Category Archives: exploration

carnival of space, exoplanets, exploration, Kepler mission

Another Carnival of Cosmic Delights

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Check it Out

The Kepler mission starts off on its planet-finding mission. Courtesy NASA. (Click to embiggen.)
The Kepler mission starts off on its planet-finding mission. Courtesy NASA. (Click to embiggen.)

It’s a nice lovely Sunday here at the Spacewriter’s Habitat, so we’re going to spend some of it entertaining visitors. However, before I head off to welcome our guests — I want to welcome all the new readers (and a hearty “thanks for coming back today” to all my regular readers).  Wander around, make yourself at home.  Lots to read and ponder about, and links to many good places that talk about space — including this week’s Carnival of Space (see below).

Before I get to the Carnival, I just want to say that Friday’s launch of the Kepler mission was fanastic! Everything went off like clockwork.

Kepler is a very cool mission to look for planets around other stars. I can’t wait for it to start sending back results about how many are out there and what kind of worlds they are. At this point in the mission, scientists and engineers are getting all the systems working and testing out everything to make sure it survived the launch. So far, everything looks good.

In a few months we should start to see some early results  from Kepler as its handlers calibrate the instrument further. The first planets it finds will likely be Jupiter-sized and larger — finding smaller, Earth-type planets will have to wait until all the commissioning work is done.

So, keep an eye on Kepler — there are exciting times ahead. You can follow the mission here.

The Kepler mission is one of many topics that a bunch of us discussed over the past few days and are featured in this week’s Carnival of Space. It’s being hosted by the wonderful and talented Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society. So, head over and take in the show.

While you’re there, explore the Planetary Society’s pages. It’s a wonderful space advocacy organization — we are members and encourage others to consider joining, too.

exoplanets, exploration, Kepler mission, NASA

Keplerian Wishes

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Tonight’s the Night

A portrait of the Milky Way by space artist Jon Lomberg, showing Keplers search space for extrasolar planets. Used courtesy of the Kepler Mission and Jon Lomberg (www.jonlomberg.com). (Click to embiggen.)
A portrait of the Milky Way by space artist Jon Lomberg, showing Kepler's search space for extrasolar planets. Used courtesy of the Kepler Mission and Jon Lomberg (www.jonlomberg.com). (Click to embiggen.)

The NASA Kepler mission is on schedule for launch tonight (Friday, March 6) at 10:48 p.m. EST. (04:48 GMT). So far, everything looks good and we’re all hoping for a flawless liftoff and perfect deployment of this lean, mean exoplanet-hunting machine.

The Kepler mission has a fine website with a skajillion details about this telescope and the science it will do. I’m quite excited about its chances for finding Earth-like planets orbiting other stars and I think within a few years we’ll know just how “alone”  Earth really is in our neck of of the galaxy neighborhood.

This is the tenth of NASA’s Discovery missions program — all of which have specific goals for exploration of space. For example, Mars Pathfinder, Genesis, NEAR, MESSENGER, Stardust, Deep Impact, DAWN, GRAIL, and Lunar Prospector are also in the Discovery mission “chain.”   So, here’s to Kepler, the latest “discoverer” to head out there and report back to Earth on what it finds.