How Kepler finds planets and planetary systems
May 25, 2011 Category: Space Exploration Leave a commentKepler is a NASA spacecraft equipped with a space observatory designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. But, how does it works?
Distant star: Scientists suspect that many Earth-sized planets orbit stars outside our solar system, but these planets are really tough to find. If we can’t see them with the world’s most powerful telescopes, how can we locate them, or figure out if they might support life? The Kepler spacecraft is specifically designed to detect Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zones of stars like our Sun.
Kepler spacecraft: The Kepler spacecraft has just one instrument, and it’s ultrasensitive to light. This sensor, or photometer, will measure the brightness of more than 100,000 stars at the same time-for several years without stopping. But how does the brightness of distant stars help us find planets that could support life?
Kepler spacecraft
Mission control: Kepler’s light sensor will detect the drop in a star’s brightness whenever a planet passes, or transits, in front of that star as viewed from our solar system. Then computers at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View will graph the star’s brightness as a light curve. Dips in the light curve that show up again and again, in a regular pattern, could mean the discovery of a new planet outside our solar system!
Sun: Our Sun powers the spacecraft through solar panels. Because the photometer of the spacecraft is so sensitive, it is important not to point the spacecraft at the Sun.
Kepler Mission: The Kepler Mission is a NASA Discovery Program for detecting potentially life-supporting planets around other stars.