NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Kepler Spacecraft in Florida
Photo credit: NASA / Troy Cryder

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- During a media event on Jan. 30, 2009 at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Fla., a Ball Aerospace technician looks over NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Visible on top are the solar arrays. The event provided media representatives an opportunity to photograph the space telescope and to interview project officials from NASA and Ball Aerospace, builder of the spacecraft. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently planned for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Space Launch Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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NASA Tracks Changes to Earth's Green-covered Regions


Image credit: Google Earth imagery © Google Inc. used with permission.

Researchers from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, Calif., analyzed several years of imagery data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the NASA Terra satellite, and then fused these results with high-resolution commercial images to identify changes to local vegetative "green" areas. They found that regional land cover disturbances can be identified, most recently as wildfire-burned areas and extensive forest harvests.

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