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Science Kepler space telescope shows its planet hunting stuff
Science Kepler space telescope shows its planet hunting stuff | Kepler space telescope shows its planet hunting stuff |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Saturday, 08 August 2009 | |
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Science DiscussionsThe NASA Kepler Space Telescope observed the exoplanet HAT-P-7b by observing the differences in the planet’s phases and atmosphere as it orbits (transits) in front of its parent star, which is about 320 light-years from Earth. As a comparison, the Sun is very close to Earth when compared to other stars. It's only 0.000158 light-year from Earth (that is, light travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8.3 minutes). The next closest star is Proxima Centauri, which is about 4.2 light-years away from Earth. The summary of this discovery is written in the August 7, 2009 Science article “Kepler’s Optical Phase Curve of the Exoplanet HAT-P-7b.” [Science 7 August 2009: Vol. 325. no. 5941, p. 709, DOI: 10.1126/science.1178312] During the “commissioning” phase (the telescope is not even operational yet!) of the Kepler Mission, a team of astronomers from the United States and Denmark obtained photometric data taken by Kepler. Part of this data included the already known exoplanet HAT-P-7b, which is a giant gas planet. Jon Morse, who is the director of the NASA Astrophysics Division at the Science Mission Directorate, stated, “As NASA's first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance on the planet-hunting scene. Detecting this planet's atmosphere in just the first 10 days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!" [NASA: “Kepler Detects an Exoplanet Atmosphere”] The NASA article also shows a simulation of the HAT-P-7b exoplanet and its star, along with its light-curve data from the Kepler observations. The Kepler Space Observatory Mission was launched on March 6, 2009, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its mission for the next 3.5 years (or more) is to search for exoplanets as small as Earth. Page two continues. |
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