Transits against Fainter Stars: The Power of Image Deconvolution

Compared to bright star searches, surveys for transiting planets against fainter (V=12-18) stars have the advantage of much higher sky densities of dwarf star primaries, which afford easier detection of small transiting bodies. Furthermore, deep searches are capable of probing a wider range of stell...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2009-03
Main Authors: Sackett, Penny D, Gillon, Michaël, Bayliss, Daniel D R, Weldrake, David T F, Tingley, Brandon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Binary stars
Deconvolution
Dwarf stars
Extrasolar planets
Image resolution
Infrared imaging
Missions
Planet detection
Searching
Sky surveys (astronomy)
Spatial resolution
Transit
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Summary:Compared to bright star searches, surveys for transiting planets against fainter (V=12-18) stars have the advantage of much higher sky densities of dwarf star primaries, which afford easier detection of small transiting bodies. Furthermore, deep searches are capable of probing a wider range of stellar environments. On the other hand, for a given spatial resolution and transit depth, deep searches are more prone to confusion from blended eclipsing binaries. We present a powerful mitigation strategy for the blending problem that includes the use of image deconvolution and high resolution imaging. The techniques are illustrated with Lupus-TR-3 and very recent IR imaging with PANIC on Magellan. The results are likely to have implications for the CoRoT and KEPLER missions designed to detect transiting planets of terrestrial size.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0903.1329