Investigating Extra-solar Planetary System Qatar-1 through Transit Observations

TL;DR

This study analyzes transit timing variations of Qatar-1b using combined light curves, finding no evidence of additional planets, and suggests that higher precision observations could further refine these results.

Contribution

It combines new and existing transit data to refine orbital parameters and TTV analysis, confirming the absence of additional planets in Qatar-1 system.

Findings

No significant TTVs detected

Refined orbital period and transit time

Higher precision observations could improve results

Abstract

We report the results of the transit timing variation (TTV) analysis of the extra-solar planet Qatar-1b using thirty eight light curves. Our analysis combines thirty five previously available transit light curves with three new transits observed by us between June 2016 and September 2016 using the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (Hanle, India). From these transit data, the physical and orbital parameters of the Qatar-1 system are determined. In addition to this, the ephemeris for the orbital period and mid-transit time are refined to investigate the possible TTV. We find that the null-TTV model provides the better fit to the (O-C) data. This indicates that there is no evidence for TTVs to confirm the presence of additional planets in the Qatar-1 system. The use of the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) operated by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES, Nainital, India) could improve the photometric precision to examine the signature of TTVs in this system with a greater accuracy than in the present work.