J/AJ/157/226 Photometry of Proxima Centauri from 2006 to 2017 (Feliz+, 2019)
A multi-year search for transits of Proxima Centauri.
II. No evidence for transit events with periods between 1 and 30 days.
Feliz D.L., Blank D.L., Collins K.A., White G.L., Stassun K.G., Curtis I.A.,
Hart R., Kielkopf J.F., Nelson P., Relles H., Stockdale C., Jayawardene B.,
Shankland P., Reichart D.E., Haislip J.B., Kouprianov V.V.
<Astron. J., 157, 226 (2019)>
=2019AJ....157..226F 2019AJ....157..226F (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Stars, nearby ; Photometry
Keywords: planetary systems - stars: individual (Proxima Centauri) -
techniques: photometric
Abstract:
Using a global network of small telescopes, we have obtained light curves
of Proxima Centauri at 329 observation epochs from 2006 to 2017. The
planet Proxima b discovered by Anglada-Escude et al. (2016Natur.536..437A 2016Natur.536..437A)
with an orbital period of 11.186 days has an a priori transit probability
of ∼1.5%; if it transits, the predicted transit depth is about 5 mmag.
In Blank et al. (2018AJ....155..228B 2018AJ....155..228B), we analyzed 96 of our light curves
that overlapped with predicted transit ephemerides from previously
published tentative transit detections and found no evidence in our data
that would corroborate claims of transits with a period of 11.186 days.
Here we broaden our analysis, using 262 high-quality light curves from
our data set to search for any periodic transit-like events over a range
of periods from 1 to 30 days. We also inject a series of simulated planet
transits and find that our data are sufficiently sensitive to have detected
transits of 5 mmag depth, with recoverability ranging from ∼100% for
an orbital period of 1 day to ∼20% for an orbital period of 20 days for
the parameter spaces tested. Specifically, at the 11.186-day period and
5 mmag transit depth, we rule out transits in our data with high
confidence. We are able to rule out virtually all transits of other planets
at periods shorter than 5 days and depths greater than 3 mmag; however,
we cannot confidently rule out transits at the period of Proxima b due
to incomplete orbital phase coverage and a lack of sensitivity to transits
shallower than 4 mmag.
Description:
The observations that make up our data set of 329 light curves came
from the world-wide robotic telescope network Skynet (Reichart et al.
2005NCimC..28..767R 2005NCimC..28..767R), the Real Astronomy Experience (RAE) robotic
telescope (Fadavi et al. 2006AN....327..811F 2006AN....327..811F) located in in Bickley,
Western Australia, and from several participating observatories from
the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT; Pepper et al.
2007PASP..119..923P 2007PASP..119..923P, 2012PASP..124..230P 2012PASP..124..230P) and Follow-Up Network
(KELT-FUN; Collins et al. 2018, J/AJ/156/234).
Objects:
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RA (ICRS) DE Designation(s)
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14 29 42.95 -62 40 46.2 Proxima Centauri = V* V645 Cen
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table3.dat 74 133162 Photometry of Proxima Centauri
table4.dat 74 127194 Detrended photometry of Proxima Centauri
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See also:
J/AJ/153/93 : MOST photometry of Proxima (Kipping+, 2017)
J/AJ/155/12 : Photometry of Proxima Centauri observed by BSST (Liu+, 2018)
J/AJ/156/234 : KELT transit false positive catalog for TESS (Collins+, 2018)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 24 E24.18 d BJD Barycentric Julian Date in the Barycentric
Dynamical Time of observation (TDB)
26- 49 E24.18 --- Flux [0.92078/1.08324] Undetrended normalized relative
flux (1)
51- 74 E24.18 --- e_Flux [0.00069/0.22068] Uncertainty in Flux
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Note (1): This data is iteratively 3σ clipped. See text and Blank et al.
(2018AJ....155..228B 2018AJ....155..228B) for more information on photometric observations.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table4.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 24 E24.18 d BJD Barycentric Julian Date in the Barycentric
Dynamical Time of observation (TDB)
26- 49 E24.18 --- Flux [0.958507/1.081338] Detrended normalized relative
flux (1)
51- 74 E24.18 --- e_Flux [0.000734/0.11062] Uncertainty in Flux
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Note (1): See Blank et al. (2018AJ....155..228B 2018AJ....155..228B) for more information on
photometric observations.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Blank et al. Paper I. 2018AJ....155..228B 2018AJ....155..228B
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Tiphaine Pouvreau [CDS] 12-Aug-2019