Kepler Mission

A mission in NASA's Discovery Program designed to detect and characterize Earth-class planets by photometry. Kepler was launched successfully on March 6, 2009, into an Earth-trailing, heliocentric (Sun-centered) orbit..

Kepler's specific objectives over its 4-year lifetime are to determine: (a) the frequency of Earth-class and larger planets in and near the habitable zone of a wide variety of spectral types of stars; (b) the distribution of diameter and orbital size of Earth-class planets; (c) the distribution of diameter, mass, density, albedo, and orbital size of giant inner planets; (d) the frequency of planets orbiting multiple star systems; and (e) the properties of those stars that have planetary systems.

Kepler's main instrument is a 1-meter aperture photometer with a 12° field of view which will continuously and simultaneously monitor the light from 90,000 main sequence stars brighter than 14th magnitude in a star field in Cygnus. Planets will be discovered and characterized by the tiny periodic variations their transits cause in a star's measured light output. Detection of two transits will be taken as evidence of a candidate planet with a third and subsequent transits providing confirmation.

Quick facts about Kepler from JPL

Kepler is the world's first mission with the ability to find true Earth analogs – planets that orbit stars like our sun in the "habitable zone." The habitable zone is the region around a star where the temperature is just right for water – an essential ingredient for life as we know it – to pool on a planet's surface.

By the end of Kepler's three-and-one-half-year mission, it will give us a good idea of how common or rare other Earths are in our Milky Way galaxy. This will be an important step in answering the age-old question: Are we alone?

Kepler detects planets by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars. Some planets pass in front of their stars as seen from our point of view on Earth; when they do, they cause their stars to dim slightly, an event Kepler can see.

Kepler has the largest camera ever launched into space, a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, like those in everyday digital cameras.

Kepler's telescope is so powerful that, from its view up in space, it could detect one person in a small town turning off a porch light at night.

External link

Kepler homepage (NASA Ames)

Related category

• SATELLITES AND SPACE PROBES

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