Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope

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Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope
Alternative namesKELT
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The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (or KELT) is an astronomical observation system formed by two robotic telescopes that are conducting a survey for transiting exoplanets around bright stars. The project is jointly administered by members of The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy,[1] the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy[2] Astronomy Group,[3] the Lehigh University Department of Physics,[4] and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).[5]

KELT Telescopes[]

KELT consists of two telescopes, KELT-North[6] in Arizona in the United States, and KELT-South[7] at the SAAO observing station near Sutherland, South Africa.

Each KELT telescope consists of a wide field (26 degrees by 26 degrees) medium format telephoto lens with a 4.2 cm aperture, mounted in front of a 4k x 4k Apogee CCD. Each can also be equipped with an alternative narrower field (10.8 degrees by 10.8 degrees) lens with a 7.1 cm aperture for a narrow angle campaign mode. KELT-North uses an Apogee AP16E camera, while KELT South uses an Apogee U16M. The optical assemblies and cameras are mounted on Paramount ME[8] mounts manufactured by Software Bisque.[9]

KELT-North[]

KELT-North is located at Winer Observatory in southeastern Arizona, about an hour's drive from Tucson. KELT-North was installed at Winer in 2005, and has been operating continuously since then, with occasional interruptions for equipment failures and poor weather.

KELT-South[]

KELT-South is located at the Sutherland astronomical observation station owned and operated by SAAO, about 370 kilometers (230 mi) North of Cape Town. KELT-South was deployed at Sutherland in 2009.

Goals[]

KELT is dedicated to discovering transiting exoplanets orbiting stars in the apparent magnitude of 8 < V < 10 magnitude. This is the regime just fainter than the set of stars comprehensively surveyed for planets by the radial-velocity surveys, but brighter than those typically observed by most transit surveys.

Operations[]

Both KELT telescopes operate by sequentially observing a series of predefined fields around the sky all night, every night when the weather is good. All recordings are made with 150-second exposures, optimized to observe stars in the target magnitude range of KELT.

Exoplanet discoveries[]

KELT has made several exoplanet discoveries and at least one brown dwarf (which may be an extremely massive Super-Jupiter instead) to date. Yellow indicates it's contained in a binary system.

Star Constellation Right
ascension 		Declination App.
mag. 		Distance (ly) Spectral
type 		Planet Mass
(MJ) 		Radius
(RJ) 		Density
(g/cm3) 		Orbital
period
(d) 		Semimajor
axis
(AU) 		Orbital
eccentricity 		Inclination
(°) 		Discovery
year
KELT-2A Auriga 06h 10m 39s +30° 57′ 26″ 8.77 420 F7V KELT-2Ab 1.486 1.306 4.11379 0.05498 0.0 88.5 2012
KELT-3 Leo 09h 54m 34.0s +30° 38′ 24″ 9.8 580 F6V KELT-3b 1.418 1.333 0.75 2.70339 0.04117 0.0 84.32 2012
Leo 10h 28m 15.011s +25° 34′ 23.5″ 9.98 685 F8V KELT-4Ab 0.878 1.706 2.9895933 0.04321 0.0 83.11 2015
KELT-6 Coma Berenices 13h 03m 56s +30° 38′ 24″ 10.38 724 F8IV KELT-6b 0.43 1.19 0.311 7.84563 0.079 0.22 +0.12
−0.10		 88.81 2013
3.71 1.16 1,276 2.39 0.21 2015
Auriga 05h 13m 11s +33° 19′ 05″ 8.54 420 F2V 1.28 1.533 0.442 2.7347749 0.04415 0.0 83.76 2015
Hercules 18h 53m 13.31s 24° 07′ 38.09″ 10.85 664 G2V 0.66 1.62 0.165 3.24 0.04550 0.04±0.05 82.65±0.90 2015
KELT-9 Cygnus 20h 31m 27s +39° 56′ 20″ 7.56 620 B9.5V KELT-9b 2015
KELT-10 Telescopium 18h 58m 11.61s −47° 00′ 11.91″ 10.62 614 G0V KELT-10b 0.68 1.4 0.308 4.17 0.05250 0? 88.61 2015
Sextans 10h 46m 49.66s −09° 23′ 57.71″ 8.04 323 G8/K0IV KELT-11b 0.171 1.35 0.009 4.74 0.06±0.005 0.0007±0.0015 85.3±0.2 2017
Hercules 17h 50m 33.72s +36° 34′ 12.63″ 10.59 1200 F7III-IV 0.95 1.78 0.209 5.03 0.06708 0.0 84.47±0.15 2017
Centaurus 13h 04m 10.51s −35° 32′ 58.31″ 10.571 1381 F1V <8 1.58 2.02 0.0365 79.9 2017
Puppis 7h 13m 12.34s −42° 24′ 35.14″ 11 816 G2V 1.284 1.743 0.322 1.71 0.03 0.0 78.3 2016
Carina 07h 49m 39.59s −52° 07′ 13.57″ 11.39 1,068 G0V 0.91 1.443 0.36 3.33 0.04 0 88.3 2015
Cygnus 20h 57m 04.44s +31° 39′ 39.63″ 11.72 1,469 F7V [10] 2.75 1.415 1.20 ± 0.18 0.97 0.02 0 84.4 2017
Cancer 8h 22m 28.20s +13° 44′ 07.14″ 9.23 743 A7V 1.32 1.525 0.46 3.08 0.05 84.87 2016
Ursa Major 14h 26m 05.76s +59° 26′ 39.29″ 10.16 1,057 F4V KELT-18Ab[11] 1.18 1.57 0.377 2.87 0.04 0 82.90 2017
Canis Minor 07h 26m 02.29s +07° 36′ 56.18″ 9.86 987 A8V <4.07 1.91 <0.744 4.61 0.064 85.14 2017
Cygnus 19h 38m 38.74s +31° 31′ 09.22″ 7.58 446 A2V <3.382 1.741 <0.806 3.474 0.05 0? 86.12 2017
Cygnus 20h 19m 12.00s +32° 34′ 51.76″ 10.48 1,556 A6V KELT-21b <3.91 1.586 <1.24 3.612 0.05 0 86.46 2018
Sculptor 23h 36m 40.38s −34° 36′ 42.68″ 11.3 766 G3V 3.47 1.285 2.02 1.386 0.02 0 85.2 2018
Ursa Minor 15h 28m 35.19s +66° 21′ 31.54″ 10.31 413 G1V 0.94 1.32 0.503 2.26 0.03 0 85.37 2019
Ursa Major 10h 47m 38.35s +71° 39′ 21.16″ 8.33 316 F5.5V 5.18 1.27 3.13 5.55 0.07 0.08 89.17 2019
Canis Major 07h 12m 29.55s −24° 57′ 12.82″ 9.63 1,443 A4V
Lupus 15h 09m 04.89s −42° 42′ 17.79″ 9.95 1,410 A1V 1.41 1.94 0.238 3.35 0.06 0 84.45 2019

