Kepler Discovery Mission
Presented by
Harold Reitsema
Ball Aerospace

Abstract

The Kepler Mission will use a unique spaceborne telescope
specifically designed to search for Earth-like planets
around stars beyond our solar system. To date, about 80
extra-solar planets have been discovered. However, these are
all gaseous-giant planets and are unlikely to harbor life.
None of the planet detection methods used so far has the
capability of finding Earth-size planets - those that are 30
to 600 times less massive than Jupiter.

The Kepler Mission will look for the 'transit' signature of
planets. Three transits of a star, all with a consistent
period, brightness change, and duration, provide a robust
method of detection and planet confirmation. This periodic
signature is used to detect the planet and to determine its
size and its orbit. The measured orbit of the planet and the
known properties of the parent star are used to determine if
each planet discovered is in the habitable zone, that is, at
the distance from its star where liquid water could exist on
the surface of the planet.

The Kepler Mission will hunt for planets using a specialized
one-meter diameter telescope and an array of CCDs to measure
the small changes in brightness caused by the transits. This
NASA Discovery mission is scheduled for launch in 2006.


Thursday, March 14, 2002, at 4:00 PM
Auditorium 299
LASP Space Technology Building
Campus Research Park

Refreshments Served at 3:45 PM