Validation of Kepler Planet Candidates

Details Validation of Kepler Planet Candidates Validation of Kepler Planet Candidates

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20921013c&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #210.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

1

Scientific paper

The Kepler Mission will be able to detect transiting Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of 30,000 stars and 1.4 Earth radius planets around 100,000 stars. Such sensitivity will allow Kepler to detect hundreds of terrestrial planets if they are common, or place significant upper limits on their numbers if they are rare. In addition, Kepler will detect many astrophysical false-positives that mimic transit signals. Most will be background eclipsing binaries as much as nine magnitudes fainter than the target star. We expect 1000 background binaries with periods less than 3 days and 275 with longer periods. We have developed a series of automated tests on each detection, the results of which are used to decide whether planet candidates will be passed on for follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations.
The validation process begins with model planet and eclipsing binary signal fits to the candidate detections. After subtracting the best-fit planet model, we search the residual flux time series for additional transiting planets around the star. This process is repeated until there are no new candidate detections. The candidate’s centroid time series is then tested against the model planet signal(s) in order to eliminate background eclipsing binaries through the change in photocenter position during the eclipse. For a 12th magnitude G2 star we can discriminate a binary mimicking an Earth transit if it is separated from the target star by a quarter of a pixel or more. Tests are also performed to see if the candidate signal is detected anomalously in only a single pixel of the aperture (e.g., a variable bad pixel), or if the signal is seen in the background estimate, or in any of the engineering data (e.g., focal plane temperatures,).
Funding for Kepler is provided by NASA’s Discovery Program.

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