NASA : Mission Manager Update: K2 in Campaign 4 .- Actualización Misión Representante: K2 en la Campaña 4

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Agencia Espacial NASA, sobre la cuarta campaña  de la Misión Actualizada del trabajo del Telescopio Espacial Kepler llamada : Misión K2, que se propone identificar 16,000 estrellas y sus respectivos exoplanetas localdizadss  en la Constelación Tauro, y los Cúmulos estelares de Pléyades y el cúmulo de las Hyades.

From Feb. 7 to April 24, the fourth campaign of the K2 mission will include observations of nearly 16,000 target stars and two notable open star clusters—Pleiades and Hyades.

Image Credit: 

NASA Ames and SETI Institute/F Mullally

Now in its fourth observing campaign, the Kepler spacecraft continues to operate wonderfully since beginning its new K2 mission in May 2014. Data collected for Campaigns 0, 1 and 2 have been made available to the public through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Campaign 3 data will be processed with a scheduled delivery to MAST in June 2015.

K2 began its fourth campaign on Feb. 8. The Campaign 4 target set includes nearly 16,000 target stars, which can be searched for exoplanets and examined for an array of astrophysical phenomena. This field includes two notable open star clusters—Pleiades and Hyades, the nearest open cluster to our solar system. Both are located in the constellation of Taurus.

As expected, the team continues to make improvements in the spacecraft’s K2 operations, improving the pointing performance, conserving fuel, extending the observation periods and increasing the number of observed targets. The team currently estimates that the onboard fuel should last until at least December 2017.

Of the more than 1,000 verified planets found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, eight are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone. All eight orbit stars cooler and smaller than our sun. The search continues for Earth-size habitable zone worlds around sun-like stars

Image Credit: 

NASA Ames/W Stenzel

To learn more about the K2 mission visit the Kepler Science Center website.

While data collection has concluded for the prime Kepler mission, the team continues to analyze the full four years of Kepler data. To-date the Kepler team, together with the global science community, has identified more than 4,000 candidates and verified 1,023 as exoplanets, planets that orbit other stars. For the latest Kepler exoplanet and candidate statistics, visit the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

 

At the 225^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 2015, the Kepler team made two noteworthy announcements:

• Dr. Fergal Mullally described the delivery of the sixth Kepler catalog, including 554 new Kepler candidate planets, bringing the total number of Kepler candidates to 4,175. He also announced eight new small, habitable zone candidates – six around sun-like stars.

• Dr. Douglas Caldwell announced eight newly validated planets – marking Kepler’s 1000^th verified exoplanet. Among these were three small planets securely in the habitable zone, two of those likely to be rocky.

Kepler visionary William Borucki inducted as a NASA Ames Research Center Fellow. Borucki is only the 12th person to receive the center’s highest honor in Ames' 75-year history.

Image Credit: 

NASA Ames/D Hart

In late February, William Borucki, visionary and science principal investigator of the Kepler mission, was inducted as a NASA Ames Research Center Fellow. The Ames program recognizes a distinguished few for their national and international reputation of scientific or engineering excellence to NASA. Borucki is only the 12th person to receive the center’s highest honor in Ames' 75-year history.

On March 25, the Kepler team was honored by the presentation of the 2015 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for current achievement at a ceremony in Washington. For a full listing of previous awardees, along with a video about Kepler's award, visit the museum’s trophy award page.

In March the team achieved another milestone—this time in the realm of data processing. Using the first uniform processing of the four-year Kepler data set, the first uniformly vetted catalog of planetary candidates and false positives was delivered to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Since this catalog was generated by automated software, the detectability of each planet candidate can be quantified, thus enabling reliable occurrence rate calculations to be made over the full range of period and radius for the first time. The data was made available on April 1.

The following are highlights of recent research using Kepler and K2 data that have been accepted by a peer-review journal:

General John "Jack" R. Dailey (front right), director of the National Air and Space Museum, presents the 2015 Current Achievement Trophy Award to William Borucki (front left) and NASA's Kepler Mission Team.

Image Credit: 

National Air and Space Museum

Understanding The Effects Of Stellar Multiplicity On The Derived Planet Radii From Transit Surveys: Implications for Kepler, K2, and TESS (Ciardi et al., 2015) – The paper presents the effect of undetected companion stars on the measured radii of the Kepler planet candidates. On average, the planetary radii may be underestimated by as much as 50 percent.

• A Nearby M Star With Three Transiting Super-Earths Discovered By K2 (Crossfield et al., 2015) – The paper confirms the discovery of a star with three exoplanets. The first discovery of its kind using K2 data. This marks the K2 mission's third confirmed planet since it began in May 2014.
• Precise time series photometry for the Kepler-2.0 mission (Aigrain et al., 2015) – The paper presents a new method to extract precise light curves from the K2 data.
• Kepler's Third Law and the NASA's Kepler Mission (Gould et al., 2015) - This paper summarizes the mission goals, briefly explains the transit method of finding exoplanets and design of the mission, provides some key findings and describes useful education materials available at the Kepler website

Regards,
Charlie

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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NASA : Kepler Mission Manager Update: Leadership Change

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Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work

The conception illustration depicts how solar pressure can be used to balance NASA's Kepler spacecraft, keeping the telescope stable enough to continue monitoring distant stars in search of transiting planets.

