Kepler News and Results (Thread 2)

A small riddle.

EPE announces two small planets at Kepler-1705, seemingly a metal-poor Solar sibling in Cygnus

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-1705_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-1705_c/

Aka KOI-4772, which hosts a third planet candidate in outer orbit too.

However ExofopTESS assigns Kepler-1705 to another star, KIC 8121913, which hosts a massive Hot Jupiter but no small planets. On the other hand there KOI-4772 seems not having an official Kepler designation yet. How possible?

Edasich wrote:

A small riddle.

EPE announces two small planets at Kepler-1705, seemingly a metal-poor Solar sibling in Cygnus

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-1705_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-1705_c/

Aka KOI-4772, which hosts a third planet candidate in outer orbit too.

However ExofopTESS assigns Kepler-1705 to another star, KIC 8121913, which hosts a massive Hot Jupiter but no small planets. On the other hand there KOI-4772 seems not having an official Kepler designation yet. How possible?

ArXiv paper now online. The host star is confirmed to be KIC 8397947, not KIC 8121913, which however ExoFOP TESS lists as Kepler-1705.

Alleviating the transit timing variation bias in transit surveys. I. RIVERS: Method and detection of a pair of resonant super-Earths around Kepler-1705

Quote :

Transit timing variations (TTVs) can provide useful information for systems observed by transit, as they allow us to put constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets, or even to constrain the existence of non-transiting companions. However, TTVs can also act as a detection bias that can prevent the detection of small planets in transit surveys that would otherwise be detected by standard algorithms such as the Boxed Least Square algorithm (BLS) if their orbit was not perturbed. This bias is especially present for surveys with a long baseline, such as Kepler, some of the TESS sectors, and the upcoming PLATO mission. Here we introduce a detection method that is robust to large TTVs, and illustrate its use by recovering and confirming a pair of resonant super-Earths with ten-hour TTVs around Kepler-1705. The method is based on a neural network trained to recover the tracks of low-signal-to-noise-ratio(S/N) perturbed planets in river diagrams. We recover the transit parameters of these candidates by fitting the light curve. The individual transit S/N of Kepler-1705b and c are about three times lower than all the previously known planets with TTVs of 3 hours or more, pushing the boundaries in the recovery of these small, dynamically active planets. Recovering this type of object is essential for obtaining a complete picture of the observed planetary systems, and solving for a bias not often taken into account in statistical studies of exoplanet populations. In addition, TTVs are a means of obtaining mass estimates which can be essential for studying the internal structure of planets discovered by transit surveys. Finally, we show that due to the strong orbital perturbations, it is possible that the spin of the outer resonant planet of Kepler-1705 is trapped in a sub- or super-synchronous spin-orbit resonance.

An additional planet in KOI-984 system? Likely and making up a compact resonant system too

A highly mutually-inclined, compact warm-Jupiter system KOI-984?

Quote :

The discovery of a population of close-orbiting giant planets (≤ 1 au) has raised a number of questions about their origins and dynamical histories. These issues have still not yet been fully resolved, despite over 20 years of exoplanet detections and a large number of discovered exoplanets. In particular, it is unclear whether warm Jupiters (WJs) form in situ, or whether they migrate from further outside and are even currently migrating to form hot Jupiters (HJs). Here, we report the possible discovery and characterization of the planets in a highly mutually-inclined (Imut≃45∘), compact two-planet system (KOI-984), in which the newly discovered warm Jupiter KOI-984c is on a 21.5-day, moderately eccentric (e≃0.4) orbit, in addition to a previously known 4.3-day planet candidate KOI-984b. Meanwhile, the orbital configuration of a moderately inclined (Imut≃15∘), low-mass (mc≃24M⊕;Pb≃8.6 days) perturbing planet near 1:2 mean motion resonace with KOI-984b could also well reproduce observed transit timing variations and transit duration variations of KOI-984b. Such an eccentric WJ with a close-in sibling would pose a challenge to the proposed formation and migration mechanisms of WJs, if the first scenario is supported with more evidences in near future; this system with several other well-measured inclined WJ systems (e.g., Kepler-419 and Kepler-108) may provide additional clues for the origin and dynamical histories of WJs.

