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 The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy,[1] the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy[2] Astronomy Group,[3] the Lehigh University Department of Physics,[4] and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).[5]

KELT Telescopes

KELT consists of two telescopes, KELT-North[6] in Arizona in the United States, and KELT-South[7] at the SAAO observing station near Sutherland, South Africa.

Each KELT telescope consists of a wide field (26 degrees by 26 degrees) medium format telephoto lens with a 4.2 cm aperture, mounted in front of a 4k x 4k Apogee CCD. KELT-North uses an Apogee AP16E camera, while KELT South uses an Apogee U16M. The optical assemblies and cameras are mounted on Paramount ME[8] mounts manufactured by Software Bisque.[9]

KELT-North

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 has been operating continuously since then, with occasional interruptions for equipment failures and poor weather.

KELT-South

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 brightness range of 8 < V < 10 magnitude. This is the regime 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 pre-defined fields around the sky all night, every night when the weather is good. All exposures are taken with 150-second exposures, optimized to observe stars in the target magnitude range of KELT.

Exoplanet discoveries

KELT has made several exoplanet discoveries and at least one brown dwarf to date.

Star Constellation Right
ascension		 Declination App.
mag.		 Distance (ly) Spectral
type		 Planet Mass
(MJ)		 Radius
(RJ)		 Density
(g/cm3)		 Orbital
period
(d)		 Semimajor
axis
(AU)		 Orbital
eccentricity		 Inclination
(°)		 Discovery
year
KELT-2A Auriga 06h 10m 39s +30° 57′ 26″ 8.77 420 F7V KELT-2Ab 1.486 1.306 4.11379 0.05498 0.0 88.5 2012
KELT-3 Leo 09h 54m 34.0s +30° 38′ 24″ 9.8 580 F6V KELT-3b 1.418 1.333 0.75 2.70339 0.04117 0.0 84.32 2012
KELT-4A Leo 10h 28m 15.011s +25° 34′ 23.5″ 9.98 685 F8V KELT-4Ab 0.878 1.706 2.9895933 0.04321 0.0 83.11 2015
KELT-6Coma Berenices 13h 03m 56s +30° 38′ 24″ 10.38 724 F9IV KELT-6b 0.43 1.19 0.311 7.84563 0.079 0.22 +0.012
−0.010 		88.81 2013
KELT-7 Auriga 05h 13m 11s +33° 19′ 05″ 8.54 420 F2V KELT-7b 1.28 1.533 0.442 2.7347749 0.04415 0.0 83.76 2015
KELT-8 KELT-8b 2015
KELT-10 KELT-10b 2015
KELT-14 KELT-14b 2015
KELT-15 KELT-15b 2015

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

Star Constellation Right
ascension		 Declination App.
mag.		 Distance (ly) Spectral
type		 Planet Mass
(MJ)		 Radius
(RJ)		 Density
(g/cm3)		 Orbital
period
(d)		 Semimajor
axis
(AU)		 Orbital
eccentricity		 Inclination
(°)		 Discovery
year
KELT-1 Andromeda 00h 01m 26.92s +39° 23′ 01.7″ 10.00 854 F5V KELT-1b 27.23 1.110 1.217513 0.0247 0.0 87.80 2012

References

  1. ↑ "The Ohio State Department of Astronomy".
  2. ↑ "Vanderbilt Department of Physics and Astronomy".
  3. ↑ "Vanderbilt Astronomy Group".
  4. ↑ "The Lehigh Department of Physics".
  5. ↑ "South African Astronomical Observatory".
  6. ↑ Pepper, Joshua; et al. (2007). "The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT): A Small Robotic Telescope for Large-Area Synoptic Surveys". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 119 (858): 923–935. arXiv:0704.0460Freely accessible. Bibcode:2007PASP..119..923P. doi:10.1086/521836.
  7. ↑ Pepper; et al. (1970). "The KELT-South Telescope". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 124 (913): 230–241. arXiv:1202.1826Freely accessible. Bibcode:2012PASP..124..230P. doi:10.1086/665044.
  8. ↑ "Paramount ME".
  9. ↑ "Software Bisque company page".

External links

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