Could this be a transiting planet?

• by Neocymek

  Hello!

  I'm new here and still trying to learn how to spot the transits. Usually I get the simulated transits right (at least the bigger and more obvious ones) but apart from simulated planets I didn't notice anything too convincing until this star. I'm wondering if this could be a transiting planet - it seems to fit the criteria (sudden, short dim). Here is the info - APH00002y4 (Kepler Id: 1720670, Q10-3). What looks like a transit occurs at day 3.5 (or around 972 on the upper scale).

  I'm also wondering what are some of the factors that can cause these short dims (I'm only aware of the scenario where there are stars directly behind the observed star)? Can star-spots also give these 'false alarms' that look like transits?

  Posted October 29, 2014 5:52 PM

• by mschwamb scientist

  It could be. I would likely have marked that dip at 3.5 days. Starspots tend to be on longer time scales on the orders of days to move since the star's take days to rotate typically for main sequence stars. Transits are on shorter timescales a few hours to tens of hours .

  I hope that helps.

  Cheers,

  ~Meg

  Posted October 31, 2014 4:32 AM