K2Kepler’s Second Mission

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Michael R. HaasKepler Science Office Director

Mission Concept

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3Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Kepler’s Second Light: How K2 will work

4Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Mission Concept• Continuously observe ~10,000 LC and ~100 SC targets for 75 days• Turn to Earth and download science and engineering data• Move ~83 days along ecliptic plane and begin another campaign

5Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Proposed Campaign Fields

• K2 Mission invited to 2014 Senior Review– If approved, K2 science observations planned to start in June, 2014

• Project solicits input on proposed K2 fields by Feb 1, 2014– http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/k2

Mission Performance

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7Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Spacecraft Jitter

Width of K2 point-spread function is only <5% larger than Kepler point-spread function across the entire field of view

K2 observation of 12th magnitude star taken from

30-min Full-Frame Image in

Coarse Point

Kepler Point-Spread Function in Fine Point

8Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Photometric Precision

s-clipped, detrended and normalized

• Light curve for 12th magnitude star from mid-Dec test – Drift over 6 days held to 3 pixels (with more improvements to come)– Median 6-hr photometric precision is 87 ppm

Science Yield

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10Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Potential Targets?

• Transiting planets• Pulsating stars• Rotating stars• Interacting stars• Binary stars• Open clusters• Stellar associations• Galaxies and SNe• AGN• Microlenses….

11Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

Performance Demonstration

• Full-length demonstration campaign will start around Mar 10– FOV approximately RA = 06:47:00, Dec = +21:22:47– Project is soliciting targets for this campaign, due date is Feb 1, 2014– Details at Kepler booth and http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/k2

12Michael Haas: K2 Mission at AAS on 07 Jan 2014

CONCLUDING SLIDEhttp://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/K2