A 1574-day periodicity of transits orbiting KIC 8462852

TL;DR

This study suggests a 1574-day periodicity in the transits of Boyajian's star, providing a potential pattern for future observations of its irregular dips.

Contribution

It introduces evidence for a 1574-day orbital period of transits around Boyajian's star, advancing understanding of its complex flux variations.

Findings

Consistent 1574-day periodicity observed across multiple datasets

Correlation between recent dips and past major dips suggested

Provides a new framework for predicting future transits

Abstract

Observations of the main sequence F3 V star KIC 8462852 (also known as Boyajian's star) revealed extreme aperiodic dips in flux up to 20% during the four years of the Kepler mission. Smaller dips (< 2%) were also observed with ground-based telescopes between May and September 2017. We investigated possible correlation between recent dips and the major dips in the last 100 days of the Kepler mission. We compared Kepler light curve data, 2017 data from two observatories (TFN, OGG) which are part of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network and Sternberg observatory archival data, and determined that observations are consistent with a 1,574-day (4.31 year) periodicity of a transit (or group of transits) orbiting Boyajian's star within the habitable zone. It is unknown if transits that have produced other major dips as observed during the Kepler mission (e.g. D792) share the same orbital period. Nevertheless, the proposed periodicity is a step forward in guiding future observation efforts.