K2 Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog: Target List for Kepler's Extended Mission

The K2 Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog is the primary source of information about objects observed as potential targets for the Kepler mission's extended K2 phase. The catalog was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was last updated in March 2026. It serves a similar purpose to the original Kepler Input Catalog, supporting the search for exoplanets around stars in the ecliptic plane.

Use Cases

• Identify potential exoplanet host stars for follow-up observation based on catalog entries.
• Study stellar properties and distributions in the ecliptic plane region surveyed by K2.
• Compare target selection and characteristics between the original Kepler mission and the extended K2 mission.

Strengths

• Created by the authoritative source, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
• Serves as the primary target catalog for a major space science mission, the K2 extension.
• Last updated in March 2026, indicating potential recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is stored in a BIN format, which may require specialized tools for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observational data from the Kepler space telescope's K2 mission phase.

Time Range

Covers the operational period of the K2 mission (post-2013).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 18:08:28.824215.

Geography

Targets are stars in a region of the galaxy along the ecliptic plane.