Refining Exoplanet Ephemerides and Transit Observing Strategies

TL;DR

This paper discusses methods for refining the predicted transit times of known radial velocity exoplanets to improve transit detection and explore new regions of exoplanet parameter space.

Contribution

It introduces techniques for calculating transit windows, refining ephemerides, and optimizing observational strategies, implemented by the TERMS survey.

Findings

Enhanced transit window calculations for known exoplanets

Improved ephemeris refinement methods

Strategies for maximizing transit observation coverage

Abstract

Transiting planet discoveries have yielded a plethora of information regarding the internal structure and atmospheres of extra-solar planets. These discoveries have been restricted to the low-periastron distance regime due to the bias inherent in the geometric transit probability. Monitoring known radial velocity planets at predicted transit times is a proven method of detecting transits, and presents an avenue through which to explore the mass-radius relationship of exoplanets in new regions of period/periastron space. Here we describe transit window calculations for known radial velocity planets, techniques for refining their transit ephemerides, target selection criteria, and observational methods for obtaining maximum coverage of transit windows. These methods are currently being implemented by the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS).