MAST/Kepler Condition Flag
(Updated 9/10/13)

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 conditions include:
  • null
  • Eclipsing_binary
  • Eclipsing_binary; Exoplanet
  • Eclipsing_binary; Exoplanet; Planetary_candidate
  • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive
  • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Not Dispositioned
  • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Planetary_candidate
  • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Red_giant
  • Eclipsing_binary; Null_kepmag
  • Eclipsing_binary; Planetary_candidate
  • Eclipsing_binary; Planetary_candidate; Red_giant
  • Eclipsing_binary; Red_giant
  • Exoplanet
  • Exoplanet; False_Positive
  • Exoplanet; Planetary_candidate
  • False_Positive
  • False_Positive; Not Dispositioned
  • False_Positive; Planetary_candidate
  • False_Positive; Planetary_candidate; Not Dispositioned
  • False_Positive; Red_giant
  • Not Dispositioned
  • Not Dispositioned; Red_giant
  • Null_kepmag
  • Planetary_candidate
  • Planetary_candidate; Not Dispositioned
  • Planetary_candidate; Red_giant
  • Possible_artifact
  • Red_giant

  
  

  Condition Definitions

  Condition Flag	# of Flagged Host Stars	Description
  Eclipsing_binary	2,399	Targets listed in the unpublished beta version of the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog revision 3.0, as last updated on 17 June, 2013. See the Eclipsing Binaries table for more information.
  False_positive	2136	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	2,647	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. Not that confirmed exoplanets are NOT included in the "Planetary_candidate" category.
  Exoplanet	83	A host star confirmed (i.e., published) to have 1 or more orbiting exoplanets. As of January, 2013, this flag is based on NExScI's compiled list of ipublished Exoplanets. Note most, but not all, targets flagged as confirmed planets are KOIs.
  Not Dispositioned	25	A Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) which requires further analysis before being assigned a disposition. In other words, it has not yet been determined if the object is a False Positive, or a planetary candidate. It is expected that "not displositioned" KOIs will eventually be assigned a disposition. Note that KOIs refer to individual components of possibly multi-component systems, some components of which have already been identified. This explains condition-flags such as "Exoplanet; Not Dispositioned".
  Red_giant	15,626	A possible red giant star. 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 KIC target 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.