[4] The KIC was created because no catalog of sufficient depth and information existed for target selection at that time.
[5] The catalog includes "mass, radius, effective temperature, log (g), metallicity, and reddening extinction".
The reason is that sometimes transit signals are detected by observations that were not made by the Kepler team.
The origin of this profile is uncertain, with proposed explanations ranging from an uneven dust ring to a Dyson swarm or similar alien megastructure.
An A-type main-sequence star with unusually slow rotation for its high mass, it is currently believed to be the roundest natural object.