Valizadegan, et al present confirmation of numerous KOI's, getting Kepler-# identifiers all the way out to Kepler-1969, though they skipped Kepler-1908 and they assigned Kepler-1803 to KOI-7892, which already has the identifier Kepler-457.

A hot Mars-sized exoplanet transiting an M dwarf

Quote :

We validate the planetary nature of an ultra-short period planet orbiting the M dwarf KOI-4777. We use a combination of space-based photometry from Kepler, high-precision, near-infrared Doppler spectroscopy from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, and adaptive optics imaging to characterize this system. KOI-4777.01 is a Mars-sized exoplanet (Rp=0.51±0.03R⊕) orbiting the host star every 0.412-days (∼9.9-hours). This is the smallest validated ultra-short period planet known and we see no evidence for additional massive companions using our HPF RVs. We constrain the upper 3σ mass to Mp<0.34 M⊕ by assuming the planet is less dense than iron. Obtaining a mass measurement for KOI-4777.01 is beyond current instrumental capabilities.

New planet from Kepler around a tonguetwisting GAIA star, that is Gaia EDR3 2077240046296834304.

Kepler Bonus: Aperture Photometry Light Curves of EXBA Sources

Quote :

NASA's Kepler mission observed background regions across its field of view for more than three consecutive years using custom designed super apertures (EXBA masks). Since these apertures were designed to capture a region of the sky rather than single targets, the Kepler Science Data Processing pipeline produced Target Pixel Files, but did not produce light curves for the sources within these background regions. In this work we produce light curves for 9,327 sources observed in the EXBA masks. These light curves are generated using aperture photometry estimated from the instrument's Pixel Response Function (PRF) profile computed from Kepler's full-frame images. The PRF models enable the creation of apertures that follow the characteristic shapes of the PSF in the image and the computation of flux completeness and contamination metrics. The light curves are available at MAST as a High Level Science Product (kbonus-apexba). Alongside this dataset, we present kepler-apertures, a Python library to compute PRF models and use them to perform aperture photometry on Kepler-like data. Using light curves from the EXBA masks we found an exoplanet candidate around Gaia EDR3 2077240046296834304 consistent with a large planet companion with a 0.81R_J radius. Additionally, we report a catalog of 69 eclipsing binaries. We encourage the community to exploit this new dataset to perform in depth time domain analysis, such as eclipsing binaries demographic and others.

Sirius_Alpha wrote:

Valizadegan, et al present confirmation of numerous KOI's, getting Kepler-# identifiers all the way out to Kepler-1969, though they skipped Kepler-1908 and they assigned Kepler-1803 to KOI-7892, which already has the identifier Kepler-457.

Here are indeed the... 301 Keplerians *lol* from Exoplanet Archive latest news.

Let's start the New Year with a new Kepler planet: Kepler-1627 Ab  

A 38 Million Year Old Neptune-Sized Planet in the Kepler Field

Quote :

Kepler 1627A is a G8V star previously known to host a 3.8 Earth-radius planet on a 7.2 day orbit. The star was observed by the Kepler space telescope because it is nearby (d=329 pc) and it resembles the Sun. Here we show using Gaia kinematics, TESS stellar rotation periods, and spectroscopic lithium abundances that Kepler 1627 is a member of the 38 ± 6 Myr old δ Lyr cluster. To our knowledge, this makes Kepler 1627Ab the youngest planet with a precise age yet found by the prime Kepler mission. The Kepler photometry shows two peculiarities: the average transit profile is asymmetric, and the individual transit times might be correlated with the local light curve slope. We discuss possible explanations for each anomaly. More importantly, the δ Lyr cluster is one of about 103 coeval groups whose properties have been clarified by Gaia. Many other exoplanet hosts are candidate members of these clusters; these memberships can be verified with the trifecta of Gaia, TESS, and ground-based spectroscopy.

