All About the Kepler Telescope, Our Wounded Room Scout

What is the Kepler telescope?
It’s a tool created to find earths that might support the kind of life we have on Planet. On March 7, 2009, it was introduced right into an orbit slightly further from the Sun than we are. That’s where it started its goal.

What was it sent out into room to do?
Specifically pointed at one small sliver of our galaxy, Kepler’s 42 cam sensing units constantly checked the 100,000 or two stars in that home window looking for small differences in the light they cast. A flicker in a celebrity’s light could suggest an orbiting planet, which blocks a star’s light briefly as it passes.

What part of the sky was the Kepler instrument checking out?
It focused on the constellations Cygnus and Lyra, which exist ahead of us as our solar system orbits the galaxy. All the celebrities in that variety are about as much from the center of the galaxy as we are.

Why isn’t the Kepler tool on Earth?
Only in space can it attain the type of photometric accuracy it required. The light and also dark of our day-night cycles would certainly conflict, as would weather and other seasonal disturbances.

So did Kepler find anything?
Yes! It determined three Earth-like worlds orbiting in the habitable, or water-friendly, zones of their planetary systems: not so close to their suns that they’re blazing warm (believe Mercury) and also not thus far that they’re freezing (believe Neptune). Overall, Kepler has found 151 earths and also 3,548 feasible earths until now.

Is the Kepler objective over?
Yes and also no. Kepler finished its main mission in November 2012. While researchers are still poring over the information it generated, they’re discovering what missions it could be used for now.

Why can’t it just keep going?
Kepler’s four response wheels operated like gyroscopes to make it possible for accuracy aiming, yet two of them have actually quit working. Rocket thrusters make up, however without a minimum of three functioning wheels, Kepler can’t do precisely what it was made for.

Even so, NASA thinks Kepler’s “most interesting discoveries are still to come.” The agency has issued an open require what it terms “two-wheel science proposals”! And also no, they’re not looking for amazing brand-new bike methods.

Leave a Reply