KPS-1b The First Transiting Exoplanet Discovered Using an Amateur Astronomerʼs Wide-field CCD Data

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Vol. 130; no. 989; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Burdanov, Artem, Benni, Paul, Sokov, Eugene, Krushinsky, Vadim, Popov, Alexander, Delrez, Laetitia, Gillon, Michael, Hébrard, Guillaume, Deleuil, Magali, Wilson, Paul A., Demangeon, Olivier, Baştürk, Özgür, Pakštiene, Erika, Sokova, Iraida, Rusov, Sergei A., Dyachenko, Vladimir V., Rastegaev, Denis A., Beskakotov, Anatoliy, Marchini, Alessandro, Bretton, Marc, Shadick, Stan, Ivanov, Kirill
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing Limited 01-07-2018
• Subjects: Brown Dwarfs, Planets, and Planetary Systems (Including the Solar System)
• ISSN: 0004-6280; 1538-3873

We report the discovery of the transiting hot Jupiter KPS-1b. This exoplanet orbits a V = 13.0 K1-type mainsequence star every 1.7 days, has a mass of
1.090
−
0.087
+
0.086
M
Jup and a radius of
1.03
−
0.12
+
0.13
R
Jup. The discovery was made by the prototype Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project, which used wide-field CCD data gathered by an amateur astronomer using readily available and relatively affordable equipment. Here we describe the equipment and observing technique used for the discovery of KPS-1b, its characterization with spectroscopic observations by the SOPHIE spectrograph and with high-precision photometry obtained with 1 m class telescopes. We also outline the KPS project evolution into the Galactic Plane eXoplanet survey. The discovery of KPS-1b represents a new major step of the contribution of amateur astronomers to the burgeoning field of exoplanetology.