Lowell Observatory Colloquia

Detecting the magnetic field of the transiting exoplanet WASP-12b

Jake Turner, University of Arizona

Lowell Observatory, Slipher Building Conference Room, Friday, 09 March, 2012 at 12:00 p.m.

We observed several primary transits of the transiting exoplanet WASP-12b with the Steward Observatory 1.55m Kuiper Telescope using near-UV and optical filters. It has been proposed that you can detect the magnetic field of a transiting exoplanet by observing asymmetries in their near-UV and optical light curves (Vidotto et al. 2011) and we hope to observe this phenomenon. Preliminary analysis of our ground-based data shows no asymmetry between near-UV and optical wavelengths. Further investigation into our data and follow up observations should help provide some of the first constraints on whether this effect proposed by Vidotto et al. 2011 can be observed from the ground and whether it is dependent on certain wavelengths.

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