XO Project

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The XO Project is an international team of amateur and professional astronomers tasked with identifying extrasolar planets. They are led by Peter R. McCullough of the Space Telescope Science Institute. [1] It is primarily funded by NASA's Origins Program and the Director's Discretionary Fund of the Space Telescope Science Institute. [2] [3]

Contents

Duties

Preliminary identification of possible star candidates starts at the Haleakala telescope in Hawaii by a team of professional astronomers. Once they identify a star that dims slightly from time to time (the transit method), the information is forwarded to a team of amateur astronomers who then investigate for additional evidence suggesting this dimming is caused by a transiting planet. Once enough data is collected, it is forwarded to the University of Texas McDonald Observatory to confirm the presence of a transiting planet by a second team of professional astronomers. [2]

Equipment

McCullough and his team employed a relatively inexpensive telescope called the XO Telescope, made from commercial equipment, to search for extrasolar planets. The construction of the one-of-a-kind telescope cost $60,000 for the hardware, and much more than that for the associated software. [4] The telescope consists of two 200-millimeter telephoto camera lenses, and resembles binoculars in shape. It is similar to the TrES survey telescope. It stands on the summit of the Haleakalā volcano and 3,054 m (10,000 foot) in Hawaii. [1] Their first discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Sun-like star 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis—XO-1b—was reported May 16, 2006 on Newswise.

In 2016 three similar double telescopes were operating, two in Spain and one in Utah. [5]

Discoveries

The XO telescope has discovered six objects so far, five are hot Jupiter planets and one, XO-3b, may be a brown dwarf.

Star Constellation Right
ascension 		Declination App.
mag. 		Distance (ly) Spectral
type 		Planet Mass
(MJ)		 Radius
(RJ)		 Orbital
period
(d)		 Semimajor
axis
(AU)		 Orbital
eccentricity 		Inclination
(°)		Discovery
year
XO-1 [6] Corona Borealis 16h 02m 12s+28° 10′ 11″11.319600G1V XO-1b 0.91.33.9415340.0488087.72006
XO-2N [7] Lynx 07h 48m 07s+50° 13′ 33″11.25486K0V XO-2Nb 0.570.9732.6158380.0369088.582007
XO-3 [8] Camelopardalis 04h 21m 53s+57° 49′ 01″9.91850F5V XO-3b 11.791.2173.19152390.04540.2684.22007
XO-4 [9] Lynx 07h 21m 33.1657s+58° 16′ 05.005″10.78956F5V XO-4b 1.721.344.125020.05550.002488.72008
XO-5 [10] Lynx 07h 46m 51.959s+39° 05′ 40.47″12.1881G8V XO-5b 1.151.154.1877320.05080.002986.82008
XO-6 [11] Camelopardalis 6h 19m 10.31s+73° 49′ 39.24″10.28760F5V XO-6b 4.42.073.760.082086.02016
XO-7 Draco 18h 29m 52.30s85° 13′ 59.58″10.52763G0V XO-7b 0.711.3732.86414240.044210.03883.452019

See also

A subset of XO light curves are available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Other Ground-Based Transit Surveys

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">XO-1</span> Star in the constellation Corona Borealis

XO-1 is a magnitude 11 G-type main-sequence star located approximately 530 light-years away in the constellation Corona Borealis. XO-1 has a mass and radius similar to the Sun. In 2006 the extrasolar planet XO-1b was discovered orbiting XO-1 by the transit method using the XO Telescope.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">XO-3b</span> Extrasolar planet in the constellation Camelopardalis

XO-3b is an exoplanet with about 11.79 times the mass of Jupiter, and it orbits its parent star in about 3.2 days. The radius of this object is 1.217 times that of Jupiter. Astronomers announced their discovery on May 30, 2007, at the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its discovery is attributed to the combined effort of amateur and professional astronomers working together on the XO Project using a telescope located on the Haleakala summit in Hawaii.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">XO-4b</span> Exoplanet in the constellation of Lynx

XO-4b is an extrasolar planet approximately 956 light years away in the constellation of Lynx. This planet was found by the transit method by McCullough in May 2008. The planet has mass 1.72 MJ and radius 1.34 RJ. This planet orbits very close to the F-type parent star, as it is typical for transiting planets, classing this planet as Hot Jupiter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XO-5b</span> Exoplanet in the constellation Lynx

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XO-3 is a star in the constellation Camelopardalis. The star has a magnitude of 10 and is not visible to the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. A search for a binary companion star using adaptive optics at the MMT Observatory was negative.

XO-4 is a star located approximately 863 light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. It has a magnitude of about 11 and cannot be seen with the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. A search for a binary companion star using adaptive optics at MMT Observatory was negative.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">XO-6b</span> Hot Jupiter exoplanet orbiting the star XO-6

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References

  1. 1 2 Astronomers Catch Planet By Unusual Means, Space Daily
  2. 1 2 XO-3b: Supersized planet or oasis in the 'brown dwarf desert'?, EurekAlert!
  3. ↑ Astronomers Use Innovative Technique to Find Extrasolar Planet, HubbleSite
  4. ↑ McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2005). "The XO Project: Searching for Transiting Extrasolar Planet Candidates". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 117 (834): 783–795. arXiv: astro-ph/0505560 . Bibcode:2005PASP..117..783M. doi:10.1086/432024. S2CID   16972795.
  5. ↑ Crouzet, N.; McCullough, P. R.; Long, D.; Rodriguez, P. Montanes; Etangs, A. Lecavelier des; Ribas, I.; Bourrier, V.; Hébrard, G.; Vilardell, F. (February 2017). "Discovery of XO-6b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a Fast Rotating F5 Star on an Oblique Orbit". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (3): 94. arXiv: 1612.02776 . Bibcode:2017AJ....153...94C. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/94 . ISSN   1538-3881.
  6. ↑ McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2006). "A Transiting Planet of a Sun-like Star". The Astrophysical Journal. 648 (2): 1228–1238. arXiv: astro-ph/0605414 . Bibcode:2006ApJ...648.1228M. doi:10.1086/505651. S2CID   8100425.
  7. ↑ Burke, Christopher J.; et al. (2007). "XO-2b: Transiting Hot Jupiter in a Metal-rich Common Proper Motion Binary". The Astrophysical Journal. 671 (2): 2115–2128. arXiv: 0705.0003 . Bibcode:2007ApJ...671.2115B. doi:10.1086/523087. S2CID   13468914.
  8. ↑ Johns-Krull, Christopher M.; et al. (2008). "XO-3b: A Massive Planet in an Eccentric Orbit Transiting an F5V Star". The Astrophysical Journal. 677 (1): 657–670. arXiv: 0712.4283 . Bibcode:2008ApJ...677..657J. doi:10.1086/528950. S2CID   15342571.
  9. ↑ McCullough, P. R.; et al. (2008). "XO-4b: An Extrasolar Planet Transiting an F5V Star". arXiv: 0805.2921 [astro-ph].
  10. ↑ Burke, Christopher J.; et al. (2008). "XO-5b: A Transiting Jupiter-sized Planet with a 4 day Period". The Astrophysical Journal. 686 (2): 1331–1340. arXiv: 0805.2399 . Bibcode:2008ApJ...686.1331B. doi:10.1086/591497. S2CID   14043772.
  11. ↑ Crouzet, N.; et al. (2017). "Discovery of XO-6b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a Fast Rotating F5 Star on an Oblique Orbit". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (3). 94. arXiv: 1612.02776 . Bibcode:2017AJ....153...94C. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/94 . S2CID   119082666.


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