A talk by Geert Barentsen for #KeplerSciCon 2019 - Photo by Paul Trienekens on unsplash.com - Kepler & K2

Kepler’s discoveries
        will continue.

A talk by Geert Barentsen for #KeplerSciCon 2019.   Photo by Paul Trienekens on unsplash.com.

Photo by Marc Schiele on unsplash.com

Currently, 1.6 publications per day
use Kepler or K2 data.

 2016: 1.2 per day
 2013: 0.8 per day
 2010: 0.2 per day

+60 US PhD theses

Will Kepler’s discoveries continue?

Is there any science left to do?

YES!

new data
new ideas
new tools

There has never been a better time to tackle

big & ambitious
              Kepler projects.

The fast pace of data releases led to a focus on quick discoveries.

     Some projects awaited the full & final data products*.
                     (* see poster by Jeff Coughlin)

Kepler’s precision and baseline will not be rivaled for many years.

“Show me some examples!”

arXiv:1810.12554

Here are 7 examples*:
  (*none of these ideas are new!)

A homogeneous catalog of K2 planets

1
                      •   Planet catalogs help prioritize follow-up and enable
                          occurrence rate studies.
                      •   Many excellent teams have published partial catalogs.
                      •   Only ~30% of K2 planets are published. (Dotson+ 2019)
                          K2 complements TESS by adding smaller & cooler planets.

See talks by Hedges, Vanderburg, Becker, Hardegree-Ullman, Rodriguez, Ciardi, & others.

Refining the occurrence rate of planets

2
                     •   Occurrence rates inform planet formation models
                         and future missions.
                     •   Kepler’s DR25 planet products were published last year
                         and have already been used by several excellent teams.
                     •   K2 observed a wider range of stellar ages, types, and
                         populations — will this help refine occurrence rates?

See talks by Dressing, Berger, Mulders, Morton, Sestovic, Mann, Herman, & others.
See posters by Bryson, Coughlin, Estrela, Gupta, Zink, & others.

Understanding circumbinary planets

3
                    •   A large fraction of stars occur in multiple systems.
                        (e.g. Duchêne & Kraus 2013).
                    •   Only 11 circumbinary planets have been discovered by Kepler!
                        (Fleming+ 2018)
                    •   Circumbinary planets transit at irregular periods and are diluted.
                        Can dedicated searches reveal more? What is their frequency?

See talks by Kraus, Matson, Hess, & others.
See posters by Sudol, Socia, Gonzales, & others.

Mining overlapping fields for TTVs

4
                     •   Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) can identify dynamically
                         interesting systems and reveal planet masses.
                     •   Planet searches tend to look for periodic signals.
                         Planets with extreme TTVs may be missed.
                     •   Opportunity to leverage the long baseline offered in
                         areas where Kepler, K2, & TESS overlap.

See talks by Weiss, Lissauer, Ragozzine, Zhu, & others.
See posters by Berardo, Dalba, Fabrycky, Jontof-Hutter, Vissapragada, & others.

Comparing Kepler & K2’s 29 star clusters

5
                     •   Star clusters provide laboratories for understanding stellar
                         evolution and planet formation.
                     •   Kepler & K2 observed 29 clusters across all ages.
                         (Cody et al. 2018)
                     •   Do asteroseismology, eclipsing binaries, rotation rates, and
                         planet rates tell a consistent story across these clusters?

See breakout sessions by Cody & Soderblom.
See talks by Angus, Mann, Curtis, Gully-Santiago, Venuti, White, & others. See posters by Barna, Beatty,
Carmichael, David, Dhara, Gosnell, Rampalli, Rebull, Soares, Stauffer, Thao, Torres, & others.

Galactic Archaeology

6
                     •   Kepler constrains the ages of red giants using
                         asteroseismology.
                     •   The Kepler field recently revealed a strong relationship
                         between red giant age & composition. (Silva Aguirre+ 2018)
                     •   Will similar analyses across all K2 fields reveal new insights
                         into the history of the Milky Way?

See talks by Pinsonneault, Stello, Yu, Garcia, Huber, White, Deheuvels, Gaulme, Cantiello, & others.

K2’s Supernova Experiment

7
                     •   K2 captured a statistical sample of supernovae and
                         other transients.
                     •   In some cases, K2 captured a full light curve starting
                         from before the explosion to many weeks thereafter.
                     •   What will we learn about supernova progenitors?

See talks by Garnavich, Dimitriadis, Holoien, Shaya, Rest, & others.

But wait, there’s more!
•   Benchmark planet systems.
•   Disintegrating planets & dust clouds.
•   Stellar activity.
•   Asteroseismology.
                                            See all other talks & posters!
•   Gyrochronology.
•   Microlensing.
•   CVs & AGN.
•   Solar System objects.

arXiv:1810.12554

Share your thoughts!

There has never been a better time to tackle

big & ambitious
              Kepler projects.

Photo by Marc Schiele on unsplash.com

Kepler’s discoveries
   will continue