Discovering the Unknown

NASA has selected Kepler, a Discovery-class mission, to find Earth-like worlds. The spacecraft will be looking at periodic changes in the brightness in more than 100,000 stars. The stars on which Kepler will focus are in the constellation Cygnus. A decrease in brightness due to a planet’s transiting across the face of its parent star is the telltale evidence. This mission will look for terrestrial planets. It will determine whether terrestrial, Earthlilke planets are common or rare and how often they are in the habitable zone of a star. The habitable zone is a region where temperatures are appropriate for liquid water to exist on a planet within that zone.

Kepler is equipped with 42 digital cameras known as charged coupled devices (CCDs.) These 42 individual cameras will act like one big camera. Kepler also has a 37-inch aperture Schmidt photometer that will have a focal plane array of 95 million pixels. Using these advanced cameras, Kepler can detect brightness changes in a star and can determine the planet’s size and orbital period. William Borucki, Kepler’s principal investigator, says that if terrestrial planets are common, then this mission should report many of these planets within the habitable zone. If they are rare, then planets like Earth are rare.

The $500 million Kepler Mission will be launched in November 2008. It will have an operational life of four years and may be able to last for six years. Borucki said the two year extension would enhance Kepler’s ability to spot planets smaller than Earth and perhaps planets as small as Mars. Get ready for some amazing information on discovering other Earths.

Discoveries are made every day. The world we live in places high demands on technology for continual advancements. Questions that arose centuries ago have long since been addressed, but our curiosity grows with every answer we get. There are still many mysteries that have not been solved. NASA is well on its way, however, to answering those questions.