Planet Hunting With HATNet and HATSouth (Abstract)

Volume 40 number 1 (2012)

Gaspar Bakos

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; gbakos@cfa.harvard.edu

Abstract

(Abstract only) Transiting exoplanets (TEPs), especially those found around bright stars, are particularly important as they provide unique opportunities to study the physical properties of planetary mass objects. The Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) project—one of the small telescope surveys—has been extremely successful in the field of TEPs, contributing twenty-seven published discoveries, and one independent discovery of a previously published planet. Publications on several additional planetary systems are in preparation. I will discuss how HATNet operates around the globe, and how these fully automated small (11cm diameter) telescopes produce big science. I will also mention the related HATSouth project, now in full operation, and monitoring selected southern fields round-the-clock. Finally, I will conclude on how small and big telescopes collaborate in exoplanet science.