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Planet Hunter Beams Home First Images

By Tariq Malik
,
Space.com
posted: 4 HOURS 29 MINUTES AGO
comments: 342
filed under: Science News
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LiveScience.com
(April 16) -- The planet-seeking Kepler spacecraft has beamed home its first images of a patch of the sky where NASA hopes to find Earth-like planets circling distant, alien stars.
Some 14 million stars are estimated to lurk within the first views from Kepler, which NASA released Thursday. The images reveal a swath of stars between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra that fill an expansive area of our Milky Way galaxy which, when seen from Earth, is about the size of human hand held up against the night sky at arm's length.
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"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."
The so-called "habitable zone" around a star is a belt in which liquid water could exist on the surface in lakes, rivers or oceans. Too close to its stellar parent and a planet would be too hot, while an orbit too far out would yield only a frozen world, NASA scientists have said.
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The first images from Kepler released by NASA include views of its entire target zone, as well as up-close shots that zoom in on only a fraction of the full star field. One view includes a cluster of stars some 13,000 light-years from Earth known as NGC 6791, while another image includes a star called Tres-2, which is already known to harbor a massive Jupiter-like planet close by.
"Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, NASA's Kepler's program executive at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking."
NASA launched the $600 million Kepler spacecraft last month to sift through those millions of targets for 100,000 pre-selected candidate stars that may have Earth-sized planets around them. Those target stars sit between 600 and 3,000 light-years from Earth. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo., and is slated to last at least 3 1/2 years.
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At Kepler's heart is a 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever launched into space, which the spacecraft will use to hunt for Earth-like planets. Astronomers have discovered more than 300 extrasolar planets to date, but most of them are massive gas giants the size of Jupiter or larger.
Kepler spacecraft is expected to identify new extrasolar planets by casting an unblinking stare at its target star field. Its sensitive camera will record the tell-tale dip in light created by a planet as it crosses in front of its parent star as seen from Earth. While researchers expect to discover a wide range of new planets with Kepler, it's those rocky worlds the size of Earth that they are most eager to find.
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"Everything about Kepler has been optimized to find Earth-size planets," said James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there."
Last week, the spacecraft popped the protective lid off its delicate telescope optics and photometer to prepare for its planet search. Mission managers and scientists plan to spend the next few weeks calibrating Kepler's photometer and alignment before beginning their hunt for Earth-like worlds in earnest.
"We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace.
© Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved.
2009-04-17 10:50:57
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Bogus Woody

07:12 PMApr 17 2009

benne841 06:42 PM Ezdoesit2003 06:33 PMApr 17 2009 Benne841, LMAO. You need to get a life ...@@@@@@@ What kind of life do you suggest? I have a fine wife. I'm retired, lost some money but still have plenty enough to live a carefree life. No need to go back to work. I play on the Internet, listen to music, watch TV, play golf, read ( both fiction and non-fiction) Can't think of any improvements that would enhance my lifestyle ############# Yeah, retirement with adequate income for enjoying life --- so ironic that someone would be admonishing "get a life" when we got the best going life there is. Ahhhhhh. It's a wonderful time to be retired, too. Ezdoesit2003, old boy, eat your heart out!!!

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jesusvotesrepub

07:08 PMApr 17 2009

i like the person who made a god response to the fact that reticulated pythons are invading Florida.........as he said how do you know they would not of came here 100,000 years from now, and wildlife would have to adapt to this new predator. and he was right...chances are the snakes would of made it to florida someday anyway, and reg animals would have to die or evolve, just the nature of things

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Bogus Woody

07:05 PMApr 17 2009

Job60 06:56 PMApr 17 2009 Bogus Woody: People like you make me want to vomit *********Read your terms of service because , AOL requires you to bring your own bucket...And mop ############ Hey Job60, it was the other guy with regurgitation issues related to accurate statistics. Poor guy can't handle it.

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Job60

07:05 PMApr 17 2009

white satin sheets stained with salsa.......OMG.... That realy was you ....

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Sixeyess4dinner

07:04 PMApr 17 2009

Bogus Woody 06:56 PMApr 17 2009 ""......... Some of the tropical plants I left outside didn't even freeze, and they always did before.....""@@@@ I would "LMAO" if you turned out to be that 'tickle-me-plant' guy that keeps walking the fenceline of TOS..........

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jesusvotesrepub

07:03 PMApr 17 2009

Lbkinglet07:01 PMApr 17 2009Explain your fact-based statement to the people in Alaska. Even a scientific illiterate like Gov. Palin can't deny climate change is happening because its been happening at such an accelerated rate up there, as happens near both poles. I lived there in the 1970s-1980s and my home area looks nothing like it did. All the spruce forests were killed by insect infestation, weakened by too-short winters and too-hot summers. Not to mention the coastal erosion going on, and the melting of the permafrost. Or is it your opinion that it these things only happen to people who don't matter to you, so no harm done? I can assure you they matter to Jesus. ========== jesusvotesrepub06:52 PMApr 17 2009can anyone write al bore and tell him this was the coldest winter in the history of the usa, ohhhhhhhhhhhh i forgot its now called climate change, well that just about covers everything........even the global warming li<~~~OMG its the end of the world

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Bogus Woody

07:02 PMApr 17 2009

jesusfreak, it's time for your daily dose of remedial education. "Climate change" and "Global warming" are two totally separate terms, and neither replace the other. Global warming IMPACTS the earth in ways that RESULT in climate change, such that in different locations, opposite effects may occur, such as more rain in one area and less in another, or higher temperature in one area while not seeming to affect another. SUMMARIZING: THE TWO TERMS ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE, NOR DOES ONE REPLACE THE OTHER.

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Lbkinglet

07:01 PMApr 17 2009

Explain your fact-based statement to the people in Alaska. Even a scientific illiterate like Gov. Palin can't deny climate change is happening because its been happening at such an accelerated rate up there, as happens near both poles. I lived there in the 1970s-1980s and my home area looks nothing like it did. All the spruce forests were killed by insect infestation, weakened by too-short winters and too-hot summers. Not to mention the coastal erosion going on, and the melting of the permafrost. Or is it your opinion that it these things only happen to people who don't matter to you, so no harm done? I can assure you they matter to Jesus. ========== jesusvotesrepub06:52 PMApr 17 2009can anyone write al bore and tell him this was the coldest winter in the history of the usa, ohhhhhhhhhhhh i forgot its now called climate change, well that just about covers everything........even the global warming li

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Job60

06:56 PMApr 17 2009

Bogus Woody: People like you make me want to vomit *********Read your terms of service because , AOL requires you to bring your own bucket...And mop

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Bogus Woody

06:56 PMApr 17 2009

jesusvotesrepub 06:52 PMApr 17 2009 can anyone write al bore and tell him this was the coldest winter in the history of the usa, ohhhhhhhhhhhh i forgot its now called climate change, well that just about covers everything........even the global warming libs are getting nervous....it may not come true the doom and gloom ########### Where do get your facts? It's been a radically warm winter. Some of the tropical plants I left outside didn't even freeze, and they always did before. Our area is turning tropical, and MT, WI, MN, MI, and Canada is much warmer than normal. You live in a fantasy world.

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