Robotic laser adaptive optics imaging of 715 Kepler exoplanet candidates using Robo-AO

Journal Article · Sun Aug 10 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/791/1/35· OSTI ID:22365382

Law, Nicholas M.; Ziegler, Carl ^[1]; Morton, Tim; Riddle, Reed; Tendulkar, Shriharsh P.; Bui, Khanh; Dekany, Richard G.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas; Punnadi, Sujit ^[2]; Baranec, Christoph ^[3]; Ravichandran, Ganesh ^[4]; Johnson, John Asher ^[5]; Burse, Mahesh P.; Das, H. K.; Ramaprakash, A. N. ^[6]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 (United States)
2. Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
3. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Hilo, HI 96720-2700 (United States)
4. West Tresper Clarke High School, East Meadow School District, 740 Edgewood Drive, Westbury, NY 11590 (United States)
5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
6. Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007 (India)

The Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey is observing every Kepler planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be physically associated companions and/or responsible for transit false positives. In this paper, we present the results from the 2012 observing season, searching for stars close to 715 Kepler planet candidate hosts. We find 53 companions, 43 of which are new discoveries. We detail the Robo-AO survey data reduction methods including a method of using the large ensemble of target observations as mutual point-spread-function references, along with a new automated companion-detection algorithm designed for large adaptive optics surveys. Our survey is sensitive to objects from ≈0.''15 to 2.''5 separation, with magnitude differences up to Δm ≈ 6. We measure an overall nearby-star probability for Kepler planet candidates of 7.4% ± 1.0%, and calculate the effects of each detected nearby star on the Kepler-measured planetary radius. We discuss several Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) of particular interest, including KOI-191 and KOI-1151, which are both multi-planet systems with detected stellar companions whose unusual planetary system architecture might be best explained if they are 'coincident multiple' systems, with several transiting planets shared between the two stars. Finally, we find 98% confidence evidence that short-period giant planets are two to three times more likely than longer-period planets to be found in wide stellar binaries.

• OSTI ID: 22365382
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 791; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ALGORITHMS
BINARY STARS
DATA ANALYSIS
DESIGN
DETECTION
LASER RADIATION
OPTICS
PLANETS
PROBABILITY
REDUCTION
RESOLUTION
SATELLITES
STARS