Related papers: The Kepler Pixel Response Function
Detecting Earth twins remains challenging because their shallow, long-period transits are difficult to distinguish from background noise. Motivated by the challenge, we developed Segmented-Polynomial-fitting Least Squares (SPLS), a new…
Point Spread Function (PSF) modeling is a central part of any astronomy data analysis relying on measuring the shapes of objects. It is especially crucial for weak gravitational lensing, in order to beat down systematics and allow one to…
We present a new technique for monitoring microlensing activity even in highly crowded fields, and use this technique to place limits on low-mass MACHOs in the haloes of M31 and the Galaxy. Unlike present Galactic microlensing surveys, we…
The two Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions aim to perform spectroscopy on extrasolar Earths; TPF-C will operate in visible light, and TPF-I will operate in the mid-infrared. Extrasolar Earths are assumed to be roughly 26 magnitude in…
We present an analysis on the detection viability of refraction effects in Kepler's exoplanet atmospheres using binning techniques for their light curves in order to compare against simulated refraction effects. We split the Kepler…
We present results from high-resolution, optical to near-IR imaging of host stars of Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs), identified in the original Kepler field. Part of the data were obtained under the Kepler imaging follow-up observation…
The majority of exoplanets found to date have been discovered via the transit method, and transmission spectroscopy represents the primary method of studying these distant worlds. Currently, in-depth atmospheric characterization of…
We present the Transiting Exoearth Robust Reduction Algorithm (TERRA) --- a novel framework for identifying and removing instrumental noise in Kepler photometry. We identify instrumental noise modes by finding common trends in a large…
Solar system planets move on almost circular orbits. In strong contrast, many massive gas giant exoplanets travel on highly elliptical orbits, whereas the shape of the orbits of smaller, more terrestrial, exoplanets remained largely…
We propose a method for observing transiting exoplanets with near-infrared high-resolution spectrometers. We aim to create a robust data analysis method for recovering atmospheric transmission spectra from transiting exoplanets over a wide…
Image subtraction in astronomy is a tool for transient object discovery such as asteroids, extra-solar planets and supernovae. To match point spread functions (PSFs) between images of the same field taken at different times a convolution…
Doppler planet searches have discovered that giant planets follow orbits with a wide range of orbital eccentricities, revolutionizing theories of planet formation. The discovery of hundreds of exoplanet candidates by NASA's Kepler mission…
The Kepler space telescope leaves a legacy of tens of thousands of stellar rotation period measurements. While many of these stars show strong periodicity, there exists an even bigger fraction of stars with irregular variability for which…
The Kepler spacecraft is currently unable to hold a steady pointing and it is slowly drifting during observations. We believe that if one has to deal with targets that drift across the CCDs, one should at least be able to track the targets…
The Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) is a proposed Discovery mission that will complete the first census of extrasolar planets with sensitivity to planets like those in our own solar system. MPF will employ a 1.1m aperture telescope, which…
Precise centroid estimation plays a critical role in accurate astrometry using telescope images. Conventional centroid estimation fits a template point spread function (PSF) to the image data. Because the PSF is typically not known to high…
A planetary transit produces both a photometric signal and a spectroscopic signal. Precise observations of the transit light curve reveal the planetary radius and allow a search for timing anomalies caused by satellites or additional…
Stellar magnetic activity produces time-varying distortions in the photospheric line profiles of solar-type stars. These lead to systematic errors in high-precision radial-velocity measurements, which limit efforts to discover and measure…
Exoplanets are celestial bodies orbiting stars beyond our Solar System. Although historically they posed detection challenges, Kepler's data has revolutionized our understanding. By analyzing flux values from the Kepler Mission, we…
The Second Workshop on Extreme Precision Radial Velocities defined circa 2015 the state of the art Doppler precision and identified the critical path challenges for reaching 10 cm/s measurement precision. The presentations and discussion of…