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Finding Earth-size planets in the habitable zone: the Kepler Mission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

William Borucki ,
David Koch ,
Gibor Basri ,
Natalie Batalha ,
Timothy Brown ,
Douglas Caldwell ,
Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard ,
William Cochran ,
Edward Dunham  and
Thomas N. Gautier
...Show all authors
William Borucki
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
David Koch
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
Gibor Basri
Affiliation:
University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
Natalie Batalha
Affiliation:
San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, 95192, USA
Timothy Brown
Affiliation:
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Golenta, CA 93117, USA
Douglas Caldwell
Affiliation:
SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA
Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
Affiliation:
University of Aarhus, Denmark
William Cochran
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
Edward Dunham
Affiliation:
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, 86001, USA
Thomas N. Gautier
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA
John Geary
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
Ronald Gilliland
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
Jon Jenkins
Affiliation:
SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA
Yoji Kondo
Affiliation:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
David Latham
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
Jack J. Lissauer
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
David Monet
Affiliation:
United States Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, 86002, USA
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Abstract

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The Kepler Mission is a space-based mission whose primary goal is to detect Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. The mission will monitor more than 100,000 stars for transits with a differential photometric precision of 20 ppm at V=12 for a 6.5 hour transit. It will also provide asteroseismic results on several thousand dwarf stars. It is specifically designed to continuously observe a single field of view of greater than 100 square degrees for 3.5 or more years.

This overview describes the mission design, its goals and capabilities, the measured performance for those photometer components that have now been tested, the Kepler Input Catalog, an overview of the analysis pipeline, the plans for the Follow-up Observing Program to validate the detections and characterize the parent stars, and finally, the plans for the Guest Observer and Astrophysical Data Program.

Keywords

Planet detectionexoplanetsdifferential photometryspace-based telescope
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 3 , Symposium S249: Exoplanets: Detection, Formation and Dynamics , October 2007 , pp. 17 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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