2 research outputs found
Planet Hunters. V. A Confirmed Jupiter-Size Planet in the Habitable Zone and 42 Planet Candidates from the Kepler Archive Data
We report the latest Planet Hunter results, including PH2 b, a Jupiter-size
(R_PL = 10.12 \pm 0.56 R_E) planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a
solar-type star. PH2 b was elevated from candidate status when a series of
false positive tests yielded a 99.9% confidence level that transit events
detected around the star KIC 12735740 had a planetary origin. Planet Hunter
volunteers have also discovered 42 new planet candidates in the Kepler public
archive data, of which 33 have at least three transits recorded. Most of these
transit candidates have orbital periods longer than 100 days and 20 are
potentially located in the habitable zones of their host stars. Nine candidates
were detected with only two transit events and the prospective periods are
longer than 400 days. The photometric models suggest that these objects have
radii that range between Neptune to Jupiter. These detections nearly double the
number of gas giant planet candidates orbiting at habitable zone distances. We
conducted spectroscopic observations for nine of the brighter targets to
improve the stellar parameters and we obtained adaptive optics imaging for four
of the stars to search for blended background or foreground stars that could
confuse our photometric modeling. We present an iterative analysis method to
derive the stellar and planet properties and uncertainties by combining the
available spectroscopic parameters, stellar evolution models, and transiting
light curve parameters, weighted by the measurement errors. Planet Hunters is a
citizen science project that crowd-sources the assessment of NASA Kepler light
curves. The discovery of these 43 planet candidates demonstrates the success of
citizen scientists at identifying planet candidates, even in longer period
orbits with only two or three transit events.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables, accepted and published on ApJ ApJ,
776, 1