talk by Geert Barentsen & Tom Barclay for the 20th Microlensing workshop in Paris on 14 January 2016. K2 Guest Observer Office (NASA Ames) http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov
two-reaction wheel mission utilizing the Kepler spacecraft • Targets 100 deg2 fields during 80-day campaigns • Limited by on-board storage: 3-5 Mpix per cadence • Community mission: all targets selected through peer review • Open data
8 months • Engineers have worked on 53 issues related to C9, including: • turning the spacecraft in the opposite direction; • adding a mid-campaign downlink to obtain more pixels; • overcoming data compression issues; • enabling fast access to the raw data; • enabling ongoing events to be added to the target list. • Please credit the efforts from the engineers at NASA Ames & Ball Aerospace where you can.
scientific return, NASA has funded a C9 Microlensing Science Team. • The team has been recruited to … • make recommendations on the observation planning; • facilitate coordinated ground-based observations; • detect, characterize, and understand the events observed by K2, e.g. address under-sampled crowded field photometry. • All data, products, results obtained by the team are expected to be made public.
selected in Oct 2015 through a peer-review process. • Selected PIs are David Bennett (Goddard), Calen Henderson (JPL/Caltech), David Hogg (NYU), Matthew Penny (Ohio), and Rachel Street (LCOGT). • Joined by Radek Poleski, co-investigators, K2 personnel. Bennett Henderson Hogg Penny Street
the team so far include: • the white paper (arXiv:1512.09142); • presentations at the AAS (6 Jan) and today’s workshop (14 Jan); • setting up an open mailing list and wiki; • guiding NExSci to adapt the ExoFOP system for C9; • advocacy for UKIRT time (successful — NASA funds 180h); • advocacy for later K2 deadlines to add ongoing events (successful); • a strategy to obtain lightcurves from the K2 pixel data. • … • See other talks today!
be selected by 25 Jan 2016 • Operators need to prepare, validate, and uplink spacecraft command sequences in a timely fashion. • Science Team advocated for a later deadline to be able to include ongoing events; engineers have committed to append a small number of targets (~100 i.e. <0.5%) at a later deadline. • Targets for C9a (7/Apr-18/May) can be added up to 1/Mar. • Targets for C9b (22/May - 1/Jul) can be added up to 25/Apr.
by intra- and inter-pixel sensitivity variations which come into play due to the spacecraft roll. • Dithering would offer a better handle on these variations than the rolling motion alone. • Dithering before or during C9 was deemed too risky; a mid-campaign offset will be performed instead.
GO office: Tom Barclay, Knicole Colon, Geert Barentsen • E-mail us at [email protected] • Tweet us at @KeplerGO • Visit our new website: http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov
data as soon as possible • Release plan: • 2016 May 24: C9a raw images • 2016 July 6: C9b raw images • 2016 Sep 26: C9a + C9b reduced images (+ lightcurves for isolated targets) • Data will be public. No old-fashioned proprietary period! • We encourage other facilities to embrace the openness.
Python package makes raw data accessible: https://github.com/KeplerGO/kadenza • A 10-day sample of raw C0 data has been posted at https://archive.stsci.edu/missions/k2/c0_raw_cadence_data/
skilled PR and outreach staff embedded within the Kepler/K2 office • They are experts at crafting press releases and preparing visuals • They can coordinate with your institutions • Please keep us updated on likely news stories!
host visitors at NASA Ames (California). • Opportunity to interface directly with instrument expertise. • Would particularly benefit those tackling K2 data reduction. (Hack week?) • E-mail us at [email protected] if you are interested. • (Non US-citizens must apply >1 month in advance.)
13 • A call is open for proposals related to Campaigns 11, 12, 13 • Step 1 deadline: Feb 5, 2016 • Step 2 deadline: Mar 4, 2016 • Funding via formula ($30,000 to $150,000)
K2 will survey the Northern Bulge during Campaign 11: 24 Sep 2016 - 8 Dec 2016. • Subject to K2 passing the senior review. • Likely K2’s final visit to the Galactic Center & Bulge. • We encourage proposals from the microlensing community. • Microlensing proposals will compete with other science; need to request a pixel budget that is justifiable. (Think 10%-30%?) • Step 1 deadline is 5 Feb 2016.
VLT Survey Telescope (VST) in Paranal. • u, g, r, i, Halpha imaging to 21st magnitude (complements VVV in optical). • Median seeing 0.8-0.9 arcsec. • Public band-matched catalogue available (daophot psf photom) VPHAS+ Survey
9 offers an exciting opportunity for microlensing. • The experiment represent a significant investment of public resources from NASA and Kepler/K2 into microlensing science. • We encourage the entire community to get together to make C9 a success — this is an opportunity to strengthen the field and secure future resources.