A dataset provided by the European Space Agency

Obs ID 2461654
Target/Line-of-sight Axis 1 - Is there a transiting planet around Alpha Centauri? (ALPHACEN)
Gaia DR2 ID N/A
URL https://cheops.unige.ch/archive_browser/?visit-id=2461654
DOI https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-49epyzf
Author European Space Agency, Benz
Description of observation
  • Target RA (J2000): 219.848709106445 °
  • Target Dec (J2000): -60.8294906616211 °
  • Gaia GMag: 0.0
  • Programme ID: CH_PR140064
  • Programme Manager: VANGROOTEL
  • PI of observing programme: Benz
  • Title of programme: Axis 1 - Is there a transiting planet around Alpha Centauri? (ALPHACEN)
  • Abstract: Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star in the night sky and the closest stellar system to us. It is composed of two stars similar to the Sun, Alpha Cen A and B, and a more distant but gravitationally bound red dwarf, Proxima (the actual closest star to the Sun). In 2012, Dumusque et al. (Nature, 491, 207) announced from RV measurements a planet orbiting Alpha Cen B, but its existence is still under debate. In 2015, Demory et al. (MNRAS, 450, 2043) found in highly-saturated Hubble Space Telescope observations of Alpha Cen B a single transit-like event ~95 ppm deep and ~3.6 h long. A likely explanation is an Earth-sized planet with an orbital period shorter than 20 days (the median of the likely orbits is 12.4 d). With this program we aim to observe Alpha Cen with CHEOPS, in order to try to recover the transit seen by Demory et al. (2015). More generally, CHEOPS observations will allow us to place strong constraints on the presence of close-in transiting planets around Alpha Cen, which is a very valuable objective on its own, and complementary to the current efforts for direct imaging of farther planets around Alpha Cen (Kasper et al. 2019, The Messenger, 178, 5).
Temporal Coverage 2024-06-18T21:06:00Z / 2024-06-19T08:38:00Z
Version 3.0
Mission Description CHEOPS (Benz et al., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-020-09679-4) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The satellite has a single payload comprising an ultra-high precision photometer covering the 330 - 1100 nm wavelength range in a single photometric band. Observations are made as part of the Guaranteed Time Observing Programme that is formulated by the CHEOPS Science Team, and the Guest Observers Programme through which the Community at large can apply for CHEOPS time.
Creator Contact https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/cheops/contact
Date Published 2026-03-05T11:41:45Z
Keywords CHEOPS exoplanet data, ESA CHEOPS mission dataset, exoplanet transit photometry data, high-precision space photometry observations, exoplanet light curves dataset, ultra-high precision stellar photometry, transit depth measurements, exoplanet radius determination data, time-series photometric observations, short-cadence photometry dataset, CHEOPS calibrated level 2 data, aperture photometry space data, stellar variability monitoring data, transiting exoplanet observations, hot Jupiter transit photometry, super-Earth transit data, exoplanet ephemeris refinement observations, phase curve photometry dataset, space-based optical photometry, visible wavelength exoplanet data, FITS light curve files, flux time-series exoplanet data, CHEOPS observation ID dataset, exoplanet follow-up observations, stellar host characterization photometry, ESA CHEOPS science archive data, precision transit timing measurements
Acknowledgements https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/cheops-guest-observers-programme/publication-guidelines
Publisher And Registrant European Space Agency
Credit Guidelines European Space Agency, Benz et al., 2026, 'Axis 1 - Is there a transiting planet around Alpha Centauri? (ALPHACEN)', 3.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-49epyzf
Rights Data hosted in the ESA Space Science Archives are distributed under the CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO license.