The panel features an image of Kepler's launch and
artist concepts of milestone discoveries (l to r): Kepler-9b and c, Kepler-10b,
Kepler-11, Kepler-16b, Kepler-22 and Kepler-64f. The final panel illustrates
exoplanet discoveries: blue is previous; red is previous Kepler; gold is
Kepler's on Feb. 26
Image Credit:
NASA Ames/W. Stenzel
Five years ago today, on March 6, 2009, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope
rocketed into the night skies above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
to find planets around other stars, called exoplanets, in search of potentially
habitable worlds.
Since then, Kepler has unveiled a whole new side of our galaxy -- one that is
teeming with planets. Because of Kepler we now know that most stars have
planets, Earth-sized planets are common, and planets quite unlike those in our
solar system exist.
By analyzing Kepler data, scientists have identified more than 3,600
candidates believed to be planets, and verified that 961 of those candidates
actually are planets, many as small as Earth. Discoveries made using Kepler now
account for more than half of all the known exoplanets.
"During the last five years, Kepler has produced results needed to take the
next big step forward in humankind's search for life in our galaxy— providing
information needed for future missions that will ultimately determine the
atmospheric composition of Earth-sized exoplanets to discover if they could be
habitable," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA's Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
Kepler's finds include planets that orbit in the habitable zone, the range of
distances from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be
suitable for life-giving liquid water. One example of a habitable zone planet
found by the mission is known as Kepler-22b. At 2.4 times the size of Earth, it
is thought to be too big to be rocky and support life. Scientists believe other
habitable zone planets found by the Kepler mission might be rocky, such as
Kepler-62f, which is 40 percent larger in size than Earth.
A twin to Earth -- a planet with the same temperature and size as Earth --
has not yet been identified, but the analysis is far from over as scientists
continue to search the Kepler data for the tiny signature of such a planet.
Other Kepler discoveries include hundreds of star systems hosting multiple
planets, and have established a new class of planetary system where planets
orbit more than one sun.
In August of last year, the mission ended its science observations after a
faulty reaction wheel affected the telescope's ability to point precisely. The
mission may be able to operate in a different mode, and continue to do science.
This next-generation mission proposal, called K2, will be considered for funding
by NASA in the 2014
Astrophysics Senior Review of Operating Missions.
Ames is responsible for the Kepler mission concept, ground system
development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler
flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for
Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The
Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes
Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by
the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
For more information about the Kepler space telescope,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler.
Take a tour of Kepler's many discoveries:
Kepler's Five Years in Space Gallery
Education and public outreach tools, games and art can be found here.
Media Contacts:
Michele Johnson
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-6982
michele.johnson@nasa.gov
Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov
J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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