Research Note

Stellar limb-darkening coefficients for CoRot and Kepler^*

¹ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS/UPMC, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
² Astrophysics Group, School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK e-mail: sing@astro.ex.ac.uk

Received: 16 November 2009
Accepted: 11 December 2009

Abstract

Transiting exoplanets provide unparalleled access to the fundamental parameters of both extrasolar planets and their host stars. We present limb-darkening coefficients (LDCs) for the exoplanet hunting CoRot and Kepler missions. The LDCs are calculated with ATLAS stellar atmospheric model grids and span a wide range of , log g, and metallically [M/H]. Both CoRot and Kepler use wide nonstandard photometric filters, and are producing a large inventory of high-quality transiting lightcurves, sensitive to stellar limb darkening. Comparing the stellar model limb darkening to results from the first seven CoRot planets, we find better fits are found when two model intensities at the limb are excluded in the coefficient calculations. This calculation method can help to avoid a major deficiency present at the limbs of the 1D stellar models.