What is an Exoplanet? An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun.
Why look for Exoplanets? Exoplanets can tell us more about the formation and lifetime of planetary systems around other stars. Many seem to be unlike our own, though we hope to find proof of life orbiting other stars one day.
How do we detect Exoplanets? We don’t look at the planet directly, at least not from here in Towson. They are very far away, making them look very small, even if they are many times the size of Jupiter. What we do look for is a dip in brightness of the star it orbits as it passes in front of the star. This is called a transit.
To determine whether or not a target can be observed:
- Go to the NASA Exoplanet Archive
- Click on the tools tab at the top of the page
- Click on the 4th tool: Transit and Ephemeris Service
- Under Target Ephemerides
- deselect planetary systems
- select TESS Objects of Interest
- Click on Predict Events at the bottom of the page
- This may take a minute or two to load
- If you get this popup, just hit ok
- The first column of the table is Data Source Planet Name
- This is asking you for the Target Identification Number, you can find a list of targets we can observe from Towson below. Choose one and search for it.
- Use the scroll bar on the bottom to find the column that says Event Midpoint Calendar UT
- UT stands for universal time. This is the time zone for Greenwich, England. To put this in Eastern Standard Time (EST):
- Subtract 4 hours from UT during daylight savings time (summer)
- Subtract 5 hours from UT when not in daylight savings time (winter)
- Will it be dark at that time?
- Also note the date. Transits most likely won’t occur everyday.
- UT stands for universal time. This is the time zone for Greenwich, England. To put this in Eastern Standard Time (EST):
TESS Mission Candidates
Target ID # |
RA |
Dec |
Magnitude |
Transit Depth (ppm) |
Transit Duration (hours) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TOI 1457.01 |
23h39m20.8 |
+45d43m11.46s |
7.1145 |
2638.417±40.55 |
2.785±0.204 |
|
TOI 1682.01 |
05h13m10.94s |
+33d19m04.63s |
8.14847 |
8567.49±37.02 |
3.437±0.012 |
|
TOI 1634.01 |
03h45m33.75s |
+37d06m44.21s |
11.0136 |
1519.67±132.90 |
1.036±0.398 |
Magnitude might be too dim so review before increasing exposure time |
TOI 1145.01 |
19h27m41.14s |
+36d31m47.63s |
8.5011 |
7350±977.73 |
1.534±0.15 |
|
TOI 2131.01 |
18h34m31.62s |
+35d39m41.15s |
10.1058 |
12221.46±67.36 |
2.700±0.0156 |
|
TOI 1409.01 |
22h39m15.82s |
+33d53m22.05s |
8.3764 |
2797.30±40.49 |
4.597±0.482 |
|
TOI 1282.01 |
20h57m04.45s |
+31d39m39.67s |
11.4373 |
13393.06±147.52 |
2.473±0.028 |
Magnitude might be too dim so review before increasing exposure time |
TOI 1158.01 |
19h33m42.57s |
+29d35m46.67s |
9.5967 |
6572.91±752.83 |
4.027±0.146 |
|
TOI 2146.01 |
17h59m57.6s |
+29d39m18.63s |
9.9094 |
4800±15.01 |
3.152±0.325 |
|
TOI 3835.01 |
09h37m35.02s |
+28d14m43.3s |
12.5984 |
17060±5.85 |
1.86±0.085 |
Magnitude might be too dim so review before increasing exposure time |
TOI 2017.01 |
15h15m47.96s |
+27d21m42.52s |
8.2057 |
12002.69±81.75 |
2.269±0.010 |
|
TOI 2790.01 |
05h43m52.13s |
+16d21m36.23s |
12.273 |
10560±4.04 |
3.739±0.218 |
Magnitude might be too dim so review before increasing exposure time |
TOI 884.01 |
06h15m41.05s |
+11d49m57.44s |
9.9534 |
2990±1451.24 |
1.803±0.258 |
|
TOI 1827.01 |
12h47m55.57s |
+09d44m57.9s |
8.8223 |
1599.53±58.17 |
1.007±0.155 |
|
TOI 1012.01 |
07h48m22.87s |
+06d47m06.23s |
8.12718 |
1890±311.37 |
1.621±0.035 |
High priority – median transit depth and magnitude |