Edasich wrote:

Let's start the New Year with a new Kepler planet: Kepler-1627 Ab  

A 38 Million Year Old Neptune-Sized Planet in the Kepler Field

Quote :

Kepler 1627A is a G8V star previously known to host a 3.8 Earth-radius planet on a 7.2 day orbit. The star was observed by the Kepler space telescope because it is nearby (d=329 pc) and it resembles the Sun. Here we show using Gaia kinematics, TESS stellar rotation periods, and spectroscopic lithium abundances that Kepler 1627 is a member of the 38 ± 6 Myr old δ Lyr cluster. To our knowledge, this makes Kepler 1627Ab the youngest planet with a precise age yet found by the prime Kepler mission. The Kepler photometry shows two peculiarities: the average transit profile is asymmetric, and the individual transit times might be correlated with the local light curve slope. We discuss possible explanations for each anomaly. More importantly, the δ Lyr cluster is one of about 103 coeval groups whose properties have been clarified by Gaia. Many other exoplanet hosts are candidate members of these clusters; these memberships can be verified with the trifecta of Gaia, TESS, and ground-based spectroscopy.

Plus two more...

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-883_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-895_b/

Lately "false positives" are creating confusion everywhere. The case of Kepler-1972 is a lesson about being careful with "false positives" in general...

Alleviating the Transit Timing Variations bias in transit surveys. II. RIVERS: Twin resonant Earth-sized planets around Kepler-1972 recovered from Kepler's false positive

Quote :

Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) can provide useful information for systems observed by transit, by putting constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets, or even constrain the existence of non-transiting companions. However, TTVs can also prevent the detection of small planets in transit surveys, or bias the recovered planetary and transit parameters. Here we show that Kepler-1972 c, initially the "not transit-like" false positive KOI-3184.02, is an Earth-sized planet whose orbit is perturbed by Kepler-1972 b (initially KOI-3184.01). The pair is locked in a 3:2 Mean-motion resonance, each planet displaying TTVs of more than 6h hours of amplitude over the duration of the Kepler mission. The two planets have similar masses mb/mc=0.956+0.056−0.051 and radii Rb=0.802+0.042−0.041REarth, Rc=0.868+0.051−0.050REarth, and the whole system, including the inner candidate KOI-3184.03, appear to be coplanar. Despite the faintness of the signals (SNR of 1.35 for each transit of Kepler-1972 b and 1.10 for Kepler-1972 c), we recovered the transits of the planets using the RIVERS method, based on the recognition of the tracks of planets in river diagrams using machine learning, and a photo-dynamic fit of the lightcurve. Recovering the correct ephemerides of the planets is essential to have a complete picture of the observed planetary systems. In particular, we show that in Kepler-1972, not taking into account planet-planet interactions yields an error of ∼30% on the radii of planets b and c, in addition to generating in-transit scatter, which leads to mistake KOI3184.02 for a false positive. Alleviating this bias is essential for an unbiased view of Kepler systems, some of the TESS stars, and the upcoming PLATO mission.

Additionally I would like to report this post again

Edasich wrote:

Substellar third body in W UMa-type binary KIC 9026766 (though I'm not sure this is going to receive a Kepler designation, but who knows?)

First investigation of eclipsing binary KIC 9026766: analysis of light curve and periodic changes

Quote :

Abstract We investigate a short-period W UMa binary KIC 9026766 with an orbital period of 0.2721278 days in the Kepler field of view. By using an automated q-search for the folded light curve and producing a synthetic light curve for this object based on the PHOEBE code, we calculate the fundamental stellar parameters. We also analyze the O-C curve of the primary minima. The orbital period changes can be attributed to the combination of an upward quadratic function and light-travel time effect due to a possible third body with a minimum mass of 0.029 solar mass and an orbital period of 972.5866 days. The relative luminosity of the primary and secondary eclipses (Min I Min II) is calculated. The periodogram of the residuals of the LTT effect, and Min I Min II show peaks with the same period of 0.8566 days. The background effect of two nearby stars on our target is the possible reason for this signal. By considering the amplitudes and periods of the remaining signals in the OC curve of minima, spot motion is possible.

Discovery paper has been published and adds to a previous paper listing several binary systems with circumbinary substellar third bodies.

