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Can we detect the moons of extrasolar planets? For two decades, astronomers have made enormous progress in the detection and characterisation of exoplanetary systems but the identification of an "exomoon" is notably absent.
In this thesis, David Kipping shows how transiting planets may be used to infer the presence of exomoons through deviations in the time and duration of the planetary eclipses. A detailed account of the transit model, potential distortions, and timing techniques is covered before the analytic forms for the timing
variations are derived. It is shown that habitable-zone exomoons above 0.2 Earth-masses are detectable with the Kepler space telescope using these new timing techniques.
List of contents
1 Introduction.- 2 Extrasolar Moons.- 3 The Transiting Planet.- 4 Timing the Transit.- 5 Transit Distortions.- 6 Transit Timing Effects due to an Exomoon.- 7 Detectability of Habitable Exomoons with Kepler-Class Photometry.- 8 Conclusions & Future Work.- A Notations & Acronyms.
About the author
Dr. Kipping got his PhD in Astrophysics from University College London in 2011. He is Carl Sagan Fellow at Harvard College Observatory.
Summary
Can we detect the moons of extrasolar planets? For two decades, astronomers have made enormous progress in the detection and characterisation of exoplanetary systems but the identification of an "exomoon" is notably absent.
In this thesis, David Kipping shows how transiting planets may be used to infer the presence of exomoons through deviations in the time and duration of the planetary eclipses. A detailed account of the transit model, potential distortions, and timing techniques is covered before the analytic forms for the timing
variations are derived. It is shown that habitable-zone exomoons above 0.2 Earth-masses are detectable with the Kepler space telescope using these new timing techniques.
