William Atkins
Friday, 06 March 2009 23:13
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
According to the NASA media brief
NASA'S Kepler Mission Set For Launch,
“Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars in habitable zones -- regions where water could pool on the surface of the planets. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.”
Associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (Washington, D.C.) Ed Weiler states,
"This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself -- are other planets like ours out there?
Weiler adds, "
It's not just a science question -- it's a basic human question."
Currently, as of March 6, 2009, 342 exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy. Most of these discovered exoplanets are very large planets, of a size like the planet Jupiter or larger.
For more information look inside the
Extrasolar Planet Encylopedia.
Kepler hopes to find exoplanets that are closer to the size and composition of Earth, with a rocky surface rather than being gaseous like Jupiter.
For the Kepler Observatory, and its important mission to find Earth-like exoplanets, there are two launch windows Friday night for its liftoff from the coast of Florida in the United States.
One of the launch windows begins at10:49 p.m. and ends at 10:52 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The second window starts at 11:13 p.m. and ends at 11:16 p.m. EST.
Page three descirbes the minutes after launch for the Kepler spacecraft and its Delta II launch vehicle.