In May, Kepler lost the second of four gyroscope-like reaction wheels, ending new data collection for the original mission. A new mission concept, dubbed K2, would continue Kepler's search for other worlds, and introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies and supernovae.

Using the sun and the two remaining reaction wheels, engineers have devised an innovative technique to stabilize and control the spacecraft in all three directions of motion. This technique of using the sun as the 'third wheel' to control pointing is currently being tested on the spacecraft.

To achieve the necessary stability, the orientation of the spacecraft must be nearly parallel to its orbital path around the sun, which is slightly offset from the ecliptic, the orbital plane of Earth. The ecliptic plane defines the band of sky in which lie the constellations of the zodiac.

K2 would study a specific portion of the sky for up to 83 days, until it is necessary to rotate the spacecraft to prevent sunlight from entering the telescope. Each orbit or year would consist of approximately 4.5 unique viewing periods or campaigns.

The K2 mission concept has been presented to NASA Headquarters. A decision to proceed to the 2014 Senior Review – a biannual assessment of operating missions – and propose for budget to fly K2 is expected by the end of 2013.

Image credit: NASA Ames/W Stenzel

 

Kepler Mission Manager Update: Leadership Change

May 2, 2014

Today the team announces a change in project management.

 

Roger Hunter, left, and Charlie Sobeck, right.

"This is my final input for the Kepler Mission Manager Update. It has been a great pleasure to be associated with the Kepler mission since May 2008. The Kepler team has accomplished so much and its contributions to exoplanet science and astronomy are historic and, in many cases, without precedence. Though begun as a Discovery class mission, Kepler is more than worthy of Great Observatory fame. Its discoveries will long be remembered in textbooks and the annals of history with many “firsts.” As Charlie Sobeck continues as the Kepler Project Manager, I congratulate him and the Kepler team on the mission’s remarkable successes. I’m certain their successes will continue with the proposed two-wheel “K2” mission, and it will continue to amaze with even more discoveries yet to come. As I assume other duties at NASA's Ames Research Center, I bid the team a fond farewell — GO KEPLER!"

Regards,

Roger (aka Colonel R. P. Hunter)

While Roger moves on to other tasks, the work on Kepler continues.

We are currently in the midst of an end-to-end shakedown of the proposed K2 mission, performing our Campaign 0, observing in the ecliptic plane. While this is primarily an engineering test of the K2 mission, we are collecting science data on approximately 8,000 targets, including most of the open star cluster M35. Campaign 0 is being conducted in preparation for the K2 mission, if it is approved, following the 2014 Astrophysics Senior Review of Operating Missions.

During the first half of the campaign, we discovered a pointing instability that eventually took the spacecraft to safe mode. Before resuming the second half of the campaign, we took advantage of the break to investigate the cause of the instability and engineer a robust solution. With this complete, we are now back to data collection, and expect to continue Campaign 0 through May 28.

If the K2 mission is approved, the team will begin Campaign 1 operations in early June. Working to this assumption, we have actively engaged the scientific community to identify the precise pointing of the early campaigns and to solicit targets for observation. Our team has developed a new star catalog (the K2 Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog – EPIC) to assist observers in choosing targets. The community has responded with enthusiasm, and the target selection process for Campaign 1 is nearly complete.

This month also saw the announcement of Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star! This announcement marked yet another milestone step in the path that leads to answering the question: Are we alone?

With Roger’s departure, I am honored to have the opportunity to continue working this exciting mission with an outstanding group of people and partner organizations. We will all do our best to complete the work that has been entrusted to us.

Regards,
Charlie

 

 

NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star

April 17, 2014

The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f , the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. [Click link below for more.]

Image Credit:

NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech

Feature Link:

Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone

 

The diagram compares the planets of our inner solar system to Kepler-186, a five-planet star system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The five planets of Kepler-186 orbit an M dwarf, a star that is is half the size and mass of the sun. [Click link below for more.]

Image Credit:

NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech

Feature Link:

Kepler-186 and the Solar System

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.

While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.

"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."

Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky.

"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth," said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. "Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."

Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system, about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four companion planets, which orbit a star half the size and mass of our sun. The star is classified as an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

"M dwarfs are the most numerous stars," said Quintana. "The first signs of other life in the galaxy may well come from planets orbiting an M dwarf."

Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset.

"Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."

The four companion planets, Kepler-186b, Kepler-186c, Kepler-186d, and Kepler-186e, whiz around their sun every four, seven, 13, and 22 days, respectively, making them too hot for life as we know it. These four inner planets all measure less than 1.5 times the size of Earth.

The next steps in the search for distant life include looking for true Earth-twins -- Earth-size planets orbiting within the habitable zone of a sun-like star -- and measuring the their chemical compositions. The Kepler Space Telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measured the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun.

Ames is responsible for Kepler's 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.

The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach. The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Youtube Override:

Watch a video about the discovery.

Image Credit:

NASA Ames

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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