Bibcode
Neuhäuser, R.; Errmann, R.; Berndt, A.; Maciejewski, G.; Takahashi, H.; Chen, W. P.; Dimitrov, D. P.; Pribulla, T.; Nikogossian, E. H.; Jensen, E. L. N.; Marschall, L.; Wu, Z.-Y.; Kellerer, A.; Walter, F. M.; Briceño, C.; Chini, R.; Fernandez, M.; Raetz, St.; Torres, G.; Latham, D. W.; Quinn, S. N.; Niedzielski, A.; Bukowiecki, Ł.; Nowak, G.; Tomov, T.; Tachihara, K.; Hu, S. C.-L.; Hung, L. W.; Kjurkchieva, D. P.; Radeva, V. S.; Mihov, B. M.; Slavcheva-Mihova, L.; Bozhinova, I. N.; Budaj, J.; Vaňko, M.; Kundra, E.; Hambálek, Ľ.; Krushevska, V.; Movsessian, T.; Harutyunyan, H.; Downes, J. J.; Hernandez, J.; Hoffmeister, V. H.; Cohen, D. H.; Abel, I.; Ahmad, R.; Chapman, S.; Eckert, S.; Goodman, J.; Guerard, A.; Kim, H. M.; Koontharana, A.; Sokol, J.; Trinh, J.; Wang, Y.; Zhou, X.; Redmer, R.; Kramm, U.; Nettelmann, N.; Mugrauer, M.; Schmidt, J.; Moualla, M.; Ginski, C.; Marka, C.; Adam, C.; Seeliger, M.; Baar, S.; Roell, T.; Schmidt, T. O. B.; Trepl, L.; Eisenbeiß, T.; Fiedler, S.; Tetzlaff, N.; Schmidt, E.; Hohle, M. M.; Kitze, M.; Chakrova, N.; Gräfe, C.; Schreyer, K.; Hambaryan, V. V.; Broeg, C. H.; Koppenhoefer, J.; Pandey, A. K.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol.332, Issue 6, p.547
Advertised on:
7
2011
Citations
43
Refereed citations
34
Description
We present the Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative (YETI), in which we
use several 0.2 to 2.6-m telescopes around the world to monitor
continuously young (≤100 Myr), nearby (≤1 kpc) stellar clusters
mainly to detect young transiting planets (and to study other
variability phenomena on time-scales from minutes to years). The
telescope network enables us to observe the targets continuously for
several days in order not to miss any transit. The runs are typically
one to two weeks long, about three runs per year per cluster in two or
three subsequent years for about ten clusters. There are thousands of
stars detectable in each field with several hundred known cluster
members, e.g. in the first cluster observed, Tr-37, a typical cluster
for the YETI survey, there are at least 469 known young stars detected
in YETI data down to R=16.5 mag with sufficient precision of 50
millimag rms (5 mmag rms down to R=14.5 mag) to detect transits, so
that we can expect at least about one young transiting object in this
cluster. If we observe ˜10 similar clusters, we can expect to
detect ˜10 young transiting planets with radius determinations.
The precision given above is for a typical telescope of the YETI
network, namely the 60/90-cm Jena telescope (similar brightness limit,
namely within ± 1 mag, for the others) so that planetary transits
can be detected. For targets with a periodic transit-like light curve,
we obtain spectroscopy to ensure that the star is young and that the
transiting object can be sub-stellar; then, we obtain Adaptive Optics
infrared images and spectra, to exclude other bright eclipsing stars in
the (larger) optical PSF; we carry out other observations as needed to
rule out other false positive scenarios; finally, we also perform
spectroscopy to determine the mass of the transiting companion. For
planets with mass and radius determinations, we can calculate the mean
density and probe the internal structure. We aim to constrain planet
formation models and their time-scales by discovering planets younger
than ˜100 Myr and determining not only their orbital parameters,
but also measuring their true masses and radii, which is possible so far
only by the transit method. Here, we present an overview and first
results.