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MAST/Kepler Condition Flag
(Updated 5/5/17)


The condition flag is a single, semi-colon separated string of phrases, in alphabetical order, describing various target categories and conditions known about a particular Kepler target or system (in some cases multiple flags indicate a target with different dispositions). The table below provides information on each of the currently flagged conditions. Note the table below lists the total number of flagged "stellar targets", not the number of "KOIs", "exoplanets", or "observations".

Searching on Condition Flags

The default entry for the "Condition Flag" form element is "All Targets", implying all entries will be returned including those with no listed condition (it is equivalent to ignoring the condition flag in the search query.) Selecting a specific condition from the form pull-down menu will return entries containing that condition in the string, including those with multiple conditions.

You can also use the "user-specified field" form element to try more advanced condition flag searches. Note that if you use the user-specified field be sure the Condition Flag box entry is set to "All Targets", otherwise any other selected value will be included in the search.

  • To search for targets with condition "a" OR condition "b", use a comma to separate the conditions. For example, to retrieve targets which are false positives and targets which have Exoplanets, enter "False*,Exo*". (Note this technique works with all MAST search forms.)

  • To search for targets with condition "a" AND condition "b", use wildcard characters. For example, to search for targets which are flagged as both Eclipsing Binaries and having Exoplanets, enter "*Eclipsing*Exoplanet*. Although changes may occur in the future, the current list of conditions include:
    • null
    • Eclipsing_binary
    • Eclipsing_binary; Exoplanet
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Null_kepmag
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Planetary_candidate
    • Eclipsing_binary; False_Positive; Red_giant
    • Eclipsing_binary; Planetary_candidate
    • Eclipsing_binary; Planetary_candidate; Red_giant
    • Eclipsing_binary; Red_giant
    • Exoplanet
    • False_Positive
    • False_Positive; Planetary_candidate
    • False_Positive; Planetary_candidate; Red_giant
    • False_Positive; Red_giant
    • Null_kepmag
    • Planetary_candidate
    • Planetary_candidate; Red_giant
    • Possible_artifact
    • Red_giant

    Condition Definitions

    Condition Flag # of Flagged Host Stars Description
     
    Eclipsing_binary 2,865 Targets listed in the unpublished beta version of the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog revision 3.0, as last updated on 26 Oct, 2015. See the Eclipsing Binaries table for more information.
    False_positive 4,817 Targets showing planetary transit-like features but which further analysis concluded was not attributable to a planet. As of January, 2013, the false positives are flagged using the "FALSE POSITIVE" disposition flag from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) table. As of March, 2017, the DR25 KOI table replaced the DR24 version which added about 800 new entries. False positives can occur when: 1) the KOI is in reality an eclipsing binary star, 2) the Kepler light curve is contaminated by a background eclipsing binary, 3) stellar variability is confused for coherent planetary transits, or 4) instrumental artifacts are confused for coherent planetary transits. Note that targets published as confirmed exoplanets are flagged as exoplanets even if the KOI table assigns them another disposition.
    Planetary_candidate 1,844 A target exhibiting photometric features consistent with a transiting planet (but not necessarily confirmed). As of January, 2013, the planetary candidates are flagged using the "CANDIDATE" disposition flag from the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) table. As of March, 2017, the DR25 KOI table was adopted. Note that confirmed exoplanets are NOT included in the "Planetary_candidate" category and targets published as confirmed exoplanets are only listed as exoplanets.
    Not Dispositioned 0 A "not dispositioned" value corresponds to a Kepler Object of Interest for which the disposition tests have not yet been completed. Currently all KOIs have been dispositioned.
    Exoplanet 1648 A host star confirmed (i.e., published) to have 1 or more orbiting exoplanets. As of January, 2013, this flag is based on NExScI's compiled list of published Exoplanets. Note most, but not all, targets flagged as confirmed planets are KOIs.
    Red_giant 15,626 A possible red giant star. See the Red Giant Release page for more information.
    Possible_artifact 36,006 A target believed to be flagged by the Kepler project as a possible artifact. These targets were identified by having row and column positions indicating they are on the detector, but the project did not provide distance to edge values. The distance values shown were added by MAST. They differ from the project-defined distances in that they represent the minimum distance from the detector edge to the target not (more accurately) from the detector edge to the edge of the photometric aperture. Note no targets considered "off" the detector were flagged as possible artifacts.
    Null_kepmag 83,004 A KIC target that is on the detector for at least one season but without a value for the Kepler magnitude. These were originally included in the target search interface, were later removed (July, 2011) by the Kepler project, then re-added by MAST with MAST-defined distance to edge values. As for the "possible_artifact" case, the MAST-defined distances describe the distance from the detector edge to the target, not from the detector edge to the edge of the photometric aperture. Most galaxies are included in this group. Note the total number of entries including targets not on the detector would be about 120,000.