Benchmarking the power of amateur observatories for TTV exoplanets detection

Abstract

We perform an analysis of ~80000 photometric measurements for the following 10 stars hosting transiting planets: WASP-2, -4, -5, -52, Kelt-1, CoRoT-2, XO-2, TrES-1, HD 189733, GJ 436. Our analysis includes mainly transit lightcurves from the Exoplanet Transit Database, public photometry from the literature, and some proprietary photometry privately supplied by other authors. Half of these lightcurves were obtained by amateurs. From this photometry we derive 306 transit timing measurements, as well as improved planetary transit parameters. Additionally, for 6 of these 10 stars we present a set of radial velocity measurements obtained from the spectra stored in the HARPS, HARPS-N, and SOPHIE archives using the HARPS-TERRA pipeline. Our analysis of these TTV and RV data did not reveal significant hints of additional orbiting bodies in almost all of the cases. In the WASP-4 case, we found hints of marginally significant TTV signals having amplitude 10-20 sec, although their parameters are model-dependent and uncertain, while radial velocities did not reveal statistically significant Doppler signals.

16 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• ExoClock project II: A large-scale integrated study with 180 updated exoplanet ephemerides
• Modelling the He I triplet absorption at 10830 Angstroms in the atmospheres of HD 189733 b and GJ 3470 b
• Homogeneous search for helium in the atmosphere of 11 gas giant exoplanets with SPIRou
• Original Research By Young Twinkle Students (ORBYTS): Ephemeris Refinement of Transiting Exoplanets
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• The near-UV transit of HD 189733b with the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor
• Efficient Follow-Up of Exoplanet Transits Using Small Telescopes
• Homogeneous search for spot transits in Kepler and TESS photometry of K $-$ M-type main-sequence stars
• TrES-1 b: A Case Study in Detecting Secular Evolution of Exoplanet Orbits
• Unraveling the Mystery of the Peculiar and Young Hot Jupiter CoRoT-2b. I. H${}_2$O and CO Detection from Dayside Observations with Gemini-S/IGRINS
• The impact of photospheric brightness field on exoplanetary transit timings and the TTV excess of HD 189733 b