Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21720106k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #201.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Kepler, NASA's discovery mission to find Earth-sized planets within the habitable zone of nearby stars, provides an unique and powerful resource to perform serendipitous time-domain astrophysics. There are 107 sources brighter than the 21st magnitude Kepler confusion limit within the Kepler field. Thirty minute cadence relative photometry is good to 2% accuracy at 19th magnitude. However, telemetry bandwidth limits the data collection to only 170,000 targets per quarter, of which 96% are reserved for the primary, brighter than 16th magnitude, red-dominated exoplanet program. Through Guest Observer and open consortium avenues, the onus is upon the astrophysics community to choose their 4% share of the targets carefully so that serendipitous science opportunities with Kepler are optimized. One method for identifying potential targets of high astrophysical interest is to locate the variable objects in the Kepler field using the publicly available, 30-min exposure, Full-Frame Images (FFIs). These images are stored and transmitted by the spacecraft at one-month intervals, principally for engineering purposes. Here we describe a pilot study using eight FFIs obtained in rapid sequence over 1.5 days during the spacecraft commissioning phase. We present a catalog and light curves of variable objects mined from these "Golden" FFIs. Many of these objects will be eclipsing binaries, pulsators, eruptive stars, and other exotic variable stars exhibiting large brightness changes. This variable star catalog will provide an excellent stepping stone for Kepler astrophysics projects through the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC), the Guest Observer Program, or Guest Observer Director's Discretionary Time. Kepler was selected as the 10th mission of the Discovery Program. Funding for this mission is provided by NASA, Science Mission Directorate.
Fanelli Michael
Kepler Science Team
Kinemuchi Karen
Still Martin
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