We investigate the astrophysical false-positive configuration in exoplanet-transit surveys. It involves eclipsing binaries and giant planets that present only a secondary eclipse, as seen from the ...Earth. To test how an eclipsing binary configuration can mimic a planetary transit, we generated synthetic light curves of three examples of secondary-only eclipsing binary systems that we fit with a circular planetary model. Then, to evaluate its occurrence we modeled a population of binaries in double and triple systems based on binary statistics and occurrence. We find that 0.061% ± 0.017% of main-sequence binary stars are secondary-only eclipsing binaries that mimics a planetary transit candidate with a size down to the size of the Earth. We then evaluate the occurrence that an occulting-only giant planet can mimic an Earth-like planet or even a smaller one. We find that 0.009% ± 0.002% of stars harbor a giant planet that only presents the secondary transit. Occulting-only giant planets mimic planets that are smaller than the Earth, and they are in the scope of space missions like Kepler and PLATO. We estimate that up to 43.1 ± 5.6 Kepler objects of interest can be mimicked by this configuration of false positives, thereby re-evaluating the global false-positive rate of the Kepler mission from 9.4 ± 0.9% to 11.3 ± 1.1%. We note, however, that this new false-positive scenario occurs at relatively long orbital periods compared with the median period of Kepler candidates.
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Aims. The Antarctica Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) program was originally aimed at probing the quality of the Dome C, Antarctica for the discovery and characterization of exoplanets by ...photometry. In the first year of operation of the 40 cm ASTEP 400 telescope (austral winter 2010), we targeted the known transiting planet WASP-19b in order to try to detect its secondary transits in the visible. This is made possible by the excellent sub-millimagnitude precision of the binned data. Methods. The WASP-19 system was observed during 24 nights in May 2010. Once brought back from Antarctica, the data were processed using various methods, and the best results were with an implementation of the optimal image subtraction (OIS) algorithm. Results. The photometric variability level due to starspots is about 1.8% (peak-to-peak), in line with the SuperWASP data from 2007 (1.4%) and higher than in 2008 (0.07%). We find a rotation period of WASP-19 of 10.7 ± 0.5 days, in agreement with the SuperWASP determination of 10.5 ± 0.2 days. Theoretical models show that this can only be explained if tidal dissipation in the star is weak, i.e. the tidal dissipation factor Q'★ > 3×107. Separately, we find evidence of a secondary eclipse of depth 390 ± 190 ppm with a 2.0σ significance, a phase that is consistent with a circular orbit and a 3% false positive probability. Given the wavelength range of the observations (420 to 950 nm), the secondary transit depth translates into a day-side brightness temperature of 2690-220+150 K, in line with measurements in the z′ and K bands. The day-side emission observed in the visible could be due either to thermal emission of an extremely hot day side with very little redistribution of heat to the night side or to direct reflection of stellar light with a maximum geometrical albedo Ag = 0.27 ± 0.13. We also report a low-frequency oscillation in phase at the planet orbital period, but with a lower limit amplitude that could not be attributed to the planet phase alone and that was possibly contaminated with residual lightcurve trends. Conclusions. This first evidence of a secondary eclipse in the visible from the ground demonstrates the high potential of Dome C, Antarctica, for continuous photometric observations of stars with exoplanets. These continuous observations are required to understand star-planet interactions and the dynamical properties of exoplanetary atmospheres.
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Context. Dome C in Antarctica is a promising site for photometric observations thanks to the continuous night during the Antarctic winter and favorable weather conditions. Aims.We developed ...instruments to assess the quality of this site for photometry in the visible and to detect and characterize variable objects through the Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) project. Methods. Here, we present the full analysis of four winters of data collected with ASTEP South, a 10 cm refractor pointing continuously toward the celestial south pole. We improved the instrument over the years and developed specific data reduction methods. Results. We achieved nearly continuous observations over the winters. We measure an average sky background of 20 mag arcsec−2 in the 579–642 nm bandpass. We built the lightcurves of 6000 stars and developed a model to infer the photometric quality of Dome C from the lightcurves themselves. The weather is photometric 67.1 ± 4.2% of the time and veiled 21.8 ± 2.0% of the time. The remaining time corresponds to poor quality data or winter storms. We analyzed the lightcurves of σ Oct and HD 184465 and find that the amplitude of their main frequency varies by a factor of 3.5 and 6.7 over the four years, respectively. We also identify 34 new variable stars and eight new eclipsing binaries with periods ranging from 0.17 to 81 days. Conclusion. The phase coverage that we achieved with ASTEP South is exceptional for a ground-based instrument and the data quality enables the detection and study of variable objects. These results demonstrate the high quality of Dome C for photometry in the visible and for time series observations in general.
