Planet-Hunting Spacecraft Beams Home First Images

torchbearer

torchbearer

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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090416-kepler-first-images.html

090416-kepler-cluster-02.jpg


090416-kepler-tres2-02.jpg


The planet-seeking Kepler spacecraft has beamed home its first images of a patch of the sky where NASA hopes to find Earth-like planets circling distant, alien stars.

Some 14 million stars are estimated to lurk within the first views from Kepler, which NASA released Thursday. The images reveal a swath of stars between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra that fill an expansive area of our Milky Way galaxy which, when seen from Earth, is about the size of human hand held up against the night sky at arm's length.

"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."

The so-called "habitable zone" around a star is a belt in which liquid water could exist on the surface in lakes, rivers or oceans. Too close to its stellar parent and a planet would be too hot, while an orbit too far out would yield only a frozen world, NASA scientists have said.

The first images from Kepler released by NASA include views of its entire target zone, as well as up-close shots that zoom in on only a fraction of the full star field. One view includes a cluster of stars some 13,000 light-years from Earth known as NGC 6791, while another image includes a star called Tres-2, which is already known to harbor a massive Jupiter-like planet close by.

"Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, NASA's Kepler's program executive at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking."

NASA launched the $600 million Kepler spacecraft last month to sift through those millions of targets for 100,000 pre-selected candidate stars that may have Earth-sized planets around them. Those target stars sit between 600 and 3,000 light-years from Earth. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo., and is slated to last at least 3 1/2 years.

At Kepler's heart is a 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever launched into space, which the spacecraft will use to hunt for Earth-like planets. Astronomers have discovered more than 300 extrasolar planets to date, but most of them are massive gas giants the size of Jupiter or larger.

Kepler spacecraft is expected to identify new extrasolar planets by casting an unblinking stare at its target star field. Its sensitive camera will record the tell-tale dip in light created by a planet as it crosses in front of its parent star as seen from Earth. While researchers expect to discover a wide range of new planets with Kepler, it's those rocky worlds the size of Earth that they are most eager to find.

"Everything about Kepler has been optimized to find Earth-size planets," said James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there."

Last week, the spacecraft popped the protective lid off its delicate telescope optics and photometer to prepare for its planet search. Mission managers and scientists plan to spend the next few weeks calibrating Kepler's photometer and alignment before beginning their hunt for Earth-like worlds in earnest.

"We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace.
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I agree with this comment:

Why are we wasting our money on these missions. We should be focused on mapping our stellar neighborhood and working our way out. Not looking so far away to a place in time that only has a historical significance. Looking 3000 lightyears out is like looking 3000 years into the past. Sure we can gain some very expensive scientific data but realistically unless we developed some sort of ultra fast propulsion technolagy, there is no way that we will ever be able to send a probe that far. Get with the program NASA. Lets start funding some projects involving interplanetary research or mapping out our local stellar neighborhood.
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ItsTime said:
Without a doubt. With all the money wasted here we could have men on Mars. Heck I should start a chip-in to get a man on Mars! lol
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That's the spirit. I believe it should all be private enterprise doing this.
 
Nasa should be spending its money of these deep space images.

Understanding deep space is the only way we will get to faster drive systems.

Nasa should not be building and operating chemical rocket launch systems.
 
idiom said:
Nasa should be spending its money of these deep space images.

Understanding deep space is the only way we will get to faster drive systems.

Nasa should not be building and operating chemical rocket launch systems.
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How do deep space images equal faster drives?
Shouldn't the development of space engines equal faster drives?
One of the latest satellites 'New Horizon' is one of the fastest we have in space right now.
 
torchbearer said:
How do deep space images equal faster drives?
Shouldn't the development of space engines equal faster drives?
One of the latest satellites 'New Horizon' is one of the fastest we have in space right now.
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Our understanding of physics needs to develop. The fastest 'conventional' drive we can conceive of at the moment would be powered by anti-matter. However our ability to handle and manipulate anti-matter makes it far from practical at the moment.

There are several concepts for 'unconventional' drives that would be either High fractions of C or greater than C, but we have no ideas about how to begin turning those concepts into reality.

Wormholes, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Gravity waves, Anti-matter, this is the stuff Nasa should be doing. It is too long range for private industry to touch it.

Space Stations, Getting to the Moon and Mars, that should be left to private industry.
 
idiom said:
Our understanding of physics needs to develop. The fastest 'conventional' drive we can conceive of at the moment would be powered by anti-matter. However our ability to handle and manipulate anti-matter makes it far from practical at the moment.

There are several concepts for 'unconventional' drives that would be either High fractions of C or greater than C, but we have no ideas about how to begin turning those concepts into reality.

Wormholes, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Gravity waves, Anti-matter, this is the stuff Nasa should be doing. It is too long range for private industry to touch it.

Space Stations, Getting to the Moon and Mars, that should be left to private industry.
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Ion propulsion system shows promise.
Its acceleration rate is currently horrible, but its top speed would be phenomenal.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/deepspace_propulsion_000816.html

New Horizon is traveling around 45,000 mph.
Deep Space one got up to 68,000 mph. And that was with a small ion engine.


Fun Fact: The T.I.E. Fighters in star wars were supposedly propelled by ion engines. the name Twin Ion Engine.
 
Say 100 years from now we develop tech that could bring us to high enough speeds to theoretically reach other planets, we can achieve speeds so fast that while on board the ship time would slow to a crawl compared to here on earth. During the "time suspended" (possibly 150 earth years or more) journey people on earth develop an exponentially faster ship that takes off on the same course. Time also slows for this group of travelers, even more so. At some point, due to the speed variation, the 2nd ship passes the 1st ship on the journey, would this cause a time paradox?
 
LATruth said:
Say 100 years from now we develop tech that could bring us to high enough speeds to theoretically reach other planets, we can achieve speeds so fast that while on board the ship time would slow to a crawl compared to here on earth. During the "time suspended" (possibly 150 earth years or more) journey people on earth develop an exponentially faster ship that takes off on the same course. Time also slows for this group of travelers, even more so. At some point, due to the speed variation, the 2nd ship passes the 1st ship on the journey, would this cause a time paradox?
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no. because you couldn't run into yourself.
If where you are is at one place at one time... then no matter how fast you go you couldn't meet yourself.
Imagine if you were orbiting the earth so fast that you could reach the place you started at the same instance.
All the atoms in your body moved with you. Meaning they left that place at a certain speed. if they arrive their at the same time you left... then you'd just be back at where you started in zero seconds. Your atoms wouldn't have duplicated.
 
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LATruth said:
Say 100 years from now we develop tech that could bring us to high enough speeds to theoretically reach other planets, we can achieve speeds so fast that while on board the ship time would slow to a crawl compared to here on earth. During the "time suspended" (possibly 150 earth years or more) journey people on earth develop an exponentially faster ship that takes off on the same course. Time also slows for this group of travelers, even more so. At some point, due to the speed variation, the 2nd ship passes the 1st ship on the journey, would this cause a time paradox?
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No it would just cause one settled planet to be 100 years behind another settled planet. A third world planet if you will.:p
 
I didn't say you would run into yourself, its a totally separate group of people. But it would be future seeing past.
 
I say we work on developing hyperdrive. Then everyone will come to us, right? :D
 
LATruth said:
I didn't say you would run into yourself, its a totally separate group of people. But it would be future seeing past.
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sorta like one car passing another.
one place at one time. There is no paradox.
one car will reach its destination faster, and thus the people inside would age less in the travel.
If I arrive at a place 30 minutes before you.. at that moment in time.. at that place... I will be 30 minutes younger than you are when you get to that place at your time.
 
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