Photometric monitoring of β Pictoris b

VALIDITY: 1. 3. 2017 - 31. 3. 2018
AUTHOR: Iva Laginja, Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, laginja@strw.leidenuniv.nl, 23. 11. 2016
 
Beta Pictoris is a bright, southern-hemisphere star (J2000 05 47 17.08769 -51 03 59.4, V=3.86 mag) with the edge-on circumstellar disk suggesting ongoing planet formation. One giant planet that orbits its host star at 10 AU also in a near-edge-on configuration was already identified by the method of direct imaging. Because the star and the planet are very young, it is very likely that there is still a lot of material orbiting the planet itself. The computations show that the planetary transit is unlikely, but the planet will be close enough that any material around the planet might still block a significant amount of the star light. This gives us the opportunity to indirectly probe the environment of a young planet.

The planet will pass near its parent star between March 2017 and March 2018 with the closest approach in September 2017. The star will be monitored photometrically and spectroscopically by various professional observatories and instruments, which are listed at http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~kenworthy/beta_pic_b_hill_sphere. Since the event is expected to last several months and it is unclear what exactly will happen, photometric monitoring by additional observers would be very appreciated. Observations in broad-band photometric filters are preferred. The photometric error lower than 0.01 mag is necessary to reveal expected tiny changes in brightness.

The campaign and observational strategy are thoroughly described in the pdf file available at http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~laginja/. For more details contact the project coordinator Iva Laginja (laginja@strw.leidenuniv.nl).