* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Kepler mission

Blobrana · L

The Kepler observatory was launched from Space Launch Complex 17-B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, on the 7th March, 2009.

Blobrana · L

NASA's Kepler Mission Celebrates One Year in Space

One year ago this week, NASA's Kepler mission soared into the dark night sky, leaving a bright glow in its wake as it began to search for other worlds like Earth.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Kepler Spacecraft May Be Able to Spot Elusive Oort Cloud Objects

The Kepler spacecraft's mission is a straightforward one: keep a vigilant watch on a large patch of stars to see if they dim, even just slightly, on a regular basis. The idea is that a planet passing in front of its host star will reveal itself to Kepler by blotting out a fraction of the star's light. This transit method has already borne fruit: NASA's Kepler spotted five planets in the first few weeks after its 2009 launch, and dozens more have been detected over the past decade from the ground and from other spacecraft. But Kepler's strength lies in its unique sensitivity to Earth-like planets--small, terrestrial worlds in temperate orbits that allow liquid water to persist.
Read more

Oort Cloud

Blobrana · L

Title: Kepler Observations of Transiting Hot Compact Objects
Authors: Jason F. Rowe (NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA Ames Research Centre), William J. Borucki (NASA Ames Research Centre), David Koch (NASA Ames Research Centre), Steve B. Howell (National Optical Astronomy Observatory), Gibor Basri (University of California, Berkeley), Natalie Batalha (San Jose State University), Timothy M. Brown (Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope), Douglas Caldwell (SETI Institute), William D. Cochran (University of Texas), Edward Dunham (Lowell Observatory), Andrea K. Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics), Jonathan J. Fortney (University of California, Santa Cruz), Thomas N. Gautier III (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology), Ronald L. Gilliland (Space Telescope Science Institute), Jon Jenkins (SETI Institute), David W. Latham (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics),
Jack .J. Lissauer (NASA Ames Research Centre), Geoff Marcy (University of California, Berkeley), David G. Monet (US Naval Observatory), Dimitar Sasselov (Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics), William F. Welsh (San Diego State University)
et al. (5 additional authors not shown)
(Version v3)

Kepler photometry has revealed two unusual transiting companions orbiting an early A-star and a late B-star. In both cases the occultation of the companion is deeper than the transit. The occultation and transit with follow-up optical spectroscopy reveal a 9400 K early A-star, KOI-74 (KIC 6889235), with a companion in a 5.2 day orbit with a radius of 0.08 Rsun and a 10000 K late B-star KOI-81 (KIC 8823868) that has a companion in a 24 day orbit with a radius of 0.2 Rsun. We infer a temperature of 12250 K for KOI-74b and 13500 K for KOI-81b.
We present 43 days of high duty cycle, 30 minute cadence photometry, with models demonstrating the intriguing properties of these object, and speculate on their nature.

Read more (116kb, PDF)

Blobrana · L

On Jan. 12, 2010, the Kepler project team detected an anomaly with a portion of the Kepler focal plane. One of the modules, MOD-3, that contains two of Kepler's 42 Charge-Coupled-Devices (CCDs), transmitted anomalous data. There are 21 modules that comprise Kepler's electronic light sensors, or "eyes." The possible loss of the module represents a loss of five percent of the Kepler Field-of-View. An Anomaly Response Team continues to investigate the anomaly. Initial indications are that the anomaly is isolated and not expected to affect other modules. The Kepler project team is working on plans to correct the anomaly or to minimise the impact of the possible loss of the module and the reduction in Field-of-View.
Read more

Blobrana · L

NASA's new planet-hunting telescope has found two mystery objects that are too hot to be planets and too small to be stars.
The Kepler Telescope, launched in March, discovered the two new heavenly bodies, each circling its own star. Telescope chief scientist Bill Borucki of NASA said the objects are thousands of degrees hotter than the stars they circle. That means they probably aren't planets. They are bigger and hotter than planets in our solar system, including dwarf planets.
Read more

Ed ~ Newly born planets was initially my first thoughts too. But it is very intriguing,

Blobrana · L

Kepler mission astronomers, including co-investigator Bill Cochran of The University of Texas at Austin, announced today the spaceborne telescope has found five new gas giant planets orbiting close to Sun-like stars.
The five new planets are gas giants, ranging in size from about 40 percent to about 1.7 times the size of Jupiter. One planet, Kepler 4-b, is about the same size as Neptune. Several of the new planets have unexpectedly low densities. The new planet Kepler 7-b is one of the lowest density planets yet discovered.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Title: Kepler Mission Design, Realised Photometric Performance, and Early Science
Authors: David G. Koch, William J. Borucki, Gibor Basri, Natalie M. Batalha, Timothy M. Brown, Douglas Caldwell, Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard, William D. Cochran, Edna DeVore, Edward W. Dunham, Thomas N. Gautier III, John C. Geary, Ronald L. Gilliland, Alan Gould, Jon Jenkins, Yoji Kondo, David W. Latham, Jack J. Lissauer, Geoffrey Marcy, David Monet, Dimitar Sasselov, Alan Boss, Donald Brownlee, John Caldwell, Andrea K. Dupree, Steve B. Howell, Hans Kjeldsen, Soeren Meibom, David Morrison, Tobias Owen, Harold Reitsema, Jill Tarter, Stephen T. Bryson, Jessie L. Dotson, Paul Gazis, Michael R. Haas, Jeffrey Kolodziejczak, Jason F. Rowe, Jeffrey E. Van Cleve, Christopher Allen, Hema Chandrasekaran, Bruce D. Clarke, Jie Li, Elisa V. Quintana, Peter Tenenbaum, Joseph D. Twicken, Hayley Wu

The Kepler Mission, launched on Mar 6, 2009 was designed with the explicit capability to detect Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars using the transit photometry method. Results from just forty-three days of data along with ground-based follow-up observations have identified five new transiting planets with measurements of their masses, radii, and orbital periods. Many aspects of stellar astrophysics also benefit from the unique, precise, extended and nearly continuous data set for a large number and variety of stars. Early results for classical variables and eclipsing stars show great promise. To fully understand the methodology, processes and eventually the results from the mission, we present the underlying rationale that ultimately led to the flight and ground system designs used to achieve the exquisite photometric performance. As an example of the initial photometric results, we present variability measurements that can be used to distinguish dwarf stars from red giants.

Read more (1905kb, PDF)

Blobrana · L

Title: The asteroseismic potential of Kepler: first results for solar-type stars
Authors: W. J. Chaplin, T. Appourchaux, Y. Elsworth, R. A. Garcia, G. Houdek, C. Karoff, T. S. Metcalfe, J. Molenda-Zakowicz, M. J. P. F. G. Monteiro, M. J. Thompson, T. M. Brown, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, R. L. Gilliland, H. Kjeldsen, W. J. Borucki, D. Koch, J. M. Jenkins, J. Ballot, S. Basu, M. Bazot, T. R. Bedding, O. Benomar, A. Bonanno, I. M. Brandao, H. Bruntt, T. L. Campante, O. L. Creevey, M. P. Di Mauro, G. Dogan, S. Dreizler, P. Eggenberger, L. Esch, S. T. Fletcher, S. Frandsen, N. Gai, P. Gaulme, R. Handberg, S. Hekker, R. Howe, D. Huber, S. G. Korzennik, J. C. Lebrun, S. Leccia, M. Martic, S. Mathur, B. Mosser, R. New, P.-O. Quirion, C. Regulo, I. W. Roxburgh, D. Salabert, J. Schou, S. G. Sousa, D. Stello, G. A. Verner, T. Arentoft, C. Barban, K. Belkacem, S. Benatti, K. Biazzo, P. Boumier,
P. A. Bradley, A.-M. Broomhall, D. L. Buzasi, R. U. Claudi, M. S. Cunha, F. D'Antona, S. Deheuvels, A. Derekas, A. Garcia Hernandez, M. S. Giampapa, M. J. Goupil, M. Gruberbauer, J. A. Guzik, S. J. Hale, M. J. Ireland, L. L. Kiss, I. N. Kitiashvili, K. Kolenberg, H. Korhonen, A. G. Kosovichev, F. Kupka, Y. Lebreton, B. Leroy, H.-G. Ludwig, S. Mathis, E. Michel, A. Miglio, J. Montalban, A. Moya, A. Noels, R. W. Noyes, P. L. Palle, L. Piau, H. L. Preston, T. Roca Cortes, M. Roth, K. H. Sato, J. Schmitt, A. M. Serenelli, V. Silva Aguirre, I. R. Stevens, J. C. Suarez, M. D. Suran, R. Trampedach, S. Turck-Chieze, K. Uytterhoeven, R. Ventura
et al. (47 additional authors not shown)

We present preliminary asteroseismic results from Kepler on three G-type stars. The observations, made at one-minute cadence during the first 33.5d of science operations, reveal high signal-to-noise solar-like oscillation spectra in all three stars: About 20 modes of oscillation may be clearly distinguished in each star. We discuss the appearance of the oscillation spectra, use the frequencies and frequency separations to provide first results on the radii, masses and ages of the stars, and comment in the light of these results on prospects for inference on other solar-type stars that Kepler will observe.

Read more (164kb, PDF)