html version of Poster displayed at JENAM-95 meeting in Catania,
Italy 9/95
The TEP Network - Searching for Transits of Extrasolar Planets
H.J. Deeg, E.L. Martin (Inst. Astrofisica Canarias), J. Schneider, M. Chevreton
(Meudon Obsv.), L.R. Doyle (SETI), J.M. Jenkins (NASA-Ames), M. Palaiologou
(Skinakas Obsv., Crete), W.B. Lee (Korea Astr. Obsv.)
What do we want to do?
Detect the presence/absence of terrestrial planets around the eclipsing
main sequence Binary CM Draconis
How?
By observing the small decrease in light from the binary if a planet transits
across the components. The transits are observed performing differential
photometry from a network of telescopes, providing continuous coverage
as much as possible. A planetary transit will result in unique lightcurves,
depending on the phase of the binary and the planetary period (Fig.
1).
Why CM Dra?
CM Dra is unique in its small size (R=0.235 and 0.252 Rsol), its low temperature
(spectral class M4.2-M4.4 for both components), its nearly edge-on inclination
of 89.8 degrees, and its proximity of 16.9 pc. These properties are advantageous
for photometric observations for several reasons: Due to the small size
of CM Dra (total surface area: 12% of the sun), the transit of an earth
sized planet across one binary component would cause a brightness drop
of 0.1%; a Neptune sized body would cause a drop of 1.2%. These drops are
an order of magnitude larger than the transits of similar planets across
stars of solar size. Second, in systems of low luminosities and temperatures
it is expected, that terrestrial planets will form in a region much closer
to the central star. If planets comparable to those of the solar system
have formed around CM Dra at distances of similar flux, then the orbital
period of these planets are as given in the table:
Table 1. Planetary period of terrestrial planet equivalents around CM Dra
*Note: The minimum stable period around CM Dra is
7.62 days.
What are the limits to the method and what is the detection probability?
The network of 1m Telescopes used for observations in 1994 and 1995 obtains
data with typically 0.6% precision in relative flux. This corresponds to
the ability to detect Planets with a radius of 2.6 REarth (which cause
transits with 0.6% flux decrease) directly, and for continuous observation
of more than one planetary period the detection probability would be 100%.
In practice, continuos observation can be achieved from space only - for
long discontinuous observing runs (covering several planetary periods),
the detection probability will be close to 100% too. An example for the
phase coverage obatined by relatively short runs is given in Fig.
2. Smaller Planets whose transit signatures may be hidden in the
photometric noise (with S/N ~ 0.4 - 1) may be retrieved using a cross correlation
with transit event models (Fig. 3). The probabilities
of a correct detection will be less than 100%, though, see Table 2). This
table also shows the dependence between the light collecting power of a
telescope and the sizes of planets that can be detected directly or through
cross correlation. If the duty cycle (time that a telescope collects light
/ total time) is constant, the detectable radius of a planet depends by:
RPlanet ~ 1/(Area of Telescope).
Table 2: Detection probabilities averaged for Planets with 8-30 day periods
at several telescope sizes and observation durations (from Jenkins et al,
1995):
*For non-continuos coverage of short (<2 months) observing
runs, where only a few transits of longer period planets are expected (such
as 1 transit of a 30 day planet in a 1 month run), planets may be missed
and the probabilities are less predictable. In particular, the rightmost
column indicating direct detection (no cross correlation) will be <
100%.
What has been done so far?
Observations of CM Dra in the frame of the TEP network began in spring
1994 at several 1m class telescopes equipped with CCDs (see separate list
of observatories). Through July 1995, about 630h coverage in 16000 individual
CCD frames has been obtained. Aperture photometry with variable (seeing-dependent)
apertures is performed on the CCD frames, using a custom developed suite
of IRAF tasks, 'vaphot'. The precision of the differential photometry obtained
so far with the 1m class telescopes is about 0.6 % in flux. A composite
lightcurve containing most 1994 observations is shown in Fig.
4. The phase coverage is shown in Fig. 5.
In both lightcurves, the off-eclipse magnitude of Cm Dra has been set to
0. The lightcurves have been scanned by eye for dips that may be planetary
transits, comparison with the phase of CM Dra gives a first rejection,
if these dips may be from planetary transits. A second step will then be
the application of the cross correlation program, whose outcome is strongly
influenced, if these dips are repeated in a fashion compatible with the
presence of a planet.
Other things that can be done with the data?
A second method to detect the presence of objects of Jupiter size or larger
is given by the observation of slow periodic changes in the period (or
Epoch) of CM Dra, from the motion of the Binary - Large Planet system around
its barycenter. A Jupiter sized planet sized at a distance of 5.2 AU would
cause a periodic change in Epoch of about 11 sec over 8 years. From the
reduction of a precisely timed eclipse in May 1995, there is currently
a 50 sec discrepancy against the Epoch and period given by Lacy (1977).
The lightcurve data provide also unprecedented coverage (for enlargement
of primary phase, see Fig. 6), of Cm Dra.
Already, several flares have been observed and an improved derivation of
the orbital elements of CM Dra will be possible, allowing spin off results
like a determination of the helium abundance of this very old system.
References
Here a link to a more complete set of references
related to TEP
Doyle, L.R., Dunham, E.T., Deeg, H.J., Blue, J.E., Jenkins, J.M. (1996),
Detectability of Terrestrial Planets: U.C. Lick Observations of CM Dra,
J. of Geophys. Res. - Planets, in print
Jenkins, J.M., Doyle, L.R, Cullers, D.K. (1996), A Matched Filter Method
for Ground Based Sub-Noise Detection of Terrestrial Planets in Eclisping
Binaries: Application to Cm Dra, Icarus, 119,244
Lacy, C.H. (1977), Absolute Dimensions and Masses of the Remarkable
Spotted Binary Star CM Dra, ApJ, 218, 444
Schneider, J. and Doyle, L.R. (1995),"Ground Based Detection of Terrestrial
Planets by Photometry: The Case for CM Draconis", Earth Moon and Planets,
71,153
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email to hdeeg@ll.iac.es.
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Deeg at hdeeg@ll.iac.es