Monitoring young associations and open clusters with Kepler in two-wheel mode

TL;DR

This paper proposes using the Kepler spacecraft in two-wheel mode to monitor young stellar groups, aiming to advance understanding of early stellar evolution through detailed photometric observations and synergy with other surveys.

Contribution

It introduces a novel observational strategy leveraging Kepler's wide field-of-view in two-wheel mode to study young associations and open clusters comprehensively.

Findings

Potential to significantly improve understanding of early stellar evolution.

Feasibility of optimizing Kepler's photometric performance in two-wheel mode.

Synergies with GAIA surveys enhance the scientific impact.

Abstract

We outline a proposal to use the Kepler spacecraft in two-wheel mode to monitor a handful of young associations and open clusters, for a few weeks each. Judging from the experience of similar projects using ground-based telescopes and the CoRoT spacecraft, this program would transform our understanding of early stellar evolution through the study of pulsations, rotation, activity, the detection and characterisation of eclipsing binaries, and the possible detection of transiting exoplanets. Importantly, Kepler's wide field-of-view would enable key spatially extended, nearby regions to be monitored in their entirety for the first time, and the proposed observations would exploit unique synergies with the GAIA ESO spectroscopic survey and, in the longer term, the GAIA mission itself. We also outline possible strategies for optimising the photometric performance of Kepler in two-wheel mode by modelling pixel sensitivity variations and other systematics.