TASTE: The Asiago Search for Transit timing variations of Exoplanets. I. Overview and improved parameters for HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-14b

TL;DR

The TASTE project aims to detect Earth-sized exoplanets through transit timing variations by collecting high-precision light curves, improving orbital parameters, and refining ephemerides for known exoplanets HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-14b.

Contribution

This study introduces the TASTE project and demonstrates its capability to achieve high timing accuracy and refine orbital parameters of transiting exoplanets.

Findings

Achieved timing accuracy of 11 and 25 seconds for HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-14b.

Refined ephemerides for both exoplanets.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of differential photometry at the Asiago 1.82m telescope.

Abstract

A promising method for detecting earth-sized exoplanets is the timing analysis of a known transit. The technique allows a search for variations in either the transit duration or the center induced by the perturbation of a third body, e.g. a second planet or an exomoon. By applying this method, the TASTE (The Asiago Search for Transit Timing variations of Exoplanets) project will collect high-precision, short-cadence light curves for a selected sample of transits by using imaging differential photometry at the Asiago 1.82m telescope. The first light curves show that our project can achieve a competitive timing accuracy, as well as a significant improvement of the orbital parameters. We derived refined ephemerides for HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-14b with a timing accuracy of 11 and 25 s, respectively.