CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANETARY CANDIDATES OBSERVED BY KEPLER . II. ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF DATA

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 < 1.25 R_⊕), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 2 R_⊕), 662 Neptune-size (2 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 6 R_⊕), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 15 R_⊕), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R_⊕ ≤ R_p < 22 R_⊕). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• WM
  W. M. Keck Foundation
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• SM
  Science Mission Directorate
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Award: ST/G002622/1