Theoretical and Natural Science

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Theoretical and Natural Science

Vol. 11, 17 November 2023


Open Access | Article

Analyzing light curves to highlight phenomena and trends in planetary systems that house terrestrial exoplanets

David Lu Cao * 1
1 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Theoretical and Natural Science, Vol. 11, 246-255
Published 17 November 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation David Lu Cao. Analyzing light curves to highlight phenomena and trends in planetary systems that house terrestrial exoplanets. TNS (2023) Vol. 11: 246-255. DOI: 10.54254/2753-8818/11/20230416.

Abstract

Light curves describe the luminosity, or flux, emitted by celestial bodies or systems over a period of time. Since light curves are mostly irregular and may contain spikes and dips caused by extraneous factors, they contain valuable information about various phenomena and trends in the observed planetary system. For instance, light curves often help detect exoplanets in a star’s planetary system. Furthermore, they also help characterize solar flares, cataclysmic variables (CVs), and various other phenomena. This study collects data in the form of light curves from stars in planetary systems housing terrestrial exoplanets found on the NASA Exoplanet Catalog and explored various causes for variations in the planetary system’s light curve. One significant finding from light curve analysis was the possible existence of instrumental noise on the Kepler telescope in quarter 10. However, a larger exoplanet sample size and a real significance test are required for confirmation. This study exemplifies the accessibility and therefore feasibility of gathering data, graphing, and analyzing light curves.

Keywords

Light curves, Terrestrial exoplanets, NASA Exoplanet Catalog, Feasibility.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Mathematical Physics and Computational Simulation
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-133-9
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-134-6
Published Date
17 November 2023
Series
Theoretical and Natural Science
ISSN (Print)
2753-8818
ISSN (Online)
2753-8826
DOI
10.54254/2753-8818/11/20230416
Copyright
17 November 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated