Magnetic Star Spots on the Red Giant Star KOI-1786

by


Katelin Crabtree

William Smith College
Geneva, New York
April 2022

ABSTRACT

KOI-1786 is an eclipsing binary system discovered by Kepler which consists of a red giant star primary and an M-dwarf companion in a 24.68 day eccentric orbit. We present the analysis of the star spot crossing features present in four years of transit light curves. Our results show a very active red giant primary despite its slow rotation period of approximately 66 days [20]. This level of activity in a binary with a highly active evolved companion is consistent with a long period RSCVn type system [22]. We find multiple spots features in every transit, as well as two distinct features which must be darker than typical sunspot umbras, indicating the presence of several large spots with a contrast of approximately 0.05 on the surface of the giant primary.

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