A comprehensive study of the Kepler triples via eclipse timing

Quote :

We produce and analyze eclipse time variation (ETV) curves for some 2600 Kepler binaries. We find good to excellent evidence for a third body in 222 systems via either the light-travel-time (LTTE) or dynamical effect delays. Approximately half of these systems have been discussed in previous work, while the rest are newly reported here. Via detailed analysis of the ETV curves using high-level analytic approximations, we are able to extract system masses and information about the three-dimensional characteristics of the triple for 62 systems which exhibit both LTTE and dynamical delays; for the remaining 160 systems we give improved LTTE solutions. New techniques of preprocessing the flux time series are applied to eliminate false positive triples and to enhance the ETV curves. The set of triples with outer orbital periods shorter than ~2000 days is now sufficiently numerous for meaningful statistical analysis. We find that (i) as predicted, there is a peak near i_m~40 deg in the distribution of the triple vs. inner binary mutual inclination angles that provides strong confirmation of the operation of Kozai-Lidov cycles with tidal friction; (ii) the median eccentricity of the third-body orbits is e_2=0.35; (iii) there is a deficit of triple systems with binary periods <1 day and outer periods between ~50 and 200 days which might help guide the refinement of theories of the formation and evolution of close binaries; and (iv) the substantial fraction of Kepler binaries which have third-body companions is consistent with a very large fraction of all binaries being part of triples.

The objects I've retrieved are 15:

- KIC 10848807
- KIC 10916675
- KIC 3338660 (KOI-3795)
- KIC 3440230 (KOI-6334)
- KIC 4079530
- KIC 4937217
- KIC 7177553 (KOI-6837)
- KIC 7339345
- KIC 8081389 (KOI-6958)
- KIC 9028474 (KOI-3510)
- KIC 9091810
- KIC 9159301 (KOI-7138)
- KIC 2576692 (KOI-6282)
- KIC 3853259
- KIC 4574310 (KOI-6427)

And let's forget not about KIC 11245381...

Is there a substellar object orbiting the solar-like stable contact binary V2284 Cyg?

Quote :

V2284 Cyg is a neglected W UMa-type binary star for photometric investigations. Monitored by the Kepler Space Telescope from 2009 to 2013, its light curves are continuously stable, suggesting that both components are inactive during this time interval. Based on the short-cadence observations, we determined the photometric solutions by using the 2013 version of the Wilson-Devinney code. These parameters reveal that V2284 Cyg is a W-type system with a degree of contact factor of f = 39.23% and a mass ratio of q = 2.90. Meanwhile, hundreds of times of minimum light were obtained and applied to analyze the orbital period changes. In the O-C diagram, a small-amplitude cyclic oscillation (A3 = 0.00030 days and T3 = 2.06 years) superimposed on a secular decreasing was found. The continuous decreasing may be a result from the mass transfer from the more massive component to the less massive one. With the long-term decreasing of the orbital period, this binary will evolve into a deeper contact system. Because the light curve is stable, the cyclic variation is plausibly explained as the light-travel time effect (LTTE) due to the presence of an additional body. The mass of the companion is M3sini′ =0.036(±0.003) M☉. If the orbital plane inclination is a random distribution, it is a brown dwarf with 66.7% probability. Therefore, the companion of V2284 Cyg is possibly the first candidate of the brown dwarf orbiting around contact binary, where both component are sharing a common convective envelope.

... and Kepler-1627 Ab too!

Edasich wrote:

Let's start the New Year with a new Kepler planet: Kepler-1627 Ab  

A 38 Million Year Old Neptune-Sized Planet in the Kepler Field

Quote :

Kepler 1627A is a G8V star previously known to host a 3.8 Earth-radius planet on a 7.2 day orbit. The star was observed by the Kepler space telescope because it is nearby (d=329 pc) and it resembles the Sun. Here we show using Gaia kinematics, TESS stellar rotation periods, and spectroscopic lithium abundances that Kepler 1627 is a member of the 38 ± 6 Myr old δ Lyr cluster. To our knowledge, this makes Kepler 1627Ab the youngest planet with a precise age yet found by the prime Kepler mission. The Kepler photometry shows two peculiarities: the average transit profile is asymmetric, and the individual transit times might be correlated with the local light curve slope. We discuss possible explanations for each anomaly. More importantly, the δ Lyr cluster is one of about 103 coeval groups whose properties have been clarified by Gaia. Many other exoplanet hosts are candidate members of these clusters; these memberships can be verified with the trifecta of Gaia, TESS, and ground-based spectroscopy.

