High Resolution Speckle Imaging of Exoplanet Host Stars
The three NASA funded speckle instruments - NESSI at WIYN, 'Alopeke in Gemini North, and Zorro in Gemini South - provide simultaneous two-color, diffraction-limited imaging. All raw and fully reduced data are available, with no exclusive use period, at the NASA Exoplanet Science Archive.
Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva (http://spaceengine.org/ (Spaceengine))
Proper accounting of companion stars is crucial to validate and characterize transit discoveries. Without additional information about the multiplicity of the host star, the planet radii will be underestimated by a factor of 1.5 in average.
