to explain the observed abundance of single-transiting systems.

A new look at the Feynman ‘hodograph’ approach to the Kepler first law

Science.gov (United States)

Cariñena, José F.; Rañada, Manuel F.; Santander, Mariano

2016-03-01

Hodographs for the Kepler problem are circles. This fact, known for almost two centuries, still provides the simplest path to derive the Kepler first law. Through Feynman’s ‘lost lecture’, this derivation has now reached a wider audience. Here we look again at Feynman’s approach to this problem, as well as the recently suggested modification by van Haandel and Heckman (vHH), with two aims in mind, both of which extend the scope of the approach. First we review the geometric constructions of the Feynman and vHH approaches (that prove the existence of elliptic orbits without making use of integral calculus or differential equations) and then extend the geometric approach to also cover the hyperbolic orbits (corresponding to E\\gt 0). In the second part we analyse the properties of the director circles of the conics, which are used to simplify the approach, and we relate with the properties of the hodographs and Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector the constant of motion specific to the Kepler problem. Finally, we briefly discuss the generalisation of the geometric method to the Kepler problem in configuration spaces of constant curvature, i.e. in the sphere and the hyperbolic plane.

The Conservation Principles and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Motz, Lloyd

1975-01-01

Derives Kepler's three laws of planetary motion algebraically from conservation principles without introducing Newton's law of force explicitly. This procedure can be presented to students who have had no more than high school algebra. (Author)

Selenate as a novel ligand for keplerate chemistry. New {W72Mo60} keplerates with selenates inside the cavity.

Science.gov (United States)

Korenev, Vladimir S; Abramov, Pavel A; Vicent, Cristian; Zhdanov, Artem A; Tsygankova, Alphiya R; Sokolov, Maxim N; Fedin, Vladimir P

2015-05-21

The synthesis and characterization of three novel keplerate-type compounds containing the {W72Mo60} mixed-metal core are reported. Complexes (NH4)72[{W6O21(H2O)6}12{Mo2O4(SeO4)}30]·150H2O·6(NH4)2SeO4 (1a) and (NH4)25(NH2Me2)47[{W6O21(H2O)6}12{Mo2O4(SeO4)}30]·130H2O·3(NH4)2SeO4 (1b) were prepared by ligand substitution from the acetate anionic complex [{W6O21(H2O)5(CH3COO)0.5}12{Mo2O4(CH3COO)}30](48-) and selenate. The selenate anions in keplerate ions [{W6O21(H2O)6}12{Mo2O4(SeO4)}30](72-) are very labile and easily aquate with the formation of [{W6O21(H2O)6}12{Mo2O4}30(SeO4)20(H2O)20](52-), which was isolated as (NH4)20(NH2Me2)32[{W6O21(H2O)6}12{Mo2O4}30(SeO4)20(H2O)20]·150H2O (2) and structurally characterized. In the crystal structure of 2 selenate has several coordination modes, preferentially bonding to the {Mo2O4}(2+) units, and, additionally, to the {(W)W5} pentagonal blocks. The compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, Raman, IR and (77)Se NMR spectroscopy, and by ESI mass spectrometry. Capillary electrophoresis was used for characterization of keplerates in solution for the first time.

A SYSTEMATIC SEARCH FOR TROJAN PLANETS IN THE KEPLER DATA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Janson, Markus, E-mail: janson@astro.princeton.edu [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

2013-09-10

Trojans are circumstellar bodies that reside in characteristic 1:1 orbital resonances with planets. While all the trojans in our solar system are small ({approx}<100 km), stable planet-size trojans may exist in extrasolar planetary systems, and the Kepler telescope constitutes a formidable tool to search for them. Here we report on a systematic search for extrasolar trojan companions to 2244 known Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs), with epicyclic orbital characteristics similar to those of the Jovian trojan families. No convincing trojan candidates are found, despite a typical sensitivity down to Earth-size objects. This fact, however, cannot be used to stringently exclude the existence of trojans in this size range, since stable trojans need not necessarily share the same orbital plane as the planet, and thus may not transit. Following this reasoning, we note that if Earth-sized trojans exist at all, they are almost certainly both present and in principle detectable in the full set of Kepler data, although a very substantial computational effort would be required to detect them. Additionally, we also note that some of the existing KOIs could in principle be trojans themselves, with a primary planet orbiting outside of the transiting plane. A few examples are given for which this is a readily testable scenario.

Kepler-7b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Latham...[], David W.; Borucki, W.J.; Koch, D.G.

2010-01-01

for an extrasolar planet. The orbital period is fairly long, P = 4.886 days, and the host star is not much hotter than the Sun, T eff = 6000 K. However, it is more massive and considerably larger than the Sun, M = 1.35 M and R = 1.84 R , and must be near the end of its life on the main sequence......We report on the discovery and confirmation of Kepler-7b, a transiting planet with unusually low density. The mass is less than half that of Jupiter, M P = 0.43 M J, but the radius is 50% larger, R P = 1.48 R J. The resulting density, ¿P = 0.17 g cm–3, is the second lowest reported so far...

A POPULATION OF VERY HOT SUPER-EARTHS IN MULTIPLE-PLANET SYSTEMS SHOULD BE UNCOVERED BY KEPLER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlaufman, Kevin C.; Lin, D. N. C.; Ida, S.

2010-01-01

We simulate a Kepler-like observation of a theoretical exoplanet population and show that the observed orbital period distribution of the Kepler giant planet candidates is best matched by an average stellar specific dissipation function Q' * in the interval 10 6 ∼ * ∼ 7 . In that situation, the few super-Earths that are driven to orbital periods of P < 1 day by dynamical interactions in multiple-planet systems will survive tidal disruption for a significant fraction of the main-sequence lifetimes of their stellar hosts. Consequently, though these very hot super-Earths are not characteristic of the overall super-Earth population, their substantial transit probability implies that they should be significant contributors to the full super-Earth population uncovered by Kepler. As a result, the CoRoT-7 system may be the first representative of a population of very hot super-Earths that we suggest should be found in multiple-planet systems preferentially orbiting the least-dissipative stellar hosts in the Kepler sample.

Kepler and Ground-Based Transits of the exo-Neptune HAT-P-11b

Science.gov (United States)

Deming, Drake; Sada, Pedro V.; Jackson, Brian; Peterson, Steven W.; Agol, Eric; Knutson, Heather A.; Jennings, Donald E.; Haase, Plynn; Bays, Kevin

2011-01-01

We analyze 26 archival Kepler transits of the exo-Neptune HAT-P-11b, supplemented by ground-based transits observed in the blue (B band) and near-IR (J band). Both the planet and host star are smaller than previously believed; our analysis yields Rp = 4.31 R xor 0.06 R xor and Rs = 0.683 R solar mass 0.009 R solar mass, both about 3 sigma smaller than the discovery values. Our ground-based transit data at wavelengths bracketing the Kepler bandpass serve to check the wavelength dependence of stellar limb darkening, and the J-band transit provides a precise and independent constraint on the transit duration. Both the limb darkening and transit duration from our ground-based data are consistent with the new Kepler values for the system parameters. Our smaller radius for the planet implies that its gaseous envelope can be less extensive than previously believed, being very similar to the H-He envelope of GJ 436b and Kepler-4b. HAT-P-11 is an active star, and signatures of star spot crossings are ubiquitous in the Kepler transit data. We develop and apply a methodology to correct the planetary radius for the presence of both crossed and uncrossed star spots. Star spot crossings are concentrated at phases 0.002 and +0.006. This is consistent with inferences from Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements that the planet transits nearly perpendicular to the stellar equator. We identify the dominant phases of star spot crossings with active latitudes on the star, and infer that the stellar rotational pole is inclined at about 12 deg 5 deg to the plane of the sky. We point out that precise transit measurements over long durations could in principle allow us to construct a stellar Butterfly diagram to probe the cyclic evolution of magnetic activity on this active K-dwarf star.

Stellar variability and its implications for photometric planet detection with Kepler

Science.gov (United States)

Batalha, N. M.; Jenkins, J.; Basri, G. S.; Borucki, W. J.; Koch, D. G.

2002-01-01

Kepler is one of three candidates for the next NASA Discovery Mission and will survey the extended solar neighborhood to detect and characterize hundreds of terrestrial (and larger) planets in or near the habitable zone. Its strength lies in its ability to detect large numbers of Earth-sized planets - planets which produced a 10-4 change in relative stellar brightness during a transit across the disk of a sun-like parent star. Such a detection requires high instrumental relative precision and is facilitated by observing stars which are photometrically quiet on hourly timescales. Probing stellar variability across the HR diagram, one finds that many of the photometrically quietest stars are the F and G dwarfs. The Hipparcos photometric database shows the lowest photometric variances among stars of this spectral class. Our own Sun is a prime example with RMS variations over a few rotational cycles of typically (3 - 4)×10-4 (computed from VIRGO/DIARAD data taken Jan-Mar 2001). And variability on the hourly time scales crucial for planet detection is significantly smaller: just (2 - 5)×10-5. This bodes well for planet detection programs such as Kepler and Eddington. With significant numbers of photometrically quiet solar-type stars, Earth-sized planets should be readily identified provided they are abundant in the solar neighborhood. In support of the Kepler science objectives, we have initiated a study of stellar variability and its implications for planet detection. Herein, we summarize existing observational and theoretrical work with the objective of determining the percentage of stars in the Kepler field of view expected to be photometrically stable at a level which allows for Earth-sized planet detection.

Characterizing the Habitable Zone Planets of Kepler Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Debra

Planet Hunters (PH) is a well-established and successful web interface that allows citizen scientists to search for transiting planets in the NASA Kepler public archive data. Over the past 3 years, our users have made more than 20 million light curve classifications. We now have more than 300,000 users around the world. However, more than half of the Kepler data has not yet been displayed to our volunteers. In June 2014 we are launching Planet Hunters v2.0. The backend of the site has been completely redesigned. The new website is more intuitive and faster; we have improved the real-time weighting algorithm that assigns transit scores for faster and more accurate extraction of the transit events from the database. With Planet Hunters v2.0, we expect that assessments will be ten times faster, so that we have the opportunity to complete the classifications for the backlog of Kepler light curve in the next three years. There are three goals for this project. First, we will data-mine the PH classifications to search for long period planets with fewer than 5 transit events. We have demonstrated that our volunteers are efficient at detecting planets with long periods and radii greater than a few REARTH. This region of parameter space is optimal for characterizing larger planets orbiting close to the habitable zone. To build upon the citizen science efforts, we will model the light curves, search for evidence of false positives, and contribute observations of stellar spectra to refine both the stellar and orbital parameters. Second, we will carry out a careful analysis of the fraction of transits that are missed (a function of planet radius and orbital period) to derive observational incompleteness factors. The incompleteness factors will be combined with geometrical detection factors to assess the planet occurrence rate for wide separations. This is a unique scientific contribution current studies of planet occurrence rate are either restricted to orbital periods shorter

KEPLER FLARES. I. ACTIVE AND INACTIVE M DWARFS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hawley, Suzanne L.; Davenport, James R. A.; Kowalski, Adam F.; Wisniewski, John P.; Deitrick, Russell; Hilton, Eric J. [Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Hebb, Leslie, E-mail: slhawley@uw.edu [Department of Physics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 300 Pulteney Street, Geneva, NY 14456 (United States)

2014-12-20

We analyzed Kepler short-cadence M dwarf observations. Spectra from the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope identify magnetically active (Hα in emission) stars. The active stars are of mid-M spectral type, have numerous flares, and have well-defined rotational modulation due to starspots. The inactive stars are of early M type, exhibit less starspot signature, and have fewer flares. A Kepler to U-band energy scaling allows comparison of the Kepler flare frequency distributions with previous ground-based data. M dwarfs span a large range of flare frequency and energy, blurring the distinction between active and inactive stars designated solely by the presence of Hα. We analyzed classical and complex (multiple peak) flares on GJ 1243, finding strong correlations between flare energy, amplitude, duration, and decay time, with only a weak dependence on rise time. Complex flares last longer and have higher energy at the same amplitude, and higher energy flares are more likely to be complex. A power law fits the energy distribution for flares with log E{sub K{sub p}}> 31 erg, but the predicted number of low-energy flares far exceeds the number observed, at energies where flares are still easily detectable, indicating that the power-law distribution may flatten at low energy. There is no correlation of flare occurrence or energy with starspot phase, the flare waiting time distribution is consistent with flares occurring randomly in time, and the energies of consecutive flares are uncorrelated. These observations support a scenario where many independent active regions on the stellar surface are contributing to the observed flare rate.

KEPLER FLARES. I. ACTIVE AND INACTIVE M DWARFS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawley, Suzanne L.; Davenport, James R. A.; Kowalski, Adam F.; Wisniewski, John P.; Deitrick, Russell; Hilton, Eric J.; Hebb, Leslie

2014-01-01

We analyzed Kepler short-cadence M dwarf observations. Spectra from the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope identify magnetically active (Hα in emission) stars. The active stars are of mid-M spectral type, have numerous flares, and have well-defined rotational modulation due to starspots. The inactive stars are of early M type, exhibit less starspot signature, and have fewer flares. A Kepler to U-band energy scaling allows comparison of the Kepler flare frequency distributions with previous ground-based data. M dwarfs span a large range of flare frequency and energy, blurring the distinction between active and inactive stars designated solely by the presence of Hα. We analyzed classical and complex (multiple peak) flares on GJ 1243, finding strong correlations between flare energy, amplitude, duration, and decay time, with only a weak dependence on rise time. Complex flares last longer and have higher energy at the same amplitude, and higher energy flares are more likely to be complex. A power law fits the energy distribution for flares with log E K p > 31 erg, but the predicted number of low-energy flares far exceeds the number observed, at energies where flares are still easily detectable, indicating that the power-law distribution may flatten at low energy. There is no correlation of flare occurrence or energy with starspot phase, the flare waiting time distribution is consistent with flares occurring randomly in time, and the energies of consecutive flares are uncorrelated. These observations support a scenario where many independent active regions on the stellar surface are contributing to the observed flare rate

Maximal superintegrability of the generalized Kepler-Coulomb system on N-dimensional curved spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballesteros, Angel; Herranz, Francisco J

2009-01-01

The superposition of the Kepler-Coulomb potential on the 3D Euclidean space with three centrifugal terms has recently been shown to be maximally superintegrable (Verrier and Evans 2008 J. Math. Phys. 49 022902) by finding an additional (hidden) integral of motion which is quartic in the momenta. In this paper, we present the generalization of this result to the N-dimensional spherical, hyperbolic and Euclidean spaces by making use of a unified symmetry approach that makes use of the curvature parameter. The resulting Hamiltonian, formed by the (curved) Kepler-Coulomb potential together with N centrifugal terms, is shown to be endowed with 2N - 1 functionally independent integrals of the motion: one of them is quartic and the remaining ones are quadratic. The transition from the proper Kepler-Coulomb potential, with its associated quadratic Laplace-Runge-Lenz N-vector, to the generalized system is fully described. The role of spherical, nonlinear (cubic) and coalgebra symmetries in all these systems is highlighted

Philippus Feselius - Biographical notes on the unknown medicus of Kepler's Tertius Interveniens. (German Title: Philippus Feselius - Biographische Notizen zum unbekannten Medicus aus Keplers Tertius Interveniens)

Science.gov (United States)

Lenke, Nils; Roudet, Nicolas

Until now, Philipp Feselius has been perceived only indirectly as Kepler's antagonist. Not much is known about his life besides his work as Baden private physician and his book against astrology which was cited intensely in Kepler's «Tertius Interveniens». This paper traces the stations of his career as a physician, about his presumable provenance and education in Strasbourg, his academic career in Tübingen, Strasbourg, Rostock and Padua, the doctorate in Basel in 1592, up to his employment, in 1599, as a court physician in Sulzburg and later in Durlach. Further hand-written and printed traces of Feselius are presented, and his social environment is investigated so that his personality becomes clearer, and relations can be established between his education and his writing against astrology.

ATMOSPHERE AND SPECTRAL MODELS OF THE KEPLER-FIELD PLANETS HAT-P-7b AND TrES-2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spiegel, David S.; Burrows, Adam

2010-01-01

We develop atmosphere models of two of the three Kepler-field planets that were known prior to the start of the Kepler mission (HAT-P-7b and TrES-2). We find that published Kepler and Spitzer data for HAT-P-7b appear to require an extremely hot upper atmosphere on the dayside, with a strong thermal inversion and little day-night redistribution. The Spitzer data for TrES-2 suggest a mild thermal inversion with moderate day-night redistribution. We examine the effect of nonequilibrium chemistry on TrES-2 model atmospheres and find that methane levels must be adjusted by extreme amounts in order to cause even mild changes in atmospheric structure and emergent spectra. Our best-fit models to the Spitzer data for TrES-2 lead us to predict a low secondary eclipse planet-star flux ratio (∼ -5 ) in the Kepler bandpass, which is consistent with what very recent observations have found. Finally, we consider how the Kepler-band optical flux from a hot exoplanet depends on the strength of a possible extra optical absorber in the upper atmosphere. We find that the optical flux is not monotonic in optical opacity, and the non-monotonicity is greater for brighter, hotter stars.

KEPLER OBSERVATIONS OF THREE PRE-LAUNCH EXOPLANET CANDIDATES: DISCOVERY OF TWO ECLIPSING BINARIES AND A NEW EXOPLANET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, Steve B.; Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Sherry, William; Von Braun, Kaspar; Ciardi, David R.; Feldmeier, John J.; Horch, Elliott; Van Belle, Gerard T.

2010-01-01

Three transiting exoplanet candidate stars were discovered in a ground-based photometric survey prior to the launch of NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler observations of them were obtained during Quarter 1 of the Kepler mission. All three stars are faint by radial velocity follow-up standards, so we have examined these candidates with regard to eliminating false positives and providing high confidence exoplanet selection. We present a first attempt to exclude false positives for this set of faint stars without high-resolution radial velocity analysis. This method of exoplanet confirmation will form a large part of the Kepler mission follow-up for Jupiter-sized exoplanet candidates orbiting faint stars. Using the Kepler light curves and pixel data, as well as medium-resolution reconnaissance spectroscopy and speckle imaging, we find that two of our candidates are binary stars. One consists of a late-F star with an early M companion, while the other is a K0 star plus a late M-dwarf/brown dwarf in a 19 day elliptical orbit. The third candidate (BOKS-1) is an r = 15 G8V star hosting a newly discovered exoplanet with a radius of 1.12 R Jupiter in a 3.9 day orbit.

EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION BY PROXY: A TRANSITING 2.15 R⊕ PLANET NEAR THE HABITABLE ZONE OF THE LATE K DWARF KEPLER-61

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballard, Sarah; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Torres, Guillermo; Irwin, Jonathan; Newton, Elisabeth; Desert, Jean-Michel; Crepp, Justin R.; Shporer, Avi; Mann, Andrew W.; Ciardi, David R.; Henze, Christopher E.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steven B.; Horch, Elliott P.; Everett, Mark E.

2013-01-01

We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R ⊕ planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 ± 0.13 R ⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 273 ± 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 ± 0.00020 days and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby ''proxy'' stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses

Acoustic glitches in solar-type stars from Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mazumdar, A.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Ballot, J

2012-01-01

We report the measurement of the acoustic locations of layers of sharp variation in sound speed in the interiors of 19 solar-type stars observed by the Kepler mission. The oscillatory signal in the frequencies arising due to the acoustic glitches at the base of the convection zone and the second...

Dynamical investigation of modulated Kepler RR Lyrae stars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Plachy E.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We performed a non-linear dynamical analysis on the Blazhko modulation for the first time. Our results suggest that the detection of chaotic nature behind the phenomenon is limited by the instrumental effects and the data processing problems of the Kepler pipeline concerning high-amplitude variable stars.

A history of astronomy from Thales to Kepler

CERN Document Server

Dreyer, J L E

1953-01-01

A masterpiece of historical insight and scientific accuracy, this is the definitive work on Greek astronomy and the Copernican Revolution. Beginning with the ancient Egyptians, it ranges from the Pythagoreans and Plato to medieval European and Islamic cosmologies, concluding with detailed surveys of the works of Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler.

Exploring exoplanet populations with NASA's Kepler Mission.

Science.gov (United States)

Batalha, Natalie M

2014-09-02

The Kepler Mission is exploring the diversity of planets and planetary systems. Its legacy will be a catalog of discoveries sufficient for computing planet occurrence rates as a function of size, orbital period, star type, and insolation flux. The mission has made significant progress toward achieving that goal. Over 3,500 transiting exoplanets have been identified from the analysis of the first 3 y of data, 100 planets of which are in the habitable zone. The catalog has a high reliability rate (85-90% averaged over the period/radius plane), which is improving as follow-up observations continue. Dynamical (e.g., velocimetry and transit timing) and statistical methods have confirmed and characterized hundreds of planets over a large range of sizes and compositions for both single- and multiple-star systems. Population studies suggest that planets abound in our galaxy and that small planets are particularly frequent. Here, I report on the progress Kepler has made measuring the prevalence of exoplanets orbiting within one astronomical unit of their host stars in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's long-term goal of finding habitable environments beyond the solar system.

Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. Results We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip) datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data) and therefore are close to traditional shell scripting or

Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stropp Thomas

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. Results We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data and therefore are close to

Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Stropp, Thomas; McPhillips, Timothy; Ludäscher, Bertram; Bieda, Mark

2012-05-17

Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip) datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data) and therefore are close to traditional shell scripting or R

Transit timing observations from Kepler. V. Transit timing variation candidates in the first sixteen months from polynomial models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ford, E.B.; Ragozzine, D.; Holman, M.J.

2012-01-01

Transit timing variations provide a powerful tool for confirming and characterizing transiting planets, as well as detecting non-transiting planets. We report the results of an updated transit timing variation (TTV) analysis for 1481 planet candidates based on transit times measured during...... that several of these planet candidates could be confirmed and perhaps characterized with more detailed TTV analyses using publicly available Kepler observations. For many others, Kepler has observed a long-term TTV trend, but an extended Kepler mission will be required to characterize the system via TTVs. We...

Structure Theory for Extended Kepler-Coulomb 3D Classical Superintegrable Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ernie G. Kalnins

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The classical Kepler-Coulomb system in 3 dimensions is well known to be 2nd order superintegrable, with a symmetry algebra that closes polynomially under Poisson brackets. This polynomial closure is typical for 2nd order superintegrable systems in 2D and for 2nd order systems in 3D with nondegenerate (4-parameter potentials. However the degenerate 3-parameter potential for the 3D extended Kepler-Coulomb system (also 2nd order superintegrable is an exception, as its quadratic symmetry algebra doesn't close polynomially. The 3D 4-parameter potential for the extended Kepler-Coulomb system is not even 2nd order superintegrable. However, Verrier and Evans (2008 showed it was 4th order superintegrable, and Tanoudis and Daskaloyannis (2011 showed that in the quantum case, if a second 4th order symmetry is added to the generators, the double commutators in the symmetry algebra close polynomially. Here, based on the Tremblay, Turbiner and Winternitz construction, we consider an infinite class of classical extended Kepler-Coulomb 3- and 4-parameter systems indexed by a pair of rational numbers (k_1,k_2 and reducing to the usual systems when k_1=k_2=1. We show these systems to be superintegrable of arbitrarily high order and work out explicitly the structure of the symmetry algebras determined by the 5 basis generators we have constructed. We demonstrate that the symmetry algebras close rationally; only for systems admitting extra discrete symmetries is polynomial closure achieved. Underlying the structure theory is the existence of raising and lowering constants of the motion, not themselves polynomials in the momenta, that can be employed to construct the polynomial symmetries and their structure relations.

VALIDATION OF 12 SMALL KEPLER TRANSITING PLANETS IN THE HABITABLE ZONE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Torres, Guillermo; Kipping, David M.; Fressin, Francois; Newton, Elisabeth R. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Caldwell, Douglas A.; Twicken, Joseph D. [SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Ballard, Sarah [University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Batalha, Natalie M.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Henze, Christopher E.; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Barclay, Thomas; Borucki, William J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Isaacson, Howard T.; Petigura, Erik A. [Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Muirhead, Philip S. [Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); Crepp, Justin R. [University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); Everett, Mark E., E-mail: gtorres@cfa.harvard.edu [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States); and others

2015-02-20

We present an investigation of 12 candidate transiting planets from Kepler with orbital periods ranging from 34 to 207 days, selected from initial indications that they are small and potentially in the habitable zone (HZ) of their parent stars. Few of these objects are known. The expected Doppler signals are too small to confirm them by demonstrating that their masses are in the planetary regime. Here we verify their planetary nature by validating them statistically using the BLENDER technique, which simulates large numbers of false positives and compares the resulting light curves with the Kepler photometry. This analysis was supplemented with new follow-up observations (high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging, and speckle interferometry), as well as an analysis of the flux centroids. For 11 of them (KOI-0571.05, 1422.04, 1422.05, 2529.02, 3255.01, 3284.01, 4005.01, 4087.01, 4622.01, 4742.01, and 4745.01) we show that the likelihood they are true planets is far greater than that of a false positive, to a confidence level of 99.73% (3σ) or higher. For KOI-4427.01 the confidence level is about 99.2% (2.6σ). With our accurate characterization of the GKM host stars, the derived planetary radii range from 1.1 to 2.7 R {sub ⊕}. All 12 objects are confirmed to be in the HZ, and nine are small enough to be rocky. Excluding three of them that have been previously validated by others, our study doubles the number of known rocky planets in the HZ. KOI-3284.01 (Kepler-438b) and KOI-4742.01 (Kepler-442b) are the planets most similar to the Earth discovered to date when considering their size and incident flux jointly.

Kepler: A Search for Terrestrial Planets - SOC 9.3 DR25 Pipeline Parameter Configuration Reports

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Jennifer R.

2017-01-01

This document describes the manner in which the pipeline and algorithm parameters for the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) science data processing pipeline were managed. This document is intended for scientists and software developers who wish to better understand the software design for the final Kepler codebase (SOC 9.3) and the effect of the software parameters on the Data Release (DR) 25 archival products.

CoRoT and Kepler results: Solar-like oscillators

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hekker, S.

2013-01-01

The space-borne observatories CoRoT (Convection Rotation and planetary Transits) and Kepler have provided photometric time series data of unprecedented precision for large numbers of stars. These data have revolutionized the fields of transiting exoplanets and asteroseismology. In this review some

The Correlation between Mixing Length and Metallicity on the Giant Branch: Implications for Ages in the Gaia Era

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tayar, Jamie; Somers, Garrett; Pinsonneault, Marc H.; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Stello, Dennis; Mints, Alexey; Zamora, O.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Prieto, Carlos Allende; Maraston, Claudia; Serenelli, Aldo; Bastien, Fabienne A.; Basu, Sarbani; Bird, J. C.; Cohen, R. E.; Cunha, Katia; Elsworth, Yvonne; García, Rafael A.

2017-01-01

In the updated APOGEE- Kepler catalog, we have asteroseismic and spectroscopic data for over 3000 first ascent red giants. Given the size and accuracy of this sample, these data offer an unprecedented test of the accuracy of stellar models on the post-main-sequence. When we compare these data to theoretical predictions, we find a metallicity dependent temperature offset with a slope of around 100 K per dex in metallicity. We find that this effect is present in all model grids tested, and that theoretical uncertainties in the models, correlated spectroscopic errors, and shifts in the asteroseismic mass scale are insufficient to explain this effect. Stellar models can be brought into agreement with the data if a metallicity-dependent convective mixing length is used, with Δ α ML,YREC ∼ 0.2 per dex in metallicity, a trend inconsistent with the predictions of three-dimensional stellar convection simulations. If this effect is not taken into account, isochrone ages for red giants from the Gaia data will be off by as much as a factor of two even at modest deviations from solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = −0.5).

The Correlation between Mixing Length and Metallicity on the Giant Branch: Implications for Ages in the Gaia Era

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tayar, Jamie; Somers, Garrett; Pinsonneault, Marc H.; Johnson, Jennifer A. [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, OH 43210 (United States); Stello, Dennis [Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Mints, Alexey [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Zamora, O.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Prieto, Carlos Allende [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Vía Lactea s/n, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Maraston, Claudia [ICG—University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, PO1 3FX, Portsmouth (United Kingdom); Serenelli, Aldo [Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Carrer de Can Magrans, Barcelona, E-08193 (Spain); Bastien, Fabienne A. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Lab, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16803 (United States); Basu, Sarbani [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Bird, J. C. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 6301 Stevenson Circle, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States); Cohen, R. E. [Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción (Chile); Cunha, Katia [Observatório Nacional-MCTI (Brazil); Elsworth, Yvonne [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); García, Rafael A. [Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DRF-CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); and others

2017-05-01

In the updated APOGEE- Kepler catalog, we have asteroseismic and spectroscopic data for over 3000 first ascent red giants. Given the size and accuracy of this sample, these data offer an unprecedented test of the accuracy of stellar models on the post-main-sequence. When we compare these data to theoretical predictions, we find a metallicity dependent temperature offset with a slope of around 100 K per dex in metallicity. We find that this effect is present in all model grids tested, and that theoretical uncertainties in the models, correlated spectroscopic errors, and shifts in the asteroseismic mass scale are insufficient to explain this effect. Stellar models can be brought into agreement with the data if a metallicity-dependent convective mixing length is used, with Δ α {sub ML,YREC} ∼ 0.2 per dex in metallicity, a trend inconsistent with the predictions of three-dimensional stellar convection simulations. If this effect is not taken into account, isochrone ages for red giants from the Gaia data will be off by as much as a factor of two even at modest deviations from solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = −0.5).

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: III. Confirmation of 4 Multiple Planet Systems by a Fourier-Domain Study of Anti-correlated Transit Timing Variations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steffen, Jason H.; /Fermilab; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; /Lick Observ.; Ford, Eric B.; /Florida U.; Carter, Joshua A.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Fressin, Francois; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Holman, Matthew J.; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Lissauer, Jack J.; /NASA, Ames; Rowe, Jason F.; /SETI Inst., Mtn. View /NASA, Ames; Ragozzine, Darin; /Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.; Welsh, William F.; /Caltech; Borucki, William J.; /NASA, Ames /UC, Santa Barbara

2012-01-01

We present a method to confirm the planetary nature of objects in systems with multiple transiting exoplanet candidates. This method involves a Fourier-domain analysis of the deviations in the transit times from a constant period that result from dynamical interactions within the system. The combination of observed anticorrelations in the transit times and mass constraints from dynamical stability allow us to claim the discovery of four planetary systems, Kepler-25, Kepler-26, Kepler-27 and Kepler-28, containing eight planets and one additional planet candidate.

Bifurcations and complete chaos for the diamagnetic Kepler problem

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Kai T.

1995-03-01

We describe the structure of bifurcations in the unbounded classical diamagnetic Kepler problem. We conjecture that this system does not have any stable orbits and that the nonwandering set is described by a complete trinary symbolic dynamics for scaled energies larger than ɛc=0.328 782. . ..

Stellar Rotation with Kepler and Gaia: Evidence for a Bimodal Star Formation History

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, James

2018-01-01

Kepler stars with rotation periods measured via starspot modulations in their light curves have been matched against the astrometric data from Gaia Data Release 1. A total of 1,299 bright rotating stars were recovered, most with temperatures hotter than 5000 K. From these, 894 were selected as being near the main sequence. These main sequence stars show a bimodality in their rotation period distribution, centered around a ~600 Myr rotation-isochrone. This feature matches the bimodal period distribution found in cooler stars with Kepler, but was previously undetected for solar-type stars due to sample contamination by subgiant and binary stars. A tenuous connection between the rotation period and total proper motion is found, suggesting the period bimodality is due to the age distribution of stars within 300pc of the Sun, rather than a phase of rapid angular momentum loss. I will discuss how the combination of Kepler/K2/TESS with Gaia will enable us to map the star formation history of our galactic neighborhood.

Bifurcations and Complete Chaos for the Diamagnetic Kepler Problem

OpenAIRE

Hansen, Kai T.

1995-01-01

We describe the structure of bifurcations in the unbounded classical Diamagnetic Kepler problem. We conjecture that this system does not have any stable orbits and that the non-wandering set is described by a complete trinary symbolic dynamics for scaled energies larger then $\\epsilon_c=0.328782\\ldots$.

The Kepler-10 planetary system revisited by HARPS-N

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dumusque, Xavier; Bonomo, Aldo S.; Haywood, Raphaelle D.

2014-01-01

-N Collaboration decided to observe Kepler-10 intensively with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo on La Palma. In total, 148 high-quality radial-velocity measurements were obtained over two observing seasons. These new data allow us to improve the precision of the mass determination...

THE CLASSIFICATION OF KEPLER B-STAR VARIABLES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McNamara, Bernard J.; Jackiewicz, Jason; McKeever, Jean

2012-01-01

The light curves of 252 B-star candidates in the Kepler database are analyzed in a similar fashion to that done by Balona et al. to further characterize B-star variability, increase the sample of variable B stars for future study, and to identify stars whose power spectra include particularly interesting features such as frequency groupings. Stars are classified as either constant light emitters, β Cep stars, slowly pulsating B stars (SPBs), hybrid pulsators, binaries or stars whose light curves are dominated by rotation (Bin/Rot), hot subdwarfs, or white dwarfs. One-hundred stars in our sample were found to be either light constants or to be variable at a level of less than 0.02 mmag. We increase the number of candidate B-star variables found in the Kepler database by Balona et al. in the following fashion: β Cep stars from 0 to 10, SPBs from eight to 54, hybrid pulsators from seven to 21, and Bin/Rot stars from 23 to 82. For comparison purposes, approximately 51 SPBs and six hybrids had been known prior to 2007. The number of β Cep stars known prior to 2004 was 93. A secondary result of this study is the identification of an additional 11 pulsating white dwarf candidates, four of which possess frequency groupings.

The Effect of Orbital Configuration on the Possible Climates and Habitability of Kepler-62f.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Aomawa L; Barnes, Rory; Agol, Eric; Charnay, Benjamin; Bitz, Cecilia; Meadows, Victoria S

2016-06-01

As lower-mass stars often host multiple rocky planets, gravitational interactions among planets can have significant effects on climate and habitability over long timescales. Here we explore a specific case, Kepler-62f (Borucki et al., 2013 ), a potentially habitable planet in a five-planet system with a K2V host star. N-body integrations reveal the stable range of initial eccentricities for Kepler-62f is 0.00 ≤ e ≤ 0.32, absent the effect of additional, undetected planets. We simulate the tidal evolution of Kepler-62f in this range and find that, for certain assumptions, the planet can be locked in a synchronous rotation state. Simulations using the 3-D Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) Generic global climate model (GCM) indicate that the surface habitability of this planet is sensitive to orbital configuration. With 3 bar of CO2 in its atmosphere, we find that Kepler-62f would only be warm enough for surface liquid water at the upper limit of this eccentricity range, providing it has a high planetary obliquity (between 60° and 90°). A climate similar to that of modern-day Earth is possible for the entire range of stable eccentricities if atmospheric CO2 is increased to 5 bar levels. In a low-CO2 case (Earth-like levels), simulations with version 4 of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) GCM and LMD Generic GCM indicate that increases in planetary obliquity and orbital eccentricity coupled with an orbital configuration that places the summer solstice at or near pericenter permit regions of the planet with above-freezing surface temperatures. This may melt ice sheets formed during colder seasons. If Kepler-62f is synchronously rotating and has an ocean, CO2 levels above 3 bar would be required to distribute enough heat to the nightside of the planet to avoid atmospheric freeze-out and permit a large enough region of open water at the planet's substellar point to remain stable. Overall, we find multiple plausible combinations of

Synergies Between the Kepler, K2 and TESS Missions with the PLATO Mission (Revised)

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon M.

