Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data
On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distri...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74165 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 |
| _version_ | 1826191435028758528 |
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| author | Seager, Sara |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Seager, Sara |
| author_sort | Seager, Sara |
| collection | MIT |
| description | On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distributions of the characteristics of the planetary candidates are separated into five class sizes: 68 candidates of approximately Earth-size (R [subscript p] < 1.25 R [subscript ⊕]), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 2 R [subscript ⊕]), 662 Neptune-size (2 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 6 R [subscript ⊕]), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 15 R [subscript ⊕]), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 22 R [subscript ⊕]). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable zone, 54 candidates are found with sizes ranging from Earth-size to larger than that of Jupiter. Six are less than twice the size of the Earth. Over 74% of the planetary candidates are smaller than Neptune. The observed number versus size distribution of planetary candidates increases to a peak at two to three times the Earth-size and then declines inversely proportional to the area of the candidate. Our current best estimates of the intrinsic frequencies of planetary candidates, after correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, are 5% for Earth-size candidates, 8% for super-Earth-size candidates, 18% for Neptune-size candidates, 2% for Jupiter-size candidates, and 0.1% for very large candidates; a total of 0.34 candidates per star. Multi-candidate, transiting systems are frequent; 17% of the host stars have multi-candidate systems, and 34% of all the candidates are part of multi-candidate systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:55:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/74165 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:55:48Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/741652022-09-30T12:13:25Z Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data Seager, Sara Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Seager, Sara On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distributions of the characteristics of the planetary candidates are separated into five class sizes: 68 candidates of approximately Earth-size (R [subscript p] < 1.25 R [subscript ⊕]), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 2 R [subscript ⊕]), 662 Neptune-size (2 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 6 R [subscript ⊕]), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 15 R [subscript ⊕]), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R [subscript ⊕] ≤ R [subscript p] < 22 R [subscript ⊕]). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable zone, 54 candidates are found with sizes ranging from Earth-size to larger than that of Jupiter. Six are less than twice the size of the Earth. Over 74% of the planetary candidates are smaller than Neptune. The observed number versus size distribution of planetary candidates increases to a peak at two to three times the Earth-size and then declines inversely proportional to the area of the candidate. Our current best estimates of the intrinsic frequencies of planetary candidates, after correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, are 5% for Earth-size candidates, 8% for super-Earth-size candidates, 18% for Neptune-size candidates, 2% for Jupiter-size candidates, and 0.1% for very large candidates; a total of 0.34 candidates per star. Multi-candidate, transiting systems are frequent; 17% of the host stars have multi-candidate systems, and 34% of all the candidates are part of multi-candidate systems. 2012-10-22T12:40:04Z 2012-10-22T12:40:04Z 2011-06 2011-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-637X 1538-4357 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74165 Borucki, William J. et al. “Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. Ii. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data.” The Astrophysical Journal 736.1 (2011): 19. © 2011 IOP Publishing https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/736/1/19 Astrophysical Journal Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf IOP Publishing IOP |
| spellingShingle | Seager, Sara Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title | Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title_full | Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title_fullStr | Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title_short | Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data |
| title_sort | characteristics of planetary candidates observed by kepler ii analysis of the first four months of data |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74165 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT seagersara characteristicsofplanetarycandidatesobservedbykepleriianalysisofthefirstfourmonthsofdata |