Christoph Baranec (IfA-Hilo)

Current results from the Robo-AO survey to image every Kepler Object of Interest

Among the many exciting results coming from Kepler, it is easy to
forget the deep paradigm shift that has enabled nearly all these
scientific conclusions: probabilistic analysis, rather than follow-up
observations, is at the center of the current Kepler transit
interpretations. Because of widespread contamination from
astrophysical false positives such as blended eclipsing binary stars,
ground-based transit surveys have always operated under the strict de
facto requirement that any planet discovery announcement be
accompanied a myriad of follow-up observations, including both
high-angular-resolution imaging to characterize the environs of the
target, and dynamical confirmation of the planetary nature of the
signal in the form of radial velocity (RV) measurements. However, due
to the challenging nature of the set of planet candidates revealed by
Kepler (many thousands of small candidates around relatively faint
stars), RV confirmation for the vast majority is completely
implausible, and imaging very time-consuming. As a result,
probabilistic interpretation of the set of Kepler candidates has
necessarily become commonplace. However, fully understanding the
Kepler-detected planetary population and securing Kepler's potential
legacy of thousands of well-vetted planets requires observational
follow-up - particularly high-angular-resolution imaging.

The NASA funded Robo-AO Kepler planet candidate survey is designed to
observe every Kepler candidate exoplanet host star with visible light
laser-adaptive-optics imaging to search for blended stars that may be
physically associated companions and/or responsible for transit false
positives. Robo-AO (http://robo-ao.org) is the first system capable of
rapidly observing these thousands of faint targets at high
resolution. We have taken images of more than 3,000 Kepler hosts and
performed multicolor photometry and common-proper-motion follow-up on
more than 100 candidate companions. Additional infrared photometry
from adaptive optics systems on large telescopes have been used to
further complete our understanding of the discovered multiple
systems. Results from the 2012 and 2013 observing seasons will be
presented along with plans for supporting future transiting exoplanet
missions such as TESS, scheduled for launch in 2017.