2017-01-01

Two transit survey missions will have been flown by NASA prior to the launch of ESA's PLATO Mission in 2026, laying the groundwork for exoplanet discovery via the transit method. The Kepler Mission, which launched in 2009, collected data on its 100+ square degree field of view for four years before failure of a reaction wheel ended its primary mission. The results from Kepler include 2300+ confirmed or validated exoplanets, 2200+ planetary candidates, 2100+ eclipsing binaries. Kepler also revolutionized the field of asteroseismology by measuring the pressure mode oscillations of over 15000 solar-like stars spanning the lifecycle of such stars from hydrogen-burning dwarfs to helium-burning red giants. The re-purposed Kepler Mission, dubbed K2, continues to observe fields of view in and near the ecliptic plane for 80 days each, significantly broadening the scope of the astrophysical investigations as well as discovering an additional 156 exoplanets to date. The TESS mission will launch in 2017 to conduct an all-sky survey for small exoplanets orbiting stars 10X closer and 100X brighter than Kepler exoplanet host stars, allowing for far greater follow-up and characterization of their masses as well as their sizes for at least 50 small planets. Future assets such as James Webb Space Telescope, and ground-based assets such as ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) array, the Exremely Large Telescope (ELT), and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be able to characterize the atmospheric composition and properties of these small planets. TESS will observe each 24 X 96 field of view for 30 days and thereby cover first the southern and then the northern hemisphere over 13 pointings during each year of the primary mission. The pole-most camera will observe the James Webb continuous viewing zone for one year in each hemisphere, permitting much longer period planets to be detected in this region. The PLATO mission will seek to detect habitable Earth-like planets with an instrument

TESTING THE METAL OF LATE-TYPE KEPLER PLANET HOSTS WITH IRON-CLAD METHODS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mann, Andrew W.; Hilton, Eric J. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Dr, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Gaidos, Eric [Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Kraus, Adam [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

2013-06-10

It has been shown that F, G, and early K dwarf hosts of Neptune-sized planets are not preferentially metal-rich. However, it is less clear whether the same holds for late K and M dwarf planet hosts. We report metallicities of Kepler targets and candidate transiting planet hosts with effective temperatures below 4500 K. We use new metallicity calibrations to determine [Fe/H] from visible and near-infrared spectra. We find that the metallicity distribution of late K and M dwarfs monitored by Kepler is consistent with that of the solar neighborhood. Further, we show that hosts of Earth- to Neptune-sized planets have metallicities consistent with those lacking detected planets and rule out a previously claimed 0.2 dex offset between the two distributions at 6{sigma} confidence. We also demonstrate that the metallicities of late K and M dwarfs hosting multiple detected planets are consistent with those lacking detected planets. Our results indicate that multiple terrestrial and Neptune-sized planets can form around late K and M dwarfs with metallicities as low as 0.25 solar. The presence of Neptune-sized planets orbiting such low-metallicity M dwarfs suggests that accreting planets collect most or all of the solids from the disk and that the potential cores of giant planets can readily form around M dwarfs. The paucity of giant planets around M dwarfs compared to solar-type stars must be due to relatively rapid disk evaporation or a slower rate of planet accretion, rather than insufficient solids to form a core.

TESTING THE METAL OF LATE-TYPE KEPLER PLANET HOSTS WITH IRON-CLAD METHODS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mann, Andrew W.; Hilton, Eric J.; Gaidos, Eric; Kraus, Adam

2013-01-01

It has been shown that F, G, and early K dwarf hosts of Neptune-sized planets are not preferentially metal-rich. However, it is less clear whether the same holds for late K and M dwarf planet hosts. We report metallicities of Kepler targets and candidate transiting planet hosts with effective temperatures below 4500 K. We use new metallicity calibrations to determine [Fe/H] from visible and near-infrared spectra. We find that the metallicity distribution of late K and M dwarfs monitored by Kepler is consistent with that of the solar neighborhood. Further, we show that hosts of Earth- to Neptune-sized planets have metallicities consistent with those lacking detected planets and rule out a previously claimed 0.2 dex offset between the two distributions at 6σ confidence. We also demonstrate that the metallicities of late K and M dwarfs hosting multiple detected planets are consistent with those lacking detected planets. Our results indicate that multiple terrestrial and Neptune-sized planets can form around late K and M dwarfs with metallicities as low as 0.25 solar. The presence of Neptune-sized planets orbiting such low-metallicity M dwarfs suggests that accreting planets collect most or all of the solids from the disk and that the potential cores of giant planets can readily form around M dwarfs. The paucity of giant planets around M dwarfs compared to solar-type stars must be due to relatively rapid disk evaporation or a slower rate of planet accretion, rather than insufficient solids to form a core.

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Window and One-Sigma Depth Functions for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Christopher J.; Catanzarite, Joseph

2017-01-01

This document describes the window and one-sigma depth functions relevant to the Transiting Planet Search (TPS) algorithm in the Kepler pipeline (Jenkins 2002; Jenkins et al. 2017). The window function specifies the fraction of unique orbital ephemeris epochs over which three transits are observable as a function of orbital period. In this context, the epoch and orbital period, together, comprise the ephemeris of an orbiting companion, and ephemerides with the same period are considered equivalent if their epochs differ by an integer multiple of the period. The one-sigma depth function specifies the depth of a signal (in ppm) for a given light curve that results in a one-sigma detection of a transit signature as a function of orbital period when averaged over all unique orbital ephemerides. These planet detection metrics quantify the ability of TPS to detect a transiting planet signature on a star-by-star basis. They are uniquely applicable to a specific Kepler data release, since they are dependent on the details of the light curves searched and the functionality of the TPS algorithm used to perform the search. This document describes the window and one-sigma depth functions relevant to Kepler Data Release 25 (DR25), where the data were processed (Thompson et al. 2016) and searched (Twicken et al. 2016) with the SOC 9.3 pipeline. In Section 4, we describe significant differences from those reported in Kepler Data Release 24 (Burke Seader 2016) and document our verification method.

Kepler Mission Design, Realized Photometric Performance, and Early Science

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, David G.; Borucki, William J.; Basri, Gibor

2010-01-01

The Kepler Mission, launched on 2009 March 6, was designed with the explicit capability to detect Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars using the transit photometry method. Results from just 43 days of data along with ground-based follow-up observations have identified five...

BROAD-LINE REVERBERATION IN THE KEPLER-FIELD SEYFERT GALAXY Zw 229-015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barth, Aaron J.; Nguyen, My L.; Malkan, Matthew A.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Li, Weidong; Cenko, S. Bradley; Choi, Jieun; Duchene, Gaspard; Ganeshalingam, Mohan; Gorjian, Varoujan; Joner, Michael D.; Bennert, Vardha Nicola; Botyanszki, Janos; Childress, Michael; Cucciara, Antonino; Comerford, Julia M.; Da Silva, Robert; Fumagalli, Michele; Gates, Elinor L.; Gerke, Brian F.

2011-01-01

The Seyfert 1 galaxy Zw 229-015 is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. In order to determine the black hole mass in Zw 229-015 from Hβ reverberation mapping, we have carried out nightly observations with the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope during the dark runs from 2010 June through December, obtaining 54 spectroscopic observations in total. We have also obtained nightly V-band imaging with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory and with the 0.9 m telescope at the Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory over the same period. We detect strong variability in the source, which exhibited more than a factor of two change in broad Hβ flux. From cross-correlation measurements, we find that the Hβ light curve has a rest-frame lag of 3.86 +0.69 -0.90 days with respect to the V-band continuum variations. We also measure reverberation lags for Hα and Hγ and find an upper limit to the Hδ lag. Combining the Hβ lag measurement with a broad Hβ width of σ line = 1590 ± 47 km s -1 measured from the rms variability spectrum, we obtain a virial estimate of M BH = 1.00 +0.19 -0.24 x 10 7 M sun for the black hole in Zw 229-015. As a Kepler target, Zw 229-015 will eventually have one of the highest-quality optical light curves ever measured for any active galaxy, and the black hole mass determined from reverberation mapping will serve as a benchmark for testing relationships between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.

Evidence for Atmospheric Cold-trap Processes in the Noninverted Emission Spectrum of Kepler-13Ab Using HST /WFC3

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beatty, Thomas G.; Zhao, Ming; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Wright, Jason T. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Tsiaras, Angelos [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E6BT London (United Kingdom); Knutson, Heather A.; Shporer, Avi, E-mail: tbeatty@psu.edu [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

2017-10-01

We observed two eclipses of the Kepler-13A planetary system, on UT 2014 April 28 and UT 2014 October 13, in the near-infrared using Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope . By using the nearby binary stars Kepler-13BC as a reference, we were able to create a differential light curve for Kepler-13A that had little of the systematics typically present in HST /WFC3 spectrophotometry. We measure a broadband (1.1–1.65 μ m) eclipse depth of 734 ± 28 ppm and are able to measure the emission spectrum of the planet at R  ≈ 50 with an average precision of 70 ppm. We find that Kepler-13Ab possesses a noninverted, monotonically decreasing vertical temperature profile. We exclude an isothermal profile and an inverted profile at more than 3 σ . We also find that the dayside emission of Kepler-13Ab appears generally similar to an isolated M7 brown dwarf at a similar effective temperature. Due to the relatively high mass and surface gravity of Kepler-13Ab, we suggest that the apparent lack of an inversion is due to cold-trap processes in the planet’s atmosphere. Using a toy model for where cold traps should inhibit inversions, as well as observations of other planets in this temperature range with measured emission spectra, we argue that with more detailed modeling and more observations we may be able to place useful constraints on the size of condensates on the daysides of hot Jupiters.

Stochastic mechanics and the Kepler problem: Diffusions generated by the quantum motion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garbaczewski, P.

1986-01-01

We construct a class of solutions of the Schroedinger equation for the Coulomb-Kepler problem. Their ψ = ρ 1/2 exp(iS/ℎ) structure implies that the quantal dynamics of wave functions is completely determined by the related classical Hamiltonian system. A construction of the associated controlled stochastic processes is then possible, their drift velocity being entirely defined in terms of (explicitly known) probability density ρ(x,y,z,t) and phase S(x,y,z,t). In particular, for the stationary states of the quantum problem, in its four-oscillator reconstruction, we identify the regime in which the related classical Hamiltonian can be effectively replaced by the Hamiltonian of the classical Kepler motion. (orig.)

Seismology of Giant Planets: General Overview and Results from the Kepler K2 Observations of Neptune

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaulme Patrick

2017-01-01

Full Text Available For this invited contribution, I was asked to give an overview about the application of helio and aster-oseismic techniques to study the interior of giant planets, and to specifically present the recent observations of Neptune by Kepler K2. Seismology applied to giant planets could drastically change our understanding of their deep interiors, as it has happened with the Earth, the Sun, and many main-sequence and evolved stars. The study of giant planets' composition is important for understanding both the mechanisms enabling their formation and the origins of planetary systems, in particular our own. Unfortunately, its determination is complicated by the fact that their interior is thought not to be homogeneous, so that spectroscopic determinations of atmospheric abundances are probably not representative of the planet as a whole. Instead, the determination of their composition and structure must rely on indirect measurements and interior models. Giant planets are mostly fluid and convective, which makes their seismology much closer to that of solar-like stars than that of terrestrial planets. Hence, helioseismology techniques naturally transfer to giant planets. In addition, two alternative methods can be used: photometry of the solar light reflected by planetary atmospheres, and ring seismology in the specific case of Saturn. The current decade has been promising thanks to the detection of Jupiter's acoustic oscillations with the ground-based imaging-spectrometer SYMPA and indirect detection of Saturn's f-modes in its rings by the NASA Cassini orbiter. This has motivated new projects of ground-based and space-borne instruments that are under development. The K2 observations represented the first opportunity to search for planetary oscillations with visible photometry. Despite the excellent quality of K2 data, the noise level of the power spectrum of the light curve was not low enough to detect Neptune's oscillations. The main results from the

Seismology of Giant Planets: General Overview and Results from the Kepler K2 Observations of Neptune

Science.gov (United States)

Gaulme, Patrick

2017-10-01

For this invited contribution, I was asked to give an overview about the application of helio and aster-oseismic techniques to study the interior of giant planets, and to specifically present the recent observations of Neptune by Kepler K2. Seismology applied to giant planets could drastically change our understanding of their deep interiors, as it has happened with the Earth, the Sun, and many main-sequence and evolved stars. The study of giant planets' composition is important for understanding both the mechanisms enabling their formation and the origins of planetary systems, in particular our own. Unfortunately, its determination is complicated by the fact that their interior is thought not to be homogeneous, so that spectroscopic determinations of atmospheric abundances are probably not representative of the planet as a whole. Instead, the determination of their composition and structure must rely on indirect measurements and interior models. Giant planets are mostly fluid and convective, which makes their seismology much closer to that of solar-like stars than that of terrestrial planets. Hence, helioseismology techniques naturally transfer to giant planets. In addition, two alternative methods can be used: photometry of the solar light reflected by planetary atmospheres, and ring seismology in the specific case of Saturn. The current decade has been promising thanks to the detection of Jupiter's acoustic oscillations with the ground-based imaging-spectrometer SYMPA and indirect detection of Saturn's f-modes in its rings by the NASA Cassini orbiter. This has motivated new projects of ground-based and space-borne instruments that are under development. The K2 observations represented the first opportunity to search for planetary oscillations with visible photometry. Despite the excellent quality of K2 data, the noise level of the power spectrum of the light curve was not low enough to detect Neptune's oscillations. The main results from the K2 observations are

The Kepler-19 System: A Thick-envelope Super-Earth with Two Neptune-mass Companions Characterized Using Radial Velocities and Transit Timing Variations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Malavolta, Luca; Borsato, Luca; Granata, Valentina; Piotto, Giampaolo; Nascimbeni, Valerio [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Universita’di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova (Italy); Lopez, Eric [SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH93HJ (United Kingdom); Vanderburg, Andrew; Charbonneau, David [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States); Figueira, Pedro [Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto, CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, PT4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Mortier, Annelies; Cameron, Andrew Collier [Centre for Exoplanet Science, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS (United Kingdom); Affer, Laura [INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, I-90124 Palermo (Italy); Bonomo, Aldo S. [INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20, I-10025 Pino Torinese (Italy); Bouchy, Francois [Observatoire Astronomique de l’Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Versoix (Switzerland); Buchhave, Lars A. [Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Natural History Museum of Denmark and Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K (Denmark); Cosentino, Rosario, E-mail: luca.malavolta@unipd.it [INAF—Fundación Galileo Galilei, Rambla José Ana Fernandez Pérez 7, E-38712 Breña Baja (Spain); and others

2017-05-01

We report a detailed characterization of the Kepler-19 system. This star was previously known to host a transiting planet with a period of 9.29 days, a radius of 2.2 R {sub ⊕}, and an upper limit on the mass of 20 M {sub ⊕}. The presence of a second, non-transiting planet was inferred from the transit time variations (TTVs) of Kepler-19b over eight quarters of Kepler photometry, although neither the mass nor period could be determined. By combining new TTVs measurements from all the Kepler quarters and 91 high-precision radial velocities obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph, using dynamical simulations we obtained a mass of 8.4 ± 1.6 M {sub ⊕} for Kepler-19b. From the same data, assuming system coplanarity, we determined an orbital period of 28.7 days and a mass of 13.1 ± 2.7 M {sub ⊕} for Kepler-19c and discovered a Neptune-like planet with a mass of 20.3 ± 3.4 M {sub ⊕} on a 63-day orbit. By comparing dynamical simulations with non-interacting Keplerian orbits, we concluded that neglecting interactions between planets may lead to systematic errors that can hamper the precision in the orbital parameters when the data set spans several years. With a density of 4.32 ± 0.87 g cm{sup −3} (0.78 ± 0.16 ρ {sub ⊕}) Kepler-19b belongs to the group of planets with a rocky core and a significant fraction of volatiles, in opposition to low-density planets characterized only by transit time variations and an increasing number of rocky planets with Earth-like density. Kepler-19 joins the small number of systems that reconcile transit timing variation and radial velocity measurements.

Music Theory and the Harmony Method in J. Kepler's Work " The harmony of the Universe"

Science.gov (United States)

Smirnov, V. A.

In Kepler's book The Harmony of the Universe, edited in 1619, the theory of music as a science of that time is presented. Also the investigation of the correspondence between musical proportion and orbital parameters of the planets is presented. Kepler's book The Harmony of the Universe is a work that discloses the basic physical regularities of the developing Universe, which so far had not been definitively formulated. To explain the development process, Kepler introduced the concept of a "productive force" or "forming force" that directs the development of natural phenomena with the principles of world harmony, described by him. In addition to the four known natural interactions is a fifth one, that had never been studied fully. In this way we can explain the development of natural phenomena as alive and nonalive. Arising from the "productive force" that directs the flow of processes with the laws of harmony is an explanation of the existence of "anti-entropy" processes, a contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics, but playing a fundamental part in nature. The "golden section" apparatus defines space and time frames of process flow. The contents of the book give a notion about the way or "program" of development. Which basic law of nature is hiden in the contents of book is yet to be resolved (Kepler, 1939).

Kepler Planet Reliability Metrics: Astrophysical Positional Probabilities for Data Release 25

Science.gov (United States)

Bryson, Stephen T.; Morton, Timothy D.

2017-01-01

This document is very similar to KSCI-19092-003, Planet Reliability Metrics: Astrophysical Positional Probabilities, which describes the previous release of the astrophysical positional probabilities for Data Release 24. The important changes for Data Release 25 are:1. The computation of the astrophysical positional probabilities uses the Data Release 25 processed pixel data for all Kepler Objects of Interest.2. Computed probabilities now have associated uncertainties, whose computation is described in x4.1.3.3. The scene modeling described in x4.1.2 uses background stars detected via ground-based high-resolution imaging, described in x5.1, that are not in the Kepler Input Catalog or UKIRT catalog. These newly detected stars are presented in Appendix B. Otherwise the text describing the algorithms and examples is largely unchanged from KSCI-19092-003.