Intriguing find! There's not two... without three

Detection of two additional circumbinary planets around Kepler-451

Quote :

We announce the detection of two new planetary-mass companions around Kepler-451 binary system in addition to the one detected previously based on eclipse timing variation analysis. We found that an inner planet with 43 d period with a minimum mass of 1.76 Mjup and an outer one with a ∼ 1800 d orbital period with a minimum mass of 1.61 Mjup can explain the periodic variations in the residuals of the one-planet fit of the eclipse timings. We updated the orbital period of the middle planet as 406 d, and determined its eccentricity as 0.33. The newly discovered outer planet is also on an eccentric orbit (0.29), while the innermost planet was assumed to have a circular orbit. All three Jovian planets have similar masses, and our dynamical stability test yields that the system is stable

Say goodbye to Kepler-854b, Kepler-840b, and Kepler-699b. Also maybe Kepler-747b.

Niraula et al. "Revisiting Kepler Transiting Systems: Unvetting Planets and Constraining Relationships among Harmonics in Phase Curves"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.07312

Lazarus wrote:

Say goodbye to Kepler-854b, Kepler-840b, and Kepler-699b. Also maybe Kepler-747b.

Niraula et al. "Revisiting Kepler Transiting Systems: Unvetting Planets and Constraining Relationships among Harmonics in Phase Curves"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.07312

Right chance for looking for circumbinary planets...

Additional planet in Kepler-1656 system

Kepler-1656b's Extreme Eccentricity: Signature of a Gentle Giant

Quote :

Highly eccentric orbits are one of the major surprises of exoplanets relative to the Solar System and indicate rich and tumultuous dynamical histories. One system of particular interest is Kepler-1656, which hosts a sub-Jovian planet with an eccentricity of 0.8. Sufficiently eccentric orbits will shrink in semi-major axis due to tidal dissipation of orbital energy during periastron passage. Here our goal was to assess whether Kepler-1656b is currently undergoing such high-eccentricity migration, and to further understand the system's origins and architecture. We confirm a second planet in the system with Mc=0.40±0.09Mjup and Pc=1919±27days. We simulated the dynamical evolution of planet b in the presence of planet c and find a variety of possible outcomes for the system, such as tidal migration and engulfment. The system is consistent with an in situ dynamical origin of planet b followed by subsequent Eccentric Kozai Lidov (EKL) perturbations that excite Kepler-1656b's eccentricity gently, i.e. without initiating tidal migration. Thus, despite its high eccentricity, we find no evidence that planet b is or has migrated through the high-eccentricity channel. Finally, we predict the outer orbit to be mutually inclined in a nearly perpendicular configuration with respect to the inner planet orbit based on the outcomes of our simulations, and make observable predictions for the inner planet's spin-orbit angle. Our methodology can be applied to other eccentric or tidally locked planets to constrain their origins, orbital configurations and properties of a potential companion.

Kepler and the Behemoth: Three Mini-Neptunes in a 40 Million Year Old Association

Quote :

Stellar positions and velocities from Gaia are yielding a new view of open cluster dispersal. Here we present an analysis of a group of stars spanning Cepheus to Hercules, hereafter the Cep-Her complex. The group includes four Kepler Objects of Interest: Kepler-1643 b (2.32±0.14 Earth-radii, 5.3 day orbital period), KOI-7368 b (2.22±0.12 Earth-radii, 6.8 days), KOI-7913 Ab (2.34±0.18 Earth-radii, 24.2 days), and Kepler-1627 Ab (3.85±0.11 Earth-radii, 7.2 days). The latter Neptune-sized planet is in part of the Cep-Her complex called the δ Lyr cluster (Bouma et al. 2022). Here we focus on the former three systems, which are in other regions of the association. Based on kinematic evidence from Gaia, stellar rotation periods from TESS, and spectroscopy, these three objects are also approximately 40 million years (Myr) old. More specifically, we find that Kepler-1643 is 46+9−7 Myr old, based on its membership in a dense sub-cluster of the complex called RSG-5. KOI-7368 and KOI-7913 are 36+10−8 Myr old, and are in a diffuse region that we call CH-2. Based on the transit shapes and high resolution imaging, all three objects are most likely planets, with false positive probabilities of 6×10−9, 4×10−3, and 1×10−4 for Kepler-1643, KOI-7368, and KOI-7913 respectively. These planets demonstrate that mini-Neptunes with sizes of approximately 2 Earth radii exist at ages of 40 million years.

