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Published July 23, 2021 | Version v1
Poster Open

Detectability of Transiting Terrestrial Planets in the Habitable Zone with TESS

  • 1. SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center
  • 2. NASA Ames Research Center
  • 3. Cornell University

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Description

In the Revised TESS Habitable Zone Catalog, Kaltenegger et al. (2021) identified the 2-min TESS target stars that were observed for sufficient duration over consecutive primary mission sectors to unambiguously capture a transit signature of planets orbiting in the Habitable Zone (HZ). The Catalog did not, however, identify the host stars for which transiting planets with HZ orbits and specified radii would be detectable based on the photometric precision of the retrieved light curves. We employ the Combined Differential Photometric Precision (CDPP) computed at 15 pulse durations in the Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) transit searches of the primary mission light curves to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) associated with transiting terrestrial planets (1.0 Re <= Rp <= 2.0 Re) in the HZ of the Catalog stars. We consider orbital periods under three HZ scenarios: Recent Venus, Earth Analog, and Early Mars. Given S/N, we further estimate the probability of detection of transiting terrestrial planets for each Catalog star and HZ scenario in the primary mission SPOC transit searches. We also present the expected yield by HZ scenario and planet radius under the assumption that all Catalog stars host such planets. Funding for the TESS mission has been provided by the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

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References

  • Kaltenegger, L., Pepper, J., Christodoulou, P. M., et al. 2021, AJ, 161, 233, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/abe5a9
  • Stassun, K. G., Oelkers, R. J., Pepper, J., et al. 2018, AJ,156, 102, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aad050
  • Stassun, K. G., Oelkers, R. J., Paegert, M., et al. 2019, AJ,158, 138, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab3467
  • Gilbert, E. A., Barclay, T., Schlieder, J. E., et al. 2020, AJ,160, 116, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b2