The astronomical revolution Copernicus, Kepler, Borelli

CERN Document Server

Koyre, Alexandre

2013-01-01

Originally published in English in 1973. This volume traces the development of the revolution which so drastically altered man's view of the universe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The ""astronomical revolution"" was accomplished in three stages, each linked with the work of one man. With Copernicus, the sun became the centre of the universe. With Kepler, celestial dynamics replaced the kinematics of circles and spheres used by Copernicus. With Borelli the unification of celestial and terrestrial physics was completed by abandonment of the circle in favour the straight line to inf

Exploring exoplanet populations with NASA’s Kepler Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Batalha, Natalie M.

2014-01-01

The Kepler Mission is exploring the diversity of planets and planetary systems. Its legacy will be a catalog of discoveries sufficient for computing planet occurrence rates as a function of size, orbital period, star type, and insolation flux. The mission has made significant progress toward achieving that goal. Over 3,500 transiting exoplanets have been identified from the analysis of the first 3 y of data, 100 planets of which are in the habitable zone. The catalog has a high reliability rate (85–90% averaged over the period/radius plane), which is improving as follow-up observations continue. Dynamical (e.g., velocimetry and transit timing) and statistical methods have confirmed and characterized hundreds of planets over a large range of sizes and compositions for both single- and multiple-star systems. Population studies suggest that planets abound in our galaxy and that small planets are particularly frequent. Here, I report on the progress Kepler has made measuring the prevalence of exoplanets orbiting within one astronomical unit of their host stars in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s long-term goal of finding habitable environments beyond the solar system. PMID:25049406

Kepler observations of the variability in B-type stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balona, Luis A.; Pigulski, A.; De Cat, P.

2011-01-01

The analysis of the light curves of 48 B-type stars observed by Kepler is presented. Among these are 15 pulsating stars, all of which show low frequencies, characteristic of slowly pulsating B (SPB) stars. Seven of these stars also show a few weak, isolated high frequencies and they could be cons...

Kepler Data on KIC 7341653: A Nearby M Dwarf with Monster Flares and a Phase-coherent Variability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Makarov, Valeri V. [US Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20392-5420 (United States); Goldin, Alexey, E-mail: valeri.makarov@navy.mil, E-mail: alexey.goldin@gmail.com [Teza Technology, 150 N Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60601 (United States)

2017-08-20

KIC 7341653 is one of several late-type M dwarfs observed by the main mission of Kepler with peculiar infrared colors placing them in the domain of suspected young stellar objects (YSO). It is likely associated with a powerful X-ray emitter with X-ray flares. Kepler light curves reveal two distinct types of activity: frequent flares lasting from less than 30 minutes to a few hours, and a periodic variability with a period of 0.5463441(7) days. The largest detected flare increased the flux in the Kepler passband by a factor of 2.8 and released an estimated 4 × 10{sup 34} erg of energy in the Kepler band. Segmented periodogram analysis reveals that the amplitude of the periodic variation was subject to secular changes, dropping from peak values around 20 ppt to below 5 ppt toward the end of the mission, while the phase varied periodically with an amplitude of 0.15 rad and period 362(3) days. Two possible interpretations of the phase periodicity are discussed: a migrating long-lived photospheric spot, and a Doppler frequency shift generated by a solar-mass faint companion, such as a white dwarf.

TRANSIT TIMING OBSERVATIONS FROM KEPLER. V. TRANSIT TIMING VARIATION CANDIDATES IN THE FIRST SIXTEEN MONTHS FROM POLYNOMIAL MODELS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ford, Eric B. [Astronomy Department, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Sciences Center, Gainesville, FL 32111 (United States); Ragozzine, Darin; Holman, Matthew J. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Rowe, Jason F.; Barclay, Thomas; Borucki, William J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Kinemuchi, Karen; Koch, David G.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Still, Martin; Tenenbaum, Peter [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Steffen, Jason H. [Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics, P.O. Box 500, MS 127, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States); Batalha, Natalie M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Gautier, Thomas N. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Ibrahim, Khadeejah A.; Uddin, Kamal [Orbital Sciences Corporation/NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Kjeldsen, Hans, E-mail: eford@astro.ufl.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); and others

2012-09-10

Transit timing variations provide a powerful tool for confirming and characterizing transiting planets, as well as detecting non-transiting planets. We report the results of an updated transit timing variation (TTV) analysis for 1481 planet candidates based on transit times measured during the first sixteen months of Kepler observations. We present 39 strong TTV candidates based on long-term trends (2.8% of suitable data sets). We present another 136 weaker TTV candidates (9.8% of suitable data sets) based on the excess scatter of TTV measurements about a linear ephemeris. We anticipate that several of these planet candidates could be confirmed and perhaps characterized with more detailed TTV analyses using publicly available Kepler observations. For many others, Kepler has observed a long-term TTV trend, but an extended Kepler mission will be required to characterize the system via TTVs. We find that the occurrence rate of planet candidates that show TTVs is significantly increased ({approx}68%) for planet candidates transiting stars with multiple transiting planet candidates when compared to planet candidates transiting stars with a single transiting planet candidate.

The limit passage of space curvature in problems of celestial mechanics with the generalized Kepler and Hooke potentials

Science.gov (United States)

Vozmishcheva, Tatiana

2016-09-01

The connection between the problems of celestial mechanics: the Kepler problem, the two-center problem and the two body problem in spaces of constant curvature with the generalized Kepler and Hooke potentials is investigated. The limit passage in the two-center and two body problems in the Lobachevsky space and on a sphere is carried out as λto0 (λ is the curvature of the corresponding space) for the two potentials. The potentials and metrics in spaces under study are written in the gnomonic coordinates. It is shown that as the curvature radius tends to infinity, the generalized gravitational and elastic potentials transform to the Kepler and Hooke forms in the Euclidean space.

Kepler Planet Detection Metrics: Automatic Detection of Background Objects Using the Centroid Robovetter

Science.gov (United States)

Mullally, Fergal

2017-01-01

We present an automated method of identifying background eclipsing binaries masquerading as planet candidates in the Kepler planet candidate catalogs. We codify the manual vetting process for Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) described in Bryson et al. (2013) with a series of measurements and tests that can be performed algorithmically. We compare our automated results with a sample of manually vetted KOIs from the catalog of Burke et al. (2014) and find excellent agreement. We test the performance on a set of simulated transits and find our algorithm correctly identifies simulated false positives approximately 50 of the time, and correctly identifies 99 of simulated planet candidates.

Science from Kepler Collateral Data: 50 Kilosecond per Year from 13 Million Star?

Science.gov (United States)

Kolodziejczak, J. J.; Caldwell, D. A.

2011-01-01

As each Kepler frame is read out, light from each star in a CCD column accumulates in successive pixels as they wait for the next row to be read out. This accumulation is the same in the masked rows at the start of the readout and virtual rows at the end of the readout as it is in the science data. A range of these "smear" rows are added together for each long cadence and sent to the ground for calibration purposes. We will introduce and describe this smear collateral data, discuss and demonstrate its potential use for scientific studies exclusive of Kepler calibration,.

Student Ideas about Kepler's Laws and Planetary Orbital Motions

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Ka Chun; Sahami, Kamran; Denn, Grant

2010-01-01

We present the analysis of oral interviews with 112 undergraduate nonmajor students during the first week of a General Education Introduction to Astronomy class before they had received any instruction. The students were asked questions relating to Kepler's three Laws of Motion, as well as their understanding of what keeps planets in orbit around…

Robust, open-source removal of systematics in Kepler data

Science.gov (United States)

Aigrain, S.; Parviainen, H.; Roberts, S.; Reece, S.; Evans, T.

2017-10-01

We present ARC2 (Astrophysically Robust Correction 2), an open-source python-based systematics-correction pipeline, to correct for the Kepler prime mission long-cadence light curves. The ARC2 pipeline identifies and corrects any isolated discontinuities in the light curves and then removes trends common to many light curves. These trends are modelled using the publicly available co-trending basis vectors, within an (approximate) Bayesian framework with 'shrinkage' priors to minimize the risk of overfitting and the injection of any additional noise into the corrected light curves, while keeping any astrophysical signals intact. We show that the ARC2 pipeline's performance matches that of the standard Kepler PDC-MAP data products using standard noise metrics, and demonstrate its ability to preserve astrophysical signals using injection tests with simulated stellar rotation and planetary transit signals. Although it is not identical, the ARC2 pipeline can thus be used as an open-source alternative to PDC-MAP, whenever the ability to model the impact of the systematics removal process on other kinds of signal is important.

A UNIFORM SEARCH FOR SECONDARY ECLIPSES OF HOT JUPITERS IN KEPLER Q2 LIGHT CURVES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coughlin, J. L.; López-Morales, M.

2012-01-01

In this paper, we present the results of searching the Kepler Q2 public data set for the secondary eclipses of 76 hot Jupiter planet candidates from the list of 1235 candidates published by Borucki et al. This search has been performed by modeling both the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curves and new light curves produced via our own photometric pipeline. We derive new stellar and planetary parameters for each system, while calculating robust errors for both. We find 16 systems with 1σ-2σ, 14 systems with 2σ-3σ, and 6 systems with >3σ confidence level secondary eclipse detections in at least one light curve produced via the Kepler pre-search data conditioned light curve or our own pipeline; however, results can vary depending on the light curve modeled and whether eccentricity is allowed to vary or not. We estimate false alarm probabilities of 31%, 10%, and 6% for the 1σ-2σ, 2σ-3σ, and >3σ confidence intervals, respectively. Comparing each secondary eclipse result to theoretical expectations, we find that the majority of detected planet candidates emit more light than expected owing to thermal blackbody emission in the optical Kepler bandpass, and present a trend of increasing excess emission with decreasing maximum effective planetary temperature. These results agree with previously published optical secondary eclipse data for other hot Jupiters. We explore modeling biases, significant planetary albedos, non-local thermodynamic equilibrium or other thermal emission, significant internal energy generation, and misidentification of brown dwarfs, low-mass stars, or stellar blends as possible causes of both the excess emission and its correlation with expected planetary temperature. Although we find that no single cause is able to explain all of the planet candidates, significant planetary albedos, with a general trend of increasing planetary albedos with decreasing atmospheric temperatures, are able to explain most of the systems. Identifying

Kepler Eclipsing Binary Stars. I. Catalog and Principal Characterization of 1879 Eclipsing Binaries in the First Data Release

Science.gov (United States)

Prša, Andrej; Batalha, Natalie; Slawson, Robert W.; Doyle, Laurance R.; Welsh, William F.; Orosz, Jerome A.; Seager, Sara; Rucker, Michael; Mjaseth, Kimberly; Engle, Scott G.; Conroy, Kyle; Jenkins, Jon; Caldwell, Douglas; Koch, David; Borucki, William

2011-03-01

The Kepler space mission is devoted to finding Earth-size planets orbiting other stars in their habitable zones. Its large, 105 deg2 field of view features over 156,000 stars that are observed continuously to detect and characterize planet transits. Yet, this high-precision instrument holds great promise for other types of objects as well. Here we present a comprehensive catalog of eclipsing binary stars observed by Kepler in the first 44 days of operation, the data being publicly available through MAST as of 2010 June 15. The catalog contains 1879 unique objects. For each object, we provide its Kepler ID (KID), ephemeris (BJD0, P 0), morphology type, physical parameters (T eff, log g, E(B - V)), the estimate of third light contamination (crowding), and principal parameters (T 2/T 1, q, fillout factor, and sin i for overcontacts, and T 2/T 1, (R 1 + R 2)/a, esin ω, ecos ω, and sin i for detached binaries). We present statistics based on the determined periods and measure the average occurrence rate of eclipsing binaries to be ~1.2% across the Kepler field. We further discuss the distribution of binaries as a function of galactic latitude and thoroughly explain the application of artificial intelligence to obtain principal parameters in a matter of seconds for the whole sample. The catalog was envisioned to serve as a bridge between the now public Kepler data and the scientific community interested in eclipsing binary stars.

KEPLER ECLIPSING BINARY STARS. I. CATALOG AND PRINCIPAL CHARACTERIZATION OF 1879 ECLIPSING BINARIES IN THE FIRST DATA RELEASE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prsa, Andrej; Engle, Scott G.; Conroy, Kyle; Batalha, Natalie; Rucker, Michael; Mjaseth, Kimberly; Slawson, Robert W.; Doyle, Laurance R.; Welsh, William F.; Orosz, Jerome A.; Seager, Sara; Jenkins, Jon; Caldwell, Douglas; Koch, David; Borucki, William

2011-01-01

The Kepler space mission is devoted to finding Earth-size planets orbiting other stars in their habitable zones. Its large, 105 deg 2 field of view features over 156,000 stars that are observed continuously to detect and characterize planet transits. Yet, this high-precision instrument holds great promise for other types of objects as well. Here we present a comprehensive catalog of eclipsing binary stars observed by Kepler in the first 44 days of operation, the data being publicly available through MAST as of 2010 June 15. The catalog contains 1879 unique objects. For each object, we provide its Kepler ID (KID), ephemeris (BJD 0 , P 0 ), morphology type, physical parameters (T eff , log g, E(B - V)), the estimate of third light contamination (crowding), and principal parameters (T 2 /T 1 , q, fillout factor, and sin i for overcontacts, and T 2 /T 1 , (R 1 + R 2 )/a, esin ω, ecos ω, and sin i for detached binaries). We present statistics based on the determined periods and measure the average occurrence rate of eclipsing binaries to be ∼1.2% across the Kepler field. We further discuss the distribution of binaries as a function of galactic latitude and thoroughly explain the application of artificial intelligence to obtain principal parameters in a matter of seconds for the whole sample. The catalog was envisioned to serve as a bridge between the now public Kepler data and the scientific community interested in eclipsing binary stars.

ALL SIX PLANETS KNOWN TO ORBIT KEPLER-11 HAVE LOW DENSITIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel; Rowe, Jason F.; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Fabrycky, Daniel C. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Lopez, Eric D.; Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Agol, Eric [Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Isaacson, Howard; Kolbl, Rea [Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Deck, Katherine M. [Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Fischer, Debra A. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Sasselov, Dimitar [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Short, Donald R. [Department of Mathematics, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States); Welsh, William F., E-mail: Jack.Lissauer@nasa.gov [Astronomy Department, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States)

2013-06-20

The Kepler-11 planetary system contains six transiting planets ranging in size from 1.8 to 4.2 times the radius of Earth. Five of these planets orbit in a tightly packed configuration with periods between 10 and 47 days. We perform a dynamical analysis of the system based upon transit timing variations observed in more than three years of Kepler photometric data. Stellar parameters are derived using a combination of spectral classification and constraints on the star's density derived from transit profiles together with planetary eccentricity vectors provided by our dynamical study. Combining masses of the planets relative to the star from our dynamical study and radii of the planets relative to the star from transit depths together with deduced stellar properties yields measurements of the radii of all six planets, masses of the five inner planets, and an upper bound to the mass of the outermost planet, whose orbital period is 118 days. We find mass-radius combinations for all six planets that imply that substantial fractions of their volumes are occupied by constituents that are less dense than rock. Moreover, we examine the stability of these envelopes against photoevaporation and find that the compositions of at least the inner two planets have likely been significantly sculpted by mass loss. The Kepler-11 system contains the lowest mass exoplanets for which both mass and radius have been measured.

A SEARCH FOR EXOZODIACAL CLOUDS WITH KEPLER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stark, Christopher C.; Boss, Alan P.; Weinberger, Alycia J.; Jackson, Brian K.; Endl, Michael; Cochran, William D.; Johnson, Marshall; Caldwell, Caroline; Agol, Eric; Ford, Eric B.; Hall, Jennifer R.; Ibrahim, Khadeejah A.; Li, Jie

2013-01-01

Planets embedded within dust disks may drive the formation of large scale clumpy dust structures by trapping dust into resonant orbits. Detection and subsequent modeling of the dust structures would help constrain the mass and orbit of the planet and the disk architecture, give clues to the history of the planetary system, and provide a statistical estimate of disk asymmetry for future exoEarth-imaging missions. Here, we present the first search for these resonant structures in the inner regions of planetary systems by analyzing the light curves of hot Jupiter planetary candidates identified by the Kepler mission. We detect only one candidate disk structure associated with KOI 838.01 at the 3σ confidence level, but subsequent radial velocity measurements reveal that KOI 838.01 is a grazing eclipsing binary and the candidate disk structure is a false positive. Using our null result, we place an upper limit on the frequency of dense exozodi structures created by hot Jupiters. We find that at the 90% confidence level, less than 21% of Kepler hot Jupiters create resonant dust clumps that lead and trail the planet by ∼90° with optical depths ∼> 5 × 10 –6 , which corresponds to the resonant structure expected for a lone hot Jupiter perturbing a dynamically cold dust disk 50 times as dense as the zodiacal cloud.

EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION BY PROXY: A TRANSITING 2.15 R{sub Circled-Plus} PLANET NEAR THE HABITABLE ZONE OF THE LATE K DWARF KEPLER-61

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ballard, Sarah; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois; Torres, Guillermo; Irwin, Jonathan; Newton, Elisabeth [University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Desert, Jean-Michel; Crepp, Justin R.; Shporer, Avi [California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Mann, Andrew W. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai' i, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States); Ciardi, David R. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Henze, Christopher E.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Howell, Steven B. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Horch, Elliott P. [Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT 06515 (United States); Everett, Mark E., E-mail: sarahba@uw.edu [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)

2013-08-20

We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R{sub Circled-Plus} planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 {+-} 0.13 R{sub Circled-Plus} and an equilibrium temperature of 273 {+-} 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 {+-} 0.00020 days and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby ''proxy'' stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses.

Validation of Small Kepler Transiting Planet Candidates in or near the Habitable Zone

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Guillermo; Kane, Stephen R.; Rowe, Jason F.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Henze, Christopher E.; Ciardi, David R.; Barclay, Thomas; Borucki, William J.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Crepp, Justin R.; Everett, Mark E.; Horch, Elliott P.; Howard, Andrew W.; Howell, Steve B.; Isaacson, Howard T.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Latham, David W.; Petigura, Erik A.; Quintana, Elisa V.

