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DETECTION of TRANSITTING EXOPLANETS USING BYU-IDAHO’S 250Mm F/4

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DETECTION of TRANSITTING EXOPLANETS USING BYU-IDAHO’S 250Mm F/4 DETECTION OF TRANSITTING EXOPLANETS USING BYU-IDAHO’S 250mm f/4 MAKSUTOV-NEWTONIAN TELESCOPE by Kayla Cameron A senior thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University-Idaho in partial fulfillment of graduation requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science Department of Physics Brigham Young University-Idaho December 2011 Copyright © 2011 Kayla Cameron All Rights Reserved ii BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY-IDAHO DEPARTMENT APPROVAL of a senior thesis submitted by Kayla Cameron This thesis has been reviewed by the thesis committee and has been found to be satisfactory. Date Stephen McNeil, Research Advisor Date David Oliphant, Thesis Coordinator Date Brian Tonks, Committee Chair iii Abstract Exoplanets, planets around other stars, can be detected using a number of different methods, including the transiting method. BYU-Idaho’s 250mm f/4 Maksutov- Newtonian telescope might be capable of detecting transiting planets by monitoring the magnitude of the star. Though time was not sufficient to collect enough data, the data did suggest that the telescope is fairly accurate in measuring the magnitude of a star over time. The measured magnitude for HD 189733 was 7.65 ±0.03. This data was collected between July 29th and September 1st. This thesis is intended to be a guide for future research on exoplanets. iv Acknowledgments I would like to thank several people. First, to Brother Tonks and Brother McNeil for convincing me to switch to physics through their Astronomy class that I took while I was still an Art major. Second, to Brother McNeil for spending several late nights helping us to prepare and checking up on us. Third, to Marianne and Ruben Kackstaetter, Kushal Bhattarai, and Sarah Lemmon for helping with telescope setup and troubleshooting. I would also especially like to thank my husband Josh for everything he did during this project. He not only supported me in my research, but he also encouraged me when things weren’t working; helped with setup, takedown and other important parts of the procedure; and kept me company late into the night, even when he had his internship to go to in the morning. Additional thanks go to my thesis committee, as well as my dad, for reading and editing this paper. v vi Table of Contents Table of Figures .................................................................................................................... viii 1. Introduction and History ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Prior Telescope Research ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 The Search for Exoplanets .............................................................................................. 1 1.2.1 Methods of Detection ................................................................................................ 1 1.2.2 Early exoplanet searches ......................................................................................... 3 1.3 Transiting and its use at BYU-Idaho ................................................................................ 5 2. Setup for Research .............................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Daily Setup ...................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Using the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia ..................................................................... 7 2.3 Choosing a star ............................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Preparing for File Storage ................................................................................................ 9 3. Procedure ........................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 Imaging .......................................................................................................................... 11 3.1.1 Taking bias, dark and flat frames ............................................................................ 11 3.1.2 Correcting images in MaxIm DL ............................................................................. 11 3.1.3 Measuring Magnitudes ........................................................................................... 12 3.2 Gathering Data .............................................................................................................. 13 4. Results ............................................................................................................................... 14 4.1 Results of HD 149026.................................................................................................... 14 4.2 Inconsistencies in Light Curve ....................................................................................... 16 4.3 Analysis of HD 189733 .................................................................................................. 17 4.4 Post Project Results ...................................................................................................... 18 5. Conclusion and Groundwork for Future Research ............................................................. 20 5.1 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 20 5.2 Future exoplanet searches ............................................................................................ 20 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 22 Appendix A―Setup ................................................................................................................ 23 Appendix B―Right Ascension Chart ...................................................................................... 25 Appendix C―Data Table ........................................................................................................ 27 Appendix D- Drop in Magnitude ............................................................................................. 29 vii Table of Figures Figure 1: Graphs of HD 189733 showing the light curve from the transiting planet. ................. 6 Figure 2. Graph of the measured magnitude of HD 149026, July 6, 2011 ............................. 15 Figure 3: Graph of magnitude of HD 149026, July 9, 2011 .................................................... 15 Figure 4: Graph of HD 189733 with bad data ......................................................................... 16 Figure 5: Graph of HD 189733 with ringed image data removed ........................................... 17 Figure 6: Close up of inconsistent section of Figure 5. ........................................................... 17 Table of Equations Equation 1: Percentage of light drop... .........................................................................................27 Equation 2: Magnitude comparison.... .........................................................................................27 Equation 3: Change in magnitude...... .........................................................................................27 viii 1. Introduction and History 1.1 Prior Telescope Research Brigham Young University-Idaho received a 250mm Maksutov-Newtonian telescope as a donation in 2008. Since that time, two former students completed research that laid ground work for my own. Cameron Jones first revealed the telescope’s capabilities by figuring out how to operate it. He also discovered which computer programs worked best for guiding the telescope and taking pictures. His thesis is a great guide for setting up the telescope and can be found at BYU-Idaho’s Physics Department Office. (1) Scott Fuller researched the capabilities of the CCD device that is an integral part of the telescope. To demonstrate its capabilities, he studied a variable star. Part of his thesis contains instructions on using the CCD camera for imaging. His thesis is online at http://www.byui.edu/physics/Thesis.htm and can also be found in the Physics Office. (2) 1.2 The Search for Exoplanets Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars other than ours. The field of exoplanet research is surprisingly old for a topic that has just barely begun to take off. There are many methods useful for finding exoplanets and most were influential in some of the first mistakes and discoveries. 1.2.1 Methods of Detection The first method used to try to find exoplanets is called astrometry. Astrometry is the precise measurement of the position of a star. The theory is that if an astronomer 1 can detect a wobble in the movement of a star, it indicates the presence of a companion in the same system. Everything in a star system rotates around a barycenter, which is basically the balance point of the system. If the system consists of only one body, there will be no wobble. In a binary star system, the more massive star will have less wobble and the smaller star will move more. The same goes for stars and their planets. There are a lot of limitations to this method. A star twice the distance away from Earth than another star will be twice as hard to detect its movements. (3) Astrometry relies on what can be seen in the line of sight and because that requires visible light, it is less precise than other methods that also detect movement. (4) From astrometry came the Doppler method. Based
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