TESS Follow-up Observing as the Laboratory Component of an Undergraduate Course on Exoplanets
Abstract
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has just begun its search for new exoplanets in the Northern sky and it will rely on the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group (WG) to support its mission. After successfully serving as a follow-up observatory for the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) exoplanet discovery survey since 2013, the on-campus astronomical observatory at Kutztown University (KU) in Pennsylvania has become an active member of TFOP WG in Sub Group SG1: Seeing-limited Photometry. KU's follow-up work for TESS began with the identification of the first northern-sector TESS planet candidates in Fall 2019, and coincides with the first offering of a new 200-level course on exoplanets at KU. The Exoplanets course includes a laboratory component that afforded all 13 enrolled students the opportunity to perform observations and contribute valuable data. We present several time-series photometric data sets and basic analyses performed during the Fall 2019 semester that include the identification of false-positives, such as nearby eclipsing binary stars, as well as the verification of transit-like signals on the TESS targets with transit depths as shallow as 4 mmag. This work has been supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1559487 and by a research grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Faculty Professional Development Council.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #235
- Pub Date:
- January 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AAS...23517421R