2017-12-01

A main goal of NASA’s Kepler Mission is to establish the frequency of potentially habitable Earth-size planets ({η }\\oplus ). Relatively few such candidates identified by the mission can be confirmed to be rocky via dynamical measurement of their mass. Here we report an effort to validate 18 of them statistically using the BLENDER technique, by showing that the likelihood they are true planets is far greater than that of a false positive. Our analysis incorporates follow-up observations including high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and information from the analysis of the flux centroids of the Kepler observations themselves. Although many of these candidates have been previously validated by others, the confidence levels reported typically ignore the possibility that the planet may transit a star different from the target along the same line of sight. If that were the case, a planet that appears small enough to be rocky may actually be considerably larger and therefore less interesting from the point of view of habitability. We take this into consideration here and are able to validate 15 of our candidates at a 99.73% (3σ) significance level or higher, and the other three at a slightly lower confidence. We characterize the GKM host stars using available ground-based observations and provide updated parameters for the planets, with sizes between 0.8 and 2.9 R ⊕. Seven of them (KOI-0438.02, 0463.01, 2418.01, 2626.01, 3282.01, 4036.01, and 5856.01) have a better than 50% chance of being smaller than 2 R ⊕ and being in the habitable zone of their host stars.

A 1.1-1.9 GHz SETI SURVEY OF THE KEPLER FIELD. I. A SEARCH FOR NARROW-BAND EMISSION FROM SELECT TARGETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Siemion, Andrew P. V.; Korpela, Eric; Werthimer, Dan; Cobb, Jeff; Lebofsky, Matt; Marcy, Geoffrey W. [University of California, Berkeley, 110 Sproul Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Demorest, Paul; Maddalena, Ron J.; Langston, Glen [National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Rd Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States); Howard, Andrew W. [Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 640 North A' ohoku Place, 209 Hilo, HI 96720-2700 (United States); Tarter, Jill [SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Ave 100 Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States)

2013-04-10

We present a targeted search for narrow-band (<5 Hz) drifting sinusoidal radio emission from 86 stars in the Kepler field hosting confirmed or candidate exoplanets. Radio emission less than 5 Hz in spectral extent is currently known to only arise from artificial sources. The stars searched were chosen based on the properties of their putative exoplanets, including stars hosting candidates with 380 K > T{sub eq} > 230 K, stars with five or more detected candidates or stars with a super-Earth (R{sub p} < 3 R{sub Circled-Plus }) in a >50 day orbit. Baseband voltage data across the entire band between 1.1 and 1.9 GHz were recorded at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope between 2011 February and April and subsequently searched offline. No signals of extraterrestrial origin were found. We estimate that fewer than {approx}1% of transiting exoplanet systems host technological civilizations that are radio loud in narrow-band emission between 1 and 2 GHz at an equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of {approx}1.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 21} erg s{sup -1}, approximately eight times the peak EIRP of the Arecibo Planetary Radar, and we limit the number of 1-2 GHz narrow-band-radio-loud Kardashev type II civilizations in the Milky Way to be <10{sup -6} M{sub Sun }{sup -1}. Here we describe our observations, data reduction procedures and results.

Correction of harmonic motion and Kepler orbit based on the minimal momentum uncertainty

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chung, Won Sang, E-mail: mimip4444@hanmail.net [Department of Physics and Research Institute of Natural Science, College of Natural Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701 (Korea, Republic of); Hassanabadi, Hassan, E-mail: h.hasanabadi@shahroodut.ac.ir [Physics Department, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2017-03-18

In this paper we consider the deformed Heisenberg uncertainty principle with the minimal uncertainty in momentum which is called a minimal momentum uncertainty principle (MMUP). We consider MMUP in D-dimension and its classical analogue. Using these we investigate the MMUP effect for the harmonic motion and Kepler orbit. - Highlights: • We discussed minimal momentum uncertainty relation. • We considered MMUR in D-dimension and used the deformed Poisson bracket to find the classical mechanics based on the MMUR. • Using these we investigate the MMUR effect for the harmonic motion and Kepler orbit. • Especially, we computed the corrected precession angle for each case. • We found that the corrected precession angle is always positive.

A Population of Very-Hot Super-Earths in Multiple-Planet Systems Should be Uncovered by Kepler

OpenAIRE

Schlaufman, Kevin C.; Lin, D. N. C.; Ida, S.

2010-01-01

We simulate a Kepler-like observation of a theoretical exoplanet population and we show that the observed orbital period distribution of the Kepler giant planet candidates is best matched by an average stellar specific dissipation function Q_* in the interval 10^6 ~< Q_* ~< 10^7. In that situation, the few super-Earths that are driven to orbital periods P < 1 day by dynamical interactions in multiple-planet systems will survive tidal disruption for a significant fraction of the main-sequence ...

DISK-PLANETS INTERACTIONS AND THE DIVERSITY OF PERIOD RATIOS IN KEPLER'S MULTI-PLANETARY SYSTEMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baruteau, Clement; Papaloizou, John C. B.

2013-01-01

The Kepler mission is dramatically increasing the number of planets known in multi-planetary systems. Many adjacent planets have orbital period ratios near resonant values, with a tendency to be larger than required for exact first-order mean-motion resonances. This feature has been shown to be a natural outcome of orbital circularization of resonant planetary pairs due to star-planet tidal interactions. However, this feature holds in multi-planetary systems with periods longer than 10 days, in which tidal circularization is unlikely to provide efficient divergent evolution of the planets' orbits to explain these orbital period ratios. Gravitational interactions between planets and their parent protoplanetary disk may instead provide efficient divergent evolution. For a planet pair embedded in a disk, we show that interactions between a planet and the wake of its companion can reverse convergent migration and significantly increase the period ratio from a near-resonant value. Divergent evolution due to wake-planet interactions is particularly efficient when at least one of the planets opens a partial gap around its orbit. This mechanism could help account for the diversity of period ratios in Kepler's multiple systems from super-Earth to sub-Jovian planets with periods greater than about 10 days. Diversity is also expected for pairs of planets massive enough to merge their gap. The efficiency of wake-planet interactions is then much reduced, but convergent migration may stall with a variety of period ratios depending on the density structure in the common gap. This is illustrated for the Kepler-46 system, for which we reproduce the period ratio of Kepler-46b and c

Planet Hunters: Kepler by Eye

Science.gov (United States)

Schwamb, Megan E.; Lintott, C.; Fischer, D.; Smith, A. M.; Boyajian, T. S.; Brewer, J. M.; Giguere, M. J.; Lynn, S.; Parrish, M.; Schawinski, K.; Schmitt, J.; Simpson, R.; Wang, J.

2014-01-01

Planet Hunters (http://www.planethunters.org), part of the Zooniverse's (http://www.zooniverse.org) collection of online citizen science projects, uses the World Wide Web to enlist the general public to identify transits in the pubic Kepler light curves. Planet Hunters utilizes human pattern recognition to identify planet transits that may be missed by automated detection algorithms looking for periodic events. Referred to as ‘crowdsourcing’ or ‘citizen science’, the combined assessment of many non-expert human classifiers with minimal training can often equal or best that of a trained expert and in many cases outperform the best machine-learning algorithm. Visitors to the Planet Hunters' website are presented with a randomly selected ~30-day light curve segment from one of Kepler’s ~160,000 target stars and are asked to draw boxes to mark the locations of visible transits in the web interface. 5-10 classifiers review each 30-day light curve segment. Since December 2010, more than 260,000 volunteers world wide have participated, contributing over 20 million classifications. We have demonstrated the success of a citizen science approach with the project’s more than 20 planet candidates, the discovery of PH1b, a transiting circumbinary planet in a quadruple star system, and the discovery of PH2-b, a confirmed Jupiter-sized planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. I will provide an overview of Planet Hunters, highlighting several of project's most recent exoplanet and astrophysical discoveries. Acknowledgements: MES was supported in part by a NSF AAPF under award AST-1003258 and a American Philosophical Society Franklin Grant. We acknowledge support from NASA ADAP12-0172 grant to PI Fischer.

A Simple Derivation of Kepler's Laws without Solving Differential Equations

Science.gov (United States)

Provost, J.-P.; Bracco, C.

2009-01-01

Proceeding like Newton with a discrete time approach of motion and a geometrical representation of velocity and acceleration, we obtain Kepler's laws without solving differential equations. The difficult part of Newton's work, when it calls for non-trivial properties of ellipses, is avoided by the introduction of polar coordinates. Then a simple…

Characterization of the planetary system Kepler-101 with HARPS-N

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonomo, A. S.; Sozzetti, A.; Lovis, C.

2014-01-01

faintness of the parent star for highly precise radial-velocity measurements (Kp = 13.8) and the limited number of radial velocities. The 1σ upper limit, Mp3.8 M⊕, excludes a pure iron composition with a probability of 68.3%. The architecture of the planetary system Kepler-101 − containing a close...

The K2 Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC) and Stellar Classifications of 138,600 Targets in Campaigns 1-8

Science.gov (United States)

Huber, Daniel; Bryson, Stephen T.; Haas, Michael R.; Barclay, Thomas; Barentsen, Geert; Howell, Steve B.; Sharma, Sanjib; Stello, Dennis; Thompson, Susan E.

2016-05-01

The K2 Mission uses the Kepler spacecraft to obtain high-precision photometry over ≈80 day campaigns in the ecliptic plane. The Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC) provides coordinates, photometry, and kinematics based on a federation of all-sky catalogs to support target selection and target management for the K2 mission. We describe the construction of the EPIC, as well as modifications and shortcomings of the catalog. Kepler magnitudes (Kp) are shown to be accurate to ≈0.1 mag for the Kepler field, and the EPIC is typically complete to Kp ≈ 17 (Kp ≈ 19 for campaigns covered by Sloan Digital Sky Survey). We furthermore classify 138,600 targets in Campaigns 1-8 (≈88% of the full target sample) using colors, proper motions, spectroscopy, parallaxes, and galactic population synthesis models, with typical uncertainties for G-type stars of ≈3% in {T}{{eff}}, ≈0.3 dex in {log} g, ≈40% in radius, ≈10% in mass, and ≈40% in distance. Our results show that stars targeted by K2 are dominated by K-M dwarfs (≈41% of all selected targets), F-G dwarfs (≈36%), and K giants (≈21%), consistent with key K2 science programs to search for transiting exoplanets and galactic archeology studies using oscillating red giants. However, we find significant variation of the fraction of cool dwarfs with galactic latitude, indicating a target selection bias due to interstellar reddening and increased contamination by giant stars near the galactic plane. We discuss possible systematic errors in the derived stellar properties, and differences with published classifications for K2 exoplanet host stars. The EPIC is hosted at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST): http://archive.stsci.edu/k2/epic/search.php.

Are we alone? Stories from the frontline of Kepler's search for Earth's twin (Presentation Video)

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jon

2013-10-01

Kepler vaulted into the heavens on March 7, 2009, initiating NASA's search for Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the planetary surface and support alien biology. Never before has there been a photometer capable of reaching a precision near 20 ppm in 6.5 hours while conducting nearly continuous and uninterrupted observations for several years. The flood of exquisite photometric data over the last 4 years on 190,000+ stars has provoked a watershed of results. Over 2,700+ candidate planets have been identified of which an astounding 1171 orbit 467 stars. Over 120+ planets have confirmed or validated and the data have also led to a resounding revolution in asteroseismology. Recent discoveries include Kepler-62 with 5 planets total of which 2 are in the habitable zone, and are 1.4 and 1.7 times the radius of the Earth. Designing and building the Kepler photometer and the software systems that process and analyze the resulting data presented a daunting set of challenges, including how to manage the large data volume, how to detect miniscule transit signatures against stellar variability and instrumental effects, and how to review hundreds of diagnostics produced for each of ~20,000 candidate transit signatures. The challenges continue into flight operations, as the photometer and spacecraft have experienced aging and changes in hardware performance over the course of time. The success of Kepler sets the stage for TESS, NASA's next mission to detect Earth's closest cousins.

Results of a search for γ Dor and δ SCT stars with the Kepler spacecraft

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bradley, P. A.; Miles, L. F. [XCP-6, MS F-699 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Guzik, J. A. [XTD-NTA, MS T-086 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Uytterhoeven, K. [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain and Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Jackiewicz, J. [New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States); Kinemuchi, K., E-mail: pbradley@lanl.gov [Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM 88349 (United States)

2015-02-01

The light curves of 2768 stars with effective temperatures and surface gravities placing them near the gamma Doradus (γ Dor)/delta Scuti (δ Sct) instability region were observed as part of the Kepler Guest Observer program from Cycles 1 through 5. The light curves were analyzed in a uniform manner to search for γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star pulsations. The γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star pulsations extend asteroseismology to stars slightly more massive (1.4–2.5 M{sub ⊙}) than our Sun. We find 207 γ Dor, 84 δ Sct, and 32 hybrid candidate stars. Many of these stars are cooler than the red edge of the γ Dor instability strip as determined from ground-based observations made before Kepler. A few of our γ Dor candidate stars lie on the hot side of the ground-based γ Dor instability strip. The hybrid candidate stars cover the entire region between 6200 K and the blue edge of the ground-based δ Sct instability strip. None of our candidate stars are hotter than the hot edge of the ground-based δ Sct instability strip. Our discoveries, coupled with the work of others, show that Kepler has discovered over 2000 γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star candidates in the 116 square degree Kepler field of view. We found relatively few variable stars fainter than magnitude 15, which may be because they are far enough away to lie between spiral arms in our Galaxy, where there would be fewer stars.

Results of a search for γ Dor and δ SCT stars with the Kepler spacecraft

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bradley, P. A.; Miles, L. F.; Guzik, J. A.; Uytterhoeven, K.; Jackiewicz, J.; Kinemuchi, K.

2015-01-01

The light curves of 2768 stars with effective temperatures and surface gravities placing them near the gamma Doradus (γ Dor)/delta Scuti (δ Sct) instability region were observed as part of the Kepler Guest Observer program from Cycles 1 through 5. The light curves were analyzed in a uniform manner to search for γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star pulsations. The γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star pulsations extend asteroseismology to stars slightly more massive (1.4–2.5 M ⊙ ) than our Sun. We find 207 γ Dor, 84 δ Sct, and 32 hybrid candidate stars. Many of these stars are cooler than the red edge of the γ Dor instability strip as determined from ground-based observations made before Kepler. A few of our γ Dor candidate stars lie on the hot side of the ground-based γ Dor instability strip. The hybrid candidate stars cover the entire region between 6200 K and the blue edge of the ground-based δ Sct instability strip. None of our candidate stars are hotter than the hot edge of the ground-based δ Sct instability strip. Our discoveries, coupled with the work of others, show that Kepler has discovered over 2000 γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid star candidates in the 116 square degree Kepler field of view. We found relatively few variable stars fainter than magnitude 15, which may be because they are far enough away to lie between spiral arms in our Galaxy, where there would be fewer stars.

The Kepler Light Curves of AGN: A Detailed Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Krista Lynne; Mushotzky, Richard F.; Boyd, Patricia T.; Malkan, Matt; Howell, Steve B.; Gelino, Dawn M.

2018-04-01

We present a comprehensive analysis of 21 light curves of Type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Kepler spacecraft. First, we describe the necessity and development of a customized pipeline for treating Kepler data of stochastically variable sources like AGN. We then present the light curves, power spectral density functions (PSDs), and flux histograms. The light curves display an astonishing variety of behaviors, many of which would not be detected in ground-based studies, including switching between distinct flux levels. Six objects exhibit PSD flattening at characteristic timescales that roughly correlate with black hole mass. These timescales are consistent with orbital timescales or free-fall accretion timescales. We check for correlations of variability and high-frequency PSD slope with accretion rate, black hole mass, redshift, and luminosity. We find that bolometric luminosity is anticorrelated with both variability and steepness of the PSD slope. We do not find evidence of the linear rms–flux relationships or lognormal flux distributions found in X-ray AGN light curves, indicating that reprocessing is not a significant contributor to optical variability at the 0.1%–10% level.

The EB factory project. II. Validation with the Kepler field in preparation for K2 and TESS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parvizi, Mahmoud; Paegert, Martin; Stassun, Keivan G., E-mail: mahmoud.parvizi@vanderbilt.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B 1807, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)

2014-12-01

Large repositories of high precision light curve data, such as the Kepler data set, provide the opportunity to identify astrophysically important eclipsing binary (EB) systems in large quantities. However, the rate of classical “by eye” human analysis restricts complete and efficient mining of EBs from these data using classical techniques. To prepare for mining EBs from the upcoming K2 mission as well as other current missions, we developed an automated end-to-end computational pipeline—the Eclipsing Binary Factory (EBF)—that automatically identifies EBs and classifies them into morphological types. The EBF has been previously tested on ground-based light curves. To assess the performance of the EBF in the context of space-based data, we apply the EBF to the full set of light curves in the Kepler “Q3” Data Release. We compare the EBs identified from this automated approach against the human generated Kepler EB Catalog of ∼2600 EBs. When we require EB classification with ⩾90% confidence, we find that the EBF correctly identifies and classifies eclipsing contact (EC), eclipsing semi-detached (ESD), and eclipsing detached (ED) systems with a false positive rate of only 4%, 4%, and 8%, while complete to 64%, 46%, and 32%, respectively. When classification confidence is relaxed, the EBF identifies and classifies ECs, ESDs, and EDs with a slightly higher false positive rate of 6%, 16%, and 8%, while much more complete to 86%, 74%, and 62%, respectively. Through our processing of the entire Kepler “Q3” data set, we also identify 68 new candidate EBs that may have been missed by the human generated Kepler EB Catalog. We discuss the EBF's potential application to light curve classification for periodic variable stars more generally for current and upcoming surveys like K2 and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Science from Kepler Collateral Data: 50 Kilosecond per Year from 13 Million Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Kolodziejczak, J. J.; Caldwell, D. A.

2012-01-01

As each Kepler frame is read out, light from each star in a CCD column accumulates in successive pixels as they wait for the next row to be read out. This accumulation is the same in the masked rows at the start of the readout and virtual rows at the end of the readout as it is in the science data. A range of these "smear" rows are added together for each long cadence and sent to the ground for calibration purposes. We will introduce and describe this smear collateral data, discuss and demonstrate its potential use for scientific studies exclusive of Kepler calibration,[1,2] including global characteristics of stellar variability, which are influenced by parameters of galactic evolution.

