LVAAS General Meeting & Holiday Party Pot Luck
Sunday December, 8, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Da Vinci Science Center, Allentown PA
Click here for details about the party.
Please RSVP ASAP, but no later than Wednesday, by clicking here.
Schedule of events:
Arrive: anytime after 12:15 p.m.
Food and Fellowship: 1 p.m.
Presentation by Ava Stabile: 2 p.m.
Membership and Announcements: 2:15 p.m.
Guest Speaker: 3 p.m.
Speaker is in Person
" Hunting Exoplanets Transiting Evolved Stars Using Machine Learning"
Featuring Emma Page, PhD Candidate, Lehigh Univ.
Only ~6% of known transiting planets orbit evolved host stars. Discovering more will allow us to test if the population of planets orbiting main sequence stars is similar to those orbiting evolved stars. Our team developed the giants pipeline, which reduces Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves to search for long duration, shallow transits around evolved stars. We combine observational parameters from the Box Least Squares (BLS) algorithm with host star properties as input parameters, and train a random forest model to categorize light curves as potential planet candidates or non-detections. From 90,000 targets, the model categorizes ~3,000 as transit candidates. We analyze the sample of 3,000 predicted candidates to further vet the light curves and choose targets for follow up observations. Using this planet hunting method, we identified ~300 eclipsing binary star systems and discovered ~30 new planet candidates transiting evolved stars.
Prospective new members who wish to attend the meeting should email membership@lvaas.org.