Kepler in a Nutshell—what the Kepler mission is about, in simple terms.
The diagram below shows the main Kepler mission Education and Public Outreach (EPO) projects.
It is an interactive diagram: click on a project name to find out more about it.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
2009 March 25, 4-5 p.m. EST. Kepler Mission session in the NASA eEducation Electronic Professional Development Network Series. NASA's Digital Learning Network presents a series of videoconferences to assist educators in staying current on NASA education resources and related products. During each event, product producers, authors and experts will demonstrate their materials designed to optimize awareness and understanding of science concepts. Instructional objectives, accessing the materials and primary contacts for the materials will also be discussed. During the videoconferences, participants will be able to submit questions to the presenter that will be addressed during the presentation. The Kepler mission will seek evidence for Earth-size planets in orbit around sun-like stars. For the first time NASA will be able to search the galaxy for Earth-size or smaller planets. With this cutting-edge capability, Kepler may help to answer one of the most enduring questions humans have asked throughout history: Are there others like us in the universe?For more information about these videoconferences and to sign up online, visit http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/webcast. Questions about these events should be directed to Caryn Long at caryn.long@nasa.gov.
Kepler and the International Year of Astronomy (IYA - 2009)
Kepler Speakers Bureau—to request a speaker from the Kepler team for an event you are planning.
For General Information
Models and Simulations
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Educator's Links and Other Interactive Planet Detection Activities
- Astro-Venture
An educational, interactive, multimedia Web environment where students in grades 5-8 role-play NASA occupations, as they search for and build a planet with the necessary characteristics for human habitation.
- Celestia—an open source, real time and space simulation. Tour the solar system. As open source - objects can be added. Extrasolar systems could be added. Time element can be speeded up to observe planetary orbits, moons' orbits.
- Kepler's Discovery website (http://www.keplersdiscovery.com) is an educational adventure into the concepts, thought processes and consequences of Kepler's discoveries. It provides an excellent supplement to secondary school and college classes on astronomy, mathematics and the history of science.
- Planet Quest—The Search for Another Earth an overview of exoplanet search programs at JPL.
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Pretty Pictures:
Click on this picture for higher resolution image of the Kepler spacecraft
Kepler in the News
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