ASTEP: Towards the detection and characterization of exoplanets from Dome C

• Published in: EPJ Web of conferences Vol. 11; p. 6001
• Main Authors: Crouzet, N., Guillot, T., Agabi, K., Daban, J.-B., Abe, L., Mekarnia, D., Rivet, J.-P., Fanteï-Caujolle, Y., Fressin, F., Gouvret, C., Schmider, F.-X., Valbousquet, F., Blazit, A., Rauer, H., Erikson, A., Fruth, T., Aigrain, S., Pont, F., Barbieri, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2011
• Series: Detection and Dynamics of Transiting Exoplanets
• Subjects: Sciences of the Universe
• ISBN: 9782759806188; 2759806189
• ISSN: 2100-014X; 2100-014X
• DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/20101106001

The ASTEP project (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets), aims at testing the quality of the Dome C site in Antarctica for photometry in the visible, as well as detecting and characterizing transiting exoplanets. A dedicated telescope, ASTEP400, has been developped and installed at Concordia. The first campaign took place during the winter 2010, and the telescope functionned nominally during all the winter. A first analysis of the data leads to a precision of 189 and 205 ppm for WASP-19 and WASP-18 respectively, for continuous observations during 1 month. This shows that extremely high precision photometry is achievable from Dome C.