Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope
Alternative namesKELT
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The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (or KELT) is an astronomical observation system formed by two robotic telescopes that are conducting a survey for transiting exoplanets around bright stars. The project is jointly administered by members of Ohio State University Department of Astronomy,[1] the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy[2] Astronomy Group,[3] the Lehigh University Department of Physics,[4] and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).[5]

KELT Telescopes

KELT consists of two telescopes, KELT-North[6] in Arizona in the United States, and KELT-South[7] at the SAAO observing station near Sutherland, South Africa.

Each KELT telescope consists of a wide field (26 degrees × 26 degrees) medium format telephoto lens with a 4.2 cm aperture, mounted in front of a 4k × 4k Apogee CCD. Each can also be equipped with an alternative narrower field (10.8 degrees × 10.8 degrees) lens with a 7.1 cm aperture for a narrow angle campaign mode. KELT-North uses an Apogee AP16E camera, while KELT South uses an Apogee U16M. The optical assemblies and cameras are mounted on Paramount ME[8] mounts manufactured by Software Bisque.[9] The telescopes were made with off-the-shelf components, and were thus much cheaper than many observatories.[10]

Goals

KELT is dedicated to discovering transiting exoplanets orbiting stars in the apparent magnitude range of 8 < V < 10. This is the region just fainter than the set of stars comprehensively surveyed for planets by the radial-velocity surveys, but brighter than those typically observed by most transit surveys.

Operations

Both KELT telescopes operate by sequentially observing a series of predefined fields around the sky all night, every night when the weather is good. All recordings are made with 150-second exposures, optimized to observe stars in the target magnitude range.

Discoveries

KELT has made several exoplanet discoveries and at least one brown dwarf (which may be an extremely massive Super-Jupiter instead) to date. Yellow rows in the table below indicate the planet is contained in a binary system.

Exoplanets

Star Constellation Right
ascension 		Declination App.
mag. 		Distance (ly) Spectral
type 		Planet Mass
(MJ) 		Radius
(RJ) 		Density
(g/cm3) 		Orbital
period
(d) 		Semimajor
axis
(AU) 		Orbital
eccentricity 		Inclination
(°) 		Discovery
year
KELT-2A Auriga 06h 10m 39s +30° 57′ 26″ 8.77 420 F7V KELT-2Ab 1.486 1.306 4.11379 0.05498 0.0 88.5 2012
KELT-3 Leo 09h 54m 34.0s +30° 38′ 24″ 9.8 580 F6V KELT-3b 1.418 1.333 0.75 2.70339 0.04117 0.0 84.32 2012
KELT-4A Leo 10h 28m 15.011s +25° 34′ 23.5″ 9.98 685 F8V KELT-4Ab 0.878 1.706 2.9895933 0.04321 0.0 83.11 2015
KELT-6 Coma Berenices 13h 03m 56s +30° 38′ 24″ 10.38 724 F8IV KELT-6b 0.43 1.19 0.311 7.84563 0.079 0.22 +0.12
−0.10		 88.81 2013
KELT-6c 3.71 1.16 1,276 2.39 0.21 2015
KELT-7 Auriga 05h 13m 11s +33° 19′ 05″ 8.54 420 F2V KELT-7b 1.28 1.533 0.442 2.7347749 0.04415 0.0 83.76 2015
KELT-8 Hercules 18h 53m 13.31s 24° 07′ 38.09″ 10.85 664 G2V KELT-8b 0.66 1.62 0.165 3.24 0.04550 0.04±0.05 82.65±0.90 2015
KELT-9 Cygnus 20h 31m 27s +39° 56′ 20″ 7.56 620 B9.5V KELT-9b 2015
KELT-10 Telescopium 18h 58m 11.61s −47° 00′ 11.91″ 10.62 614 G0V KELT-10b 0.68 1.4 0.308 4.17 0.05250 0? 88.61 2015
KELT-11 Sextans 10h 46m 49.66s −09° 23′ 57.71″ 8.04 323 G8/K0IV KELT-11b 0.171 1.35 0.009 4.74 0.06±0.005 0.0007±0.0015 85.3±0.2 2017
KELT-12 Hercules 17h 50m 33.72s +36° 34′ 12.63″ 10.59 1200 F7III-IV KELT-12b 0.95 1.78 0.209 5.03 0.06708 0.0 84.47±0.15 2017
KELT-13/WASP-167 Centaurus 13h 04m 10.51s −35° 32′ 58.31″ 10.571 1381 F1V KELT-13/WASP-167b <8 1.58 2.02 0.0365 79.9 2017
KELT-14/WASP-122 Puppis 7h 13m 12.34s −42° 24′ 35.14″ 11 816 G2V KELT-14/WASP-122b 1.284 1.743 0.322 1.71 0.03 0.0 78.3 2016
KELT-15 Carina 07h 49m 39.59s −52° 07′ 13.57″ 11.39 1,068 G0V KELT-15Ab 0.91 1.443 0.36 3.33 0.04 0 88.3 2015
KELT-16 Cygnus 20h 57m 04.44s +31° 39′ 39.63″ 11.72 1,469 F7V KELT-16Ab[11] 2.75 1.415 1.20 ± 0.18 0.97 0.02 0 84.4 2017
KELT-17 Cancer 8h 22m 28.20s +13° 44′ 07.14″ 9.23 743 A7V KELT-17b 1.32 1.525 0.46 3.08 0.05 84.87 2016
KELT-18 Ursa Major 14h 26m 05.76s +59° 26′ 39.29″ 10.16 1,057 F4V KELT-18Ab[12] 1.18 1.57 0.377 2.87 0.04 0 82.90 2017
KELT-19 Canis Minor 07h 26m 02.29s +07° 36′ 56.18″ 9.86 987 A8V KELT-19Ab <4.07 1.91 <0.744 4.61 0.064 85.14 2017
KELT-20 Cygnus 19h 38m 38.74s +31° 31′ 09.22″ 7.58 446 A2V KELT-20b <3.382 1.741 <0.806 3.474 0.05 0? 86.12 2017
KELT-21 Cygnus 20h 19m 12.00s +32° 34′ 51.76″ 10.48 1,556 A6V KELT-21b <3.91 1.586 <1.24 3.612 0.05 0 86.46 2018
KELT-22/WASP-173 Sculptor 23h 36m 40.38s −34° 36′ 42.68″ 11.3 766 G3V KELT-22/WASP-173Ab 3.47 1.285 2.02 1.386 0.02 0 85.2 2018
KELT-23 Ursa Minor 15h 28m 35.19s +66° 21′ 31.54″ 10.31 413 G1V KELT-23b 0.94 1.32 0.503 2.26 0.03 0 85.37 2019
KELT-24 Ursa Major 10h 47m 38.35s +71° 39′ 21.16″ 8.33 316 F5.5V KELT-24b 5.18 1.27 3.13 5.55 0.07 0.08 89.17 2019
KELT-25 Canis Major 07h 12m 29.55s −24° 57′ 12.82″ 9.63 1,443 A4V
KELT-26/WASP-178 Lupus 15h 09m 04.89s −42° 42′ 17.79″ 9.95 1,410 A1V KELT-26/WASP-178b 1.41 1.94 0.238 3.35 0.06 0 84.45 2019

