Kepler
Phase: Operating
Launch Date: March 06, 2009
Mission Project Home Page - http://kepler.nasa.gov/
Program(s):Discovery, Exoplanet Exploration
The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way Galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or nearby the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the distances from a start where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.
The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems. This is achieved by surveying a large sample of stars to:
- Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets that are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars
- Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets
- Estimate how many planets there are in the multiple-star systems
- Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets
- Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques
- Determine the properties of those starts that harbor planetary systems
Recent Discoveries:
February 28, 2012 | 1,091 New Kepler Planet Candidates |
January 26, 2012 | Kepler Announces 11 Planetary Systems Hosting 26 Planets |
January 11, 2012 | KOI-961 with the Three Smallest Planets Yet Detected |
January 11, 2012 | New Class of Planetary System |
December 20, 2011 | Kepler-20 System with 5 planets, 2 Earth-size |
December 5, 2011 | Kepler-22b, Kepler's First Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Sun-like Star |
November 30, 2011 | Kepler-21b Discovery |
November 4, 2011 | Kepler-17b, Jupiter-class planet orbiting an active star |
October 4, 2011 | Discovery of Kepler-18b, c and d |
September 15, 2011 | Kepler Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars |
September 8, 2011 | Invisible World Discovered: Kepler 19b |
August 11, 2011 | Alien World is Blacker than Coal |
Last updated: April 11, 2012
- Kepler Planet Count - http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/discoveries/
- More about Kepler - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
- Kepler on Twitter - http://twitter.com/NASAKepler
- Kepler on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/NASAsKeplerMission
- Kepler Explorer App - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kepler-explorer/id511676992?mt=8&ls=1
- 2012 Venus Transit - http://kepler.nasa.gov/education/resources/SolarSystemTransits/