The Kepler Full Frame ImagesNASA's exoplanet discovery mission Kepler provides uninterrupted 1-min and 30-min optical photometry of a 100 square degree field over a 3.5 yr nominal mission. Downlink bandwidth is filled at these short cadences by selecting only detector pixels specific to 105 preselected stellar targets. The majority of the Kepler field, comprising 4 x 10(exp 6) m_v < 20 sources, is sampled at much lower 1-month cadence in the form of a full-frame image. The Full Frame Images (FFIs) are calibrated by the Science Operations Center at NASA Ames Research Center. The Kepler Team employ these images for astrometric and photometric reference but make the images available to the astrophysics community through the Multimission Archive at STScI (MAST). The full-frame images provide a resource for potential Kepler Guest Observers to select targets and plan observing proposals, while also providing a freely-available long-cadence legacy of photometric variation across a swathe of the Galactic disk.
Document ID
20100024156
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Dotson, Jessie L. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Batalha, Natalie (San Jose State Univ. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Bryson, Stephen T. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Caldwell, Douglas A. (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Inst. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Clarke, Bruce D. (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Inst. Moffett Field, CA, United States)