* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Kepler mission

heich1 · New

In the list of new exoplanets released by NASA were there any super Earths in the goldilock temperature range, i.e. are possible that they have water or life on them.

Blobrana · L

Title: Five Kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates
Authors: Jason H. Steffen (1), Natalie M. Batalha (2), William J. Borucki (3), Lars A. Buchhave (4,5), Douglas A. Caldwell (3,10), William D. Cochran (6), Michael Endl (6), Daniel C. Fabrycky (4), François Fressin (4), Eric B. Ford (7), Jonathan J. Fortney (8), Michael J. Haas (3), Matthew J. Holman (4), Howard Isaacson (9), Jon M. Jenkins (3,10), David Koch (3), David W. Latham (4), Jack J. Lissauer (3), Althea V. Moorhead (7), Robert C. Morehead (7), Geoffrey Marcy (9), Phillip J. MacQueen (6), Samuel N. Quinn (4), Darin Ragozzine (4), Jason F. Rowe (3), Dimitar D. Sasselov (4) Sara Seager (11) Guillermo Torres (4), William F. Welsh (12), ((1) Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, (2) Department of Astronomy and Physics, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192, (3) NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, (4) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, (5) Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark, (6) McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-2059 USA, (7) Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611-2055, USA, (8) Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Unvirsity of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, (9) Astronomy Department, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, (10) SETI Institute, 515 North Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA, 94043, (11) Department of Physics, Massachussets Institute of Technology, (12) San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182)

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets and provide new insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. We discuss the methods used to identify multiple transiting objects from the Kepler photometry as well as the false-positive rejection methods that have been applied to these data. One system shows transits from three distinct objects while the remaining four systems show transits from two objects. Three systems have planet candidates that are near mean motion commensurabilities - two near 2:1 and one just outside 5:2. We discuss the implications that multitransiting systems have on the distribution of orbital inclinations in planetary systems, and hence their dynamical histories; as well as their likely masses and chemical compositions. A Monte Carlo study indicates that, with additional data, most of these systems should exhibit detectable transit timing variations (TTV) due to gravitational interactions - though none are apparent in these data. We also discuss new challenges that arise in TTV analyses due to the presence of more than two planets in a system.

Read more (5901kb, PDF)

Blobrana · L

Title: Characteristics of Kepler Planetary Candidates Based on the First Data Set: The Majority are Found to be Neptune-Size and Smaller
Authors: William J. Borucki, for the Kepler Team

In the spring of 2009 the Kepler Mission conducted high precision photometry on nearly 156,000 stars to detect the frequency and characteristics of small exoplanets. On 15 June 2010 the Kepler Mission released data on all but 400 of the ~156,000 planetary target stars to the public. At the time of this publication, 706 targets from this first data set have viable exoplanet candidates with sizes as small as that of the Earth to larger than that of Jupiter. Here we give the identity and characteristics of 306 of the 706 targets. The released targets include 5 candidate multi-planet systems. Data for the remaining 400 targets with planetary candidates will be released in February 2011. The Kepler results based on the candidates in the released list imply that most candidate planets have radii less than half that of Jupiter.

Read more (3393kb, PDF)

Blobrana · L

We are about to find out just how generous nature really is.

On Tuesday, astronomers operating NASA's Kepler spacecraft will release a list of about 350 stars newly suspected of harbouring planets, including five systems with multiple candidate planets. That data could dramatically swell the inventory of alien worlds, which now stands at 461, none of them habitable by the likes of us.
Astronomers everywhere, who have been waiting since Kepler's launch in March 2009 to get their hands on this data, will be rushing to telescopes to examine these stars in the hopes of advancing the grand quest of finding Earthlike planets capable of harbouring life out there.
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Blobrana · L

According to various sources the mission team were to 'work around the problem'.
The missions goals and objectives will not be affected if a solution is not found.

heich1 · New

Does know if NASA has fixed their problems on the Kepler Spacecraft. They were going to try in April.

Blobrana · L

Since the Kepler Space Telescope's spectacular night launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on March 6, 2009, NASA's resolute exoplanet hunter has achieved significant success in its quest to answer the timeless question: "Are we alone in our galaxy?"
Earlier this year, Kepler scientists announced the discovery of five large exoplanets (planets located beyond our solar system) named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b.
Kepler has also detected the atmosphere of a giant gas planet located about 1,000 light-years from Earth.
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Blobrana · L

Scientific discoveries have shaped the development of society and civilisation throughout history, yet many of those with the greatest impact were accidental.
NASA recently announced the discovery of five new exo-planets, planets that lie outside our solar system.
They were found using NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars. If there is alien life out there, it will probably be living on an exo-planet.
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Blobrana · L

NASA panel agrees to Kepler team request to withhold key observations.

Kepler, the NASA mission manoeuvring to spot the first Earth-like extrasolar planet, is supposed to publicly release data in June for the 156,000 stars at which the orbiting telescope stares. But on Monday a NASA advisory panel recommended that Kepler be allowed to censor 400 "objects of interest" - presumably good planet candidates - until February 2011, giving the mission team more time to firm up discoveries, rule out false positives and publish. If enacted, the new policy would represent a selective editing of data on the basis of its science content, rather than its quality - unprecedented for such NASA missions.
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