High-spatial-resolution K-band Imaging of Select K2 Campaign Fields

Abstract

NASA's K2 mission began observing fields along the ecliptic plane in 2014 (Howell et al. 2014). Each observing campaign lasts ~80 days, during which high-precision optical photometry of select astrophysical targets is collected by the Kepler spacecraft. Due to the 4 arcsec pixel scale of the Kepler photometer, significant blending between the observed targets can occur (especially in dense fields close to the Galactic plane). We therefore undertook a program to use the Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) on the 3.8 m United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) (Casali et al. 2007) to collect high-spatial-resolution near-infrared images of targets in select K2 campaign fields, which we report here. These 0.4 arcsec resolution K-band images offer the opportunity to perform a variety of science, including vetting exoplanet candidates by identifying nearby stars blended with the target star (Figure 1) and estimating the size, color, and type of galaxies observed by K2.