The Qatar Exoplanet Survey

TL;DR

The Qatar Exoplanet Survey employs a robotic wide-angle camera system to discover and analyze transiting exoplanets, focusing on hot Jupiters and smaller planets around bright stars, with collaborative efforts enhancing detection capabilities.

Contribution

This paper introduces the first generation QES instrument, its observing strategy, data reduction, and follow-up procedures, and discusses its integration with SuperWASP for improved exoplanet discovery.

Findings

Discovery of confirmed exoplanets Qatar 1b and 2b.

Development of tools for archiving and analyzing QES data.

Plans for deploying additional systems to enhance detection in northern skies.

Abstract

The Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES) is discovering hot Jupiters and aims to discover hot Saturns and hot Neptunes that transit in front of relatively bright host stars. QES currently operates a robotic wide-angle camera system to identify promising transiting exoplanet candidates among which are the confirmed exoplanets Qatar 1b and 2b. This paper describes the first generation QES instrument, observing strategy, data reduction techniques, and follow-up procedures. The QES cameras in New Mexico complement the SuperWASP cameras in the Canary Islands and South Africa, and we have developed tools to enable the QES images and light curves to be archived and analysed using the same methods developed for the SuperWASP datasets. With its larger aperture, finer pixel scale, and comparable field of view, and with plans to deploy similar systems at two further sites, the QES, in collaboration with SuperWASP, should help to speed the discovery of smaller radius planets transiting bright stars in northern skies.