We provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon nearly two years of high-precision photometry ( i.e. , Q1-Q8 ) .
From an initial list of nearly 13,400 Threshold Crossing Events ( TCEs ) , 480 new host stars are identified from their flux time series as consistent with hosting transiting planets .
Potential transit signals are subjected to further analysis using the pixel-level data , which allows background eclipsing binaries to be identified through small image position shifts during transit .
We also re-evaluate Kepler Objects of Interest ( KOI ) 1-1609 , which were identified early in the mission , using substantially more data to test for background false positives and to find additional multiple systems .
Combining the new and previous KOI samples , we provide updated parameters for 2,738 Kepler planet candidates distributed across 2,017 host stars .
From the combined Kepler planet candidates , 472 are new from the Q1-Q8 data examined in this study .
The new Kepler planet candidates represent \sim 40 % of the sample with { R _ { P } } \sim 1 { R _ { \oplus } } and represent \sim 40 % of the low equilibrium temperature ( { T _ { eq } } < 300 K ) sample .
We review the known biases in the current sample of Kepler planet candidates relevant to evaluating planet population statistics with the current Kepler planet candidate sample .