Planet candidates from K2 campaigns 5-8

In addition, we identify 16 targets as likely eclipsing binaries, based on their light curve morphology. We obtained follow-up optical spectra of 105/141 candidate host stars and 8/16 eclipsing binaries to improve stellar properties and to identify spectroscopic binaries.

Importantly, spectroscopy enables measurements of host star radii with ~10% precision, compared to ~40% precision when only broadband photometry is available. The improved stellar radii enable improved planet radii. Our curated catalog of planet candidates provides a starting point for future efforts to confirm and characterize K2 discoveries.