Posted on 03/10/2009 6:34:35 PM PDT by KevinDavis
After a textbook launch Friday night, NASA’s hardy planet hunter Kepler is on its way out of the Earth-moon system. You can read more about it here and here.
Kepler is using an interesting technique to spot the planets it’s trying to find. It’s looking for the faint dimming a star’s light will undergo as a planet passes in front of it, as seen along Kepler’s line of sight.
It’s called the transit technique. It’s a testament to ever-more sensitive detectors and the ability to put telescopes in space that scientists can use this approach to hunt for planets around stars as far away as 3,000 light years.
(Excerpt) Read more at features.csmonitor.com ...
will it also look for star wobbles?
That is a very intriguing question.
And this will put more bread on the table or more gas in the tank...how?
No, as I understand it. This one is just for the “blinking” effect.
your point???? So you want the feds to put bread on the table?? Put gas in the tank??
4+ years away with a good ion drive(figure more years for excelleration and decelleration), it is tempting. But binary systems are a bit dicey for life, what with 2 suns circling a common center and all it would be hard for a potential ‘goldilocks’ planet not to be froze then fried each year.
cool flag though.
it seems even a good ion drive could only approach a small percent of the SOL. Never mind.
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