Planet Hunting Around UV Ceti

[ProtoJeb21]

One of my targets for the imaging campaign of the IRVEES program is the flare star UV Ceti. This is the secondary member of the Luyten 726-8 (Gliese 65) binary system that is about 8.7 light years away. UV Ceti and its companion, BL Ceti, are both violent flare stars. UV Ceti has produced some of the most violent flares of its type. Its most powerful burst brightened UV Ceti by 75 times in only 20 seconds and putting out dozens of times more energy than the great solar storm of 1859.

So, you might be thinking, why the heck would I want to find planets here? UV and BL Ceti are cousins to the red dwarf star Kepler-438. You may recall it as the active star with the Earth-like planet Kepler-438b around it. That poor planet is being hit by these giant flares every 100 days, with similar intensity to those produced by UV Ceti. Since the Luyten 726-8 system is less than 9 light years away, it will be possible to see how planets around that star are being influenced by the solar storms of the system. 

I plan on detecting these planets via direct imaging. This way, it will be much easier to characterize them. Spectroscopy will be much easier to do on a directly imaged planet. Also, if the planet is a gas giant, its color may be influenced by the radiation from the star(s). What the planet's color is may show what chemicals are in its atmosphere.

Post your thoughts about the planet hunting strategy and what planets could be found, if there even are any. Let me know if I should make this into a project like Project Lalande.

[Spaceception]

2 minutes ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

One of my targets for the imaging campaign of the IRVEES program is the flare star UV Ceti. This is the secondary member of the Luyten 726-8 (Gliese 65) binary system that is about 8.7 light years away. UV Ceti and its companion, BL Ceti, are both violent flare stars. UV Ceti has produced some of the most violent flares of its type. Its most powerful burst brightened UV Ceti by 75 times in only 20 seconds and putting out dozens of times more energy than the great solar storm of 1859.

So, you might be thinking, why the heck would I want to find planets here? UV and BL Ceti are cousins to the red dwarf star Kepler-438. You may recall it as the active star with the Earth-like planet Kepler-438b around it. That poor planet is being hit by these giant flares every 100 days, with similar intensity to those produced by UV Ceti. Since the Luyten 726-8 system is less than 9 light years away, it will be possible to see how planets around that star are being influenced by the solar storms of the system. 

I plan on detecting these planets via direct imaging. This way, it will be much easier to characterize them. Spectroscopy will be much easier to do on a directly imaged planet. Also, if the planet is a gas giant, its color may be influenced by the radiation from the star(s). What the planet's color is may show what chemicals are in its atmosphere.

Post your thoughts about the planet hunting strategy and what planets could be found, if there even are any. Let me know if I should make this into a project like Project Lalande.

Are you going to look at Epsilon Eridani sometime? I just looked at this binary's wiki, and saw that in around 31,000 years, UV Ceti will come within 1 ly of the system, maybe you can study both, and see if the star will affect it.

[ProtoJeb21]

3 hours ago, Spaceception said:

Are you going to look at Epsilon Eridani sometime? I just looked at this binary's wiki, and saw that in around 31,000 years, UV Ceti will come within 1 ly of the system, maybe you can study both, and see if the star will affect it.

There have been a few attempts to find planets around EPS Eridani (aka Ran) via direct imaging, but they have all been failures. If a specific-sized starshade (not a coronagraph; I've been making that mistake for a while) is used, then maybe, just MAYBE, we could detect Ran c.

Oh, and BTW, I'm not immortal. 

[Spaceception]

1 hour ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

There have been a few attempts to find planets around EPS Eridani (aka Ran) via direct imaging, but they have all been failures. If a specific-sized starshade (not a coronagraph; I've been making that mistake for a while) is used, then maybe, just MAYBE, we could detect Ran c.

Oh, and BTW, I'm not immortal. 

I meant that you could study them for a while, and create a program to simulate what could possibly happen

[ProtoJeb21]

25 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

I meant that you could study them for a while, and create a program to simulate what could possibly happen

That MAY be something I could do...in the future. In the mean time, I wonder if I could find planets around UV Ceti using TWO starshades - one over BL Ceti, and another other UV Ceti. It may reveal a bunch of details about both stars, but I don't know if any telescope can have two starshades on it.

[PB666]

7 hours ago, Spaceception said:

Are you going to look at Epsilon Eridani sometime? I just looked at this binary's wiki, and saw that in around 31,000 years, UV Ceti will come within 1 ly of the system, maybe you can study both, and see if the star will affect it.

I dont think he has a plan to live 31000 years.