We present long-baseline interferometry of the Kepler exoplanet host star HD179070 (Kepler-21) using the PAVO beam combiner at the CHARA Array. The visibility data are consistent with a single star and exclude stellar companions at separations ~1-1000 mas (~ 0.1-113 AU) and contrasts < 3.5 magnitudes. This result supports the validation of the 1.6 R_{earth} exoplanet Kepler-21b by Howell et al. (2012) and complements the constraints set by adaptive optics imaging, speckle interferometry, and radial velocity observations to rule out false-positives due to stellar companions. We conclude that long-baseline interferometry has strong potential to validate transiting extrasolar planets, particularly for future projects aimed at brighter stars and for host stars where radial velocity follow-up is not available.
@article{arxiv.1202.5307,
title = {Validation of the Exoplanet Kepler-21b using PAVO/CHARA Long-Baseline Interferometry},
author = {Daniel Huber and Michael J. Ireland and Timothy R. Bedding and Steve B. Howell and Vicente Maestro and Antoine Mérand and Peter G. Tuthill and Timothy R. White and Christopher D. Farrington and P. J. Goldfinger and Harold A. McAlister and Gail H. Schaefer and Judit Sturmann and Laszlo Sturmann and Theo A. ten Brummelaar and Nils H. Turner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.5307},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters; v2: minor changes added in proof