The Validation of a 2 REarth Planet Showing Transit Timing Variations with Kepler and Warm Spitzer

We present evidence for the validation of KOI 84, a 2 R Earth candidate identified by the Kepler Mission. We gathered 4.5 micron observations of KOI 84 as part of a Warm Spitzer campaign to observe exoplanetary candidates identified by the Kepler mission. The Spitzer light curves provide an independent test of the planetary nature of this candidate. We combine the results of the Spitzer observations with those from BLENDER (a software package to model Kepler light curves as astrophysical false positives) and spectroscopy to present the full body of evidence in favor of the planetary hypothesis. The transit times of KOI 84 also deviate significantly from a linear ephemeris, though there is no evidence for an additional transiting body in the system. We discuss several scenarios that could explain the transit timing variations, including possible planetary companions.