All Kepler data are released to the entire
astronomical community for further analysis. NASA provides financial support
for downstream analysis of data collected by its missions, via the
Astrophysical Data Analysis program, a yearly solicitation with a submission
deadline in mid-May (13 May for 2011).
Kepler Public Data consists of eight components:
Releases of all time series data collected for an entire observing quarter,
as described in this schedule.
Sources which were dropped from the
exoplanet survey, after analysis of their suitability for detection of transits
produced by Earth-sized planets. Dropped targets
are listed at
the Kepler Archive. A significant number of Quarter 3 light curves are available
as dropped targets.
Light curves released whenever a paper discussing the data is published by the
Science Team in the peer-reviewed literature. The Kepler archive at MAST maintains a
list of published
data with links directly to the source information and associated data sets.
Data obtained as part of the Guest Observer
Program. These data are released after a proprietary period, as described in this
schedule, or released when published in the
literature.
Data released directly by the Guest Observer Office. An example of the latter is
the short cadence Q6 light curve for the
brightest star in the Kepler field, θ Cygni. The target pixel data for this star can
be obtained from MAST using KepID = 100002733.
Light curves obtained by the Kepler
Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC), under agreement with the Kepler project,
to probe the interiors of stars using the techniques of asteroseismology.
Light curves obtained for stars in four open clusters of different ages located
within the Kepler field. The "Stellar Cluster Project" is a special component of the Science
Program. Data is released one year after archiving, and
can be identified on the
Kepler Data Search and Retrieval page, using the investigation ID = STC.
Images of the entire field-of-view, obtained each month, and released immediately
after calibration. Details on the format, content, and utility of these full-frame
images (FFIs) can be found here; the
images themselves can be obtained from the
MAST FFI page.
Click these links for further details about the content of the
Quarter 0+1 and
Quarter 2 data releases.
Release dates for specific sources are listed on the
Kepler Data Search and
Retrieval page. KASC targets can be identified by using these identifiers within the
investigation ID field: STKL and STKS, for long and short cadence data respectively.
Questions concerning Kepler's science opportunities and open programs, public archive or community tools? Contact us via the
email address.
