Adaptive Optics Images III: 87 Kepler Objects of Interest

Abstract

The Kepler mission has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets, but some of the planet candidates identified by Kepler may actually be astrophysical false positives or planets whose transit depths are diluted by the presence of another star. Adaptive optics images made with ARIES at the MMT of 87 Kepler Objects of Interest place limits on the presence of fainter stars in or near the Kepler aperture. We detected visual companions within 1" for five stars, between 1" and 2" for seven stars, and between 2" and 4" for 15 stars. For those systems, we estimate the brightness of companion stars in the Kepler bandpass and provide approximate corrections to the radii of associated planet candidates due to the extra light in the aperture. For all stars observed, we report detection limits on the presence of nearby stars. ARIES is typically sensitive to stars approximately 5.3 Ks magnitudes fainter than the target star within 1" and approximately 5.7 Ks magnitudes fainter within 2", but can detect stars as faint as delta Ks = 7.5 under ideal conditions.

Accepted to AJ. 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. All images and limits will be available on the Kepler Community Follow-up Observing Program website (https://cfop.ipac.caltech.edu)

References in corpus (5)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The Transiting Circumbinary Planets Kepler-34 and Kepler-35
• The Mass of KOI-94d and a Relation for Planet Radius, Mass, and Incident Flux
• Modeling Kepler transit light curves as false positives: Rejection of blend scenarios for Kepler-9, and validation of Kepler-9d, a super-Earth-size planet in a multiple system
• SOPHIE velocimetry of Kepler transit candidates VII. A false-positive rate of 35% for Kepler close-in giant exoplanet candidates

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler VI: Planet Sample from Q1-Q16 (47 Months)
• Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler V: Planet Sample from Q1-Q12 (36 Months)
• Friends of Hot Jupiters II: No Correspondence Between Hot-Jupiter Spin-Orbit Misalignment and the Incidence of Directly Imaged Stellar Companions
• Kepler-445, Kepler-446 and the Occurrence of Compact Multiples Orbiting Mid-M Dwarf Stars