Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results

Details Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4703b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #47.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1052

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

1

Scientific paper

An important step in discovering the extent of life in our galaxy is to determine the number of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars. The Kepler Mission is designed specifically to determine the frequency of terrestrial planets in the HZ. It was launched on March 6, 2009 and is now measuring the brightness variations of 150,000 solar-like stars to detect patterns of transits that provide the size of the planet relative to the star and its orbital period. Combining these measurements with ground-based spectroscopy fixes the stellar parameters, the planet radius, orbital semi-major axis, and the location relative to the HZ.
The first six weeks of data show the presence of hundreds of candidate planets, and thousands of eclipsing binary stars, and variable stars of amazing variety. Discoveries of five new exoplanets are shown and compared with known exoplanets with respect to mass, size, density, and orbital period. Over 750 planetary candidates found in the first year of data; with many smaller than Neptune.. The released data include five possible multi-planet systems. One of these has two Neptune-size (2.3 and 2.5 Earth-radius) candidates with near-resonant periods. Data for these discoveries were released in June. Examples of many of these discoveries and their distributions are presented and discussed.
. Support by the NASA Astrophysics Division is gratefully acknowledged.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Highlights of the First Results will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1229750