PLANETARY CANDIDATES OBSERVED BY <i>KEPLER</i> . V. PLANET SAMPLE FROM Q1–Q12 (36 MONTHS)

Abstract

The Kepler mission discovered 2842 exoplanet candidates with 2 years of data.\nWe provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon 3 years\n(Q1-Q12) of data. Through a series of tests to exclude false-positives,\nprimarily caused by eclipsing binary stars and instrumental systematics, 855\nadditional planetary candidates have been discovered, bringing the total number\nknown to 3697. We provide revised transit parameters and accompanying posterior\ndistributions based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for the cumulative\ncatalogue of Kepler Objects of Interest. There are now 130 candidates in the\ncumulative catalogue that receive less than twice the flux the Earth receives\nand more than 1100 have a radius less than 1.5 Rearth. There are now a dozen\ncandidates meeting both criteria, roughly doubling the number of candidate\nEarth analogs. A majority of planetary candidates have a high probability of\nbeing bonafide planets, however, there are populations of likely\nfalse-positives. We discuss and suggest additional cuts that can be easily\napplied to the catalogue to produce a set of planetary candidates with good\nfidelity. The full catalogue is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet\nArchive.\n