The search for circumbinary planets - SSW

The search for circumbinary planets - Matthew Standing

"Circumbinary planets, those which orbit both stars of a binary system, challenge our understanding of planet formation and orbital evolution. Planet formation around binary stars was thought to be difficult, and therefore these circumbinary planets were confined to the realm of science-fiction. Yet during its lifetime, Kepler discovered several of these objects. Since the discovery of Kepler-16b in 2011, 14 circumbinary planets have been discovered in 12 systems by transit missions. Future transit missions such as PLATO, will likely double the number transiting circumbinary planet candidates, and radial velocities would be required to confirm them. Despite the radial velocity method being the most established technique for planet detection, only recently has it become possible to detect circumbinary planets using radial velocity measurements. 
I will present a recent radial velocity discovery of a second circumbinary planet in the TOI-1338/BEBOP-1 system, where TESS had identified a 95-day circumbinary planet. This makes TOI-1338/BEBOP-1 the second multiplanetary circumbinary system ever discovered. I will also present an efficient method to calculate detection limits for radial velocity datasets with minimal assumptions, preliminary occurrence rates from the BEBOP and DMPP surveys, and describe plans for detection of circumbinary planets with PLATO.
Understanding how these planets form and how common they are can provide us with a unique insight into planet formation in these extreme systems."