The roAp Stars Observed by the Kepler Space Telescope

• Main Author: Daniel L. Holdsworth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-01
• Series: Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
• Subjects: asteroseimology; techniques: photometry; stars: oscillations; stars: chemical peculiar; stars-variable
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2021.626398/full

Before the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope, most studies of the rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars were conducted with ground-based photometric B observations, supplemented with high-resolution time-resolved spectroscopy and some space observations with the WIRE, MOST, and BRITE satellites. These modes of observation often only provided information on a single star at a time, however, Kepler provided the opportunity to observe hundreds of thousands of stars simultaneously. Over the duration of the primary 4 year Kepler mission, and its 4 year reconfigured K2 mission, the telescope observed at least 14 new and known roAp stars. This paper provides a summary the results of these observations, including a first look at the entire data sets, and provides a look forward to NASA's TESS mission.