Detecting Distant Planets More than 400 planets have been detected outside the solar system, most of which have masses similar to that of the gas giant planet, Jupiter. Borucki et al. (p. 977 , published online 7 January) summarize the planetary findings derived from the first six weeks of observations with the Kepler mission whose objective is to search for and determine the frequency of Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars. The results include the detection of five new exoplanets, which confirm the existence of planets with densities substantially lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

Abstract. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly elliptical 13.7-day orbit around the Earth. During its 2-year mission, TESS will employ four wide-field optical charge-coupled device cameras to monitor at least 200,000 main-sequence dwarf stars with I C ≈ 4 − 13 for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Each star will be observed for an interval ranging from 1 month to 1 year, depending mainly on the star's ecliptic latitude. The longest observing intervals will be for stars near the ecliptic poles, which are the optimal locations for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. Brightness measurements of preselected target stars will be recorded every 2 min, and full frame images will be recorded every 30 min. TESS stars will be 10 to 100 times brighter than those surveyed by the pioneering Kepler mission. This will make TESS planets easier to characterize with follow-up observations. TESS is expected to find more than a thousand planets smaller than Neptune, including dozens that are comparable in size to the Earth. Public data releases will occur every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest stars hosting transiting planets, which will endure as highly favorable targets for detailed investigations. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

We report high-precision spectrophotometric observations of four planetary transits of HD 209458, in the region of the sodium resonance doublet at 589.3 nm. We find that the photometric dimming during transit in a bandpass centered on the sodium feature is deeper by (2.32 AE 0.57) Â 10 À4 relative to simultaneous observations of the transit in adjacent bands. We interpret this additional dimming as absorption from sodium in the planetary atmosphere, as recently predicted from several theoretical modeling efforts. Our model for a cloudless planetary atmosphere with a solar abundance of sodium in atomic form predicts more sodium absorption than we observe. There are several possibilities that may account for this reduced amplitude, including reaction of atomic sodium into molecular gases and/or condensates, photoionization of sodium by the stellar flux, a low primordial abundance of sodium, and the presence of clouds high in the atmosphere.

We report high-precision, high-cadence photometric measurements of the star HD 209458, which is known from radial velocity measurements to have a planetary-mass companion in a close orbit. We detect two separate transit events at times that are consistent with the radial velocity measurements. In both cases, the detailed shape of the transit curve due to both the limb darkening of the star and the finite size of the planet is clearly evident. Assuming stellar parameters of 1.1 R middle dot in circle and 1.1 M middle dot in circle, we find that the data are best interpreted as a gas giant with a radius of 1.27+/-0.02 RJup in an orbit with an inclination of 87&fdg;1+/-0&fdg;2. We present values for the planetary surface gravity, escape velocity, and average density and discuss the numerous observations that are warranted now that a planet is known to transit the disk of its parent star.

The reliability and validity of traditional taxonomies are limited by arbitrary boundaries between psychopathology and normality, often unclear boundaries between disorders, frequent disorder co-occurrence, heterogeneity within disorders, and diagnostic instability. These taxonomies went beyond evidence available on the structure of psychopathology and were shaped by a variety of other considerations, which may explain the aforementioned shortcomings. The Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology (HiTOP) model has emerged as a research effort to address these problems. It constructs psychopathological syndromes and their components/subtypes based on the observed covariation of symptoms, grouping related symptoms together and thus reducing heterogeneity. It also combines co-occurring syndromes into spectra, thereby mapping out comorbidity. Moreover, it characterizes these phenomena dimensionally, which addresses boundary problems and diagnostic instability. Here, we review the development of the HiTOP and the relevant evidence. The new classification already covers most forms of psychopathology. Dimensional measures have been developed to assess many of the identified components, syndromes, and spectra. Several domains of this model are ready for clinical and research applications. The HiTOP promises to improve research and clinical practice by addressing the aforementioned shortcomings of traditional nosologies. It also provides an effective way to summarize and convey information on risk factors, etiology, pathophysiology, phenomenology, illness course, and treatment response. This can greatly improve the utility of the diagnosis of mental disorders. The new classification remains a work in progress. However, it is developing rapidly and is poised to advance mental health research and care significantly as the relevant science matures.

We describe the photometric calibration and stellar classification methods used by the Stellar Classification Project to produce the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). The KIC is a catalog containing photometric and physical data for sources in the Kepler mission field of view; it is used by the mission to select optimal targets. Four of the visible-light (g, r, i, z) magnitudes used in the KIC are tied to Sloan Digital Sky Survey magnitudes; the fifth (D51) is an AB magnitude calibrated to be consistent with Castelli & Kurucz (CK) model atmosphere fluxes. We derived atmospheric extinction corrections from hourly observations of secondary standard fields within the Kepler field of view. For these filters and extinction estimates, repeatability of absolute photometry for stars brighter than magnitude 15 is typically 2%. We estimated stellar parameters {T eff , log(g), log(Z), E B−V } using Bayesian posterior probability maximization to match observed colors to CK stellar atmosphere models. We applied Bayesian priors describing the distribution of solar-neighborhood stars in the color-magnitude diagram, in log(Z), and in height above the galactic plane. Several comparisons with samples of stars classified by other means indicate that for 4500 K T eff 6500 K, our classifications are reliable within about ±200 K and 0.4 dex in log(g) for dwarfs, with somewhat larger log(g) uncertainties for giants. It is difficult to assess the reliability of our log(Z) estimates, but there is reason to suspect that it is poor, particularly at extreme T eff . Comparisons between the CK models and observed colors are generally satisfactory with some exceptions, notably for stars cooler than 4500 K. Of great importance for the Kepler mission, for T eff 5400 K, comparison with asteroseismic results shows that the distinction between main-sequence stars and giants is reliable with about 98% confidence. Larger errors in log(g) occur for warmer stars, for which our filter set provides inadequate gravity diagnostics. The KIC is available through the MAST data archive.

New transiting planet candidates are identified in 16 months (2009 May-2010 of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher catalog reliability. Most notable is the noise-weighted robust averaging of multiquarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis that identifies likely background eclipsing binaries. Twenty-two months of photometry are used for the purpose of characterizing each of the candidates. Ephemerides (transit epoch, T 0 , and orbital period, P) are tabulated as well as the products of light curve modeling: reduced radius (R P /R ), reduced semimajor axis (d/R ), and impact parameter (b). The largest fractional increases are seen for the smallest planet candidates (201% for candidates smaller than 2 R ⊕ compared to 53% for candidates larger than 2 R ⊕ ) and those at longer orbital periods (124% for candidates outside of 50 day orbits versus 86% for candidates inside of 50 day orbits). The gains are larger than expected from increasing the observing window from 13 months (Quarters 1-5) to 16 months (Quarters 1-6) even in regions of parameter space where one would have expected the previous catalogs to be complete. Analyses of planet frequencies based on previous catalogs will be affected by such incompleteness. The fraction of all planet candidate host stars with multiple candidates has grown from 17% to 20%, and the paucity of short-period giant planets in multiple systems is still evident. The progression 1The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 204:24 (21pp), 2013 February Batalha et al. toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods with each new catalog release suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant.

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 p