Poster Abstracts - Kepler - NASA

POSTER ABSTRACTSP1015. POSTER SESSION IIUSING MULTICOLOR PHOTOMETRY TO CONFIRM TRANSITING PLANET CANDIDATES.H. Parviainen 1 , B.Tingley 2, and H. Deeg 3 . Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/ Vía Láctea, s/n, E38205 - La Laguna(Tenerife). España. 1 hannu@iac.es, 2 btingley@iac.es, 3 hdeeg@iac.esIntroduction: If transits of planets are observed inmultiple colors, a color signature is revealed that isvery distinct from those produced by eclipsing binaries,blended or otherwise. It arises due to the interplaybetween the comparatively small size of the planetsrelative to its parent star and differential limb darkening.While this technique has its limitations, it can providerelatively quick confirmations without heavy consumptionof telescope resources for some candidates.In addition to this use, these same observations canalso be used to test model stellar atmospheres, both todetermine if their accuracy is sufficient for PLATOmission goals and to evaluate if the one-dimensionmodels currently used to generate limb-darkening coefficientsare sufficient to explain the observations. Ifnot, the new 3-D model stellar atmospheres mightneed to be used, which has implications that extend farbeyond the exoplanet field.In this talk, we also present high cadence multicolorobservations of two Kepler candidates with theGTC that demonstrate the usefulness -- and limits -- ofthis technique.2182011 Kepler Science Conference - NASA Ames Research Center