PLANETARY CANDIDATES OBSERVED BY KEPLER . III. ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST 16 MONTHS OF DATA

New transiting planet candidates are identified in 16 months (2009 May-2010 September) of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly 5000 periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1108 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher catalog reliability. Most notable is the noise-weighted robust averaging of multi-quarter photo-center offsets derived from difference image analysis that identifies likely background eclipsing binaries. Twenty-two months of photometry are used for the purpose of characterizing each of the candidates. Ephemerides (transit epoch, T 0, and…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: NNX08AR04G
• SM
  Science Mission Directorate
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Award: ST/J001333/1