Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T02:00:25.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Method for Spot-Detection on Solar-like Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

Adriana V. R. Silva*
Affiliation:
Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, CRAAM, Rua da Consola¸ão, 896, São Paulo, SP 01302-907, Brazil

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

As a planet eclipses its parent star, a dark starspot may be occulted, causing a detectable variation in the light curve. This work describes how features on the surface of a solar-like star can be studied by using planetary transits. Images of the Sun were used in order to simulate such transits, with the planet being modeled as a dark disk at various positions along its orbit. From modeling of these transits it might be possible to infer the physical properties of the spots, such as size, intensity, position, and temperature. Recent transits observations for HD 209458 were used as tests to the model. The results yield that the limb darkening of HD 209458 is not like that of the Sun, but rather follows a quadratic function. The dark features studied have radii varying between 3 — 6 104 km, and probably represent a group of spots, namely an active region. As for the temperature, these spots are hotter than sunspots with a temperature range of 4900-5500 K.

Type
Part 7: Cool Stars and their Planets
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

References

Brown, T. M., Charbonneau, D., Gilliland, R. L., Noyes, R. W., & Burrows, A. 2001, ApJ, 552, 699.Google Scholar
Butler, R. P., Marcy, G. W., Williams, E., Hauser, H., & Shirts, P. 1997, ApJ, 474, L115.Google Scholar
Charbonneau, D., Brown, T. M., Latham, D. W., & Mayor, M. 2000, ApJ, 529, L45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cody, A. M. & Sasselov, 2002, D. D., ApJ, 569, 451.Google Scholar
Deeg, H. J., Garrido, R., & Claret, A. 2001, New Astron., 6, 51.Google Scholar
Favata, F., Roxbourgh, I. W., & Galadi, D. 2001, Proc. of the First Eddington Workshop on Stellar Structure and Habitable Planet Finding, ESA pub. SP-485 (Cordoba, Spain).Google Scholar
Henry, G. W., Marcy, G. W., Butler, R. P., & Vogt, S. S. 2000, ApJ, 529, L41.Google Scholar
Jha, S., Charbonneau, D., Garnavich, P. M., Sullivan, D. J., Sullivan, T., Brown, T. M., & Tonry, J. L. 2000, ApJ, 540, L45.Google Scholar
Koch, D. G., Brorucki, W., Webstar, L., Dunham, E., Jenkins, J., Marriott, J., & Reitsema, H. J. 1998, in Proc. SPIE, 3356, 599.Google Scholar
Mayor, M. & Queloz, D. 1995, Nature, 378, 355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazeh, T. et al. 2000, ApJ, 532, L55.Google Scholar
Michel, E. et al. 2000, in ASP Conf. Ser. 203, eds. Szabados, L. & Kurtz, D. (ASP, San Francisco), 69.Google Scholar
Silva, A.V.R. 2003, ApJ, 585, L147.Google Scholar