Ground-based light curve follow-up validation observations of TESS object of interest (TOI) 3737.01

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission aims to discover new exoplanet candidates by detecting periodic dips in starlight as potential candidates. TOI-3737.01 was flagged as one due to having an observed periodic dip in stellar brightness, which could indicate a transiting exoplanet. To investigate the possibility of false positives such as NEBs (nearby eclipsing binaries), an observation was conducted with telescopic evidence at GMU’s Observatory. From this data, a light curve was produced using multi-aperture photometry. The status of TOI-3737.01 as an exoplanet candidate can be evaluated by matching the predicted transit window from TESS with a dip in brightness on the light curve. This follow-up study provides ground-based & analyzed photometric evidence that supports the classification of TOI-3737.01 as an exoplanet candidate. Even so, deeper observations are still required to rule out false positives. This work is important because confirming/eliminating these candidates helps improve the accuracy of TESS detections and guides future observations. TOI-3737.01 has a predicted planetary radius of ~15.3 Earth radii and orbits a host star about 1.58 times the Sun’s radius, making it a promising target for giant planet studies.