EDEN/TS

In the EDEN Transit Survey (EDEN/TS) we use a network of small- to medium-sized research telescopes to monitor nearby stars in search of planetary transit events: brief passages of the planets in front of their host stars — as seen from Earth — which reveal the presence of planets in the system. During transits, planets occult a small part of the star’s disk, which makes the stars appear dimmer. This slight dimming is detectable with our telescopes.

Our EDEN telescopes range in diameter from 0.6m to 2.4m, which allow us to collect very high-quality data from even the faintest stars within fifty lightyears.

EDEN routinely obtains high-precision lightcurves. Here shown are baselines (out-of-transit lightucrves, top three curves), an EDEN target with a simulated super-earth transit, an observed transit of the sub-neptune GJ1214b, and detection of a 1.2 Earth radius TESS planet candidate.

Powerful telescopes across the globe: EDEN/TS is using eight research telescopes over six sites (observatories) on three continents, which provide a powerful coverage for the northern sky. With telescopes in North America, Europe, and Asian EDEN has a longitudinal coverage that allows near-continuous photometry of northern targets, optimal for transit search and follow-up observations. Our telescopes typically reach 1-3 mmag photometric precision with high cadence (20-50 seconds), which is sufficient to detect Earth-sized planets around late-type host stars – often in a single transit!

In the EDEN transit survey we coordinate observations across multiple sites to carry out “intensive” campaigns with the goal of scanning the habitable zones of nearby stars for small transiting planets. With multiple telescopes in Europe and North America, and observing runs that are typically 7-15 days long, EDEN can provide powerful datasets to detect habitable transiting planets or (exclude their presence) in the target stars.

EDEN Sensitivity: In our 2020 paper (Gibbs et al. 2020 Astronomical Journal) we describe in detail our data acquisition and analysis methods, and quantify the sensitivity of our lightcurves by injecting and recovering a large number of simulated transits. These tests show that EDEN is capable of detection planets down to about 1.0 Earth radius around our primary target stars. 

EDEN and TESS: Our large EDEN telescopes have several hundred times more light-gathering power than the wide-field cameras of NASA’s TESS mission, allowing EDEN telescopes to probe the habitable zones of nearby but very faint red dwarf stars inaccessible to NASA’s TESS mission and to most other ground-based transit surveys that utilize small telescopes. In addition to exploring planets around host stars too faint for TESS, Project EDEN will also be a powerful system for following up the most exciting planet candidates identified by TESS.

EDEN Pilot Survey and Current Status: Between November 2017 and April 2018 We have carried out a pilot survey  to test our telescopes, instruments, observing protocols, and data analysis/reduction software. The full-scale EDEN Survey began in May 2018 and continues at least until 2021.