The Kepler Input Catalog (or KIC) is a publicly searchable

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

of roughly 13.2 million targets used for the Kepler Spectral Classification Program (SCP) and ''

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...

''.

Overview

The Kepler SCP targets were observed by the 2MASS project as well as Sloan filters, such as the ''griz'' filters. The catalog alone is not used for finding Kepler targets, because only a portion (about 1/3 of the catalog) can be observed by the spacecraft. The full catalog includes up to 21 magnitude, giving 13.2 million targets, but of these only about 6.5 to 4.5 million fall on Kepler's sensors. KIC is one of the few comprehensive star catalogs for a spacecraft's field of view. The KIC was created because no catalog of sufficient depth and information existed for target selection at that time. The catalog includes "mass, radius, effective temperature, log'' (g)'', metallicity, and reddening extinction". An example of a KIC catalog entry is KIC #10227020. Having had transit signals detected for this star, it has become a Kepler Object of Interest, with the designation KOI-730. The planets around the star are confirmed, so the star has the Kepler catalog designation

Kepler-223 Kepler-223 (KOI-730, KIC 10227020) is a G5V star with an extrasolar planetary system discovered by the Kepler mission. Studies indicate that the Kepler-223 star system consists of 4 planets orbiting the star. Planetary system ...

. Not all star Kepler Input Catalog stars with confirmed planets get a Kepler Object of Interest designation. The reason is that sometimes transit signals are detected by observations that were not made by the Kepler team. An example of one of these objects is

Kepler-78b Kepler-78b (formerly known as KIC 8435766 b) is an exoplanet orbiting around the star Kepler-78. At the time of its discovery, it was the exoplanet most similar to Earth in terms of mass, radius, and mean density. Discovery Kepler-78b is the only ...

Notable objects

KIC 8462852 Tabby's Star (also known as Boyajian's Star and WTF Star, and designated KIC 8462852 in the Kepler Input Catalog) is an F-type main-sequence star in the constellation Cygnus (constellation), Cygnus approximately from Earth. Unusual ligh ...

is a

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

whose primary shows a mysterious transit profile. The origin of this profile is uncertain, with proposed explanations ranging from an uneven dust ring to a Dyson swarm or similar alien megastructure.

KIC 9832227 KIC 9832227 is a contact binary star system in the constellation Cygnus, located about 1,843 light-years away. It is also identified as an eclipsing binary with an orbital period of almost 11 hours. In 2017, the system was predicted to res ...

is a

contact binary In astronomy, a contact binary is a binary star system whose component stars are so close that they touch each other or have merged to share their gaseous envelopes. A binary system whose stars share an envelope may also be called an overconta ...

and an

eclipsing binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in w ...

with a period of about 11 hours.

KIC 11026764 KIC 11026764, nicknamed "Gemma" by Li ''et al.'', is a G-type main sequence star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars ...

is a G-type subgiant star whose

astroseismology Asteroseismology or astroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperatur ...

has been studied extensively by ''Kepler''. It shows weak variability with a period of about 1100 seconds.

KIC 11145123 KIC 1145123 (sometimes mistakenly called Kepler 1145123), is a white hued star located in the northern constellation Cygnus, the swan. It has an apparent magnitude of 13.12, making it readily visible in large telescopes, but not to the nak ...

is one of the more interesting non-KOI objects in the list. An

A-type main-sequence star An A-type main-sequence star (A V) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class V (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure between 1 ...

with unusually slow rotation for its high mass, it is currently believed to be the roundest natural object.

References

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External links

Kepler Input Catalog (SAO)
Kepler space telescope Astronomical catalogues of stars

Overview

Notable objects

See also

References

External links