Questions tagged [light-curve]

Questions about the time-dependence of the light intensity of a celestial object or region.

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Looking for feedback for my python GUI: visualise exoplanet transit and simulate atmospheric temperature

This isn't necessarily an astronomy question (although there may be plenty of astronomy errors in my GUI), and I apologise in advance if this kind of thing is not allowed here and the question is to ...
Marco Leonardi's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
391 views

On the "periodic" lightcurves of Active Galactic Nuclei

So apparently they are all lightcurves of (likely candidates) Active Galactic Nuclei and in some way or the other they all appear to be periodic: I'd like to know the reason for this and the ...
Ambica Govind's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
948 views

Why did it take so long for SN1987A to reach peak brightness?

The light from SN1987A first reached us on February 23, 1987, and its brightness peaked in mid May, almost 3 months later. However, every source that I can find states that it normally only takes a ...
blademan9999's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
27 views

Differentiating supernova types with light curves

as an introductory activity for my work on transients, I am studying the light curves of different supernovae. It appears that Type-I supernovae have a more pronounced maximum than Type-II supernovae. ...
Ambica Govind's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
473 views

Has the new type II supernova SN 2023ixf's subtype been determined yet, and is a tentative light curve possible? Is it still getting brighter?

Wikipedia's article on SN 2023ixf begins: SN 2023ixf is a type II (core collapse) supernova located in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101). It was first observed on May 19, 2023 by Koichi Itagaki and ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Finding the uncertainty in period for String-Length Minimization calculation

I wrote a Python script that calculates the period of an unevenly sampled data set using the String-Length Minimization method. You can read about that method here: A period-finding method for sparse ...
Zachary Kennedy's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
31 views

Which value of the apparent magnitude do I use from a Supernova light curve

I am trying to get the distance modulus from a light curve of a supernova and obviously the apparent magnitude changes with time. Not only that but there are so many filters with different mags. So my ...
Abdullah's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
72 views

How to obtain luminosity distance from a light curve

I have some light curve data of a SN Ia from which I want to find the luminosity distance $D_L$. How can I do it mathematically? I'll then try to implement the answer using Python.
Abdullah's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
79 views

What could successive double dips in the light-curve mean?

I was going through some analysis of the TESS light-curve data and I stumbled upon an interesting example (see below figures, where the blue line is simply a moving average), where the light-curve ...
Tom's user avatar
  • 141
2 votes
1 answer
220 views

How does one actually fold a light curve?

I'm studying the variable stars (periodic variables with brightness changes repeating over time), and to examine the shape of the light curve it is useful to fold the data points at this period and ...
Saturn.'s user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
77 views

What determines how accurate a particular method is at finding the period between Lomb-Scargle and String Length Minimization?

I've been using the Lomb-Scargle and String Length Minimization methods to find the periods of various astronomical objects with unevenly spaced data. I wanted to see if I could find any patterns ...
Zachary Kennedy's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
340 views

How do I get temperature and diameter from a light curve?

I recently learned that short-period pulsating stars vary in diameter and temperature when they pulsate. If I have a light curve for such an object, is it possible to calculate its diameter and ...
Zachary Kennedy's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
49 views

What does a fitted curve for the period of a variable star, tell me about the star?

If I have enough data of a variable star to make a light curve for it's whole period, and If I fit a function to that light curve, can that fitted function tell me anything about the properties of ...
Zachary Kennedy's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
206 views

Fourier analysis of exoplanet transit to determine the number of planets in the system

Although I think that this can be done by simply looking at the transit graph, I was wondering if a Fourier transform of a transit (basically transforming transit depth/amplitude vs time graph to ...
Mercan's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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easy curve modeling package for transits that fits the data not just the parameters?

Does anyone have any recommendations for easy-to-use exoplanet transit light curve model fitting packages like batman, but that fits the data, not just the model parameters? Thank you so much. I need ...
strange_octopi's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
432 views

Gravitational mirroring: Can we theoretically see the Milky Way using a telescope?

As I am watching the beautiful deep field picture of the James Webb Space Telescope. I noticed the gravitational lensing. So I asked myself whether it is possible somehow a successive cluster of ...
user50618's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
194 views

creating asteroid light curves and analysing them

I came across the video Tutorial: Creating a Lightcurve of a Minor Planet linked below by Tycho Tracker, which itself is a software to build an asteroid light curve from raw images and analyse it to ...
mysterium's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How do I phase fold the light curve for a variable star?