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Context. The Concordia base in Dome C, Antarctica, is an extremely promising site for photometric astronomy due to the 3-month long night during the Antarctic winter, favorable weather conditions, ...and low scintillation. Aims. The ASTEP project (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets) is a pilot project to discover transiting planets and understand the limits of visible photometry from the Concordia site. Methods. ASTEP South is the first phase of the ASTEP project. The instrument is a fixed 10 cm refractor with a 4k $\times$ 4k CCD camera in a thermalized box, pointing continuously a 3.88 $\times$ 3.88°2 field of view centered on the celestial south pole. We describe the project and report results of a preliminary data analysis. Results. ASTEP South became fully functional in June 2008 and obtained 1592 hours of data during the 2008 Antarctic winter. The data are of good quality but the analysis has to account for changes in the PSF (point spread function) due to rapid ground seeing variations and instrumental effects. The pointing direction is stable within 10 arcsec on a daily timescale and drifts by only 34 arcsec in 50 days. A truly continuous photometry of bright stars is possible in June (the noon sky background peaks at a magnitude R ≈ 15 arcsec-2 on June 22), but becomes challenging in July (the noon sky background magnitude is R ≈ 12.5 arcsec-2 on July 20). The weather conditions are estimated from the number of stars detected in the field. For the 2008 winter, the statistics are between 56.3% and 68.4% of excellent weather, 17.9% to 30% of veiled weather (when the probable presence of thin clouds implies a lower number of detected stars) and 13.7% of bad weather. Using these results in a probabilistic analysis of transit detection, we show that the detection efficiency of transiting exoplanets in one given field is improved at Dome C compared to a temperate site such as La Silla. For example we estimate that a year-long campaign of 10 cm refractor could reach an efficiency of 69% at Dome C versus 45% at La Silla for detecting 2-day period giant planets around target stars from magnitude 10 to 15. The detection efficiency decreases for planets with longer orbital periods, but in relative sense it is even more favorable to Dome C. Conclusions. This shows the high potential of Dome C for photometry and future planet discoveries.
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Context. Each transiting planet discovered is characterized by 7 measurable quantities, that may or may not be linked. This includes those relative to the planet (mass, radius, orbital period, and ...equilibrium temperature) and those relative to the star (mass, radius, effective temperature, and metallicity). Correlations between planet mass and period, surface gravity and period, planet radius and star temperature have been previously observed among the 31 known transiting giant planets. Two classes of planets have been previously identified based on their Safronov number. Aims. We use the CoRoTlux transit surveys to compare simulated events to the sample of discovered planets and test the statistical significance of these correlations. Using a model proved to be able to match the yield of OGLE transit survey, we generate a large sample of simulated detections, in which we can statistically test the different trends observed in the small sample of known transiting planets. Methods. We first generate a stellar field with planetary companions based on radial velocity discoveries, use a planetary evolution model assuming a variable fraction of heavy elements to compute the characteristics of transit events, then apply a detection criterion that includes both statistical and red noise sources. We compare the yield of our simulated survey with the ensemble of 31 well-characterized giant transiting planets, using different statistical tools, including a multivariate logistic analysis to assess whether the simulated distribution matches the known transiting planets. Results. Our results satisfactorily match the distribution of known transiting planet characteristics. Our multivariate analysis shows that our simulated sample and observations are consistent to 76%. The mass vs. period correlation for giant planets first observed with radial velocity holds with transiting planets. The correlation between surface gravity and period can be explained as the combined effect of the mass vs. period lower limit and by the decreasing transit probability and detection efficiency for longer periods and higher surface gravity. Our model also naturally explains other trends, like the correlation between planetary radius and stellar effective temperature. Finally, we are also able to reproduce the previously observed apparent bimodal distribution of planetary Safronov numbers in 10% of our simulated cases, although our model predicts a continuous distribution. This shows that the evidence for the existence of two groups of planets with different intrinsic properties is not statistically significant.