A thread bump just to report a strange phenomenon occurring at Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia lately.

The exoplanet catalog is being updated with tens of Kepler objects of interest, some of them very interesting being either small-sized planets orbiting early type to evolved stars or ultrashort period planets of various size.

However a few KOIs with very large secondaries, not compatible with planets even if bound to newly formed stars (<<1 Myr), are being added to the confirmed planet list too and this looks confusing. Take a peek at these links:

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-6791_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-6795_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-7054_b/
http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/koi-7073_b/

What’s going on?
As far as I know those secondary radii are stellar rather than “planetary”  to me. Maybe worth watching for putative circumbinary planets but these are not planet at all!

Introducing Kepler-1928 b...

Transit Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) VIII: a Pleiades-age association harboring two transiting planetary systems from Kepler

Quote :

Young planets provide a window into the early stages and evolution of planetary systems. Ideal planets for such research are in coeval associations, where the parent population can precisely determine their ages. We describe a young association (MELANGE-3) in the Kepler field, which harbors two transiting planetary systems (Kepler-1928 and Kepler-970). We identify MELANGE-3 by searching for kinematic and spatial overdensities around Kepler planet hosts with high levels of lithium. To determine the age and membership of MELANGE-3, we combine new high-resolution spectra with archival light curves, velocities, and astrometry of stars near Kepler-1928 spatially and kinematically. We use the resulting rotation sequence, lithium levels, and color-magnitude diagram of candidate members to confirm the presence of a coeval 105±10 Myr population. MELANGE-3 may be part of the recently identified Theia 316 stream. For the two exoplanet systems, we revise the stellar and planetary parameters, taking into account the newly-determined age. Fitting the 4.5 yr Kepler light curves, we find that Kepler-1928 b is a 2.0±0.1R⊕ planet on a 19.58-day orbit, while Kepler-970 b is a 2.8±0.2R⊕ planet on a 16.73-day orbit. Kepler-1928 was previously flagged as an eclipsing binary, which we rule out using radial velocities from APOGEE and statistically validate the signal as planetary in origin. Given its overlap with the Kepler field, MELANGE-3 is valuable for studies of spot evolution on year timescales, and both planets contribute to the growing work on transiting planets in young stellar associations.

Unbiasing the density of TTV-characterised sub-Neptunes: Update of the mass-radius relationship of 34 Kepler planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.07456

Constraining the Densities of the Three Kepler-289 Planets with Transit Timing Variations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00022

Summer job anyone?? Here is one for EPE: 301 new confirmed planets from Kepler.

ExoMiner: A Highly Accurate and Explainable Deep Learning Classifier that Validates 301 New Exoplanets

Quote :

The kepler and TESS missions have generated over 100,000 potential transit signals that must be processed in order to create a catalog of planet candidates. During the last few years, there has been a growing interest in using machine learning to analyze these data in search of new exoplanets. Different from the existing machine learning works, ExoMiner, the proposed deep learning classifier in this work, mimics how domain experts examine diagnostic tests to vet a transit signal. ExoMiner is a highly accurate, explainable, and robust classifier that 1) allows us to validate 301 new exoplanets from the MAST Kepler Archive and 2) is general enough to be applied across missions such as the on-going TESS mission. We perform an extensive experimental study to verify that ExoMiner is more reliable and accurate than the existing transit signal classifiers in terms of different classification and ranking metrics. For example, for a fixed precision value of 99%, ExoMiner retrieves 93.6% of all exoplanets in the test set (i.e., recall=0.936) while this rate is 76.3% for the best existing classifier. Furthermore, the modular design of ExoMiner favors its explainability. We introduce a simple explainability framework that provides experts with feedback on why ExoMiner classifies a transit signal into a specific class label (e.g., planet candidate or not planet candidate).

Edasich wrote:

Summer job anyone?? Here is one for EPE: 301 new confirmed planets from Kepler.