Reverberation Mapping of the Kepler-Field AGN KA1858+4850

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Liuyi; Barth, Aaron J.; Aldering, Greg S.; Briley, Michael M.; Carroll, Carla J.; Carson, Daniel J.; Cenko, S., Bradley; Clubb, Kelsey I.; Cohen, Daniel P.; Cucchiara, Antonino;

Reverberation Mapping of the KEPLER Field AGN KA1858+4850

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Liuyi; Barth, Aaron J.; Aldering, Greg S.; Briley, Michael M.; Carroll, Carla J.; Carson, Daniel J.; Cenko, S. Bradley; Clubb, Kelsey I.; Cohen, Daniel P.; Cucchiara, Antonino; Desjardins, Tyler D.; Edelson, Rick; Fang, Jerome J.; Fedrow, Joseph M.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Fox, Ori D.; Furniss, Amy; Gates, Elinor L.; Gregg, Michael; Gustafson, Scott; Horst, J. Chuck; Joner, Michael D.; Kelly, Patrick L.; Lacy, Mark; Laney, C. David; Leonard, Douglas C.; Li, Weidong; Malkan, Matthew A.; Margon, Bruce; Neeleman, Marcel; Nguyen, My L.; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Ross, Nathaniel R.; Sand, David J.; Searcy, Kinchen J.; Shivvers, Isaac S.; Silverman, Jeffrey M.; Smith, Graeme H.; Suzuki, Nao; Smith, Krista Lynne; Tytler, David; Werk, Jessica K.; Worseck, Gábor

2014-11-01

KA1858+4850 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping campaign designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in this galaxy. We obtained 74 epochs of spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope from 2012 February to November, and obtained complementary V-band images from five other ground-based telescopes. We measured the Hβ light curve lag with respect to the V-band continuum light curve using both cross-correlation techniques (CCF) and continuum light curve variability modeling with the JAVELIN method and found rest-frame lags of τ CCF = 13.53+2.03-2.32 days and τ JAVELIN = 13.15+1.08-1.00 days. The Hβ rms line profile has a width of σline = 770 ± 49 km s-1. Combining these two results and assuming a virial scale factor of f = 5.13, we obtained a virial estimate of M{BH} = 8.06+1.59-1.72 × 106 {M}⊙ for the mass of the central black hole and an Eddington ratio of L/L Edd ≈ 0.2. We also obtained consistent but slightly shorter emission-line lags with respect to the Kepler light curve. Thanks to the Kepler mission, the light curve of KA1858+4850 has among the highest cadences and signal-to-noise ratios ever measured for an active galactic nucleus; thus, our black hole mass measurement will serve as a reference point for relations between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.

Reverberation mapping of the Kepler field AGN KA1858+4850

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pei, Liuyi; Barth, Aaron J.; Carson, Daniel J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697 (United States); Aldering, Greg S.; Cucchiara, Antonino [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Briley, Michael M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 (United States); Carroll, Carla J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, N283 ESC, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 (United States); Cenko, S. Bradley; Edelson, Rick [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Clubb, Kelsey I.; Cohen, Daniel P.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Fox, Ori D. [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States); Desjardins, Tyler D. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7 (Canada); Fang, Jerome J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Fedrow, Joseph M. [Department of Astronomy, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States); Furniss, Amy [Department of Physics, Stanford University, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States); Gates, Elinor L. [Lick Observatory, P.O. Box 85, Mt. Hamilton, CA 95140 (United States); Gregg, Michael [Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (United States); Gustafson, Scott [Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States); and others

2014-11-01

KA1858+4850 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping campaign designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in this galaxy. We obtained 74 epochs of spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope from 2012 February to November, and obtained complementary V-band images from five other ground-based telescopes. We measured the Hβ light curve lag with respect to the V-band continuum light curve using both cross-correlation techniques (CCF) and continuum light curve variability modeling with the JAVELIN method and found rest-frame lags of τ{sub CCF}=13.53{sub −2.32}{sup +2.03} days and τ {sub JAVELIN} =13.15{sub −1.00}{sup +1.08} days. The Hβ rms line profile has a width of σ{sub line} = 770 ± 49 km s{sup –1}. Combining these two results and assuming a virial scale factor of f = 5.13, we obtained a virial estimate of M{sub BH}=8.06{sub −1.72}{sup +1.59}×10{sup 6}M{sub ⊙} for the mass of the central black hole and an Eddington ratio of L/L {sub Edd} ≈ 0.2. We also obtained consistent but slightly shorter emission-line lags with respect to the Kepler light curve. Thanks to the Kepler mission, the light curve of KA1858+4850 has among the highest cadences and signal-to-noise ratios ever measured for an active galactic nucleus; thus, our black hole mass measurement will serve as a reference point for relations between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.

Modeling circumbinary planets: The case of Kepler-38

Science.gov (United States)

Kley, Wilhelm; Haghighipour, Nader

2014-04-01

Context. Recently, a number of planets orbiting binary stars have been discovered by the Kepler space telescope. In a few systems the planets reside close to the dynamical stability limit. Owing to the difficulty of forming planets in such close orbits, it is believed that they have formed farther out in the disk and migrated to their present locations. Aims: Our goal is to construct more realistic models of planet migration in circumbinary disks and to determine the final position of these planets more accurately. In our work, we focus on the system Kepler-38 where the planet is close to the stability limit. Methods: The evolution of the circumbinary disk is studied using two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. We study locally isothermal disks as well as more realistic models that include full viscous heating, radiative cooling from the disk surfaces, and radiative diffusion in the disk midplane. After the disk has been brought into a quasi-equilibrium state, a 115 Earth-mass planet is embedded and its evolution is followed. Results: In all cases the planets stop inward migration near the inner edge of the disk. In isothermal disks with a typical disk scale height of H/r = 0.05, the final outcome agrees very well with the observed location of planet Kepler-38b. For the radiative models, the disk thickness and location of the inner edge is determined by the mass in the system. For surface densities on the order of 3000 g/cm2 at 1 AU, the inner gap lies close to the binary and planets stop in the region between the 5:1 and 4:1 mean-motion resonances with the binary. A model with a disk with approximately a quarter of the mass yields a final position very close to the observed one. Conclusions: For planets migrating in circumbinary disks, the final position is dictated by the structure of the disk. Knowing the observed orbits of circumbinary planets, radiative disk simulations with embedded planets can provide important information on the physical state of the

Effect of Kepler calibration on global seismic and background parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salabert David

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Calibration issues associated to scrambled collateral smear affecting the Kepler short-cadence data were discovered in the Data Release 24 and were found to be present in all the previous data releases since launch. In consequence, a new Data Release 25 was reprocessed to correct for these problems. We perform here a preliminary study to evaluate the impact on the extracted global seismic and background parameters between data releases. We analyze the sample of seismic solar analogs observed by Kepler in short cadence between Q5 and Q17. We start with this set of stars as it constitutes the best sample to put the Sun into context along its evolution, and any significant differences on the seismic and background parameters need to be investigated before any further studies of this sample can take place. We use the A2Z pipeline to derive both global seismic parameters and background parameters from the Data Release 25 and previous data releases and report on the measured differences.

Ground-based photometry for 42 Kepler-field RR Lyrae stars

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Young-Beom; Ngeow, Chow-Choong; Nemec, James M.

2014-02-01

Follow-up (U)BVRI photometric observations have been carried out for 42 RR Lyrae stars in the Kepler field. The new magnitude and color information will complement the available extensive high-precision Kepler photometry and recent spectroscopic results. The photometric observations were made with the following telescopes: 1-m and 41-cm telescopes of Lulin Observatory (Taiwan), 81-cm telescope of Tenagra Observatory (Arizona, USA), 1-m telescope at the Mt. Lemmon Optical Astronomy Observatory (LOAO, Arizona, USA), 1.8-m and 15-cm telescopes at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO, Korea) and 61-cm telescope at the Sobaeksan Optical Astronomy Observatory (SOAO, Korea). The observations span from 2010 to 2013, with ~200 to ~600 data points per light curve. Preliminary results of the Korean observations were presented at the 5th KASC workshop in Hungary. In this work, we analyze all observations. These observations permit the construction of full light curves for these RR Lyrae stars and can be used to derive multi-filter Fourier parameters.

KEPLER EXOPLANET CANDIDATE HOST STARS ARE PREFERENTIALLY METAL RICH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlaufman, Kevin C.; Laughlin, Gregory

2011-01-01

We find that Kepler exoplanet candidate (EC) host stars are preferentially metal rich, including the low-mass stellar hosts of small-radius ECs. The last observation confirms a tentative hint that there is a correlation between the metallicity of low-mass stars and the presence of low-mass and small-radius exoplanets. In particular, we compare the J-H-g-r color-color distribution of Kepler EC host stars with a control sample of dwarf stars selected from the ∼150, 000 stars observed during Q1 and Q2 of the Kepler mission but with no detected planets. We find that at J - H = 0.30 characteristic of solar-type stars, the average g-r color of stars that host giant ECs is 4σ redder than the average color of the stars in the control sample. At the same J - H color, the average g-r color of solar-type stars that host small-radius ECs is indistinguishable from the average color of the stars in the control sample. In addition, we find that at J - H = 0.62 indicative of late K dwarfs, the average g-r color of stars that host small-radius ECs is 4σ redder than the average color of the stars in the control sample. These offsets are unlikely to be caused by differential reddening, age differences between the two populations, or the presence of giant stars in the control sample. Stellar models suggest that the first color offset is due to a 0.2 dex enhancement in [Fe/H] of the giant EC host population at M * ∼ 1 M sun , while Sloan photometry of M 67 and NGC 6791 suggests that the second color offset is due to a similar [Fe/H] enhancement of the small-radius EC host population at M * ∼ 0.7 M sun . These correlations are a natural consequence of the core-accretion model of planet formation.

Dynamic Black-Level Correction and Artifact Flagging for Kepler Pixel Time Series

Science.gov (United States)

Kolodziejczak, J. J.; Clarke, B. D.; Caldwell, D. A.

2011-01-01

Methods applied to the calibration stage of Kepler pipeline data processing [1] (CAL) do not currently use all of the information available to identify and correct several instrument-induced artifacts. These include time-varying crosstalk from the fine guidance sensor (FGS) clock signals, and manifestations of drifting moire pattern as locally correlated nonstationary noise, and rolling bands in the images which find their way into the time series [2], [3]. As the Kepler Mission continues to improve the fidelity of its science data products, we are evaluating the benefits of adding pipeline steps to more completely model and dynamically correct the FGS crosstalk, then use the residuals from these model fits to detect and flag spatial regions and time intervals of strong time-varying black-level which may complicate later processing or lead to misinterpretation of instrument behavior as stellar activity.

THE HOT-JUPITER KEPLER-17b: DISCOVERY, OBLIQUITY FROM STROBOSCOPIC STARSPOTS, AND ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Désert, Jean-Michel; Charbonneau, David; Ballard, Sarah; Carter, Joshua A.; Quinn, Samuel N.; Fressin, François; Latham, David W.; Torres, Guillermo; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; Isaacson, Howard T.; Knutson, Heather A.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Rowe, Jason F.; Borucki, William J.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Brown, Timothy M.

2011-01-01

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of the transiting hot giant exoplanet Kepler-17b. The planet has an orbital period of 1.486 days, and radial velocity measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope show a Doppler signal of 419.5 +13.3 –15.6 m s –1 . From a transit-based estimate of the host star's mean density, combined with an estimate of the stellar effective temperature T eff = 5630 ± 100 from high-resolution spectra, we infer a stellar host mass of 1.06 ± 0.07 M ☉ and a stellar radius of 1.02 ± 0.03 R ☉ . We estimate the planet mass and radius to be M P = 2.45 ± 0.11 M J and R P = 1.31 ± 0.02 R J . The host star is active, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. The continuous monitoring of the star reveals a stellar rotation period of 11.89 days, eight times the planet's orbital period; this period ratio produces stroboscopic effects on the occulted starspots. The temporal pattern of these spot-crossing events shows that the planet's orbit is prograde and the star's obliquity is smaller than 15°. We detected planetary occultations of Kepler-17b with both the Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes. We use these observations to constrain the eccentricity, e, and find that it is consistent with a circular orbit (e 3.6μm = 1880 ± 100 K and T 4.5μm = 1770 ± 150 K. We measure the optical geometric albedo A g in the Kepler bandpass and find A g = 0.10 ± 0.02. The observations are best described by atmospheric models for which most of the incident energy is re-radiated away from the day side.

Seismic constraints on the radial dependence of the internal rotation profiles of six Kepler subgiants and young red giants

Science.gov (United States)

Deheuvels, S.; Doğan, G.; Goupil, M. J.; Appourchaux, T.; Benomar, O.; Bruntt, H.; Campante, T. L.; Casagrande, L.; Ceillier, T.; Davies, G. R.; De Cat, P.; Fu, J. N.; García, R. A.; Lobel, A.; Mosser, B.; Reese, D. R.; Regulo, C.; Schou, J.; Stahn, T.; Thygesen, A. O.; Yang, X. H.; Chaplin, W. J.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Eggenberger, P.; Gizon, L.; Mathis, S.; Molenda-Żakowicz, J.; Pinsonneault, M.

2014-04-01

Context. We still do not understand which physical mechanisms are responsible for the transport of angular momentum inside stars. The recent detection of mixed modes that contain the clear signature of rotation in the spectra of Kepler subgiants and red giants gives us the opportunity to make progress on this question. Aims: Our aim is to probe the radial dependence of the rotation profiles for a sample of Kepler targets. For this purpose, subgiants and early red giants are particularly interesting targets because their rotational splittings are more sensitive to the rotation outside the deeper core than is the case for their more evolved counterparts. Methods: We first extracted the rotational splittings and frequencies of the modes for six young Kepler red giants. We then performed a seismic modeling of these stars using the evolutionary codes Cesam2k and astec. By using the observed splittings and the rotational kernels of the optimal models, we inverted the internal rotation profiles of the six stars. Results: We obtain estimates of the core rotation rates for these stars, and upper limits to the rotation in their convective envelope. We show that the rotation contrast between the core and the envelope increases during the subgiant branch. Our results also suggest that the core of subgiants spins up with time, while their envelope spins down. For two of the stars, we show that a discontinuous rotation profile with a deep discontinuity reproduces the observed splittings significantly better than a smooth rotation profile. Interestingly, the depths that are found to be most probable for the discontinuities roughly coincide with the location of the H-burning shell, which separates the layers that contract from those that expand. Conclusions: We characterized the differential rotation pattern of six young giants with a range of metallicities, and with both radiative and convective cores on the main sequence. This will bring observational constraints to the

kepler's dark worlds: A low albedo for an ensemble of Neptunian and Terran exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Jansen, Tiffany; Kipping, David

2018-05-01

Photometric phase curves provide an important window onto exoplanetary atmospheres and potentially even their surfaces. With similar amplitudes to occultations but far longer baselines, they have a higher sensitivity to planetary photons at the expense of a more challenging data reduction in terms of long-term stability. In this work, we introduce a novel non-parametric algorithm dubbed phasma to produce clean, robust exoplanet phase curves and apply it to 115 Neptunian and 50 Terran exoplanets observed by kepler. We stack the signals to further improve signal-to-noise, and measure an average Neptunian albedo of Ag greenhouse effect, our work implies that kepler's solid planets are unlikely to resemble cloudy Venusian analogs, but rather dark Mercurian rocks.

Stability Limits of Circumbinary Planets: Is There a Pile-up in the Kepler CBPs?

Science.gov (United States)

Quarles, B.; Satyal, S.; Kostov, V.; Kaib, N.; Haghighipour, N.

2018-04-01

The stability limit for circumbinary planets (CBPs) is not well defined and can depend on initial parameters defining either the planetary orbit and/or the inner binary orbit. We expand on the work of Holman & Wiegert (1999) to develop numerical tools for quick, easy, and accurate determination of the stability limit. The results of our simulations, as well as our numerical tools, are available to the community through Zenodo and GitHub, respectively. We employ a grid interpolation method based on ∼150 million full N-body simulations of initially circular, coplanar systems and compare to the nine known Kepler CBP systems. Using a formalism from planet packing studies, we find that 55% of the Kepler CBP systems allow for an additional equal-mass planet to potentially exist on an interior orbit relative to the observed planet. Therefore, we do not find strong evidence for a pile-up in the Kepler CBP systems and more detections are needed to adequately characterize the formation mechanisms for the CBP population. Observations from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite are expected to substantially increase the number of detections using the unique geometry of CBP systems, where multiple transits can occur during a single conjunction.

The Resilience of Kepler Multi-systems to Stellar Obliquity

Science.gov (United States)

Spalding, Christopher; Marx, Noah W.; Batygin, Konstantin

2018-04-01

The Kepler mission and its successor K2 have brought forth a cascade of transiting planets. Many of these planetary systems exhibit multiple transiting members. However, a large fraction possesses only a single transiting planet. This high abundance of singles, dubbed the "Kepler Dichotomy," has been hypothesized to arise from significant mutual inclinations between orbits in multi-planet systems. Alternatively, the single-transiting population truly possesses no other planets in the system, but the true origin of the overabundance of single systems remains unresolved. In this work, we propose that planetary systems typically form with a coplanar, multiple-planetary architecture, but that quadrupolar gravitational perturbations from their rapidly-rotating host star subsequently disrupt this primordial coplanarity. We demonstrate that, given sufficient stellar obliquity, even systems beginning with 2 planetary constituents are susceptible to dynamical instability soon after planet formation, as a result of the stellar quadrupole moment. This mechanism stands as a widespread, yet poorly explored pathway toward planetary system instability. Moreover, by requiring that observed multi-systems remain coplanar on Gyr timescales, we are able to place upper limits on the stellar obliquity in systems such as K2-38 (obliquity < 20 degrees), where other methods of measuring spin-orbit misalignment are not currently available.

