QUARTER 3 (Q3) GO DATA RELEASE

Observing Period: Sep 18-Dec 16, 2009
Release Date: Apr 15, 2010

Fig 1: An example light curve from the Q3 GO Office targets (program GO10000) of the chromospherically active BY Dra star V566 Lyr revealing a star spot distribution through stellar rotation, minor flare activity throughout the quarter, and a large flare at the end of the quarter.

The Kepler mission announces the second release of Guest Observer time series data collected by the Kepler spacecraft. Calibrated photometric data for individual sources can be obtained from the Multi-mission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST) via the Kepler Data Search and Retrieval form. All GO data has a proprietary period and will become public on an approximately annual schedule. The software pipeline at the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) and the instrument calibration are on-going projects, investigators are urged to read the Release Notes #4 in order to understand the accuracy and limits of this, and future, data releases.

During the 89 days of the Science data collection phase, designated Quarter 3 (Q3), the Kepler spacecraft observed 166,685 sources ranging from 7.0 < Kp < 19.0 within the field of view in order to search for the transits of exoplanets around stars and conduct astrophysics program for the Guest Observers and Science Team. Q3 was followed by a spacecraft roll in order to realign the solar panels and download data. Proprietary Q3 GO data are now available for download. All Q3 GO photometry made available on Apr 15, 2010 was obtained between Sep 18-Dec 16, 2009. Users of this data should be aware that future re-deliveries of the data for these sources will increase in accuracy and value as calibration algorithms continue to develop with operational knowledge. All Q3 GO data has a 12 month proprietary period, after which it will be available for download and exploitation by the community and public.

New users of the MAST archive are requested to register before downloading data.

Please direct questions concerning the Q3 GO data to the .

BROWSE Q3 GO TARGETS

• Navigate your broswer to the Kepler Data Search and Retrieval Page.
• Fill the 'Investigator ID' field with the wildcard string '*GO100*'.
• From the pull-down menu next to 'User-specified field 1', choose 'Actual Start Time' and fill the field with '>2009-09-18'.
• From the pull-down menu next to 'User-specified field 2', choose 'Actual End Time' and fill the field with '<2009-12-17'.
• Click on the search button. Only GOs will have direct access to the data during the proprietary period. Other archive users will be able to identify the GO targets during this period.

QUICK LINKS

• Data Release Notes#4
• Kepler Data Search and Retrieval form
• Search and Retrieval Form helpage
• Kepler Archive Manual