KPS-1b: the first transiting exoplanet discovered using an amateur astronomer's wide-field CCD data

• Published in: arXiv.org 2018-04
• Main Authors: Burdanov, Artem, Benni, Paul, Sokov, Eugene, Krushinsky, Vadim, Popov, Alexander, Delrez, Laetitia, Gillon, Michael, Hébrard, Guillaume, Deleuil, Magali, Wilson, Paul A, Demangeon, Olivier, Baştürk, Özgür, Pakštiene, Erika, Sokova, Iraida, Rusov, Sergei A, Dyachenko, Vladimir V, Rastegaev, Denis A, Beskakotov, Anatoliy, Marchini, Alessandro, Bretton, Marc, Shadick, Stan, Ivanov, Kirill
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Celestial bodies; Extrasolar planets; Galactic evolution; Gas giant planets; Main sequence stars; Photometry; Planetary orbits; Telescopes; Transit
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1804.05551

We report the discovery of the transiting hot Jupiter KPS-1b. This exoplanet orbits a V=13.0 K1-type main-sequence star every 1.7 days, has a mass of \(1.090_{-0.087}^{+0.086}\) \(M_{\mathrm{Jup}}\) and a radius of \(1.03_{-0.12}^{+0.13}\) \(R_{\mathrm{Jup}}\). The discovery was made by the prototype Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project, which used wide-field CCD data gathered by an amateur astronomer using readily available and relatively affordable equipment. Here we describe the equipment and observing technique used for the discovery of KPS-1b, its characterization with spectroscopic observations by the SOPHIE spectrograph and with high-precision photometry obtained with 1-m class telescopes. We also outline the KPS project evolution into the Galactic Plane eXoplanet survey (GPX). The discovery of KPS-1b represents a new major step of the contribution of amateur astronomers to the burgeoning field of exoplanetology.