As a response to the Kepler white paper call, we propose to keep Kepler
pointing to its current field of view and continue observing thousands of large
amplitude variables (Cepheid, RR Lyrae and delta Scuti stars among others) with
high cadence in the Kep-Cont Mission. The degraded pointing stability will
still allow observation of these stars with reasonable (better than millimag)
precision. The Kep-Cont mission will allow studying the nonradial modes in
Blazhko-modulated and first overtone RR Lyrae stars and will give a better view
on the period jitter of the only Kepler Cepheid in the field. With continued
continuous observation of the Kepler RR Lyrae sample we may get closer to the
origin of the century-old Blazhko problem. Longer time-span may also uncover
new dynamical effects like apsidal motion in eclipsing binaries. A continued
mission will have the advantage of providing unprecedented, many-years-long
homogeneous and continuous photometric data of the same targets. We investigate
the pragmatic details of such a mission and find a number of advantages,
especially the minimal need of reprogramming of the flight software. Another
undeniable advantage of the current field of view is the completed, ongoing and
planned ground-based follow-up observations and allocated telescope times
focusing on the current field. We emphasize that while we propose this
continuation as an independent mission, we can easily share slots with e.g.
planetary mission with a strong belief that both (or more) communities can
still benefit from Kepler's current capabilities.
Description
[1309.0740] The Kep-Cont Mission: Continuing the observation of high-amplitude variable stars in the Kepler field of view
%0 Generic
%1 molnar2013kepcont
%A Molnár, L.
%A Szabó, R.
%A Kolenberg, K.
%A Borkovits, T.
%A Antoci, V.
%A Vida, K.
%A Ngeow, C. C.
%A Guzik, J. A.
%A Plachy, E.
%A Castanheira, B.
%D 2013
%K 2013 kepler proposal
%T The Kep-Cont Mission: Continuing the observation of high-amplitude
variable stars in the Kepler field of view
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.0740
%X As a response to the Kepler white paper call, we propose to keep Kepler
pointing to its current field of view and continue observing thousands of large
amplitude variables (Cepheid, RR Lyrae and delta Scuti stars among others) with
high cadence in the Kep-Cont Mission. The degraded pointing stability will
still allow observation of these stars with reasonable (better than millimag)
precision. The Kep-Cont mission will allow studying the nonradial modes in
Blazhko-modulated and first overtone RR Lyrae stars and will give a better view
on the period jitter of the only Kepler Cepheid in the field. With continued
continuous observation of the Kepler RR Lyrae sample we may get closer to the
origin of the century-old Blazhko problem. Longer time-span may also uncover
new dynamical effects like apsidal motion in eclipsing binaries. A continued
mission will have the advantage of providing unprecedented, many-years-long
homogeneous and continuous photometric data of the same targets. We investigate
the pragmatic details of such a mission and find a number of advantages,
especially the minimal need of reprogramming of the flight software. Another
undeniable advantage of the current field of view is the completed, ongoing and
planned ground-based follow-up observations and allocated telescope times
focusing on the current field. We emphasize that while we propose this
continuation as an independent mission, we can easily share slots with e.g.
planetary mission with a strong belief that both (or more) communities can
still benefit from Kepler's current capabilities.
@misc{molnar2013kepcont,
abstract = {As a response to the Kepler white paper call, we propose to keep Kepler
pointing to its current field of view and continue observing thousands of large
amplitude variables (Cepheid, RR Lyrae and delta Scuti stars among others) with
high cadence in the Kep-Cont Mission. The degraded pointing stability will
still allow observation of these stars with reasonable (better than millimag)
precision. The Kep-Cont mission will allow studying the nonradial modes in
Blazhko-modulated and first overtone RR Lyrae stars and will give a better view
on the period jitter of the only Kepler Cepheid in the field. With continued
continuous observation of the Kepler RR Lyrae sample we may get closer to the
origin of the century-old Blazhko problem. Longer time-span may also uncover
new dynamical effects like apsidal motion in eclipsing binaries. A continued
mission will have the advantage of providing unprecedented, many-years-long
homogeneous and continuous photometric data of the same targets. We investigate
the pragmatic details of such a mission and find a number of advantages,
especially the minimal need of reprogramming of the flight software. Another
undeniable advantage of the current field of view is the completed, ongoing and
planned ground-based follow-up observations and allocated telescope times
focusing on the current field. We emphasize that while we propose this
continuation as an independent mission, we can easily share slots with e.g.
planetary mission with a strong belief that both (or more) communities can
still benefit from Kepler's current capabilities.},
added-at = {2013-09-04T16:03:57.000+0200},
author = {Molnár, L. and Szabó, R. and Kolenberg, K. and Borkovits, T. and Antoci, V. and Vida, K. and Ngeow, C. C. and Guzik, J. A. and Plachy, E. and Castanheira, B.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f673e87bb320e484ccd8e5feb149b083/danielcarrera},
description = {[1309.0740] The Kep-Cont Mission: Continuing the observation of high-amplitude variable stars in the Kepler field of view},
interhash = {f22956aa82767e925b0301d755461a1a},
intrahash = {f673e87bb320e484ccd8e5feb149b083},
keywords = {2013 kepler proposal},
note = {cite arxiv:1309.0740Comment: An answer to the Call for White Papers to repurpose the Kepler spacecraft},
timestamp = {2013-09-04T16:03:57.000+0200},
title = {The Kep-Cont Mission: Continuing the observation of high-amplitude
variable stars in the Kepler field of view},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.0740},
year = 2013
}