Kepler Space Telescope discovered first possible evidence for exocomets

[Toliman]

After recently possible discovery of first exomoon, there is next interesting possible discovery.


Kepler Space Telescope discovered first possible evidence for exocomets transiting their stars

Transits of extra-solar planets are pretty routine these days, but planets are not the only bodies expected to be orbiting nearby stars. How about exo-comets? Unlike planets, comets are fuzzy and changeable, so exocomet transits would vary in shape and depth. A team led by Saul Rappaport have now searched the entire archive of Kepler lightcurves looking for dips that could be exocomet transits.

There is one in the data for the star KIC 11084727:


The authors reproduce such dips (red line) with a model of a comet about the size of Halley's comet and having a tail made of dust, hence giving an asymmetric dip.


More here:
https://wasp-planets.net/2017/08/22/the-first-transiting-exo-comets/
and here:
http://www.americaspace.com/2017/08/23/kepler-space-telescope-discovers-first-evidence-for-exocomets-transiting-their-stars/

or scientific article here:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.06069.pdf

[archaic]

Interesting, thank you for sharing. 

[Toliman]

Eltur tìtxen si Next possible discovery of exocomet.

A transiting exocomet detected in broadband light by TESS in the Beta Pictoris system
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.11071.pdf

[Eìrä]

Irayo nìtxan ma Toliman!
Whou...an exo-comet! this is awesome!

[Vawmataw]

Only one?

[Toliman]

Exocomet models in transit: light curve morphology in the optical -- near infrared wavelength range
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.13663

Following the widespread practice of exoplanetary transit simulations, various presumed components of an extrasolar system can be examined in numerically simulated transits, including exomoons, rings around planets, and the deformation of exoplanets. Template signals can then be used to efficiently search for light curve features that mark specific phenomena in the data, and they also provide a basis for feasibility studies of instruments and search programs. In this paper, we present a method for exocomet transit light curve calculations using arbitrary dust distributions in transit. The calculations, spanning four distinct materials (carbon, graphite, pyroxene, and olivine), dust grain sizes (100\,nm -- 300\,nm, 300\,nm -- 1000\,nm, and 1000\,nm -- 3000\,nm) encompass light curves in VRJHKL bands. We also investigated the behavior of scattering colors. We show that multicolor photometric observations are highly effective tools in the detection and characterization of exocomet transits. They provide information on the dust distribution of the comet (encoded in the light curve shape), while the color information itself can reveal the particle size change and material composition of the transiting material, in relation to the surrounding environment. We also show that the typical cometary tail can result in the wavelength dependence of the transit timing. We demonstrate that multi-wavelength observations can yield compelling evidence for the presence of exocomets in real observations.