AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 104. NOAO Survey Programs
Special, Wednesday, January 8, 2003, 2:00-3:30pm, 608-609

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[104.10] The EXPLORE Project: A Deep Search for Transiting Extrasolar Planets at the KPNO and CTIO 4m Telescopes.

G. Mallen-Ornelas (CfA), S. Seager (CIW DTM), H.K.C. Yee (U. of Toronto), K. von Braun (CIW DTM), T.M. Brown (HAO/NCAR), M.D. Gladders (OCIW), B. Lee (U. of Toronto), S.L. Ellison (ESO-Chile), L. Eyer (Geneva Obs.), C. Blake (Princeton), G. Mallen-Fullerton (U. Iberoamericana)

We present preliminary results of our October 2002 campaign at the KPNO 4m telescope as part of an ongoing search for transiting extrasolar planets. Our goal is to detect transiting planets and to derive statistics of planet frequency, radius, and mass for stars ranging from types early G to late K. Planet transits will be detected via 1% photometric precision lightcurves with 4 minute time sampling spanning 18 nights per run. Transit searches will mark a new era in planetary discovery and characterization. Planet radii, which provide constraints on composition, evolution, and migration history, can only be measured for transiting planets. In addition absolute planet mass can be determined with follow-up radial velocity measurements. Our lightcurve database will have unprecedented time sampling and very high photometric precision for hundreds of thousands of stars, enabling new research on variable and binary stars, short microlensing events, and moving objects such as asteroids.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0203218. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mallen@astro.princeton.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.