Confirmation of Candidature - Observing and Validating Prioritised TESS Candidates using Minerva-Australis

Small, 1 - 4 R_earth planets comprise a large, steadily increasing, fraction of the 5000+ exoplanets confirmed or validated so far. Characterising these planets and their atmospheres, where present, is crucial for understanding the formation and evolution of exoplanets, population distributions, and system architectures. To enable further exploration by missions like JWST, ELTs, and HWO, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has been detecting planets around bright stars less than 200 pc away, but with a high estimated false positive rate. This is corrected for in part by ground-based observatories systematically identifying exoplanet detections from astrophysical false positives. Transit depths of smaller planets lie at the edges of the detection limits or within intrinsic instrumental noise ranges of observing instruments currently used, further exacerbated by atmospheric effects in ground-based observations. Combining simultaneous photometric observations from multiple ground-based telescopes spaced sufficiently apart, such as the Minerva-Australis array, reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), correlated noise, and atmospheric scintillation in observed data, enabling the detection of the smallest planets' (~1 R_earth) transits and contributing towards optimising further exploration of these planets. In this project, I aim to demonstrate and implement the ability of the combined Minerva-Australis array to conduct precision photometry for validating prioritised TESS candidates having small transit depths, characterise validated planets, and curate a list of high-value targets for in-depth atmospheric studies within the currently sparsely-populated small-planet regime.

For more information, please email the Graduate Research School or phone 0746 311088.