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G. Mallen-Ornelas (CfA), S. Seager (CIW DTM), H.K.C. Yee (U. of Toronto), M.D. Gladders (OCIW), T.M. Brown (HAO/NCAR), K. von Braun (CIW DTM), D. Minniti (P.U. Catolica de Chile), S.L. Ellison (ESO-Chile), G.M. Mallen-Fullerton (U. Iberoamericana)
Planet transit searches promise to be the next big step forward in short-period extrasolar planet detection and characterization. Every transiting planet discovered will have a measured radius, and radial velocity observations will lead to an absolute mass measurement (since orbital inclination is known). Transiting planets can be discovered around distant stars and in a variety of stellar environments. Many transit searches are now ongoing. The EXPLORE Project is a series of transit searches using wide-field CCD mosaic cameras on 4m-class telescopes, with radial velocity follow-up of transit candidates done using 8m-class telescopes. We continuously monitor a Galactic plane field for as long as 18 consecutive nights with 3-minute time sampling, and perform 0.2-1 tens of thousands of stars in our field. We have a pipeline to completely reduce the data in a few weeks after the imaging observations, which allows same-semester radial-velocity follow-up observations. We present results from our 2001 and 2002 observing campaigns at CTIO, CFHT, and KPNO, and show transit candidates for which radial velocity follow-up has been done.
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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.