Computing on Knights and Kepler Architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bortolotti, G; Caberletti, M; Ferraro, A; Giacomini, F; Manzali, M; Maron, G; Salomoni, D; Crimi, G; Zanella, M

2014-01-01

A recent trend in scientific computing is the increasingly important role of co-processors, originally built to accelerate graphics rendering, and now used for general high-performance computing. The INFN Computing On Knights and Kepler Architectures (COKA) project focuses on assessing the suitability of co-processor boards for scientific computing in a wide range of physics applications, and on studying the best programming methodologies for these systems. Here we present in a comparative way our results in porting a Lattice Boltzmann code on two state-of-the-art accelerators: the NVIDIA K20X, and the Intel Xeon-Phi. We describe our implementations, analyze results and compare with a baseline architecture adopting Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs.

Kepler observations of variability in B-type stars

OpenAIRE

Balona, L. A.; Pigulski, A.; De Cat, P.; Handler, G.; Gutierrez-Soto, J; Engelbrecht, C. A.; Frescura, F.; Briquet, M.; Cuypers, J.; Daszynska-Daszkiewicz, J.; Degroote, P.; Dukes, R. J.; Garcia, R. A.; Green, E. M.; Heber, U.

2011-01-01

The analysis of the light curves of 48 B-type stars observed by Kepler is presented. Among these are 15 pulsating stars, all of which show low frequencies characteristic of SPB stars. Seven of these stars also show a few weak, isolated high frequencies and they could be considered as SPB/beta Cep hybrids. In all cases the frequency spectra are quite different from what is seen from ground-based observations. We suggest that this is because most of the low frequencies are modes of high degree ...

CHARACTERIZING TWO SOLAR-TYPE KEPLER SUBGIANTS WITH ASTEROSEISMOLOGY: KIC 10920273 AND KIC 11395018

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doğan, G.; Metcalfe, T. S.; Mathur, S.; Deheuvels, S.; Pinsonneault, M.; Di Mauro, M. P.; Eggenberger, P.; Creevey, O. L.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Sousa, S. G.; Brandão, I. M.; Campante, T. L.; Frasca, A.; Karoff, C.; Handberg, R.; Thygesen, A. O.; Bruntt, H.; Biazzo, K.; Niemczura, E.; Bedding, T. R.

2013-01-01

Determining fundamental properties of stars through stellar modeling has improved substantially due to recent advances in asteroseismology. Thanks to the unprecedented data quality obtained by space missions, particularly CoRoT and Kepler, invaluable information is extracted from the high-precision stellar oscillation frequencies, which provide very strong constraints on possible stellar models for a given set of classical observations. In this work, we have characterized two relatively faint stars, KIC 10920273 and KIC 11395018, using oscillation data from Kepler photometry and atmospheric constraints from ground-based spectroscopy. Both stars have very similar atmospheric properties; however, using the individual frequencies extracted from the Kepler data, we have determined quite distinct global properties, with increased precision compared to that of earlier results. We found that both stars have left the main sequence and characterized them as follows: KIC 10920273 is a one-solar-mass star (M = 1.00 ± 0.04 M ☉ ), but much older than our Sun (t = 7.12 ± 0.47 Gyr), while KIC 11395018 is significantly more massive than the Sun (M = 1.27 ± 0.04 M ☉ ) with an age close to that of the Sun (t = 4.57 ± 0.23 Gyr). We confirm that the high lithium abundance reported for these stars should not be considered to represent young ages, as we precisely determined them to be evolved subgiants. We discuss the use of surface lithium abundance, rotation, and activity relations as potential age diagnostics.

Finding Exoplanets Using Point Spread Function Photometry on Kepler Data

Science.gov (United States)

Amaro, Rachael Christina; Scolnic, Daniel; Montet, Ben

2018-01-01

The Kepler Mission has been able to identify over 5,000 exoplanet candidates using mostly aperture photometry. Despite the impressive number of discoveries, a large portion of Kepler’s data set is neglected due to limitations using aperture photometry on faint sources in crowded fields. We present an alternate method that overcomes those restrictions — Point Spread Function (PSF) photometry. This powerful tool, which is already used in supernova astronomy, was used for the first time on Kepler Full Frame Images, rather than just looking at the standard light curves. We present light curves for stars in our data set and demonstrate that PSF photometry can at least get down to the same photometric precision as aperture photometry. As a check for the robustness of this method, we change small variables (stamp size, interpolation amount, and noise correction) and show that the PSF light curves maintain the same repeatability across all combinations for one of our models. We also present our progress in the next steps of this project, including the creation of a PSF model from the data itself and applying the model across the entire data set at once.

Most sub-arcsecond companions of Kepler exoplanet candidate host stars are gravitationally bound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horch, Elliott P.; Howell, Steve B.; Everett, Mark E.; Ciardi, David R.

2014-01-01

Using the known detection limits for high-resolution imaging observations and the statistical properties of true binary and line-of-sight companions, we estimate the binary fraction of Kepler exoplanet host stars. Our speckle imaging programs at the WIYN 3.5 m and Gemini North 8.1 m telescopes have observed over 600 Kepler objects of interest and detected 49 stellar companions within ∼1 arcsec. Assuming binary stars follow a log-normal period distribution for an effective temperature range of 3000-10,000 K, then the model predicts that the vast majority of detected sub-arcsecond companions are long period (P > 50 yr), gravitationally bound companions. In comparing the model predictions to the number of real detections in both observational programs, we conclude that the overall binary fraction of host stars is similar to the 40%-50% rate observed for field stars.

SPIN-ORBIT ALIGNMENT FOR THE CIRCUMBINARY PLANET HOST KEPLER-16 A

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winn, Joshua N.; Albrecht, Simon; Johnson, John Asher; Torres, Guillermo; Carter, Joshua A.; Ragozzine, Darin; Quinn, Samuel N.; Latham, David W.; Cochran, William D.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Howard, Andrew W.; Isaacson, Howard; Fischer, Debra; Doyle, Laurance; Welsh, William; Orosz, Jerome; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Shporer, Avi; Howell, Steve B.; Prsa, Andrej

2011-01-01

Kepler-16 is an eccentric low-mass eclipsing binary with a circumbinary transiting planet. Here, we investigate the angular momentum of the primary star, based on Kepler photometry and Keck spectroscopy. The primary star's rotation period is 35.1 ± 1.0 days, and its projected obliquity with respect to the stellar binary orbit is 1. 0 6 ± 2. 0 4. Therefore, the three largest sources of angular momentum-the stellar orbit, the planetary orbit, and the primary's rotation-are all closely aligned. This finding supports a formation scenario involving accretion from a single disk. Alternatively, tides may have realigned the stars despite their relatively wide separation (0.2 AU), a hypothesis that is supported by the agreement between the measured rotation period and the 'pseudosynchronous' period of tidal evolution theory. The rotation period, chromospheric activity level, and fractional light variations suggest a main-sequence age of 2-4 Gyr. Evolutionary models of low-mass stars can match the observed masses and radii of the primary and secondary stars to within about 3%.

Making the Most of Kepler Photometry: Characterizing Exoplanets through Phase Curve Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esteves Lisa J.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Kepler mission’s long-term monitoring of stars through high-precision photometry has not only revealed a plethora of exoplanet transits but also provided valuable data for characterizing a subset of these planets. Using over four years of Kepler observations, we have derived phase curves for over a dozen planets, and use these measurements to constrain their mass, brightness/temperature and energy redistribution between the day and the night sides. In our new study, we also investigate possible offsets of the peak brightness of the phase curve, which could be indicative of inhomogeneous clouds and/or substantial winds in the planet’s atmosphere. We find significant offsets for over a half-dozen planets. With this growing sample of measured phase curves, we are able to better examine the trends of hot Jupiter energy budgets and albedos, and for the first time relate these properties to the presence of clouds or winds on a planet.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Parameters of 529 Kepler eclipsing binaries (Kjurkchieva+, 2017)

Science.gov (United States)

Kjurkchieva, D.; Vasileva, D.; Atanasova, T.

2017-11-01

We reviewed the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog (Prsa et al. 2011, Cat. J/AJ/141/83; Slawson et al. 2011, Cat. J/AJ/142/160; Matijevic et al. 2012) to search for detached eclipsing binaries with eccentric orbits. (5 data files).

THE HOT-JUPITER KEPLER-17b: DISCOVERY, OBLIQUITY FROM STROBOSCOPIC STARSPOTS, AND ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Desert, Jean-Michel; Charbonneau, David; Ballard, Sarah; Carter, Joshua A.; Quinn, Samuel N.; Fressin, Francois; Latham, David W.; Torres, Guillermo [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Demory, Brice-Olivier [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02159 (United States); Fortney, Jonathan J. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael [Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin (United States); Isaacson, Howard T.; Knutson, Heather A. [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States); Buchhave, Lars A. [Neils Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Denmark (Denmark); Bryson, Stephen T.; Rowe, Jason F.; Borucki, William J. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Batalha, Natalie M. [San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192 (United States); Brown, Timothy M., E-mail: jdesert@cfa.harvard.edu [Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States); and others

2011-11-01

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of the transiting hot giant exoplanet Kepler-17b. The planet has an orbital period of 1.486 days, and radial velocity measurements from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope show a Doppler signal of 419.5{sup +13.3}{sub -15.6} m s{sup -1}. From a transit-based estimate of the host star's mean density, combined with an estimate of the stellar effective temperature T{sub eff} = 5630 {+-} 100 from high-resolution spectra, we infer a stellar host mass of 1.06 {+-} 0.07 M{sub Sun} and a stellar radius of 1.02 {+-} 0.03 R{sub Sun }. We estimate the planet mass and radius to be M{sub P} = 2.45 {+-} 0.11 M{sub J} and R{sub P} = 1.31 {+-} 0.02 R{sub J}. The host star is active, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. The continuous monitoring of the star reveals a stellar rotation period of 11.89 days, eight times the planet's orbital period; this period ratio produces stroboscopic effects on the occulted starspots. The temporal pattern of these spot-crossing events shows that the planet's orbit is prograde and the star's obliquity is smaller than 15 Degree-Sign . We detected planetary occultations of Kepler-17b with both the Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes. We use these observations to constrain the eccentricity, e, and find that it is consistent with a circular orbit (e < 0.011). The brightness temperatures of the planet's infrared bandpasses are T{sub 3.6{mu}m} = 1880 {+-} 100 K and T{sub 4.5{mu}m} = 1770 {+-} 150 K. We measure the optical geometric albedo A{sub g} in the Kepler bandpass and find A{sub g} = 0.10 {+-} 0.02. The observations are best described by atmospheric models for which most of the incident energy is re-radiated away from the day side.

CHARACTERIZING THE VARIABILITY OF STARS WITH EARLY-RELEASE KEPLER DATA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciardi, David R.; Von Braun, Kaspar; Van Eyken, Julian; Kane, Stephen R.; Plavchan, Peter; RamIrez, Solange V.; Bryden, Geoff; Howell, Steve B.; Stauffer, John R.

2011-01-01

We present a variability analysis of the early-release first quarter of data publicly released by the Kepler project. Using the stellar parameters from the Kepler Input Catalog, we have separated the sample into 129,000 dwarfs and 17,000 giants and further sub-divided the luminosity classes into temperature bins corresponding approximately to the spectral classes A, F, G, K, and M. Utilizing the inherent sampling and time baseline of the public data set (30 minute sampling and 33.5 day baseline), we have explored the variability of the stellar sample. The overall variability rate of the dwarfs is 25% for the entire sample, but can reach 100% for the brightest groups of stars in the sample. G dwarfs are found to be the most stable with a dispersion floor of σ ∼ 0.04 mmag. At the precision of Kepler, >95% of the giant stars are variable with a noise floor of ∼0.1 mmag, 0.3 mmag, and 10 mmag for the G giants, K giants, and M giants, respectively. The photometric dispersion of the giants is consistent with acoustic variations of the photosphere; the photometrically derived predicted radial velocity distribution for the K giants is in agreement with the measured radial velocity distribution. We have also briefly explored the variability fraction as a function of data set baseline (1-33 days), at the native 30 minute sampling of the public Kepler data. To within the limitations of the data, we find that the overall variability fractions increase as the data set baseline is increased from 1 day to 33 days, in particular for the most variable stars. The lower mass M dwarf, K dwarf, and G dwarf stars increase their variability more significantly than the higher mass F dwarf and A dwarf stars as the time baseline is increased, indicating that the variability of the lower mass stars is mostly characterized by timescales of weeks while the variability of the higher mass stars is mostly characterized by timescales of days. A study of the distribution of the variability as

Predicting the Detectability of Oscillations in Solar-type Stars Observed by Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chaplin, William J.; Kjeldsen, Hans; Bedding, Timothy R.

2011-01-01

Asteroseismology of solar-type stars has an important part to play in the exoplanet program of the NASA Kepler Mission. Precise and accurate inferences on the stellar properties that are made possible by the seismic data allow very tight constraints to be placed on the exoplanetary systems. Here,...

Orbital alignment of circumbinary planets that form in misaligned circumbinary discs: the case of Kepler-413b

Science.gov (United States)

Pierens, A.; Nelson, R. P.

2018-06-01

Although most of the circumbinary planets detected by the Kepler spacecraft are on orbits that are closely aligned with the binary orbital plane, the systems Kepler-413 and Kepler-453 exhibit small misalignments of ˜2.5°. One possibility is that these planets formed in a circumbinary disc whose midplane was inclined relative to the binary orbital plane. Such a configuration is expected to lead to a warped and twisted disc, and our aim is to examine the inclination evolution of planets embedded in these discs. We employed 3D hydrodynamical simulations that examine the disc response to the presence of a modestly inclined binary with parameters that match the Kepler-413 system, as a function of disc parameters and binary inclinations. The discs all develop slowly varying warps, and generally display very small amounts of twist. Very slow solid body precession occurs because a large outer disc radius is adopted. Simulations of planets embedded in these discs resulted in the planet aligning with the binary orbit plane for disc masses close to the minimum mass solar nebular, such that nodal precession of the planet was controlled by the binary. For higher disc masses, the planet maintains near coplanarity with the local disc midplane. Our results suggest that circumbinary planets born in tilted circumbinary discs should align with the binary orbit plane as the disc ages and loses mass, even if the circumbinary disc remains misaligned from the binary orbit. This result has important implications for understanding the origins of the known circumbinary planets.

Tatooines Future: The Eccentric Response of Keplers Circumbinary Planets to Common-Envelope Evolution of their Host Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Kostov, Veselin B.; Moore, Keavin; Tamayo, Daniel; Jayawardhana, Ray; Rinehart, Stephen A.

2016-01-01

Inspired by the recent Kepler discoveries of circumbinary planets orbiting nine close binary stars, we explore the fate of the former as the latter evolve off the main sequence. We combine binary star evolution models with dynamical simulations to study the orbital evolution of these planets as their hosts undergo common-envelope stages, losing in the process a tremendous amount of mass on dynamical timescales. Five of the systems experience at least one Roche-lobe overflow and common-envelope stages (Kepler-1647 experiences three), and the binary stars either shrink to very short orbits or coalesce; two systems trigger a double-degenerate supernova explosion. Kepler's circumbinary planets predominantly remain gravitationally bound at the end of the common-envelope phase, migrate to larger orbits, and may gain significant eccentricity; their orbital expansion can be more than an order of magnitude and can occur over the course of a single planetary orbit. The orbits these planets can reach are qualitatively consistent with those of the currently known post-common-envelope, eclipse-time variations circumbinary candidates. Our results also show that circumbinary planets can experience both modes of orbital expansion (adiabatic and non-adiabatic) if their host binaries undergo more than one common-envelope stage; multiplanet circumbinary systems like Kepler-47 can experience both modes during the same common-envelope stage. Additionally, unlike Mercury orbiting the Sun, a circumbinary planet with the same semi-major axis can survive the common envelope evolution of a close binary star with a total mass of 1 Solar Mass.

DISCOVERY OF A NOVA-LIKE CATACLYSMIC VARIABLE IN THE KEPLER MISSION FIELD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, Kurtis A.; De Martino, Domitilla; Silvotti, Roberto; Bruni, Ivan; Dufour, Patrick; Riecken, Thomas S.; Kronberg, Martin; Mukadam, Anjum; Handler, G.

2010-01-01

We announce the identification of a new cataclysmic variable (CV) star in the field of the Kepler Mission, KIC J192410.81+445934.9. This system was identified during a search for compact pulsators in the Kepler field. High-speed photometry reveals coherent large-amplitude variability with a period of 2.94 hr. Rapid, large-amplitude quasi-periodic variations are also detected on time scales of ∼1200 s and ∼650 s. Time-resolved spectroscopy covering one half photometric period shows shallow, broad Balmer and He I absorption lines with bright emission cores as well as strong He II and Bowen blend emission. Radial velocity variations are also observed in the Balmer and He I emission lines that are consistent with the photometric period. We therefore conclude that KIC J192410.81+445934.9 is a nova-like (NL) variable of the UX UMa class in or near the period gap, and it may belong to the rapidly growing subclass of SW Sex systems. Based on Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry and companion star models, we place a lower limit on the distance to the system of ∼500 pc. Due to limitations of our discovery data, additional observations including spectroscopy and polarimetry are needed to confirm the nature of this object. Such data will enable further understanding of the behavior of NL variables in the critical period range of 3-4 hr, where standard CV evolutionary theory finds major problems. The presence of this system in the Kepler Mission field of view also presents a unique opportunity to obtain a continuous photometric data stream of unparalleled length and precision on a CV system.

