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MAST/Kepler Condition Flag


The condition flag is a single, semi-colon separated string of phrases, in alphabetical order, describing various target categories and conditions known about a particular Kepler target or system (in some cases multiple flags indicate a multi-KOI system with different dispositions). The table below provides information on each of the currently flagged conditions. Note the table below lists the total number of flagged "stellar targets", not the number of "KOIs" or "observations".

Searching on Condition Flags

The default entry for the "Condition Flag" form element is "All Targets", implying all entries will be returned including those with no listed condition (it is equivalent to ignoring the condition flag in the search query.) Selecting a specific condition from the form pull-down menu will return entries containing that condition in the string, including those with multiple conditions.

You can also use the "user-specified field" form element to try more advanced condition flag searches. Note that if you use the user-specified field be sure the Condition Flag box entry is set to "All Targets", otherwise any other selected value will be included in the search.

  • To search for targets with condition "a" OR condition "b", use a comma to separate the conditions. For example, to retrieve targets which are false positives and targets which have Exoplanets, enter "False*,Exo*". (Note this technique works with all MAST search forms.)

  • To search for targets with condition "a" AND condition "b", use wildcard characters. For example, to search for targets which are flagged as both Eclipsing Binaries and having Exoplanets, enter "*Eclipsing*Exoplanet*. Although changes may occur in the future, the current list of multiple conditions include:
    • Eclipsing_binary; Exoplanet
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive;
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Planetary Candidate
    • Eclipsing_binary; Planetary_candidate
    • Eclipsing_binary; Red_giant
    • Exoplanet; Planetary_candidate
    • False Positive; Planetary_candidate


Condition Definitions

Condition Flag # of Flagged Host Stars Description
 
Eclipsing_binary 2695 Target is listed in the unpublished beta version of the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog revision 3.0, as last updated on 8 January, 2013. See the Eclipsing Binaries table for more information.
False_positive 791 Targets showing planetary transit-like features but which further analysis concluded was not attributable to a planet. As of January, 2013, the false positives are flagged using the "FALSE POSITIVE" disposition flag from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) table.
Planetary_candidate 1994 A target exhibiting photometric features consistent with a transiting planet (but not necessarily confirmed). As of January, 2013, the planetary candidates are flagged using the "CANDIDATE" disposition flag from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) table.
Exoplanet 57 A target confirmed (i.e., published) to have 1 or more orbiting exoplanets. As of January, 2013, the Exoplanets are flagged using the "CONFIRMED" disposition flag from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) table. Note: this list may (temporarily) become out-of-date as new planets are discovered.
Red_giant 14,000 A possible red giant star for which data is now public. See the Red Giant Release page for more information.
Possible_artifact 36,000 A target believed to be flagged by the Kepler project as a possible artifact. These targets were identified by having row and column positions indicating they are on the detector, but the project did not provide distance to edge values. The distance values shown were added by MAST. They differ from the project-defined distances in that they represent the minimum distance from the detector edge to the target not (more accurately) from the detector edge to the edge of the photometric aperture. Note no targets considered "off" the detector were flagged as possible artifacts.
Null_kepmag 120,000 A target known to be on the detector but without a value for the Kepler magnitude. These were originally included in the target search interface, were later removed (July, 2011) by the Kepler project, then re-added by MAST with MAST-defined distance to edge values. As for the "possible_artifact" case, the MAST-defined distances describe the distance from the detector edge to the target, not from the detector edge to the edge of the photometric aperture. Most galaxies are included in this group.