Kepler Mission Development

Details Kepler Mission Development Kepler Mission Development

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20912406b&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #124.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Kepler is a Discovery-class mission designed to determine the frequency of Earth-size and smaller planets in and near the habitable zone of cool dwarf stars. The instrument is a wide field-of-view (FOV) differential photometer with a 100 square degree FOV that continuously and simultaneously monitors the brightness of more than 100,000 main-sequence stars with sufficient precision to detect transits by Earth-size planets.
As part of the Kepler Mission, a ground-based observation program is underway to measure the effective temperature, log(g), metallicity, and size of 107 stars in the FOV brighter than 19th magnitude. The resulting catalog allows the Kepler Mission to choose well-characterized late-type dwarfs and to exclude giants and early spectral types from the target list. The catalog will be the most comprehensive study of stars in this portion of our galaxy. An asteroseismic study of several thousand bright stars will also be conducted. It is expected to yield detailed information about the size, mass, and age of these stars.
In October, an intensive, 5-day Critical Design Review of the mission was conducted by two review teams. The teams’ findings are being used to refine the mission development as assembly and testing of the flight components progress. Development is on schedule for a launch on November 1, 2008.
In preparation for the launch, Participating Scientist and Guest Observer Programs are being developed. The first is expected to be announced in early 2007 while the latter is expected in 2008. The Participating Scientist Program will call for interested members of the science community to propose research programs that complement and enhance those of the Kepler Science Team. The following year, the Guest Observer Program will entertain astrophysical research on any of type of target in the Kepler FOV.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Kepler Mission Development 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 Mission Development, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Kepler Mission Development will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1160322