Adaptive optics images. III. 87 Kepler objects of interest

Journal Article · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/148/5/78· OSTI ID:22342239

Dressing, Courtney D.; Dupree, Andrea K. ^[1]; Adams, Elisabeth R. ^[2]; Kulesa, Craig; McCarthy, Don ^[3]

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1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
2. Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
3. Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

The Kepler mission has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets, but some of the planet candidates identified by Kepler may actually be astrophysical false positives or planets whose transit depths are diluted by the presence of another star. Adaptive optics images made with ARIES at the MMT of 87 Kepler Objects of Interest place limits on the presence of fainter stars in or near the Kepler aperture. We detected visual companions within 1'' for 5 stars, between 1'' and 2'' for 7 stars, and between 2'' and 4'' for 15 stars. For those systems, we estimate the brightness of companion stars in the Kepler bandpass and provide approximate corrections to the radii of associated planet candidates due to the extra light in the aperture. For all stars observed, we report detection limits on the presence of nearby stars. ARIES is typically sensitive to stars approximately 5.3 Ks magnitudes fainter than the target star within 1'' and approximately 5.7 Ks magnitudes fainter within 2'', but can detect stars as faint as ΔKs = 7.5 under ideal conditions.

• OSTI ID: 22342239
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 148; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
APERTURES
APPROXIMATIONS
ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
CORRECTIONS
DETECTION
OPTICS
PLANETS
SATELLITES
SENSITIVITY
STARS
VISIBLE RADIATION