Planet Hunters Talk

Transit skips a beat

  • caveX by caveX

    1. List item
      This one looks at first glance to be a simple eclipsing binary. Stepping through it though, the transit dip only occurs every other oscillation of the baseline. Using this simulator http://astro.unl.edu/naap/ebs/animations/ebs.html I can't get an eclipse on every other dip. The tiny baseline flux could be from a high-inclination orbit relative to our line of site and the period would suggest a contact or near contact binary like W UMa. But with a planet in orbit around the pair?

    Posted

  • caveX by caveX

    Or is the timing too perfect. If one of the stars had an intrinsic feature that made it darker on one side, then a tidally locked partner would show the dimmer side on every other oscillation. So just a binary. But would a planet close enough be tidally locked too? Or locked in a LaGrangian point?

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