Kepler Input Catalog facts for kids
The Kepler Input Catalog (or KIC) is a publicly searchable database of roughly 13.2 million targets used for the Kepler Spectral Classification Program (SCP) and Kepler.
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.
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.
The unusual light curve of KIC 8462852 (also designated TYC 3162-665-1 and 2MASS J20061546+4427248), which was flagged by Planet Hunters, has engendered speculation that an alien civilization's Dyson sphere is responsible.
