We search for superflares from 4068 cool stars in 2+ yr of Evryscope photometry, focusing on those with high-cadence data from both Evryscope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The ...Evryscope array of small telescopes observed 575 flares from 284 stars, with a median energy of 1034.0 erg. Since 2016, Evryscope has enabled the detection of rare events from all stars observed by TESS through multi-year, high-cadence continuous observing. We report around twice the previous largest number of 1034 erg high-cadence flares from nearby cool stars. We find eight flares with amplitudes of 3+ g′ magnitudes, with the largest reaching 5.6 mag and releasing 1036.2 erg. We observe a 1034 erg superflare from TOI-455 (LTT 1445), a mid-M with a rocky planet candidate. We measure the superflare rate per flare-star and quantify the average flaring of active stars as a function of spectral type, including superflare rates, flare frequency distributions, and typical flare amplitudes in g′. We confirm superflare morphology is broadly consistent with magnetic reconnection. We estimate starspot coverage necessary to produce superflares, and hypothesize maximum allowed superflare energies and waiting times between flares corresponding to 100% coverage of the stellar hemisphere. We observe decreased flaring at high Galactic latitudes. We explore the effects of superflares on ozone loss to planetary atmospheres: we observe one superflare with sufficient energy to photodissociate all ozone in an Earth-like atmosphere in one event. We find 17 stars that may deplete an Earth-like atmosphere via repeated flaring. Of the 1822 stars around which TESS may discover temperate rocky planets, we observe 14.6% 2% emit large flares.
We present the discovery of a transiting hot Jupiter orbiting HIP 67522 (Teff ∼ 5650 K; M* ∼ 1.2M ) in the 10-20 Myr old Sco-Cen OB association. We identified the transits in the TESS data using our ...custom notch filter planet search pipeline and characterize the system with additional photometry from Spitzer; spectroscopy from SOAR/Goodman, SALT/HRS, LCOGT/NRES, and SMARTS/CHIRON; and speckle imaging from SOAR/HRCam. We model the photometry as a periodic Gaussian process with transits to account for stellar variability and find an orbital period of days and radius of R⊕. We also identify a single transit of an additional candidate planet with radius R⊕ that has an orbital period of 23 days. The validated planet HIP 67522b is currently the youngest transiting hot Jupiter discovered and is an ideal candidate for transmission spectroscopy and radial velocity follow-up studies, while also demonstrating that some young giant planets either form in situ at small orbital radii or else migrate promptly from formation sites farther out in the disk.
Proxima b is a terrestrial-mass planet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri's high stellar activity, however, casts doubt on the habitability of Proxima b: sufficiently bright ...and frequent flares and any associated proton events may destroy the planet's ozone layer, allowing lethal levels of UV flux to reach its surface. In 2016 March, the Evryscope observed the first naked-eye-brightness superflare detected from Proxima Centauri. Proxima increased in optical flux by a factor of ∼68 during the superflare and released a bolometric energy of 1033.5 erg, ∼10× larger than any previously detected flare from Proxima. Over the last two years the Evryscope has recorded 23 other large Proxima flares ranging in bolometric energy from 1030.6 to 1032.4 erg; coupling those rates with the single superflare detection, we predict that at least five superflares occur each year. Simultaneous high-resolution High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectroscopy during the Evryscope superflare constrains the superflare's UV spectrum and any associated coronal mass ejections. We use these results and the Evryscope flare rates to model the photochemical effects of NOx atmospheric species generated by particle events from this extreme stellar activity, and show that the repeated flaring may be sufficient to reduce the ozone of an Earth-like atmosphere by 90% within five years; complete depletion may occur within several hundred kyr. The UV light produced by the Evryscope superflare would therefore have reached the surface with ∼100× the intensity required to kill simple UV-hardy microorganisms, suggesting that life would have to undergo extreme adaptations to survive in the surface areas of Proxima b exposed to these flares.
