Observing exoplanets from Brazil:the first try

摘要

This project consists in mapping a 4-square-degree region searching for exoplanets using the transit method. This "mini-survey" will be the first use of the 16" robotic telescope developed by Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC-Brazil) and Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica (LNA/MCT-Brazil). The chosen region is over the Columba constellation and our first observations have shown that we have enough signal-to-noise ratio to search for transits on about 20,000 stars with 13 < I < 16 mag, a magnitude range between the OGLE and HAT projects. In this star sample we expect to find about a dozen planets with transits duration of 1-3 hours and magnitude depth from 0.001 to 0.010 mag. As for other projects, all information will became public as a VO service.