Christopher Stark Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Terrestrial Magnetism

Christopher StarkCarnegie Institution of Washington

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism

Searching for Exozodiacal Clouds with Kepler

CollaboratorsAlan Boss, Alycia Weinberger

Searching for Signposts with Kepler

Dermott et al. 1994

Resonant Rings in Exozodis

Planet phase = 0°

Planet phase = 90°

Planet phase = 180°

Planet phase = 270°

Resonant Rings in Collisional Disks

1 zodi 10 zodis 100 zodis

ME

ME

1 zodi 10 zodis 100 zodis

Resonant Rings in Collisional Disks

ME

ME

Tran

sit D

epth

Ellipsoidal Star Variations Induced by Hat-P-7b

Welsh et al. (2010)

Planet phase

Coun

ts

The Pipeline-Reduced Kepler Q0 – Q2 Data

Days

Coun

ts

The Pipeline-Reduced Kepler Q0 – Q2 Data

Searching the Kepler Q0 – Q3 Data

Planet phase

1.0

Something < 1

Rela

tive

Inte

nsity

Summary

• Planets can create clumpy resonant ring structures possibly detectable with Kepler

• More Kepler data is needed to confirm a detection

• Non-detection will place upper limit on the degree of asymmetry in exozodiacal clouds

Our solar system @ 10 pc, viewed with NWO

Without dust With our zodiacal cloud

Earth

JupiterSaturn

Venus

“Emission from exozodiacal dust is likely to be the largest source ofastrophysical noise in direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets.”

- Exoplanet Community Report (2009)

Cash et al. (2010)

Greaves et al. 1998

Eridani

Schneider et al. 2009

HR 4796A Fomalhaut

Kalas et al. 2005

Wilner et al. 2011

β Pictoris