Kepler Mission - Alla ricerca di Pianeti

[Mixmar]

Iscritto (ma sapevo della missione già da un po' ).

[Xile]

"According to several news sources, NASA's Kepler mission is said to be able to detect habitable moons orbiting planets in other star systems. Kepler is a space telescope designed to detect exoplanets. Its mission will have it orbiting the Sun for 3.5 years, after which we'll be able to tell if any of our neighboring stars actually have planetary systems around them. However, apparently we will be able to detect not only exoplanets, but also exomoons orbiting those exoplanets. The Kepler team came to that conclusion after running a computer simulation which found that the telescope was sensitive enough to detect the gravitational pull of an orbiting moon (PDF). This means that the data expected by the end of the mission is going to be very rich, and it is said that moons as small as 0.2 times the mass of earth could be detected. Further details about the Kepler mission are available from NASA."

Source

[sempreio]

Originariamente inviato da Xile

Source

mio dio! forse riusciranno a scovare pure "la morte nera"

[Xile]

The American Astronomical Society is holding its annual meeting (the 215th!) this week, and the team behind NASA's Kepler probe has used the opportunity to announce the first discoveries for the new probe. The first and easiest planets to spot are the so-called "hot Jupiters," massive planets that orbit close to their host stars. And Kepler has indeed spotted them—five in all—in just the first six weeks of data. The probe is budgeted for over two years' worth of observations, and may be extended beyond that, which should provide some hint of its potential.

The super-Jupiters have (with a stunning lack of creativity) been named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b. That implies that there might be three earlier objects that are still in the analysis phase. The existence of these five have been confirmed using ground-based observatories, which may explain the discrepancies.

Kepler spots planets by watching for the decrease in light that occurs as they partially eclipse their host stars. All of the new planets have orbital periods of less than five days, which means Kepler had the chance to spot several of these events during the six weeks of data gathering. The short orbital periods also mean that the planets were very close to their host stars, meaning surface temperatures in excess of 2,000°C.

With more time, Kepler should be able to observe transits by planets that are a bit further from their host stars, meaning cooler surfaces, perhaps extending out into the habitable zone. It's also likely that smaller signals, originating from lighter planets, will become apparent once signals from multiple transits are combined in the analysis pipeline. NASA's Jon Morse felt these discoveries were inevitable, stating, "It's only a matter of time before more Kepler observations lead to smaller planets with longer period orbits, coming closer and closer to the discovery of the first Earth analog."

arstechnica.com

[Octane]

Però! Già 5 identificati e 3 altri possibili!

[Mixmar]

Originariamente inviato da Octane

Però! Già 5 identificati e 3 altri possibili!

Già! E la missione può trovare pianeti anche più "piccoli" di 4 raggi terrestri!

[Rand]

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