When will the Kepler Mission Science Office release data on planets detected by transits?
It is NASA policy to release all scientific information as quickly as consistent with their calibration, validation and meeting mission goals. For the data to be released in a form that is of value and that maintains the scientific integrity of the mission, it is released in a processed format, not simply the raw strings of bits returned by the spacecraft. It takes several months for data to be validated and especially for mission integrity, false positive events—ones that look like transits but are caused by other phenomena such as grazing binary stars—must be checked through ground-based observations of the stars. Data for each 3-month observation period will be made public within one year of the end the observation period. For stars that get dropped from the planet search program, data will be made public within 2 months of their being dropped.
