Multifiber photometry: a technique for detecting extrasolar planets

Ian Robert Parry; Esperanza Carrasco; Frederick G. Watson

doi:10.1117/12.176815

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1 June 1994 Multifiber photometry: a technique for detecting extrasolar planets

Ian Robert Parry, Esperanza Carrasco, Frederick G. Watson

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Proceedings Volume 2198, Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176815
Event: 1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1994, Kailua, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

We present details of an instrumental configuration dedicated to the detection of large gas-giant planets orbiting main sequence stars via the small drop in stellar brightness that occurs when the planet transits the stellar disk. Our proposed scheme involves the long-term monitoring of the light-curves of tens of thousands of stars using a Schmidt telescope coupled to a CCD via a bundle of 10,000 optical fibres. Using an existing theoretical model of planetary system formation, we calculate a detection rate of 14 transits per year for our proposed system. Some fibre- optic laboratory results and some tests of a 10 fibre multi- object photometer prototype used on the UK Schmidt telescope (UKST) are also presented to support the feasibility of this idea.

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Ian Robert Parry, Esperanza Carrasco, and Frederick G. Watson "Multifiber photometry: a technique for detecting extrasolar planets", Proc. SPIE 2198, Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII, (1 June 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176815

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