2018/05/04 by Benjamin T. Montet, Montet, Benjamin T. · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1805.01906
openalex publication_date 2018/05/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Data from the TESS mission will be used to discover hundreds of small planets\namenable to radial velocity (RV) followup. Often, RV observations are obtained\nuntil a particular fractional precision on the inferred mass is achieved. I\nshow that when the decision to stop collecting RV observations depends on the\nmass inferred from already-collected data, this will bias mass measurements\nupward, particularly when the fixed length of RV observing campaigns is\nconsidered. I suggest that observing teams should determine their observing\nstrategy for each star before any data are collected, and all stopping criteria\nshould not directly depend on the inferred mass. Observing teams should\nexplicitly publish both their criteria for observing targets and deciding to\nend their observations, as well as their mass non-detections to avoid\nintroducing biases into the masses---and thus inferences on the densities,\ncompositions, and atmospheres---of transiting planets.\n