William Atkins
Saturday, 28 February 2009 01:40
Science -
Space
Page 3 of 4
As with the OCO mission, which was to study carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere, the Kepler mission is also important to the future of our planet and its residents.
NASA states that,
“Kepler is a spaceborne telescope designed to search the nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like our sun. The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures permit water to be liquid on a planet's surface.”
It adds,
“Liquid water is considered essential for the existence of life as we know it. The vast majority of the approximately 300 planets known to orbit other stars are much larger than Earth, and none is believed to be habitable.”
“The challenge for Kepler is to look at a large number of stars in order to statistically estimate the total number of Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars in the habitable zone. Kepler will survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy.”
NASA Television coverage of the Kepler launch will be carried on the NASA TV Public Channel (Channel 101).
NASA Television coverage of the launch begins on Friday, March 6, 2009, at 9 p.m. and conclude after the spacecraft separates from the Delta II rocket, approximately 62 minutes after liftoff.
You can also watch the launch on
NASA TV on the Web.
Page four concludes with comments.
