Kepler Observations of Three Pre-launch Exoplanet Candidates: Discovery of Two Eclipsing Binaries and a New Exoplanet

December 2010 • 2010ApJ...725.1633H

Authors • Howell, Steve B. • Rowe, Jason F. • Sherry, William • von Braun, Kaspar • Ciardi, David R. • Bryson, Stephen T. • Feldmeier, John J. • Horch, Elliott • van Belle, Gerard T.

Abstract • Three transiting exoplanet candidate stars were discovered in a ground-based photometric survey prior to the launch of NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler observations of them were obtained during Quarter 1 of the Kepler mission. All three stars are faint by radial velocity follow-up standards, so we have examined these candidates with regard to eliminating false positives and providing high confidence exoplanet selection. We present a first attempt to exclude false positives for this set of faint stars without high-resolution radial velocity analysis. This method of exoplanet confirmation will form a large part of the Kepler mission follow-up for Jupiter-sized exoplanet candidates orbiting faint stars. Using the Kepler light curves and pixel data, as well as medium-resolution reconnaissance spectroscopy and speckle imaging, we find that two of our candidates are binary stars. One consists of a late-F star with an early M companion, while the other is a K0 star plus a late M-dwarf/brown dwarf in a 19 day elliptical orbit. The third candidate (BOKS-1) is an r = 15 G8V star hosting a newly discovered exoplanet with a radius of 1.12 R _Jupiter in a 3.9 day orbit.

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David Ciardi

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