Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope

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 Ohio State University Department of Astronomy, the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy Astronomy Group, the Lehigh University Department of Physics, and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

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

Each KELT telescope consists of a wide field (26 degrees × 26 degrees) medium format telephoto lens with a 4.2 cm aperture, mounted in front of a 4k × 4k Apogee CCD. Each can also be equipped with an alternative narrower field (10.8 degrees × 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 mounts manufactured by Software Bisque. The telescopes were made with off-the-shelf components, and were thus much cheaper than many observatories.

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 operated continuously until 2022, with occasional interruptions for equipment failures and poor weather. KELT-North was decommissioned in 2022.

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 range of 8 < V < 10. This is the region 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.

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 rows in the table below indicate the planet is contained in a binary system.

Exoplanets

Star Constellation Rightascension Declination App.mag. Distance (ly) Spectraltype Planet Mass(MJ) Radius(RJ) Density (g/cm3) Orbitalperiod(d) Semimajoraxis(AU) Orbitaleccentricity Inclination(°) Discoveryyear KELT-2A Auriga 8.77 420 F7V KELT-2Ab 1.486 1.306 4.11379 0.05498 0.0 88.5 2012 KELT-3 Leo 9.8 580 F6V KELT-3b 1.418 1.333 0.75 2.70339 0.04117 0.0 84.32 2012 KELT-4A Leo 9.98 685 F8V KELT-4Ab 0.878 1.706 2.9895933 0.04321 0.0 83.11 2015 KELT-6Coma Berenices 10.38 724 F8IV KELT-6b 0.43 1.19 0.311 7.84563 0.079 0.22 88.81 2013KELT-6c3.711.161,2762.390.212015 KELT-7 Auriga 8.54 420 F2V KELT-7b 1.28 1.533 0.442 2.7347749 0.04415 0.0 83.76 2015 KELT-8Hercules10.85664G2V KELT-8b 0.661.620.1653.240.045500.04±0.0582.65±0.902015 KELT-9 Cygnus 7.56 620 B9.5V KELT-9b 2015 KELT-10Telescopium10.62614G0V KELT-10b 0.681.40.3084.170.052500?88.612015KELT-11Sextans8.04323G8/K0IVKELT-11b0.1711.350.0094.740.06±0.0050.0007±0.001585.3±0.22017KELT-12Hercules10.591200F7III-IVKELT-12b0.951.780.2095.030.067080.084.47±0.152017KELT-13/WASP-167Centaurus10.5711381F1VKELT-13/WASP-167b<81.582.020.036579.92017 KELT-14/WASP-122Puppis11816G2V KELT-14/WASP-122b1.2841.7430.3221.710.030.078.32016 KELT-15Carina 11.39 1,068G0V KELT-15Ab 0.91 1.443 0.36 3.33 0.04 0 88.32015 KELT-16Cygnus 11.72 1,469F7V KELT-16Ab 2.75 1.415 1.20 ± 0.18 0.97 0.02 0 84.42017 KELT-17 Cancer 9.23 743 A7V KELT-17b 1.32 1.525 0.46 3.08 0.05 84.87 2016 KELT-18Ursa Major 10.16 1,057F4V KELT-18Ab 1.18 1.57 0.377 2.87 0.04 0 82.902017 KELT-19 Canis Minor 9.86 987 A8V KELT-19Ab <4.07 1.91 <0.744 4.61 0.064 85.14 2017 KELT-20 Cygnus 7.58 446 A2V KELT-20b <3.382 1.741 <0.806 3.474 0.05 0? 86.12 2017 KELT-21 Cygnus 10.48 1,556A6V KELT-21b <3.91 1.586 <1.24 3.612 0.05 0 86.46 2018KELT-22/WASP-173Sculptor11.3766G3VKELT-22/WASP-173Ab3.471.2852.021.3860.02085.22018 KELT-23 Ursa Minor 10.31 413 G1V KELT-23b 0.94 1.32 0.503 2.26 0.03 0 85.37 2019 KELT-24 Ursa Major 8.33 316 F5.5V KELT-24b 5.18 1.27 3.13 5.55 0.07 0.08 89.17 2019 KELT-25 Canis Major 9.63 1,443 A4VKELT-26/WASP-178Lupus9.951,410A1VKELT-26/WASP-178b1.411.940.2383.350.06084.452019

Brown dwarfs

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

References

External links KELT-North survey website KELT-South survey website

Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope

Bron en licentie