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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
PASTIS: A new fully-bayesian tool for planet validation

Alexandre Santerne
CAUP

Abstract
The CoRoT and Kepler space missions, designed to find small planets that transit in front of their star, discovered more than 3000 transiting planet-candidates. They are so-called "candidates" since various configuration of stellar systems might mimic exactly the same signal as a transit of a planet (so-called "false positives"). To distinguish a planet from a stellar systems, the usual way is to measure the mass of the transiting objects using high-accuracy spectrographs (e.g., SOPHIE@OHP-1.93m or HARPS-N@TNG-3.6m). But current spectrographs are not sensitive enough to characterize small planets from the CoRoT or Kepler surveys. A new technique has been developed for these planets. This technique consists on statistically validating the planet by rejecting all false-positive scenarios. In this seminar, I will first present the context of the transiting planets and the false-positive issue. Then, I will introduce the planet-validation technique and present the PASTIS tool in this framework. I will also discuss future developments and use of the PASTIS tool that can validate planets down to the size of the Earth.

15 April 2013, 13:30

Centro de Astrofísica
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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