I have some observational data for a star where I've done aperture photometry to get a partial period. I understand that you need to use other techniques to estimate a period for stars whose period is ...
Zachary Kennedy's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
118 views

How do you tell if a variable star is periodic or not by its light curve?

I have light curves for a particular star. I'm able to construct a periodogram of the stars' light curve, a plot of the power of the light curve vs. the signal's period. For a nonperiodic but ...
tgs123's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
128 views

Simulating Light Curve with the Timmer & Koenig method in Python

How to simulate the light curve using the Timmer & Koenig method in python with error bars in each counts generated by that method. I have used astro ML but I doesn't show the error in the counts. ...
unicorn's user avatar
  • 21
5 votes
1 answer
123 views

Sudden spikes on the light curve of a Quasar from K2 mission

I obtained the optical light curve of 3C 273 QSO from the MAST repository off the K2 mission and plotted it by making the FITS into a CSV file through Pandas dataframe and plotting the obtained ...
mnuizhre's user avatar
  • 165
2 votes
1 answer
53 views

Obtaining the Flux-Time plot for a Quasar

As a follow up question to Obtaining the Light curve of a a Quasar, I wish to know how to obtain a Light curve for a quasar observation like this data set over here. Is there an archival repository ...
mnuizhre's user avatar
  • 165
3 votes
1 answer
74 views

Obtaining the Light curve of a a Quasar

So, I am relatively comfortable with handling $\textit{FITS}$ files and hence I choose Python for the following operation. The thing is that I need to analyse some Quasar light curves and hence I went ...
mnuizhre's user avatar
  • 165
-1 votes
1 answer
197 views

How to find luminosity from a light curve? [closed]

I am currently trying to find the luminosity from the light curve. I have the data about the distance, counts/sec and the energy range in which it is measured for an object. What equation can be used ...
karthik gananath's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
39 views

Procedure to construct a spectral energy distribution and bolometric light curve of supernovae?

Can anyone check the logic of this proposed workflow and/or point me in the direction of a guide and example to check my work? Proposed procedure to construct a spectral energy distribution and ...
ames's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
1 answer
638 views

Binning a Phase Folded Lightcurve

How do I bin a messy phase folded lightcurve? This is one of the phase folded generated plots for a variable star. I plotted the phase using the period extracted by Lomb-Scargle Periodogram algorithm. ...
Abhinna Sundar's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
72 views

How much time do I have left to easily spot the recently brightened Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuchi with binoculars and mild light pollution?

Excellent answers to Binocular-friendly star map to find the Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuchi? provide some helpful maps for circa 8° FOV binoculars, but due to spatial and potential meteorological ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
89 views

Calibrating raw photometric measurements

So I have a photometry data sourced from Solar Mass Ejection Imager's (SMEI) server as an ‘add-on data’ for my point source of interest (a variable star) with a 104 minute cadence. However, it’s not ...
CGHA's user avatar
  • 105
2 votes
0 answers
93 views

Should I fit a function to this lightcurve?

I am creating a light curve for the duration of a binary system in order to find out the duration of the eclipse. I am unsure as to whether to fit a function to the data (is it appropriate) as by ...
Owen Johnson's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Confused about rubber sheet analogy!

How to resolve confusions on the rubber sheet analogy of the spacetime curvatures? I am a newbie to spacetime curvature. I have watched several youtube videos on Einsteins GR and spacetime curvature ...
Sazzad Hissain Khan's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
76 views

Using lightkurve to identify a planet

I have gotten LightKurve to work and plot a lightcurve to allow for the identification of possible transits. However is there a way I can get it to run and tell me if there is a possible transit in ...
JuhBuh's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

Calculate mass of exoplanet from transit method

Is there any way to calculate (or at least estimate) mass of an exoplanet from transit method? I know that mass can be calculated with radial velocity method, however I would like to create program ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
1 vote
0 answers
131 views

Binned of phase-folded light curve

How I can bin a magnitude phase-folded lightcurve? I take mean values magnitudes and it's uncertainties but this is wrong.
brahetycho 's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
286 views

How to recognize exoplanet transit

I am using Python package lightkurve for exoplanets searching by the transit method. When I download light curve of some star and apply periodogram, I find frequency and power of periodic components ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
2 votes
1 answer
157 views

Converting Light curve to Luminosity

So I'm currently working around a specific variable star, α Ori and I want to determine it's luminosity...I do only have the light curve (driven from V-optical photometric band - Johnson V from AAVSO)....
CGHA's user avatar
  • 105
1 vote
2 answers
138 views

How can I estimate the initial luminosity of a SNIa given initial mass of Ni-56?