Brown dwarfs

In addition, the survey has discovered brown dwarfs like KELT-1b.

Star Constellation Right
ascension 		Declination App.
mag. 		Distance (ly) Spectral
type 		Planet Mass
(MJ) 		Radius
(RJ) 		Density
(g/cm3) 		Orbital
period
(d) 		Semimajor
axis
(AU) 		Orbital
eccentricity 		Inclination
(°) 		Discovery
year
KELT-1 Andromeda 00h 01m 26.92s +39° 23′ 01.7″ 10.00 854 F5V KELT-1b 27.23 1.110 1.217513 0.0247 0.0 87.80

References

  1. ^ "The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy".
  2. ^ "Vanderbilt Department of Physics and Astronomy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  3. ^ "Vanderbilt Astronomy Group".
  4. ^ "The Lehigh Department of Physics".
  5. ^ "South African Astronomical Observatory".
  6. ^ Pepper, Joshua; et al. (2007). "The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT): A Small Robotic Telescope for Large-Area Synoptic Surveys". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 119 (858): 923–935. arXiv:0704.0460. Bibcode:2007PASP..119..923P. doi:10.1086/521836. S2CID 13967723.
  7. ^ Pepper; et al. (2012). "The KELT-South Telescope". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 124 (913): 230–241. arXiv:1202.1826. Bibcode:2012PASP..124..230P. doi:10.1086/665044. S2CID 119207060.
  8. ^ "Paramount ME". Archived from the original on 2012-07-02.
  9. ^ "Software Bisque company page".
  10. ^ Sample, Ian (2017-06-05). "Kelt-9b: astronomers discover hottest known giant planet". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  11. ^ Oberst, Thomas E.; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Colón, Knicole D.; Angerhausen, Daniel; Bieryla, Allyson; Ngo, Henry; Stevens, Daniel J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Pepper, Joshua; Penev, Kaloyan; Mawet, Dimitri; Latham, David W.; Heintz, Tyler M.; Osei, Baffour W.; Collins, Karen A.; Kielkopf, John F.; Visgaitis, Tiffany; Reed, Phillip A.; Escamilla, Alejandra; Yazdi, Sormeh; McLeod, Kim K.; Lunsford, Leanne T.; Spencer, Michelle; Joner, Michael D.; Gregorio, Joao; Gaillard, Clement; Matt, Kyle; Dumont, Mary Thea; et al. (2017). "KELT-16b: A Highly Irradiated, Ultra-short Period Hot Jupiter Nearing Tidal Disruption". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (3): 97. arXiv:1608.00618. Bibcode:2017AJ....153...97O. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/97. S2CID 42949556.
  12. ^ McLeod, Kim K.; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Collins, Karen A.; Bieryla, Allyson; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Penev, Kaloyan; Stevens, Daniel J.; Colón, Knicole D.; Pepper, Joshua; Narita, Norio; Tsuguru, Ryu; Fukui, Akihiko; Reed, Phillip A.; Tirrell, Bethany; Visgaitis, Tiffany; Kielkopf, John F.; Cohen, David H.; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Gregorio, Joao; Baştürk, Özgür; Oberst, Thomas E.; Melton, Casey; Kempton, Eliza M.-R.; Baldrige, Andrew; Zhao, Y. Sunny; Zambelli, Roberto; et al. (2017). "KELT-18b: Puffy Planet, Hot Host, Probably Perturbed". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (6): 263. arXiv:1702.01657. Bibcode:2017AJ....153..263M. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6d5d. S2CID 54667386.

External links

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