Deep GALEX UV Survey of the Kepler Field I: Point Source Catalog

TL;DR

This paper presents a deep near-ultraviolet survey of the Kepler field using GALEX, resulting in a large catalog of NUV sources that enhances the study of stellar and exoplanet host properties.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive NUV point source catalog for the Kepler field, enabling new research on stellar activity and exoplanet host characterization.

Findings

Catalog of 669,928 NUV sources in the Kepler field.

Cross-matched NUV data for over 475,000 Kepler stars.

Identification of NUV photometry for many confirmed and candidate exoplanet hosts.

Abstract

We report observations of a deep near-ultraviolet (NUV) survey of the Kepler field made in 2012 with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Complete All-Sky UV Survey Extension (CAUSE). The GALEX-CAUSE Kepler survey (GCK) covers 104 square degrees of the Kepler field and reaches limiting magnitude NUV=22.6 at 3{\sigma}. Analysis of the GCK survey has yielded a catalog of 669,928 NUV sources, of which 475,164 are cross-matched with stars in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). Approximately 327 of 451 confirmed exoplanet host stars and 2614 of 4696 candidate exoplanet host stars identified by Kepler have NUV photometry in the GCK survey. The GCK catalog should enable the identification and characterization of UV-excess stars in the Kepler field (young solar-type and low-mass stars, chromospherically active binaries, white dwarfs, horizontal branch stars, etc.), and elucidation of various astrophysics problems related to the stars and planetary systems in the Kepler field.