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Extrasolar planets

Astrophysical false positives

Nature volume 492, pages 48–49 (2012)Cite this article

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The probability that giant-planet-like signals detected by the Kepler spacecraft are not from planets is higher than expected. The result underscores the importance of making follow-up observations to confirm the nature of the signals.

For the past three years, the mosaic of detectors on board NASA's Kepler mission have been staring at 150,000 stars in a region roughly halfway between the bright stars Vega and Deneb. They have been hunting for the recurring dips in light that betray the presence of planets whose orbital planes are nearly edge-on to the line of sight. In that short time, the Kepler team has announced some 2,300 candidate planetary systems. Writing in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Santerne et al.1 report that 35% of giant, close-in candidate planets found by Kepler are astrophysical false positives — that is, stars in binary systems that eclipse their companions with a change in brightness (depth) and duration similar to that expected for planets. This value is several times larger than expected.

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Figure 1: Mimicking a planetary transit.

References

  1. Santerne, A. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 545, A76 (2012).

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  2. Morton, T. D. & Johnson, J. A. Astrophys. J. 738, 170 (2011).

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  3. Morton, T. D. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.1568 (2012).

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  1. Andrew Collier Cameron is at the SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK.,

    Andrew Collier Cameron

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  1. Andrew Collier Cameron
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Correspondence to Andrew Collier Cameron.

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Cameron, A. Astrophysical false positives. Nature 492, 48–49 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/492048a

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