The initial portion (and peak) of a SNIa's light curve is powered by the $\beta$-decay reaction: $$ ^{56}Ni \rightarrow ^{56}Co + e^+ + \nu_e + \gamma $$ Supposing we know how much Ni-56 is created in ...
notadoctor's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
74 views

How Can I interpret this particular light curve without reading data on the side

There is only one dip in flux recorded. How can I interpret this particular light curve and find planetary radius https://exo.mast.stsci.edu/exomast_planet.html?planet=55Cnce
Physics Geek's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Calculate depth and duration of exoplanet's transit using Python, astropy or lightkurve

I am creating a program for the analysis of exoplanets in Python using Astropy and Lightkurve libraries. I have light curve of specified star and I would like to calculate depth and duration of planet ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Get orbital period of exoplanet from light curve using astropy.timeseries

I am using astropy and I would like to calculate orbital period of an exoplanet by its star's light curve. I follow tutorial in astropy docs and I use data from Kepler in Nasa Exoplanet Archive. ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
2 votes
0 answers
71 views

How to model blazar light curves

I have SED data spanning over a couple of days and I'm able to find the parameters of the SED (R, B, break energy,...) using least squares method. My question is how to model light curves (with t_acc, ...
Andrija Župić's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
155 views

Pair together light curve and radial velocity data of specified star

I would like to create a web application that works with light curves and radial velocities of stars with exoplanets. I found a NASA bulk data download with both light curves and radial velocities (it'...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
1 vote
1 answer
77 views

Where can I download processed data of the Kepler telescope?

I search for lightcurve Kepler data: time $t_i$, flux $F_i$ and measurement uncertainties $\sigma_i$ I need processed data (after removing trends, normalized, etc.). Where can I find it?
Carlos Vázquez Monzón's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
52 views

A basic question about light curves

I'm new here, so if I've done anything wrong, please let me know. I've been taking a look at some photometry data collected from TESS, and I encountered this light curve: (please ignore the blue and ...
will's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
96 views

What are these data in light curve generator

I'm generating light curves for some variable stars on the AAVSO website (see https://www.aavso.org/lcg ) . I can choose what type of data must be plotted. Can you explain what they are? Thank you in ...
Frank Soll's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
105 views

Could Tabby's star be beamed by a neutron star's jet causing irregular star spots?

There have been some other questions here about what might cause the light curve dips of star KIC 8462852 as observed by Kepler Space Telescope. Here's one I haven't heard before: Could it be that a ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
  • 11.3k
2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Finding the precession period of folded light curves

I was supposed to find the precession of a certain frequency in a time series. I tried breaking down the time series into smaller intervals and folded them over the average frequency I'm interested in....
siddhant solanki's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
90 views

Depth of primary and secondary minimum in a light curve

How can I explain approximately the same depth of primary and secondary minimum in light curve? I observe star HD 36486. I tried filters MOST and BRITE. Is it related with photometric filter? When ...
Lukáš Altman's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
95 views

Plot SuperWasp Lightcurves

I am trying to plot superwasp lightcurves in python from the fits files, using TMID and FLUX2, getting this: There is a way to transform the information so I can plot the lightcurves with the kepler ...
user3646527's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
42 views

How to decide which part of the data is analyzed? [closed]

I need to get the X-ray light curve of Classical Nova V1494 Aquilae (1999 No. 2) in Outburst. It is done long time ago, but I need to this by myself. While reading the papaer about the V1494 Aquilae, ...
4pie0's user avatar
  • 11
4 votes
1 answer
171 views

Comprehensible full manual for bolometric light curve reconstruction

Could anyone point me to some manual or tutorial, possibly step-by-step one, on reconstruction of (quasi-) bolometric light curve using UBVRI-photometry data? Both links and names are fine for me.
Tajimura's user avatar
  • 177