Kepler & K2
The science program and target lists for K2 Campaign 17 have now been posted on the approved targets & programs page.
The target list is based on the peer review of target proposals submitted in response to the K2 GO Cycle 6 Phase-1 opportunity. PI teams may expect to receive feedback on their proposals by March. Note that US-based investigators may be eligible to obtain funding to analyze the data obtained as part of this Campaign by submitting a Phase-2 proposal before the deadline, which is currently set for April 19, 2018, i.e. after the the successful start of Campaign 17 is confirmed. See NSPIRES for details.
The Campaign 17 target list includes 34,398 standard long cadence and 179 standard short cadence targets located towards the constellation of Virgo. Like Campaigns 9 and 16, this is a forward-facing field which enables simultaneous observations to be carried out from the ground.
Campaign 17 provides a substantial overlap with Campaign 6, offering a longer baseline for stellar activity, asteroseismology, and AGN studies, as well as enabling dozens of K2 planet candidates to be revisited. The field also provides access to 20 deg2 of previously unexplored sky.
Notable long cadence targets include:
- Spica: the brightest star system in the constellation of Virgo (V=1), known to be an ellipsoidal variable. The object is being observed using a 40px-diameter circular mask (ID 200213067) designed to capture the PSF core and wings while excluding the long saturation columns which will bleed off silicon.
- 3,000+ candidate M dwarfs and 10,000+ candidate FGK dwarfs for planet searches and other investigations.
- 14,000+ galaxies for the K2 Supernova Cosmology Experiment.
- 24 Solar System objects including comets 183P/Korlevic-Juric and 235P/LINEAR, main-belt asteroids (223) Rosa and (422) Berolina, 9 Trans-Neptunian Objects, and 11 Jupiter Trojan/Hilda Objects.
Targets being observed in short cadence include:
- Six confirmed planet systems from Campaign 6 (K2-41 = WASP-157, K2-99, K2-110, K2-126, K2-127, K2-128).
- Dozens of planet candidates from Campaign 6.
- 67 variable white dwarfs, including the bright white dwarf WD 1327-083 (V=12).
- 47 cool flare stars, including the bright K-type flare star EQ Virginis (V=9).
- 17 bright solar-type stars for asteroseismology studies.
The figure below illustrates the location of the field and its notable targets.