ExoMiner: A Highly Accurate and Explainable Deep Learning Classifier that Validates 301 New Exoplanets

Quote :

The kepler and TESS missions have generated over 100,000 potential transit signals that must be processed in order to create a catalog of planet candidates. During the last few years, there has been a growing interest in using machine learning to analyze these data in search of new exoplanets. Different from the existing machine learning works, ExoMiner, the proposed deep learning classifier in this work, mimics how domain experts examine diagnostic tests to vet a transit signal. ExoMiner is a highly accurate, explainable, and robust classifier that 1) allows us to validate 301 new exoplanets from the MAST Kepler Archive and 2) is general enough to be applied across missions such as the on-going TESS mission. We perform an extensive experimental study to verify that ExoMiner is more reliable and accurate than the existing transit signal classifiers in terms of different classification and ranking metrics. For example, for a fixed precision value of 99%, ExoMiner retrieves 93.6% of all exoplanets in the test set (i.e., recall=0.936) while this rate is 76.3% for the best existing classifier. Furthermore, the modular design of ExoMiner favors its explainability. We introduce a simple explainability framework that provides experts with feedback on why ExoMiner classifies a transit signal into a specific class label (e.g., planet candidate or not planet candidate).

Here is the complete list of new Kepler planets: from Kepler-1709 to Kepler-1969 plus some additional planet in known systems.

For Kepler-1803, they list it as being KOI-7892. However KOI-7892 is already associated with Kepler-457. I e-mailed the lead author of the ExoMiner project to ask them about this when the paper appeared on arXiv and got back

Quote :

The names are provided to us by NExSci. So not sure why there is a difference. I don’t think they updated the tables with the names they gave us yet.

On the NASA Exoplanet Archive, they do not have a Kepler-1803, but they do have a Kepler-1802 and a Kepler-1804, so it looks like "Kepler-1803" is a name that's available if any confirmed KOI wants it.

Sullivan & Kraus "Revising Properties of Planet-host Binary Systems II: Apparent Near-Earth Analog Planets in Binaries Are Often Sub-Neptunes"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07428

Quote :

We simultaneously fit unresolved optical spectroscopy, optical speckle and near-infrared AO contrasts, and unresolved photometry, and retrieved revised stellar temperatures and radii for a sample of 11 binary Kepler targets that host at least one near-Earth analog planet, for a total of 17 planet candidates. We found that 10 of the 17 planets in our sample had radii that fell in or above the radius gap, suggesting that they are not rocky planets. Only 2 planets retained super-Earth radii and stayed in the habitable zone, making them good candidates for inclusion in rocky planet occurrence rate calculations.

Systems considered:

• KOI-1422 (Kepler-296, 5 planets)
  
• KOI-2124 (1 candidate)
  
• KOI-2298 (Kepler-1178, 1 planet + 2 candidates)
  
• KOI-2418 (Kepler-1229, 1 planet)
  
• KOI-2862 (1 candidate)
  
• KOI-3010 (Kepler-1410, 1 planet)
  
• KOI-3255 (Kepler-437, 1 planet)
  
• KOI-4986 (1 candidate)
  
• KOI-5545 (1 candidate)
  
• KOI-5971 (1 candidate)
  
• KOI-7235 (1 candidate)
  

The two planets highlighted in the abstract are KOI-1422.05 (Kepler-296 e) and KOI-7235.01.

Upper mass limits on a bunch of Kepler planets from TTVs:

Siegel & Rogers "Mass Upper Bounds for Over 50 Kepler Planets Using Low-S/N Transit Timing Variations"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.14398

Quote :

For 53 planets (>30% of our sample), low-S/N TTVs yield informative upper bounds on planet mass, i.e., the mass constraint strongly deviates from the prior on mass and yields a physically reasonable bulk composition. For 25 small planets, low-S/N TTVs favor volatile-rich compositions. Where available, low-S/N TTV-based mass constraints are consistent with RV-derived masses.

Almost off-topic question: I cannot retrieve any trace of "Kepler-73", I don't remember whether it was a disproven planet or an eclipsing binary system, the only vague reference is this one I've found afer a quick search. Any suggestion?