Dr. Rachel Matson (SSA) NASA Ames Postdoc K2 research in the NPP newsletter Research Highlights. Dr. Matson has completed a study showing that 40 to 50 percent of exoplanet host stars found with K2 are binary stars. Similar results for Kepler stars demonstrate the need to observe and characterize exoplanet host stars, as undetected stellar companions result in overestimated planetary radii (and incorrectly high-density values). Matson’s study used ground-based high-resolution speckle imaging, which detects stellar companions less than 1 arc second from host stars. The results have been submitted to the Astronomical Journal.
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40 to 50 percent of Exoplanets host Stars found with K2 are Binary Stars
