2002/10/03 by Kaisey Mandel, Eric Agol · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/345520
published as Astrophys.J.580:L171-L176,2002 · 4 pages, 2 figures, emulateapj, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, subroutines available at http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~agol
arxiv created 2002/10/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We present exact analytic formulae for the eclipse of a star described by quadratic or nonlinear limb darkening. In the limit that the planet radius is less than a tenth of the stellar radius, we show that the exact lightcurve can be well approximated by assuming the region of the star blocked by the planet has constant surface brightness. We apply these results to the HST observations of HD 209458, showing that the ratio of the planetary to stellar radii is 0.1207+-0.0003. These formulae give a fast and accurate means of computing lightcurves using limb-darkening coefficients from model atmospheres which should aid in the detection, simulation, and parameter fitting of planetary transits.