2013
06-03-2009, 01:55 PM
http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=14833102
NASA to launch life search probe
The Kepler space telescope is designed to search for Earth-like planets
pa.press.net
NASA is to launch a space probe to search out possible Earth-like planets in a faraway corner of the galaxy.
The planet-hunting spacecraft, named Kepler after a German 17th-century astrophysicist, is scheduled to take off on Friday night.
The telescope will spend three and a half years scanning 100,000 stars, measuring their brightness and any winks in the light that might signify orbiting planets.
"We certainly won't find ET, but we might find ET's home by looking at all of these stars," Bill Boruki, Kepler's principal scientist, said.
Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science, said Kepler is not just another science mission.
"It very possibly could tell us that Earths are very, very common, that we have lots of neighbours out there, or it could tell us that Earths are really, really, really rare," Weiler said at a press conference.
"Perhaps we're the only Earth. I think that would be a very bad answer because I, for one, don't want to live in an empty universe where we're the best there is. That's a scary thought to many of us."
Kepler will be scouting for Earth-size planets circling stars in the so-called habitable or Goldilocks zone. That is where planets are neither too close nor too far from their star, and where conditions could be ripe for liquid water on the surface. "Planets that are not too hot, not too cold, but just right," according to Boruki.
Once launched, Kepler will trail the Earth in an orbit around the sun. It will peer continuously at a large patch of sky near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations, looking for any winks against the brightness of the stars that could indicate passing planets.
The stars to be observed by Kepler are between 600 and 3,000 light years away.
NASA to launch life search probe
The Kepler space telescope is designed to search for Earth-like planets
pa.press.net
NASA is to launch a space probe to search out possible Earth-like planets in a faraway corner of the galaxy.
The planet-hunting spacecraft, named Kepler after a German 17th-century astrophysicist, is scheduled to take off on Friday night.
The telescope will spend three and a half years scanning 100,000 stars, measuring their brightness and any winks in the light that might signify orbiting planets.
"We certainly won't find ET, but we might find ET's home by looking at all of these stars," Bill Boruki, Kepler's principal scientist, said.
Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science, said Kepler is not just another science mission.
"It very possibly could tell us that Earths are very, very common, that we have lots of neighbours out there, or it could tell us that Earths are really, really, really rare," Weiler said at a press conference.
"Perhaps we're the only Earth. I think that would be a very bad answer because I, for one, don't want to live in an empty universe where we're the best there is. That's a scary thought to many of us."
Kepler will be scouting for Earth-size planets circling stars in the so-called habitable or Goldilocks zone. That is where planets are neither too close nor too far from their star, and where conditions could be ripe for liquid water on the surface. "Planets that are not too hot, not too cold, but just right," according to Boruki.
Once launched, Kepler will trail the Earth in an orbit around the sun. It will peer continuously at a large patch of sky near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations, looking for any winks against the brightness of the stars that could indicate passing planets.
The stars to be observed by Kepler are between 600 and 3,000 light years away.