Kepler Target Search Help

Use the Kepler Target Search form to find targets that are listed in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) AND believed to be "on or near the detector". The interface will allow searches on roughly 6.5 million entries (~ half of the total in the KIC). Of these, about 4.41 million are "on" the detector for at least one season and 4.38 million are "always on" the detector. The remaining 2 million are considered "near" the detector.

Note about the KIC astrometry (RA, Dec, proper motion, parallax). The source of the astrometric quantities depends on which catalog (or catalogs) contain data for a given star. To ensure the highest accuracy and to minimize systematic errors, the hierarchy for the choice of astrometric values is as follows:

• SCP (50 milliarcseconds but closer to Kepler epoch)
• Hipparcos (10 milliarcseconds)
• Tycho-2 for V brighter than 8.0 ( 20 milliarcseconds)
• UCAC2 (40 milliarcseconds)
• 2MASS (70 milliarcseconds)
• USNO-B1.0 (200 milliarcseconds)

Also note that there are four sets of the module, output, channel, row, and column parameters, one set for each season. The season information is included in the name of the field (e.g. MODULE_SEASON_0, OUTPUT_SEASON_0, etc). Seasons run from 0 to 3, roughly corresponding to Summer through Spring (in the northern hemisphere), respectively. The table below maps MJD at the start of a given season to the season number:

MJD, SEASON
54908, 3
55000, 0
55091, 1
55182, 2
55274, 3
55370, 0
55462, 1
55552, 2
55644, 3
55739, 0
55833, 1
55924, 2
56015, 3
56106, 0
56201, 1
54818, 2
54908, 3
54998, 0
55091, 1
55182, 2
55274, 3
55370, 0
55462, 1
55552, 2
55644, 3
55739, 0
55833, 1
55924, 2
56015, 3
56106, 0
56201, 1

Kepler ID

A unique sequential integer ID assigned by Kepler project. Values run from 1 to over 13 million. Searches can be made for specific values (e.g., 12345678), ranges (e.g., 100 .. 150), or using < or > symbols (e.g., < 20).

Availability Flag

Source availability flag. Non-zero values indicate the target has been observed. A "1" means the target has been observed but is not restricted to Science Team members. A "2" means the target was observed by the Kepler Science Team (and therefore unavailable to GO proposer's). The Kepler Science Team has exclusive rights to all targets on the exoplanet survey list (as described in Policy 4 of the Science Utilization Policy; KKPO-16104).

Effective Temperature

Derived effective temperature. Currently values range from 3,105 to 19,336 K.

Log G

Estimated Log10 surface gravity. Currently values range from -0.43 to 6.16

Seasons Target on CCD

Choose the periods for which targets must be on the detector. The default ("any") implies the target(s) must be on the detector for at least one season. The other options include:

• "all" (target must always be on the detector)
• "season_0" (target is on the detector for at least season_0),
• "season_1" (target is on the detector for at least season_1),
• "season_2" (target is on the detector for at least season_2),
• "season_3" (target is on the detector for at least season_3),
• "unspecified" (target is on or near the detector), Note that of the total ~6.5 million entries, roughly 2 million are considered near, but never on, the detector. These entries are normally excluded from the search UNLESS the user selects the "unspecified" option.

Minimum Distance from Edge

Specify the minimum distance a target may be from the edge of the detector. For example, if you only want targets at least 50 pixels from the closest edge, enter 50. Range is 1 to 511. Note: do not use "<", ">", or other numerical operators for this form element.

Kepler Magnitude

Kepler Magnitude as specified in the Kepler Input Catalog. Current range: 2.98 to 24.99

2MASS ID

2MASS catalog ID. example: 19045085+3723043