Kepler instrument performance: an in-flight update

Abstract

The Kepler Mission is designed to detect the 80 parts per million (ppm) signal from an Earth-Sun equivalent transit. Such precision requires superb instrument stability on time scales up to 2 days and systematic error removal to better than 20 ppm. The sole scientific instrument is the Photometer, a 0.95 m aperture Schmidt telescope that feeds the 94.6 million pixel CCD detector array, which contains both Science and Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) CCDs. Since Kepler's launch in March 2009, we have been using the commissioning and science operations data to characterize the instrument and monitor its performance. We find that the in-flight detector properties of the focal plane, including bias levels, read noise, gain, linearity, saturation, FGS to Science crosstalk, and video crosstalk between Science CCDs, are essentially unchanged from their pre-launch values. Kepler's unprecedented sensitivity and stability in space have allowed us to measure both short-and long-term effects from cosmic rays, see interactions of previously known image artifacts with starlight, and uncover several unexpected systematics that affect photometric precision. Based on these results, we expect to attain Kepler's planned photometric precision over 90% of the field of view.

THE KEPLER-19 SYSTEM: A TRANSITING 2.2R⊕PLANET AND A SECOND PLANET DETECTED VIA TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS

“…Van Cleve & Caldwell (2009) and Argabright et al (2008) give an overview of the Kepler instrument, and Caldwell et al (2010) and Jenkins et al (2010b) provide a summary of its performance since launch. The Kepler observations of Kepler-19 that we present in this work were gathered from 2009 May 5 to 2011 March 5.…”

Optical design trade study for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope [WFIRST]

“…The maximum probability of detection occurs much further from the star than detections made using multiple occultation method such as the Kepler mission 11 . The planets discovered could include Earth-like ones in habitable orbits as well as free (unbound) planets.…”

Concluding remarks

“…High precision asteroseismic observations made with the Kepler [1,2] and CoRot [3] satellites, as well as infrared space observations obtained using Herschel [4] and Spitzer [5,6], are providing tight constraints on the interior structure of red giants and their evolution. The convening of LIAC 40 from 2012 July 9 th -13 th to discuss ageing low mass stars was therefore opportune, especially in view of exciting new discoveries anticipated over the next few years following the launch of GAIA [7][8][9] and the James Webb Space Telescope [10,JWST].…”