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Joshua Liberman
Joshua Liberman

Wednesday 22nd June, 2022

Talks & Workshops

Joshua Liberman – Achieving Precision Photometry of T Tauri Stars With the PANOPTES Observatory Network

  12:15 - 12:30

T Tauri stars are known to exhibit variability at all wavelengths. Starspots, cool magnetic field regions on the star’s surface, contribute to this variability and lead to incorrect predictions in stellar evolution models. While many studies on starspot activity have been conducted at a single wavelength range, few surveys have monitored variation in multiple bands simultaneously, providing an incomplete picture of young star formation. We have developed a procedure to conduct multiband observations of T Tauri stars using telescopes from Project PANOPTES (Panoptic Astronomical Networked Observatories for a Public Transiting Exoplanets Survey)–a network of small, robotic, wide-field imaging cameras. Utilizing a multi-aperture photometry algorithm, as well as binning, and subsequent co-adding, of data, we achieve <4% photometric precision in the G channel of 11.7 magnitude stars. We then use our method to observe spot variability of multiple T Tauri stars in the R, G, and B color channels. These results pave the way for low-cost, multiband surveys of young stellar objects moving forward.

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