Flares, pulsations and CHEOPS.

Six commands look at the star rather than its planets. Each writes one JSON record with its result, its provenance (version, code fingerprint, every input's sha256) and its labels. A flare or a frequency is detected at a stated significance, never confirmed; a variability type is likely or a candidate.

Flares

Detection, template fits with multi-component models, energies for a 9000 K blackbody, completeness and nulls.

partly validated (5 of 8 checks pass)

Pulsations

Pre-whitening, combination flags, the granulation background, numax and Δν, a heuristic type.

partly validated (7 of 9 checks pass)

CHEOPS light curves

Public CHEOPS visits, detrended against roll angle, on one timeline with TESS.

not validated (2 of 5 checks pass)

Eclipsing binaries

Period, primary and secondary eclipses, the secondary's phase with an e·cosω hint, a morphology class, and a candidate flag with its reasons.

partly validated (5 of 8 checks pass)

Rotation

Spot-modulation periods from a periodogram and the autocorrelation function, with uncertainties and half/double handling; up to about 13 days in one sector.

not validated (3 of 6 checks pass)

Transients

Brightenings that do not repeat: rise, decay and amplitude, a flare-like or supernova-like hint, and screens for momentum dumps, scattered light and asteroids. The transient tools are a search aid whose candidates need checking by eye; their detections, class hints and false-alarm screens are not validated.

not validated (1 of 9 checks pass)

Run them

pip install "setuhq[tess,wavelets,cheops]"     # lightkurve (MAST), PyWavelets (denoising), DACE's client (CHEOPS)
setuhq flares "TIC 150359500" --sector 2 --out flares.json
setuhq pulsations "TIC 270577175" --sector 5 --out beta-pic.json
setuhq cheops "HR 10" --max-visits 1 --out hr10_cheops.json
setuhq binaries "TIC 79225651" --sector 1 --out eb.json
setuhq rotation "TIC 44797824" --sector 4 --out rotation.json
setuhq transients --ra 64.52583 --dec -63.61567 --time 1360.4 --out transient.json   # a TESScut cutout, 11 x 11 pixels

An eclipsing binary or a transient these commands find is a candidate, never new and never confirmed. setuhq binaries also gives advisory hints for a transit candidate's ephemeris (--transit-period, --transit-epoch); SetuHQ's planet vetting does not use them. setuhq rotation works on one sector at a time and reports periods beyond about 13 days as beyond its limit. setuhq transients reads a SPOC light curve, or with --ra and --dec a small cutout of the full-frame images from MAST's TESScut, deleted after use unless --keep-cutout.

The same tools are available to an AI assistant over MCP: find_flares, pulsation_spectrum, get_cheops_lightcurve, find_eclipsing_binary, rotation_period and find_transients. Every answer carries its capability's validation status. The methods, their sources and every limit are in docs/STELLAR.md; the checks are on Evidence: stars, measured.

CHEOPS data and its terms

Public data only. Visits are read through DACE (dace.unige.ch), the University of Geneva's public API in front of the CHEOPS Mission Archive, in public mode with no key. ESA does not designate DACE; each record names the source that served it. Proprietary visits are skipped and never cached; no raw CHEOPS file is stored in the repository or shipped in the package.
Credit on every output. Each CHEOPS record and summary carries ESA's acknowledgement, each visit's programme ID and file key, the archive's credit line "Credit: ESA, <proposal PI>", and the papers to cite: Benz, W., et al. 2021, Experimental Astronomy, 51, 109 (the CHEOPS mission); Hoyer, S., et al. 2020, A&A, 635, A24 (the CHEOPS Data Reduction Pipeline); Fortier, A., et al. 2024, A&A, 687, A302 (CHEOPS in-flight performance).
Licence. CHEOPS data, and outputs derived from them, stay under ESA's terms: data in the ESA Space Science Archives are distributed under the CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO licence, and any commercial use, including use that indirectly generates financial gain, needs ESA's prior authorisation ([email protected]). SetuHQ's commercial licence and SetuHQ Pro cover SetuHQ's code and services, not CHEOPS data or CHEOPS-derived outputs.
SetuHQ is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated on behalf of ESA, the CHEOPS mission or the CHEOPS Consortium. No ESA logo, template or copied figure is used.

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