We use the Robo-AO survey of Kepler planetary candidate host stars, the largest adaptive optics survey yet performed, to measure the recovery rate of close stellar binaries in Gaia DR2. We find that ...Gaia recovers binaries down to 1″ at magnitude contrasts as large as six; closer systems are not resolved, regardless of secondary brightness. Gaia DR2 binary detection does not have a strong dependence on the orientation of the stellar pairs. We find 177 nearby stars to Kepler planetary candidate host stars in Gaia DR2 that were not detected in the Robo-AO survey, almost all of which are faint (G > 20); the remainder were largely targets observed by Robo-AO in poor conditions. If the primary star is the host, the impact on the radii estimates of planet candidates in these systems is likely minimal; many of these faint stars, however, could be faint eclipsing binaries that are the source of a false positive planetary transit signal. With Robo-AO and Gaia combined, we find that 18.7 0.7% of Kepler planet candidate hosts have nearby stars within 4″. We also find 36 nearby stars in Gaia DR2 around 35 planetary candidate host stars detected with K2. The nearby star fraction rate for K2 planetary candidates is significantly lower than that for the primary Kepler mission. The binary recovery rate of Gaia will improve initial radius estimates of future Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite planet candidates significantly; however, ground-based high-resolution follow-up observations are still needed for precise characterization and confirmation. The sensitivity of Gaia to closely separated binaries is expected to improve in later data releases.
ABSTRACT The Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey is observing every Kepler planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be ...physically associated companions and/or responsible for transit false positives. In this paper, we present the results of our search for stars nearby 1629 Kepler planet candidate hosts. With survey sensitivity to objects as close as ∼0 15, and magnitude differences Δm , we find 223 stars in the vicinity of 206 target KOIs; 209 of these nearby stars have not been previously imaged in high resolution. We measure an overall nearby-star probability for Kepler planet candidates of at separations between 0 15 and 4 0. Particularly interesting KOI systems are discussed, including 26 stars with detected companions that host rocky, habitable zone candidates and five new candidate planet-hosting quadruple star systems. We explore the broad correlations between planetary systems and stellar binarity, using the combined data set of Baranec et al. and this paper. Our previous 2 result of a low detected nearby star fraction of KOIs hosting close-in giant planets is less apparent in this larger data set. We also find a significant correlation between detected nearby star fraction and KOI number, suggesting possible variation between early and late Kepler data releases.
Abstract
Phased flaring, or the periodic occurrence of stellar flares, may probe electromagnetic star−planet interaction (SPI), binary interaction, or magnetic conditions in spots. For the first ...time, we explore flare periodograms for a large sample of flare stars to identify periodicity due to magnetic interactions with orbiting companions, magnetic reservoirs, or rotational phase. Previous large surveys have explored periodicity at the stellar rotation period, but we do not assume periods must correspond with rotation in this work. Two-minute TESS light curves of 284 cool stars are searched for periods of 1–10 days using two newly developed periodograms. Because flares are discrete events in noisy and incomplete data, typical periodograms are not well suited to detect phased flaring. We construct and test a new Bayesian likelihood periodogram and a modified Lomb–Scargle periodogram. We find six candidates with a false-alarm probability below 1%. Three targets are ≥3
σ
detections of flare periodicity; the others are plausible candidates that cannot be individually confirmed. Periods range from 1.35 to 6.7 days and some, but not all, correlate with the stellar rotation period or its 1/2 alias. Periodicity from two targets may persist from TESS Cycle 1 into Cycle 3. The periodicity does not appear to persist for the others. Long-term changes in periodicity may result from the spot evolution observed from each candidate, which suggests magnetic conditions play an important role in sustaining periodicity.
Abstract
We present the results of the second year of exoplanet candidate host speckle observations from the SOAR TESS survey. We find 89 of the 589 newly observed TESS planet candidate hosts have ...companions within 3″, resulting in light-curve dilution, that, if not accounted for, leads to underestimated planetary radii. We combined these observations with those from Paper I to search for evidence of the impact binary stars have on planetary systems. Removing the one-quarter of the targets observed identified as false-positive planet detections, we find that transiting planets are suppressed by nearly a factor of seven in close solar-type binaries, nearly twice the suppression previously reported. The result on planet occurrence rates that are based on magnitude-limited surveys is an overestimation by a factor of two if binary suppression is not taken into account. We also find tentative evidence for similar close binary suppression of planets in M-dwarf systems. Last, we find that the high rates of widely separated companions to hot Jupiter hosts previously reported was likely a result of false-positive contamination in our sample.
The Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey is observing every Kepler planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be physically ...associated companions and/or responsible for transit false positives. In this paper, we present the results from the 2012 observing season, searching for stars close to 715 Kepler planet candidate hosts. We find 53 companions, 43 of which are new discoveries. We detail the Robo-AO survey data reduction methods including a method of using the large ensemble of target observations as mutual point-spread-function references, along with a new automated companion-detection algorithm designed for large adaptive optics surveys. Our survey is sensitive to objects from approximately 0".15 to 2".5 separation, with magnitude differences up to Delta m approximately 6. We measure an overall nearby-star probability for Kepler planet candidates of 7.4% + or - 1.0%, and calculate the effects of each detected nearby star on the Kepler-measured planetary radius. We discuss several Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) of particular interest, including KOI-191 and KOI-1151, which are both multi-planet systems with detected stellar companions whose unusual planetary system architecture might be best explained if they are "coincident multiple" systems, with several transiting planets shared between the two stars. Finally, we find 98% confidence evidence that short-period giant planets are two to three times more likely than longer-period planets to be found in wide stellar binaries.
Recent measurements of rotation periods ( ) in the benchmark open clusters Praesepe (670 Myr), NGC 6811 (1 Gyr), and NGC 752 (1.4 Gyr) demonstrate that, after converging onto a tight sequence of ...slowly rotating stars in mass-period space, stars temporarily stop spinning down. These data also show that the duration of this epoch of stalled spin-down increases toward lower masses. To determine when stalled stars resume spinning down, we use data from the K2 mission and the Palomar Transient Factory to measure for 58 dwarf members of the 2.7 Gyr old cluster Ruprecht 147, 39 of which satisfy our criteria designed to remove short-period or near-equal-mass binaries. Combined with the Kepler data for the approximately coeval cluster NGC 6819 (30 stars with M > 0.85 ), our new measurements more than double the number of 2.5 Gyr benchmark rotators and extend this sample down to 0.55 . The slowly rotating sequence for this joint sample appears relatively flat (22 2 days) compared to sequences for younger clusters. This sequence also intersects the Kepler intermediate-period gap, demonstrating that this gap was not created by a lull in star formation. We calculate the time at which stars resume spinning down and find that 0.55 stars remain stalled for at least 1.3 Gyr. To accurately age-date low-mass stars in the field, gyrochronology formulae must be modified to account for this stalling timescale. Empirically tuning a core-envelope coupling model with open cluster data can account for most of the apparent stalling effect. However, alternative explanations, e.g., a temporary reduction in the magnetic braking torque, cannot yet be ruled out.
ABSTRACT We initiated the Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey in 2012 to observe each Kepler exoplanet candidate host star with high angular resolution, visible light, laser adaptive optics ...(AOs) imaging. Our goal is to find nearby stars lying in Kepler's photometric apertures that are responsible for the relatively high probability of false-positive exoplanet detections and that cause underestimates of the size of transit radii. Our comprehensive survey will also shed light on the effects of stellar multiplicity on exoplanet properties and will identify rare exoplanetary architectures. In this second part of our ongoing survey, we observed an additional 969 Kepler planet candidate hosts and we report blended stellar companions up to that contribute to Kepler's measured light curves. We found 203 companions within ∼4″ of 181 of the Kepler stars, of which 141 are new discoveries. We measure the nearby star probability for this sample of Kepler planet candidate host stars to be 10.6% 1.1% at angular separations up to 2 5, significantly higher than the 7.4% 1.0% probability discovered in our initial sample of 715 stars; we find the probability increases to 17.6% 1.5% out to a separation of 4 0. The median position of Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) observed in this survey are 1 1 closer to the galactic plane, which may account for some of the nearby star probability enhancement. We additionally detail 50 Keck AO images of Robo-AO observed KOIs in order to confirm 37 companions detected at a <5 significance level and to obtain additional infrared photometry on higher significance detected companions.
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