In addition, the survey has discovered brown dwarfs like KELT-1b.

Star Constellation Right
ascension 		Declination App.
mag. 		Distance (ly) Spectral
type 		Planet Mass
(MJ) 		Radius
(RJ) 		Density
(g/cm3) 		Orbital
period
(d) 		Semimajor
axis
(AU) 		Orbital
eccentricity 		Inclination
(°) 		Discovery
year
KELT-1 Andromeda 00h 01m 26.92s +39° 23′ 01.7″ 10.00 854 F5V KELT-1b 27.23 1.110 1.217513 0.0247 0.0 87.80

References[]

  1. ^ "The Ohio State Department of Astronomy".
  2. ^ "Vanderbilt Department of Physics and Astronomy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  3. ^ "Vanderbilt Astronomy Group".
  4. ^ "The Lehigh Department of Physics".
  5. ^ "South African Astronomical Observatory".
  6. ^ Pepper, Joshua; et al. (2007). "The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT): A Small Robotic Telescope for Large-Area Synoptic Surveys". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 119 (858): 923–935. arXiv:0704.0460. Bibcode:2007PASP..119..923P. doi:10.1086/521836. S2CID 13967723.
  7. ^ Pepper; et al. (2012). "The KELT-South Telescope". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 124 (913): 230–241. arXiv:1202.1826. Bibcode:2012PASP..124..230P. doi:10.1086/665044. S2CID 119207060.
  8. ^ "Paramount ME". Archived from the original on 2012-07-02.
  9. ^ "Software Bisque company page".
  10. ^ Oberst, Thomas E.; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Colón, Knicole D.; Angerhausen, Daniel; Bieryla, Allyson; Ngo, Henry; Stevens, Daniel J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Pepper, Joshua; Penev, Kaloyan; Mawet, Dimitri; Latham, David W.; Heintz, Tyler M.; Osei, Baffour W.; Collins, Karen A.; Kielkopf, John F.; Visgaitis, Tiffany; Reed, Phillip A.; Escamilla, Alejandra; Yazdi, Sormeh; McLeod, Kim K.; Lunsford, Leanne T.; Spencer, Michelle; Joner, Michael D.; Gregorio, Joao; Gaillard, Clement; Matt, Kyle; Dumont, Mary Thea; et al. (2017). "KELT-16b: A Highly Irradiated, Ultra-short Period Hot Jupiter Nearing Tidal Disruption". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (3): 97. arXiv:1608.00618. Bibcode:2017AJ....153...97O. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/97. S2CID 42949556.
  11. ^ McLeod, Kim K.; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Collins, Karen A.; Bieryla, Allyson; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Penev, Kaloyan; Stevens, Daniel J.; Colón, Knicole D.; Pepper, Joshua; Narita, Norio; Tsuguru, Ryu; Fukui, Akihiko; Reed, Phillip A.; Tirrell, Bethany; Visgaitis, Tiffany; Kielkopf, John F.; Cohen, David H.; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Gregorio, Joao; Baştürk, Özgür; Oberst, Thomas E.; Melton, Casey; Kempton, Eliza M.-R.; Baldrige, Andrew; Zhao, Y. Sunny; Zambelli, Roberto; et al. (2017). "KELT-18b: Puffy Planet, Hot Host, Probably Perturbed". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (6): 263. arXiv:1702.01657. Bibcode:2017AJ....153..263M. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6d5d. S2CID 54667386.

External links[]

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