Overview of the Kepler Science Processing Pipeline

The Kepler Mission Science Operations Center (SOC) performs several critical functions including managing the ~156,000 target stars, associated target tables, science data compression tables and parameters, as well as processing the raw photometric data downlinked from the spacecraft each month. The raw data are first calibrated at the pixel level to correct for bias, smear induced by a shutterless readout, and other detector and electronic effects. A background sky flux is estimated from ~4500 pixels on each of the 84 CCD readout channels, and simple aperture photometry is performed on an optimal aperture for each star. Ancillary engineering data and diagnostic information extracted from the science data are used to remove systematic errors in the flux time series that are correlated with these data prior to searching for signatures of transiting planets with a wavelet-based, adaptive matched filter. Stars with signatures exceeding 7.1 sigma are subjected to a suite of statistical tests including an examination of each star's centroid motion to reject false positives caused by background eclipsing binaries. Physical parameters for each planetary candidate are fitted to the transit signature, and signatures of additional transiting planets are sought in the residual light curve. The pipeline is operational, finding planetary signatures and providing robust eliminations of false positives.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Discovery and Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect of Exoplanet Kepler-8b

We report the discovery and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of Kepler-8b, a transiting planet identified by the NASA Kepler Mission. Kepler photometry and Keck-HIRES radial velocities yield the radius and mass of the planet around this F8IV subgiant host star. The planet has a radius RP = 1.419 RJ and a mass, MP = 0.60 MJ, yielding a density of 0.26 g cm^-3, among the lowest density planets known. The orbital period is P = 3.523 days and orbital semima jor axis is 0.0483+0.0006/-0.0012 AU. The star has a large rotational v sin i of 10.5 +/- 0.7 km s^-1 and is relatively faint (V = 13.89 mag), both properties deleterious to precise Doppler measurements. The velocities are indeed noisy, with scatter of 30 m s^-1, but exhibit a period and phase consistent with the planet implied by the photometry. We securely detect the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, confirming the planet's existence and establishing its orbit as prograde. We measure an inclination between the projected planetary orbital axis and the projected stellar rotation axis of lambda = -26.9 +/- 4.6 deg, indicating a moderate inclination of the planetary orbit. Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements of a large sample of transiting planets from Kepler will provide a statistically robust measure of the true distribution of spin-orbit orientations for hot jupiters in general.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; In preparation for submission to the Astrophysical Journa

Synthesis and in vitro anti-HIV activity of N-1,3-benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl-2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-4-yl)acetamide derivatives using MTT method

A series of novel N-1,3-benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl-2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-4-yl)acetamide derivatives has been synthesized. All the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-HIV activity using MTT method. Most of these compounds showed moderate to potent activity against wild-type HIV-1 with an EC(50) ranging from >7 EC(50) [μg/ml] to <100 EC(50) [μg/ml]. Among them, N-1,3-benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl-2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-4-yl)acetamide 6v was identified as the most promising compound (EC(50)=<7 μg/ml). Among all the compounds, three compounds 6m, 6v and 6u have been exhibits potent anti-HIV activity against MT-4 cells