Characterization of the stellar variability in CoRoT fields with BEST telescopes

Abstract

The first extrasolar planet 51 Peg b around the G-type star has been reported in 1995. The planet with few Jupiter masses orbiting its star very closely was detected by measurement of the oscillation in the radial velocity of the host star. In 1999 the first transit, when the planet is eclipsing the host star, of the extrasolar planet HD209458 b was observed with a small ground based photometric telescope. Ever since, new planets in distant systems are continuously being detected with new high precision instruments from the ground and from space. The department of Extrasolar Planets and Atmospheres at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin (DLR) is involved in the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets, through participation in the CoRoT space mission. Furthermore, two ground based photometric telescope systems are operated as a ground based support for the space mission CoRoT, dedicated to asteroseismology and to extrasolar planet search with the help of the transit method. The BEST project consists of two small aperture wide field-of-view photometric telescopes devoted to the search for transiting Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets and to the characterization of variable stars in CoRoT target fields...