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Transiting extrasolar planets are now discovered jointly by photometric surveys and by radial velocimetry, allowing measurements of their radius and mass. We want to determine whether the different ...data sets are compatible between themselves and with models of the evolution of extrasolar planets. We further want to determine whether to expect a population of dense Jupiter-mass planets to be detected by future more sensitive transit surveys. We directly simulate a population of stars corresponding to the OGLE transit survey and assign them planetary companions based on a list of 153 extrasolar planets discovered by radial velocimetry. We use a model of the evolution and structure of giant planets that assumes that they are made of hydrogen and helium and of a variable fraction of heavy elements (between 0 and 100 $M_{\oplus}$). The output list of detectable planets of the simulations is compared to the real detections. We confirm that the radial velocimetry and photometric survey data sets are compatible within the statistical errors, assuming that planets with periods between 1 and 2 days are approximately 5 times less frequent than planets with periods between 2 and 5 days. We show that evolution models fitting present observational constraints predict a lack of small giant planets with large masses. As a side result of the study, we identify two distinct populations of planets: those with short periods ($P<10$ d), which are found in orbit only around metal-rich stars with Fe/H>~-0.07, and those on longer orbits ($P>10$ d), for which the metallicity bias is less marked. We further confirm the relative absence of low-mass giant planets at small orbital distances. Testing these results and the underlying planetary evolution models requires the detection of a statistically significant number of transiting planets, which should be provided over the next few years by continued ground-based photometric surveys, the space missions CoRoT and Kepler, and combined radial velocity measurements.
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Context. CoRoT is a pioneering space mission devoted to the analysis of stellar variability and the photometric detection of extrasolar planets. Aims. We present the list of planetary transit ...candidates detected in the first field observed by CoRoT, IRa01, the initial run toward the Galactic anticenter, which lasted for 60 days. Methods. We analysed 3898 sources in the coloured bands and 5974 in the monochromatic band. Instrumental noise and stellar variability were taken into account using detrending tools before applying various transit search algorithms. Results. Fifty sources were classified as planetary transit candidates and the most reliable 40 detections were declared targets for follow-up ground-based observations. Two of these targets have so far been confirmed as planets, CoRoT-1b and CoRoT-4b, for which a complete characterization and specific studies were performed.
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investigate the astrophysical false-positive configuration in exoplanet-transit surveys. It involves eclipsing binaries and giant planets that present only a secondary eclipse, as seen from the ...Earth. To test how an eclipsing binary configuration can mimic a planetary transit, we generated synthetic light curves of three examples of secondary-only eclipsing binary systems that we fit with a circular planetary model. Then, to evaluate its occurrence we modeled a population of binaries in double and triple systems based on binary statistics and occurrence. We find that 0.061% +/- 0.017% of main-sequence binary stars are secondary-only eclipsing binaries that mimics a planetary transit candidate with a size down to the size of the Earth. We then evaluate the occurrence that an occulting only giant planet can mimic an Earth-like planet or even a smaller one. We find that 0.009% +/- 0.002% of stars harbor a giant planet that only presents the secondary transit. Occulting-only giant planets mimic planets that are smaller than the Earth, and they are in the scope of space missions like Kepler and PLATO. We estimate that up to 43.1 +/- 5.6 Kepler objects of interest can be mimicked by this configuration of false positives, thereby re-evaluating the global false-positive rate of the Kepler mission from 9.4 +/- 0.9% to 11.3 +/- 1.1%. We note, however, that this new false positive scenario occurs at relatively long orbital periods compared with the median period of Kepler candidates.
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ASTEP South: a first photometric analysis Crouzet, N.; Guillot, T.; Mékarnia, D. ...
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union,
08/2012, Volume:
8, Issue:
S288
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The ASTEP project aims at detecting and characterizing transiting planets from Dome C, Antarctica, and qualifying this site for photometry in the visible. The first phase of the project, ASTEP South, ...is a fixed 10 cm diameter instrument pointing continuously towards the celestial South Pole. Observations were made almost continuously during 4 winters, from 2008 to 2011. The point-to-point RMS of 1-day photometric lightcurves can be explained by a combination of expected statistical noises, dominated by the photon noise up to magnitude 14. This RMS is large, from 2.5 mmag at R = 8 to 6% at R = 14, because of the small size of ASTEP South and the short exposure time (30 s). Statistical noises should be considerably reduced using the large amount of collected data. A 9.9-day period eclipsing binary is detected, with a magnitude R = 9.85. The 2-season lightcurve folded in phase and binned into 1,000 points has a RMS of 1.09 mmag, for an expected photon noise of 0.29 mmag. The use of the 4 seasons of data with a better detrending algorithm should yield a sub-millimagnitude precision for this folded lightcurve. Radial velocity follow-up observations reveal a F-M binary system. The detection of this 9.9-day period system with a small instrument such as ASTEP South and the precision of the folded lightcurve show the quality of Dome C for continuous photometric observations, and its potential for the detection of planets with orbital periods longer than those usually detected from the ground.
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