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The bright star survey telescope for the planetary transit survey in Antarctica

用于南极太阳系外行星搜寻的亮星巡天望远镜

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  • Physics & Astronomy
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

Transiting extrasolar planets (exoplanets), especially those orbiting bright stars, are desired for study of the diversity of planetary compositions, internal structures and atmospheres beyond our solar system. Dome A at Antarctica is a promising site for planetary transit surveys, where the continuous darkness and the large clear-sky fraction in the winter months greatly enhance the detection efficiency. The Chinese Small Telescope ARray and the Antarctic Survey Telescopes are the first facilities that have been operated at Dome A for use in exoplanet surveys. To increase the sky coverage, a low-temperature-resistant wide-field robotic telescope, named the bright star survey telescope (BSST), has been developed to join the ongoing planetary transit survey in Antarctica. The BSST has an aperture size of 300 mm and is equipped with a large-frame \(4K\times 4K\) CCD camera to receive starlight from a \(3.^{\circ }4 \times 3.^{\circ }4\) field of view. The BSST was operated at Lijiang observatory in April and May 2015 for a test run. Photometric precision of 3.5 mmag was achieved for stars with \(V\sim 11\) mag using 75 s exposures. The transiting events of two Jupiter-size exoplanets, HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-12b, were observed on May 10 and May 20, 2015, respectively.

摘要

具有凌星现象的太阳系外行星对研究行星的成分,结构和大气性质具有重要意义,南极冰穹A的极夜连续观测窗口和极佳的观测条件特别适合开展系外行星的测光搜寻。为了提高现有巡天(CSTAR和AST)的天区覆盖,我们研制了一台耐低温、大视场的测光望远镜,即亮星巡天望远镜(BSST),其口径300 mm,配备4K×4K CCD相机,视场3.°4×3.°4。BSST对V~11等星进行75秒曝光的实测测光精度为3.5 mmag。在丽江试观测期间,成功观测了两个已知系外行星HAT-P-3b和HAT-P-12b的凌星事件。

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Notes

  1. http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/.

  2. The updated ephemerides were applied to calculate the phase offset between the two light curves.

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the enlightening suggestions from the referees, which helped to improve the quality of this paper. This work is supported by the Astronomical Project for the Chinese Antarctic Inland Station, the SOC Program (CHINARE2012-02-03, CHINARE2013-02-03, CHINARE2014-02-03, and CHINARE2015-02-03), and the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB834905 and 2015CB857005). Q. Tian is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11503023), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (14ZR1444100), and the Polar Science Innovation Fund for Young Scientists of Polar Research Institute of China (CX20130201). P. Jiang is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11233002 and 11203022). H. Zhou is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11473025, 11421303 and 11033007). S. Zhang is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11573024). T. Ji is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11503022) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (15ZR1444200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai, 200136, China

    Qiguo Tian, Peng Jiang, Luming Sun, Shaohua Zhang, Tuo Ji, Xiheng Shi, Junyan Zhou, Xiang Pan & Hongyan Zhou

  2. School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Peng Jiang, Huigen Liu, Hui Zhang & Jilin Zhou

  3. National Astronomical Observatories/Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210042, China

    Fujia Du, Zhengyang Li, Xiaoyan Li, Zhiyong Zhang, Haiping Lu & Xiangyan Yuan

  4. State Key Laboratory of Technologies of Particle Detection and Electronics, Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Jian Wang, Jie Chen, Guangyu Zhang, Minghao Jia, Jiajing Liu, Shucheng Dong, Fengxin Jiang & Hongfei Zhang

  5. Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Huigen Liu, Hui Zhang & Jilin Zhou

  6. Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230026, China

    Luming Sun, Junyan Zhou, Xiang Pan & Hongyan Zhou

  7. National Astronomical Observatories/Yunnan Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650011, China

    Liang Chang & Jianguo Wang

  8. Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650011, China

    Liang Chang & Jianguo Wang

  9. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Lifan Wang

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  1. Qiguo Tian
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Correspondence to Peng Jiang.

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Tian, Q., Jiang, P., Du, F. et al. The bright star survey telescope for the planetary transit survey in Antarctica. Sci. Bull. 61, 383–390 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1015-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1015-0

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