Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 399
This version created on 23 October 2006

A Transit Search with the 2MASS Calibration Database


Peter Plavchan, IPAC/Caltech
Michael Jura, UCLA
J. Davy Kirkpatrick, IPAC/Caltech
Roc Cutri, IPAC/Caltech
S. C. Gallagher, UCLA

The 2MASS photometric calibration database covers ~4 square degrees on the sky 
in 35 "calibration fields" sampled in nominal photometric conditions between 
~550 and ~3700 times over the four years of the 2MASS mission. We compile a 
catalog of variables in this database that is motivated by a search for M 
dwarfs transited by extra-solar planets. We present our methods for measuring 
periodicity and variability. We identify 246 variables, including 23 periodic 
variables. We have discovered three M dwarf eclipsing systems, including two 
candidates for transiting extrasolar planets. 

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