K2: Status and Future

A talk by Geert Barentsen on behalf of NASA's K2 Mission for the Transiting Exoplanets Meeting held at Keele University on July 17, 2017.

Transcript

1. K2: Status and Future Geert Barentsen Director, Kepler/K2 GO
2. 200 refereed K2 publications Thank you!
3. NASA will fund K2
 through end of fuel
4. K2 was top-ranked in NASA’s 2016 Senior Review Panel report: “… K2 includes worldwide participation covering every continent except Antarctica …” Red crosses show K2 paper authors and co-authors
5. K2 publications by science topic
6. Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive Number of published K2 planets by Campaign
7. Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive K2 vs Kepler Confirmed Planets Normalized
8. HIP 41378 (5)
 HD 3167 (2*) HD 106315 (2) Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive K2 vs Kepler Confirmed Planets Normalized
9. Trappist-1 (7) HIP 41378 (5)
 HD 3167 (2*) HD 106315 (2) Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive K2 vs Kepler Confirmed Planets Normalized
10. Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive K2 vs Kepler Confirmed Planets
11. K2’s data set will increase by 40% during the second half of this year Recent and upcoming calibrated data releases: - C11: 30 Jun 2017 - C12: 2 Aug 2017 - C13: Sep 2017 - C14: Nov 2017 400,000 target masks will be in the archive by end 2017.
12. Raw data is now public at MAST within hours of downlink
13. At Launch Now Thruster Fuel 11.5kg 1.1kg CCD Modules 21 18 Reaction Wheels 4 2 Distance from Earth 0 0.93 au Spacecraft status
14. So, how much longer? Uncertainties: - Thruster performance at low fuel pressure - Systems beyond design life - Safe modes and anomalies New fuel-saving measures: - Two-wheel safe mode - Two-wheel data downlink Geert’s expectation: 17, 18, or 19 will be our final Campaign.
15. K2 Campaign 16 • Cancer • Dec 7, 2017 - Feb 25, 2018 • Visible from the ground • Highlights: • M67 • Beehive cluster (inc 7 planets) • >112 planet candidates from C5 • Preliminary target list published in Feb • DDT deadline: Aug 31st
16. C16, C17, C19
17. peak -21 days -2 month +14 days K2 revealed a supernova with a shape similar to type Ia, but rise time much faster than standard Ia?! KSN 2015K Rest et al (in prep)
18. Please share your ground-based plans for C16! See https://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov
19. Consider using ExoFOP for follow-up coordination https://exofop.ipac.caltech.edu
20. K2 Campaign 17 • March - May, 2018 • Forward-facing near Virgo, hence also visible from the ground. • Provides overlap with C6: • improve asteroseismic S/N • 86 planet candidates from C6 • 20 deg2 of new sky
21. K2 Campaign 18 • May - Aug, 2018 • Exact repeat of Campaign 5 (M67, M44) • Fuel-permitting, K2 will revisit this key part of the sky three times, offering a 3-year baseline and 8-month duty cycle. • Enables prime mission-like science at a Galactic sight line 130° away from the original Kepler field: • Exoplanet TTV’s; • Long-term stellar activity studies; • Asteroseismology.
22. K2 Campaign 19 • Aug - Nov, 2018 • Forward-facing near Pisces • Large overlap with C12. • Highlights: • Trappist-1 • Neptune • 2P/Encke
23. K2 GO Cycle 6 Proposal Cycle 6 covers Campaigns 17, 18, 19, during which we expect to run out of fuel. Unlike previous cycles, GO Cycle 6 proposals must include target lists and justifications as part of Step-1 Deadlines:
 - Step-1 (targets): October 12, 2017
 - Step-2 (funding): April 19, 2018
24. New K2 GO staff Ann Marie Cody Christina Hedges Michael Gully-Santiago Ze Vinicius keplergo@mail.arc.nasa.gov
25. New: PyKE v3.0 https://github.com/KeplerGO/PyKE
26. $ pip install pyketools
27. $ kepmask target-pixel-file.fits 100
28. $ kepextract target-pixel-file.fits out.fits \
 —-maskfile mask.txt $ kepdraw out.fits
29. Summary - There has never been a better time to start mining K2 data! - Propose late C16 targets by August 31 (DDT) - Propose C17-18-19 targets by October 12 (Cycle 6) More info: - https://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov - @KeplerGO on Twitter