5 Quick Facts About The Kepler Mission To Find Earth-Sized Planets
Friday, March 6, 2009 - 02:07
in Astronomy & Space
The Kepler spacecraft and its Delta II rocket have been cleared to launch into space at 10:49 p.m. EST Friday night. Its mission; watch a patch of space (see image below) for the next 3.5 years and look for signs of Earth-sized planets moving around stars similar to the sun. The area that Kepler will watch contains around 100,000 stars like the sun and Kepler will look for slight dimming in the stars as planets pass between the star and Kepler. Unlike observatories like Hubble, Kepler will be able to watch the same stars constantly throughout its mission. Here are 5 quick facts, courtesy of JPL: read more
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