Ground Based Light Curve Follow Up Validation Observations of TESS Object of Interest TOI 7325.01

The NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission, known as TESS, aims to discover and distinguish any potential exoplanets that are orbiting nearby stars. TESS achieves this by monitoring the brightness of stars (in sky pictures) and looking for dips caused by the orbiting planets passing in front of the stars, otherwise known as transits. This research specifically focuses on Candidate TOI-7325.01 (TESS Object of Interest), where data was collected using the 32 inch telescope in George Mason University at the George Mason University observatory, in hopes of finding a new exoplanet. 195 sky images were captured at a 90 second exposure, and 25 blurry images were removed (170 images used), and the images were calibrated/reduced using master flats and darks. After the images were plate solved and aligned using AstroImageJ, a lightcurve was able to be produced, which visually showed the predicted ingress/egress times and the transit. The lightcurve suggests that there is a possibility that a transit could have occurred, however the dip doesn’t align with the predicted ingress and egress times from TESS. The high RMS value of 16.03 ppt could indicate that the transit signal was affected by noisy data. Additionally, the transit might have happened later than the predicted ingress/egress times due to nearby eclipsing binary stars (NEB), as illustrated by the unclear NEB graph that was generated as well. This doesn’t necessarily suggest TOI-7325.01 as a true exoplanet candidate. This means that more data should be collected and analyzed due to the limitations/circumstances presented in this research analysis. Future research of this candidate should use more clear images containing brighter stars with longer exposure times. It could also be helpful to conduct a detailed false positive statistical validation analysis in order to validate the presence of an exoplanet in the future.