Planetary transit candidates in COROT-IRa01 field

TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of 50 planetary transit candidates in the CoRoT IRa01 field, with 40 prioritized for follow-up, including two confirmed exoplanets, advancing the search for extrasolar planets.

Contribution

First comprehensive list of CoRoT IRa01 transit candidates, including follow-up confirmation of two exoplanets, demonstrating the mission's effectiveness.

Findings

50 transit candidates identified

40 candidates selected for follow-up

2 planets confirmed: COROT-1b and COROT-4b

Abstract

Context: CoRoT is a pioneering space mission devoted to the analysis of stellar variability and the photometric detection of extrasolar planets. Aims: We present the list of planetary transit candidates detected in the first field observed by CoRoT, IRa01, the initial run toward the Galactic anticenter, which lasted for 60 days. Methods: We analysed 3898 sources in the coloured bands and 5974 in the monochromatic band. Instrumental noise and stellar variability were taken into account using detrending tools before applying various transit search algorithms. Results: Fifty sources were classified as planetary transit candidates and the most reliable 40 detections were declared targets for follow-up ground-based observations. Two of these targets have so far been confirmed as planets, COROT-1b and COROT-4b, for which a complete characterization and specific studies were performed.