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Kepler Mission Progress: Day 808 William Borucki , Principal Investigator, Kepler Mission,

Explore the latest developments in the Kepler Mission with Principal Investigators and researchers. Learn about Earth-size planets, planet distributions, and host star characteristics. Discover key findings from Kepler's observational data and statistical analyses, including new methods for planet validation and estimating planetary populations. Get insights on planetary systems and stellar astrophysics, presented at the 218th AAS Meeting.

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Kepler Mission Progress: Day 808 William Borucki , Principal Investigator, Kepler Mission,

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  1. Kepler Mission Progress: Day 808 William Borucki, Principal Investigator, Kepler Mission, NASA Ames Research Center Dave Latham, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsFrancois Fressin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Geoff Marcy, University of California, Berkeley Soren Meibom, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 218th AAS Meeting May 23, 2011

  2. NASA’s Kepler: A Statistical Mission • Determine the Frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars. • Determine the size and orbital period distributions of planets. • Associate the characteristics of the planets with those of their host stars.

  3. Functioning Well and Delivering an Abundance of Data • Completed first 2 years of science operations • Monitoring 165,000 stars • Over 5.5 billion brightness measurements obtained • 1,235 candidates discovered; hundreds more expected • Kepler data has been the subject of 66 publications since Feb 2011 • 50 Kepler-related talks and posters at AAS

  4. From Observations to Statistics Observed Number vs. Planet size Observed Candidate Size vs. Orbital Period We must correct for observational biases to assess the true statistics of Kepler’s planets.

  5. Progress in Four Areas • Multiple-planet candidates tell us about planetary systems and show promise for confirming small planets. - Dave Latham, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics • A new method to validateplanets exemplified with the discovery of Kepler-10c. - Francois Fressin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics • Using observations to estimate the intrinsic populationof planets. - Geoff Marcy, University of California, Berkeley • Determining the age of starsand the bounty of stellar astrophysics. - Soren Meibom, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

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