Pushing the Limits of K2: Gaussian Process Systematics Correction and a Kepler/K2 Saturated Star Survey

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Ben Pope (Oxford)
• Wednesday 09 December 2015, 14:30-15:30
• Physics West 117.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Sean McGee.

The Kepler mission, revived in two-wheeled form as K2, observes a succession of fields in the ecliptic plane in ~80 day photometric campaigns. This has enabled a dramatic extension of the exoplanetary science and asteroseismology of Kepler to a number of nearby clusters and standard stars. With only two reaction wheels, K2 suffers from severe systematics introduced by its regular pointing corrections. In this talk, I will describe the Oxford pipeline for K2 systematics correction, using Gaussian Processes to non-parametrically model photometric errors as a function of pointing inputs, and will discuss the planet candidates we obtain with this approach. I will also present the first results of the Kepler/K2 Saturated Stars Survey (K2S3), where we extract light curves of the brightest stars in Kepler and K2 from previously-unused calibraton data or from their scattered-light halo. Many of these stars were not conventionally targeted due to their severe saturation, and due to their position on the ecliptic, the K2S3 sample is directly complementary to the targets selected for the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. We have been able to study the asteroseismology these sources, including RR Lyr and the Pleiades, and search for planets around some of the nearest stars to the Sun.

This talk is part of the Astrophysics Talks Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Astrophysics Talks Series
• Bham Talks
• Physics West 117
• What's on in Physics?

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.