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Over the duration of the Kepler mission, KIC 8462852 was observed to undergo irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips in flux of up to ∼20 per cent. The dipping activity can last for between 5 and 80 d. We characterize the object with high-resolution spectroscopy, spectral energy distribution fitting, radial velocity measurements, high-resolution imaging, and Fourier analyses of the Kepler light curve. We determine that KIC 8462852 is a typical main-sequence F3 V star that exhibits no significant IR excess, and has no very close interacting companions. In this paper, we describe various scenarios to explain the dipping events observed in the Kepler light curve. We confirm that the dipping signals in the data are not caused by any instrumental or data processing artefact, and thus are astrophysical in origin. We construct scenario-independent constraints on the size and location of a body in the system that are needed to reproduce the observations. We deliberate over several assorted stellar and circumstellar astrophysical scenarios, most of which have problems explaining the data in hand. By considering the observational constraints on dust clumps in orbit around a normal main-sequence star, we conclude that the scenario most consistent with the data in hand is the passage of a family of exocomet or planetesimal fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous break-up event, possibly caused by tidal disruption or thermal processing. The minimum total mass associated with these fragments likely exceeds 10 −6 M ⊕ , corresponding to an original rocky body of >100 km in diameter. We discuss the necessity of future observations to help interpret the system.

We study the brightness variations of galactic red supergiant stars using long‐term visual light curves collected by the American Association of Variable Star Observers over the last century. The full sample contains 48 red semiregular or irregular variable stars, with a mean time‐span of observations of 61 yr. We determine periods and period variability from analyses of power density spectra and time–frequency distributions. We find two significant periods in 18 stars. Most of these periods fall into two distinct groups, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand days. Theoretical models imply fundamental, first and possibly second overtone mode pulsations for the shorter periods. Periods greater than 1000 d form a parallel period–luminosity relation that is similar to the long secondary periods of the asymptotic giant branch stars. A number of individual power spectra shows a single mode resolved into multiple peaks under a Lorentzian envelope, which we interpret as evidence for stochastic oscillations, presumably caused by the interplay of convection and pulsations. We find a strong 1/f noise component in the power spectra that is remarkably similar in almost all stars of the sample. This behaviour fits the picture of irregular photometric variability caused by large convection cells, analogous to the granulation background seen in the Sun.

KOI-13.01, a planet-sized companion in an optical double star was announced as one of the 1235 Kepler planet candidates in February 2011. The transit curves show significant distortion that was stable over the ∼130 days time-span of the data. Here we investigate the phenomenon via detailed analyses of the two components of the double star and a re-reduction of the Kepler data with pixel-level photometry. Our results indicate that KOI-13 is a common proper motion binary, with two rapidly rotating components (v sin i ≈65-70 km/s). We identify the host star of KOI-13.01 and conclude that the transit curve asymmetry is consistent with a companion orbiting a rapidly rotating, possibly elongated star on an oblique orbit. The radius of the transiter is 2.2 R J , implying an irradiated late-type dwarf, probably a hot brown dwarf rather than a planet. KOI-13 is the first example for detecting orbital obliquity for a substellar companion without measuring the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect with spectroscopy.

We analyse 1187 observations of about 860 unique candidate Jovian Trojan asteroids listed in the 3rd release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Moving Object Catalogue. The sample is complete at the faint end to r= 21.2 mag (apparent brightness) and H= 13.8 (absolute brightness, approximately corresponding to 10 km diameter). A subset of 297 detections of previously known Trojans were used to design and optimize a selection method based on observed angular velocity that resulted in the remaining objects. Using a sample of objects with known orbits, we estimate that the candidate sample contamination is about 3 per cent. The well‐controlled selection effects, the sample size, depth and accurate five‐band UV–IR photometry enabled several new findings and the placement of older results on a firmer statistical footing. We find that there are significantly more asteroids in the leading swarm (L4) than in the trailing swarm (L5): N(L4)/N(L5) = 1.6 ± 0.1, independently of limiting object's size. The overall counts normalization suggests that there are about as many Jovians Trojans as there are main‐belt asteroids down to the same size limit, in agreement with earlier estimates. We find that Trojan asteroids have a remarkably narrow colour distribution (root mean scatter of only ∼0.05 mag) that is significantly different from the colour distribution of the main‐belt asteroids. The colour of Trojan asteroids is correlated with their orbital inclination, in a similar way for both swarms, but appears uncorrelated with the object's size. We extrapolate the results presented here and estimate that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will determine orbits, accurate colours and measure light curves in six photometric bandpasses for about 100 000 Jovian Trojan asteroids.

Despite the existence of many short-period hot Jupiters, there is not one hot Neptune with an orbital period less than 2.5 days. Here, we discuss a cluster analysis of the currently known 106 transiting exoplanets to investigate a possible explanation for this observation. We find two distinct clusters in the mass-density space, one with hot Jupiters with a wide range of orbital periods (0.8-114 days) and a narrow range of planet radii (1.2 ± 0.2 R J ) and another one with a mixture of super-Earths, hot Neptunes, and hot Jupiters, exhibiting a surprisingly narrow period distribution (3.7 ± 0.8 days). These two clusters follow strikingly different distributions in the period-radius parameter plane. The branch of sub-Jupiter mass exoplanets is censored by the orbital period at the large-radius end: no planets with mass between 0.02 and 0.8 M J or with radius between 0.25 and 1.0 R J are known with P orb < 2.5 days. This clustering is not predicted by current theories of planet formation and evolution, which we also review briefly.

Aims. Precise photometric measurements of the upcoming space missions allow the size, mass, and density of satellites of exoplanets to be determined. Here we present such an analysis using the photometric transit timing variation (TTV p ). Methods. We examined the light curve effects of both the transiting planet and its satellite. We define the photometric central time of the transit that is equivalent to the transit of a fixed photocenter. This point orbits the barycenter, and leads to the photometric transit timing variations. Results. The exact value of TTV p depends on the ratio of the density, the mass, and the size of the satellite and the planet. Since two of those parameters are independent, a reliable estimation of the density ratio leads to an estimation of the size and the mass of the exomoon. Upper estimations of the parameters are possible in the case when an upper limit of TTV p is known. In case the density ratio cannot be estimated reliably, we propose an approximation with assuming equal densities. The presented photocenter TTV p analysis predicts the size of the satellite better than the mass. We simulated transits of the Earth-Moon system in front of the Sun. The estimated size and mass of the Moon are 0.020 Earth-mass and 0.274 Earth-size if equal densities are assumed. This result is comparable to the real values within a factor of 2. If we include the real density ratio (about 0.6), the results are 0.010 Earth-Mass and 0.253 Earth-size, which agree with the real values within 20%.

The Kepler satellite reveals details of the oscillations patterns of an evolved star in an exotic triple-star system.