THE MASS OF Kepler-93b AND THE COMPOSITION OF TERRESTRIAL PLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dressing, Courtney D.; Charbonneau, David; Dumusque, Xavier; Gettel, Sara; Latham, David W.; Buchhave, Lars A.; Johnson, John Asher; Lopez-Morales, Mercedes [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Pepe, Francesco; Udry, Stéphane; Lovis, Christophe [Observatoire Astronomique de l' Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Versoix (Switzerland); Collier Cameron, Andrew; Haywood, Raphaëlle D. [SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews Fife KY16 9SS (United Kingdom); Molinari, Emilio; Cosentino, Rosario; Fiorenzano, Aldo F. M.; Harutyunyan, Avet [INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei, Rambla José Ana Fernandez Pérez 7, E-38712 Breña Baja (Spain); Affer, Laura [INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, I-90124 Palermo (Italy); Bonomo, Aldo S. [INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20, I-10025 Pino Torinese (Italy); Figueira, Pedro, E-mail: cdressing@cfa.harvard.edu [Centro de Astrofìsica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); and others

2015-02-20

Kepler-93b is a 1.478 ± 0.019 R {sub ⊕} planet with a 4.7 day period around a bright (V = 10.2), astroseismically characterized host star with a mass of 0.911 ± 0.033 M {sub ☉} and a radius of 0.919 ± 0.011 R {sub ☉}. Based on 86 radial velocity observations obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and 32 archival Keck/HIRES observations, we present a precise mass estimate of 4.02 ± 0.68 M {sub ⊕}. The corresponding high density of 6.88 ± 1.18 g cm{sup –3} is consistent with a rocky composition of primarily iron and magnesium silicate. We compare Kepler-93b to other dense planets with well-constrained parameters and find that between 1 and 6 M {sub ⊕}, all dense planets including the Earth and Venus are well-described by the same fixed ratio of iron to magnesium silicate. There are as of yet no examples of such planets with masses >6 M {sub ⊕}. All known planets in this mass regime have lower densities requiring significant fractions of volatiles or H/He gas. We also constrain the mass and period of the outer companion in the Kepler-93 system from the long-term radial velocity trend and archival adaptive optics images. As the sample of dense planets with well-constrained masses and radii continues to grow, we will be able to test whether the fixed compositional model found for the seven dense planets considered in this paper extends to the full population of 1-6 M {sub ⊕} planets.

Kepler-62: a five-planet system with planets of 1.4 and 1.6 Earth radii in the habitable zone.

Science.gov (United States)

Borucki, William J; Agol, Eric; Fressin, Francois; Kaltenegger, Lisa; Rowe, Jason; Isaacson, Howard; Fischer, Debra; Batalha, Natalie; Lissauer, Jack J; Marcy, Geoffrey W; Fabrycky, Daniel; Désert, Jean-Michel; Bryson, Stephen T; Barclay, Thomas; Bastien, Fabienne; Boss, Alan; Brugamyer, Erik; Buchhave, Lars A; Burke, Chris; Caldwell, Douglas A; Carter, Josh; Charbonneau, David; Crepp, Justin R; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Christiansen, Jessie L; Ciardi, David; Cochran, William D; DeVore, Edna; Doyle, Laurance; Dupree, Andrea K; Endl, Michael; Everett, Mark E; Ford, Eric B; Fortney, Jonathan; Gautier, Thomas N; Geary, John C; Gould, Alan; Haas, Michael; Henze, Christopher; Howard, Andrew W; Howell, Steve B; Huber, Daniel; Jenkins, Jon M; Kjeldsen, Hans; Kolbl, Rea; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery; Latham, David W; Lee, Brian L; Lopez, Eric; Mullally, Fergal; Orosz, Jerome A; Prsa, Andrej; Quintana, Elisa V; Sanchis-Ojeda, Roberto; Sasselov, Dimitar; Seader, Shawn; Shporer, Avi; Steffen, Jason H; Still, Martin; Tenenbaum, Peter; Thompson, Susan E; Torres, Guillermo; Twicken, Joseph D; Welsh, William F; Winn, Joshua N

2013-05-03

We present the detection of five planets--Kepler-62b, c, d, e, and f--of size 1.31, 0.54, 1.95, 1.61 and 1.41 Earth radii (R⊕), orbiting a K2V star at periods of 5.7, 12.4, 18.2, 122.4, and 267.3 days, respectively. The outermost planets, Kepler-62e and -62f, are super-Earth-size (1.25 R⊕ planet radius ≤ 2.0 R⊕) planets in the habitable zone of their host star, respectively receiving 1.2 ± 0.2 times and 0.41 ± 0.05 times the solar flux at Earth's orbit. Theoretical models of Kepler-62e and -62f for a stellar age of ~7 billion years suggest that both planets could be solid, either with a rocky composition or composed of mostly solid water in their bulk.

Age of the Kepler Open Cluster NGC 6811 from an Eclipsing Binary

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leitner, Marika; Sandquist, E. L.; Shetrone, M. D.

2013-01-01

provide an extremely precise age for the cluster. We present the results of modeling Kepler and ground-based photometry as well as radial velocities obtained at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, Nordic Optical Telescope, and MMT. We demonstrate that the stars have masses near 1.6 and 1.4 solar masses...

A Catalog of Cool Dwarf Targets for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Muirhead, Philip S.; Dressing, Courtney D.; Mann, Andrew W.; Rojas-Ayala, Bárbara; Lépine, Sébastien; Paegert, Martin; De Lee, Nathan; Oelkers, Ryan

2018-04-01

We present a catalog of cool dwarf targets (V-J> 2.7, T eff ≲ 4000 K) and their stellar properties for the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), for the purpose of determining which cool dwarfs should be observed using two minute observations. TESS has the opportunity to search tens of thousands of nearby, cool, late K- and M-type dwarfs for transiting exoplanets, an order of magnitude more than current or previous transiting exoplanet surveys, such as Kepler, K2, and ground-based programs. This necessitates a new approach to choosing cool dwarf targets. Cool dwarfs are chosen by collating parallax and proper motion catalogs from the literature and subjecting them to a variety of selection criteria. We calculate stellar parameters and TESS magnitudes using the best possible relations from the literature while maintaining uniformity of methods for the sake of reproducibility. We estimate the expected planet yield from TESS observations using statistical results from the Kepler mission, and use these results to choose the best targets for two minute observations, optimizing for small planets for which masses can conceivably be measured using follow-up Doppler spectroscopy by current and future Doppler spectrometers. The catalog is available in machine readable format and is incorporated into the TESS Input Catalog and TESS Candidate Target List until a more complete and accurate cool dwarf catalog identified by ESA’s Gaia mission can be incorporated.

The connection between stellar granulation and oscillation as seen by the Kepler mission

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kallinger, T.; De Ridder, J.; Hekker, S.; Mathur, S.; Mosser, B.; Gruberbauer, M.; García, R.A.; Karoff, C.; Ballot, J.

2014-01-01

Context. The long and almost continuous observations by Kepler show clear evidence of a granulation background signal in a large sample of stars, which is interpreted as the surface manifestation of convection. It has been shown that its characteristic timescale and rms intensity fluctuation scale

The possible false-detection of a transiting brown dwarf candidate in the overlapping fields of Kepler and MARVELS

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, Alan; Ge, Jian; Thomas, Neil; Ma, Bo; Heslar, Michael Francis; SDSS-III MARVELS Team

2016-01-01

While searching for exoplanets via the transit method, it has been documented that the periodicity of an unresolved background eclipsing binary (BEB) can be misinterpreted as the orbital companion of a target star. We explore the possibility that this false-positive contamination method can also occur in Doppler surveys if the angular separation between a BEB and a selected primary is under a certain threshold, dependent on the fiber diameter of the spectrometer instrument. The case example of this investigation is a K2 giant in the constellation Cygnus, in the region of overlap of the Kepler and MARVELS surveys. This star was originally flagged for potentially having a 5.56d period companion as per the Kepler transit photometry. It was also imbricated with radial velocity (RV) observations performed by the SDSS-III MARVELS survey, in which Doppler information was extracted from along the dispersion direction of the fiducially-calibrated, post-pipeline-rendered spectra. The 5.56d period was corroborated after testing its probability against that of others via a Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis. The pipeline mass determination yielded a ~17 MJupiter companion, within the characteristic mass-range of brown dwarfs. The MARVELS results seem to constitute an independent discovery, and hence confirmation, of the brown dwarf candidate. However, a later investigation conducted by EXPERT, intent upon refining the system's physical parameters, failed to identify the RV signal of any companion whatsoever. EXPERT, with its superior resolving power (R=30,000 vs R=11,000 in MARVELS), finer fiber width (1.2 vs 1.9 arcsec), and higher degree of precision (~10 m/s), was expected to finalize the confirmation, but now offers a major challenge to previous models of the system. Additionally, high-resolution adaptive optics imaging reveals the presence of a distinct, close-in object. The object may itself be an unbound BEB, and thus the source of the period signals reported by Kepler

APOKASC 2.0: Asteroseismology and Spectroscopy for Cool Stars

Science.gov (United States)

Pinsonneault, Marc H.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; APOKASC

2017-01-01

The APOGEE survey has obtained and analyzed high resolution H band spectra of more than 10,000 cool dwarfs and giants in the original Kepler fields. The APOKASC effort combines this data with asteroseismology and star spot studies, resulting in more than 7,000 stellar mass estimates for dwarfs and giants with high quality abundances, temperatures, and surface gravities. We highlight the main results from this effort so far, which include a tight correlation between surface abundances in giants and stellar mass, precise absolute gravity calibrations, and the discovery of unexpected stellar populations, such as young alpha-enhanced stars. We discuss grid modeling estimates for stellar masses and compare the absolute asteroseismic mass scale to calibrators in star clusters and the halo Directions for future efforts are discussed.

Nonlinear asteroseismology: insight from amplitude and frequency modulations of oscillation modes in compact pulsators from Kepler photometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zong Weikai

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Nonlinear mode interactions are difficult to observe from ground-based telescopes as the typical periods of the modulations induced by those nonlinear phenomena are on timescales of weeks, months, even years. The launch of space telescopes, e.g., Kepler, has tremendously changed the situation and shredded new light on this research field. We present results from Kepler photometry showing evidence that nonlinear interactions between modes occur in the two compact pulsators KIC 8626021, a DB white dwarf, and KIC 10139564, a short period hot B subdwarf. KIC 8626021 and KIC 10139564 had been monitored by Kepler in short-cadence for nearly two years and more than three years without interruption, respectively. By analyzing these high-quality photometric data, we found that the modes within the triplets induced by rotation clearly reveal different behaviors: their frequencies and amplitudes may exhibit either periodic or irregular modulations, or remain constant. These various behaviors of the amplitude and of the frequency modulations of the oscillation modes observed in these two stars are in good agreement with those predicted within the amplitude equation formalism in the case of the nonlinear resonant mode coupling mechanism.

KOI 1224: A FOURTH BLOATED HOT WHITE DWARF COMPANION FOUND WITH KEPLER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Breton, R. P.; Van Kerkwijk, M. H.; Rappaport, S. A.; Carter, J. A.

2012-01-01

We present an analysis and interpretation of the Kepler binary system KOI 1224. This is the fourth binary found with Kepler that consists of a thermally bloated, hot white dwarf in a close orbit with a more or less normal star of spectral class A or F. As we show, KOI 1224 contains a white dwarf with T eff = 14, 700 ± 1000 K, mass = 0.22 ± 0.02 M ☉ , and radius = 0.103 ± 0.002 R ☉ , and an F-star companion of mass 1.59 ± 0.06 M ☉ that is somewhat beyond its terminal-age main sequence. The orbital period is quite short at 2.69802 days. The ingredients that are used in the analysis are the Kepler binary light curve, including the detection of the Doppler boosting effect; the NUV and FUV fluxes from the GALEX images of this object; an estimate of the spectral type of the F-star companion; and evolutionary models of the companion designed to match its effective temperature and mean density. The light curve is modeled with a new code named Icarus which we describe in detail. Its features include the full treatment of orbital phase-resolved spectroscopy, Doppler boosting, irradiation effects, and transits/eclipses, which are particularly suited to irradiated eclipsing binaries. We interpret the KOI 1224 system in terms of its likely evolutionary history. We infer that this type of system, containing a bloated hot white dwarf, is the direct descendant of an Algol-type binary. In spite of this basic understanding of the origin of KOI 1224, we discuss a number of problems associated with producing a system with an orbital period this short.

Validation of Kepler's multiple planet candidates. III. Light curve analysis and announcement of hundreds of new multi-planet systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel; Mullally, Fergal; Howell, Steve B.; Borucki, William J.; Haas, Michael; Huber, Daniel; Thompson, Susan E.; Quintana, Elisa; Barclay, Thomas; Still, Martin; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Issacson, Howard; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Ford, Eric; Steffen, Jason H.; Fortney, Jonathan; Gautier, T. N. III

2014-01-01

The Kepler mission has discovered more than 2500 exoplanet candidates in the first two years of spacecraft data, with approximately 40% of those in candidate multi-planet systems. The high rate of multiplicity combined with the low rate of identified false positives indicates that the multiplanet systems contain very few false positive signals due to other systems not gravitationally bound to the target star. False positives in the multi-planet systems are identified and removed, leaving behind a residual population of candidate multi-planet transiting systems expected to have a false positive rate less than 1%. We present a sample of 340 planetary systems that contain 851 planets that are validated to substantially better than the 99% confidence level; the vast majority of these have not been previously verified as planets. We expect ∼two unidentified false positives making our sample of planet very reliable. We present fundamental planetary properties of our sample based on a comprehensive analysis of Kepler light curves, ground-based spectroscopy, and high-resolution imaging. Since we do not require spectroscopy or high-resolution imaging for validation, some of our derived parameters for a planetary system may be systematically incorrect due to dilution from light due to additional stars in the photometric aperture. Nonetheless, our result nearly doubles the number verified exoplanets.

KIC2569073, A second Cepheid in the Kepler FOV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drury Jason A.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available One particularly interesting new variable discovered via Kepler’s 200x200 pixel superstamp images is KIC2569073. With a period of 14.66 days and 0.04mag variability it is only the second Cepheid in the Kepler field, or a rotationally modulated variable. We discuss its classification as a Type II W Virginis Class Cepheid, and present the cycle-to-cycle period variations of this star, as well as the first direct observations of granulation noise within a Cepheid.

Asteroseismic modelling of the solar-type subgiant star β Hydri

Science.gov (United States)

Brandão, I. M.; Doğan, G.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Cunha, M. S.; Bedding, T. R.; Metcalfe, T. S.; Kjeldsen, H.; Bruntt, H.; Arentoft, T.

2011-03-01

Context. Comparing models and data of pulsating stars is a powerful way to understand the stellar structure better. Moreover, such comparisons are necessary to make improvements to the physics of the stellar models, since they do not yet perfectly represent either the interior or especially the surface layers of stars. Because β Hydri is an evolved solar-type pulsator with mixed modes in its frequency spectrum, it is very interesting for asteroseismic studies. Aims: The goal of the present work is to search for a representative model of the solar-type star β Hydri, based on up-to-date non-seismic and seismic data. Methods: We present a revised list of frequencies for 33 modes, which we produced by analysing the power spectrum of the published observations again using a new weighting scheme that minimises the daily sidelobes. We ran several grids of evolutionary models with different input parameters and different physics, using the stellar evolutionary code ASTEC. For the models that are inside the observed error box of β Hydri, we computed their frequencies with the pulsation code ADIPLS. We used two approaches to find the model that oscillates with the frequencies that are closest to the observed frequencies of β Hydri: (i) we assume that the best model is the one that reproduces the star's interior based on the radial oscillation frequencies alone, to which we have applied the correction for the near-surface effects; (ii) we assume that the best model is the one that produces the lowest value of the chi-square (χ2), i.e. that minimises the difference between the observed frequencies of all available modes and the model predictions, after all model frequencies are corrected for near-surface effects. Results: We show that after applying a correction for near-surface effects to the frequencies of the best models, we can reproduce the observed modes well, including those that have mixed mode character. The model that gives the lowest value of the χ2 is a post

Oscillation mode frequencies of 61 main-sequence and subgiant stars observed by Kepler

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appourchaux, T.; Chaplin, W. J.; García, R. A.

2012-01-01

Solar-like oscillations have been observed by Kepler and CoRoT in several solar-type stars, thereby providing a way to probe the stars using asteroseismology Aims. We provide the mode frequencies of the oscillations of various stars required to perform a comparison with those obtained from stella...

BEER ANALYSIS OF KEPLER AND CoRoT LIGHT CURVES. IV. DISCOVERY OF FOUR NEW LOW-MASS WHITE DWARF COMPANIONS IN THE KEPLER DATA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Faigler, S.; Kull, I.; Mazeh, T.; Kiefer, F. [School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978 (Israel); Latham, D. W. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Bloemen, S. [Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. BOX 9010, NL-6500 GL Nijmegen (Netherlands)

2015-12-10

We report the discovery of four short-period eclipsing systems in the Kepler light curves, consisting of an A-star primary and a low-mass white dwarf (WD) secondary (dA+WD)—KIC 4169521, KOI-3818, KIC 2851474, and KIC 9285587. The systems show BEaming, Ellipsoidal and Reflection (BEER) phase modulations together with primary and secondary eclipses. These add to the 6 Kepler and 18 WASP short-period eclipsing dA+WD binaries that were previously known. The light curves, together with follow-up spectroscopic observations, allow us to derive the masses, radii, and effective temperatures of the two components of the four systems. The orbital periods, of 1.17–3.82 days, and WD masses, of 0.19–0.22 M{sub ⊙}, are similar to those of the previously known systems. The WD radii of KOI-3818, KIC 2851474, and KIC 9285587 are 0.026, 0.035, and 0.026 R{sub ⊙}, respectively, the smallest WD radii derived so far for short-period eclipsing dA+WD binaries. These three binaries extend the previously known population to older systems with cooler and smaller WD secondaries. KOI-3818 displays evidence for a fast-rotating primary and a minute but significant eccentricity, ∼1.5 × 10{sup −3}. These features are probably the outcome of the mass-transfer process.

An su(1, 1) algebraic approach for the relativistic Kepler-Coulomb problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salazar-Ramirez, M; Granados, V D; MartInez, D; Mota, R D

2010-01-01

We apply the Schroedinger factorization method to the radial second-order equation for the relativistic Kepler-Coulomb problem. From these operators we construct two sets of one-variable radial operators which are realizations for the su(1, 1) Lie algebra. We use this algebraic structure to obtain the energy spectrum and the supersymmetric ground state for this system.

De-Trending K2 Exoplanet Targets for High Spacecraft Motion

Science.gov (United States)