Unlisted 1.84x RE Super-Earth Transiting KIC 8499940

Q14 light curve for KIC 8499940 at Planet Hunters

Planet Hunters forum Talk member Sean63 flagged this long period transit in Kepler Quarter 14. It is not listed on the Kepler Threshold Crossing Events (TCE)  table.

Kian Jek:

Q14 event appears to be the only transit seen in all the quarters. The modeled transit gives an estimated period of 1387 d + 540/-280, so it looks like a pretty long-period PC.

The transit curve also estimates a 1.84x RE super-earth, at 2.9AU and Teq of 158K.

Kepler Q14 also has more than its share of cosmic ray hits. Here is Kian's comments on this possibility:

 I just checked the FITS file. It's hard to tell for sure. Turns out there IS a cosmic ray hit, an isolated one but in the OA. However it is right in the middle of the transit as circled.

The others we have seen were at the very start of the dips. What the CR hit does is to cause a momentary spike. The CCD module detects these spikes and then adjusts the level to compensate for it. But because I think the circuitry is overloaded, what usually happens is that although the spike is removed, subsequent cadences are adjusted down instead, creating the impression of a dip.

I'm not sure. We'll have to look for repeats.

 
 

 You can follow the discussion on this possible planet transit on Talk here.