Bibcode
DOI
O'Donovan, Francis T.; Charbonneau, David; Torres, Guillermo; Mandushev, Georgi; Dunham, Edward W.; Latham, David W.; Alonso, Roi; Brown, Timothy M.; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.; Everett, Mark E.; Creevey, Orlagh L.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 644, Issue 2, pp. 1237-1245.
Fecha de publicación:
6
2006
Revista
Número de citas
64
Número de citas referidas
52
Descripción
Ground-based wide-field surveys for nearby transiting gas giants are
yielding far fewer true planets than astrophysical false positives, some
of which are difficult to reject. Recent experience has highlighted the
need for careful analysis to eliminate astronomical systems in which
light from a faint eclipsing binary is blended with that from a bright
star. During the course of the Transatlantic Exoplanet Survey, we
identified a system presenting a transit-like periodic signal. We
obtained the proper motion and infrared color of this target (GSC
03885-00829) from publicly available catalogs, which suggested this star
is an F dwarf, supporting our transit hypothesis. This spectral
classification was confirmed using spectroscopic observations from which
we determined the stellar radial velocity. The star did not exhibit any
signs of a stellar mass companion. However, subsequent multicolor
photometry displayed a color-dependent transit depth, indicating that a
blend was the likely source of the eclipse. We successfully modeled our
initial photometric observations of GSC 03885-00829 as the light from a
K dwarf binary system superimposed on the light from a late F dwarf
star. High-dispersion spectroscopy confirmed the presence of light from
a cool stellar photosphere in the spectrum of this system. With this
candidate, we demonstrate both the difficulty in identifying certain
types of false positives in a list of candidate transiting planets and
our procedure for rejecting these imposters, which may be useful to
other groups performing wide-field transit surveys.
Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck
Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the
California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was
made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck
Foundation.