论文标题
过境时序变化的Exomoon候选者:八个具有TTV的开普勒系统,可通过光学图解的外观可解释
Exomoon Candidates from Transit Timing Variations: Eight Kepler systems with TTVs explainable by photometrically unseen exomoons
论文作者
论文摘要
如果过境的系外行星具有月球,则可以直接从其产生的过境中检测到月亮,或通过其在其母星行星中产生的过境正时变化间接地检测到月亮。在一系列参数空间中,开普勒空间望远镜可能会产生TTVS Exomoons敏感,尽管卫星本身太小了,无法通过自己的Transits进行镜面检测。例如,地球的月亮通过导致我们的星球在相互的质量中心移动,从而产生2.6分钟的TTV幅度。这不仅仅是开普勒的短期间隔1分钟,因此可以名义上检测到(如果可以以可比较的精度来测量过境时机),即使月球的过境特征仅为地球的7%,远低于开普勒的标称光度光度阈值。在这里,我们检查了几个开普勒系统,探讨了一个假设,即只能从其宿主星球上引起的TTV检测到一个外部。我们将其与替代假设进行比较:TTV是由系统中的非传输行星引起的。我们检查了13个开普勒系统,并找到了8个假设,其中两个假设同样很好地解释了观察到的TTV。尽管在此基础上没有确定的外部检测,但是观察结果与动态稳定的月球完全一致,足以降至开普勒的光度阈值以进行过境检测,并且这些系统需要进一步的观察和分析。
If a transiting exoplanet has a moon, that moon could be detected directly from the transit it produces itself, or indirectly via the transit timing variations it produces in its parent planet. There is a range of parameter space where the Kepler Space Telescope is sensitive to the TTVs exomoons might produce, though the moons themselves would be too small to detect photometrically via their own transits. The Earth's Moon, for example, produces TTVs of 2.6 minutes amplitude by causing our planet to move around their mutual centre of mass. This is more than Kepler's short-cadence interval of 1 minute and so nominally detectable (if transit timings can be measured with comparable accuracy), even though the Moon's transit signature is only 7% that of Earth's, well below Kepler's nominal photometric threshold. Here we examine several Kepler systems, exploring the hypothesis that an exomoon could be detected solely from the TTVs it induces on its host planet. We compare this with the alternate hypothesis that the TTVs are caused by an non-transiting planet in the system. We examine 13 Kepler systems and find 8 where both hypotheses explain the observed TTVs equally well. Though no definitive exomoon detection can be claimed on this basis, the observations are nevertheless completely consistent with a dynamically stable moon small enough to fall below Kepler's photometric threshold for transit detection, and these systems warrant further observation and analysis.