NASA : National Space Club Honors Kepler's Planet Hunters

The Kepler-16 system is home to the first confirmed transiting circumbinary planet-- a planet that orbits two stars. Kepler-16b, is not unlike Luke Skywalker's home planet of 'Tatooine' in the Star Wars universe. However, Kepler-16b is cold, gaseous and not suitable for life.

Image Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/R Hurt, T Pyle

NASA's Kepler space telescope mission will be honored with the National Space Club's preeminent award, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, in March.

The National Space Club is recognizing Kepler for revolutionizing astrophysics and exoplanet science by expanding the census of planets beyond our solar system and fundamentally altering our understanding of our place in the Milky Way galaxy. The award citation acknowledges the Kepler team's significant contribution to U.S. leadership in the field of rocketry and astronautics.

"This is an outstanding achievement for the entire Kepler team," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "Kepler continues to surprise and inspire us on a regular basis and I'm delighted to see the team's pioneering work acknowledged with the Goddard Trophy."

The trophy will be presented at a 57th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner March 7 in Washington. Previous winners of the Goddard Trophy include NASA's Curiosity and Mars Science Laboratory team, James A. Van Allen and the Apollo 11 astronaut crew.

Developed jointly by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., Kepler was launched in 2009. It is the first NASA mission to find Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of an orbiting planet.

"Kepler's determination that most stars have planets and that Earth-size planets are common provides impetus to future missions that will determine whether many planets have atmospheres compatible with the possibility of life," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Ames. "The future science enabled by the Kepler results will be one of the mission's greatest legacies."

Borucki and the team continue to analyze four years of collected data. Discoveries include more than 3,600 exoplanet candidates, of which 246 have been confirmed as exoplanets. They expect hundreds, if not thousands, of new discoveries contained within the data. This could include discovering long-awaited Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars.

Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden praised Kepler as "a hallmark of Ames ingenuity and humankind's collective spirit to advance the frontier." Worden said, "We may come up with ideas no one thinks are possible, but the collaboration of hundreds of scientists, engineers and managers from around the world has taken us closer to answering one of the ultimate questions: Are we alone?"

Jim Fanson, Kepler development phase project manager at JPL, commented on the historical implications of the mission. "Kepler has revolutionized our understanding of solar systems around other stars in the galaxy, and in so doing has transformed our view of our own island home," Fanson said.

The National Space Club is a non-profit organization devoted to fostering excellence in space activity through interaction between industry and government and through a continuing program of educational support. A full list of 2014 award winners is online at:

http://www.spaceclub.org/awards.html

Ames is responsible for the Kepler mission concept, ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL 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.

NASA

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ASTRONOMY: NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars

Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

Click image for multiple resolutions and full caption.Image: In the Light of Two Suns - This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- what's called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

In the Light of Two Suns
This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- what's called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The two orbiting stars regularly eclipse each other, as seen from our point of view on Earth. The planet also eclipses, or transits, each star, and Kepler data from these planetary transits allowed the size, density and mass of the planet to be extremely well determined. The fact that the orbits of the stars and the planet align within a degree of each other indicate that the planet formed within the same circumbinary disk that the stars formed within, rather than being captured later by the two stars.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Click image for multiple resolutions and full caption.Image: Where the Sun Sets Twice - NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is the most "Tatooine-like" planet yet found in our galaxy. Tatooine is the name of Luke Skywalker's home world in the science fiction movie Star Wars. In this case, the planet it not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, but like Tatooine, it circles two stars.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

Where the Sun Sets Twice:
NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is the most "Tatooine-like" planet yet found in our galaxy and is depicted here in this artist's concept with its two stars. Tatooine is the name of Luke Skywalker's home world in the science fiction movie Star Wars. In this case, the planet it not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, but like Tatooine, it circles two stars. The largest of the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 percent the mass of our sun, and the smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 percent the sun's mass.Most of what we know about the size of stars comes from pairs of stars that are oriented toward Earth in such a way that they are seen to eclipse each other. These star pairs are called eclipsing binaries. In addition, virtually all that we know about the size of planets around other stars comes from their transits across their stars. The Kepler-16 system combines the best of both worlds with planetary transits across an eclipsing binary system. This makes Kepler-16b one of the best-measured planets outside our solar system. Kepler-16 orbits a slowly rotating K-dwarf that is, nevertheless, very active with numerous star spots. Its other parent star is a small red dwarf. The planetary orbital plane is aligned within half a degree of the stellar binary orbital plane. All these features combine to make Kepler-16 of major interest to studies of planet formation as well as astrophysics.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.
Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

"This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life," Kepler principal investigator William Borucki said. "Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now.

"A research team led by Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, to search for transiting planets. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

Scientists detected the new planet in the Kepler-16 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from our vantage point on Earth. When the smaller star partially blocks the larger star, a primary eclipse occurs, and a secondary eclipse occurs when the smaller star is occulted, or completely blocked, by the larger star.

Astronomers further observed that the brightness of the system dipped even when the stars were not eclipsing one another, hinting at a third body. The additional dimming in brightness events, called the tertiary and quaternary eclipses, reappeared at irregular intervals of time, indicating the stars were in different positions in their orbit each time the third body passed.

This showed the third body was circling, not just one, but both stars, in a wide circumbinary orbit.The gravitational tug on the stars, measured by changes in their eclipse times, was a good indicator of the mass of the third body. Only a very slight gravitational pull was detected, one that only could be caused by a small mass. The findings are described in a new study published Friday, Sept. 16, in the journal Science.

"Most of what we know about the sizes of stars comes from such eclipsing binary systems, and most of what we know about the size of planets comes from transits," said Doyle, who also is the lead author and a Kepler participating scientist. "Kepler-16 combines the best of both worlds, with stellar eclipses and planetary transits in one system.

" This discovery confirms that Kepler-16b is an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas. The parent stars are smaller than our sun. One is 69 percent the mass of the sun and the other only 20 percent. Kepler-16b orbits around both stars every 229 days, similar to Venus’ 225-day orbit, but lies outside the system’s habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface, because the stars are cooler than our sun.

"Working in film, we often are tasked with creating something never before seen," said visual effects supervisor John Knoll of Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., in San Francisco. "However, more often than not, scientific discoveries prove to be more spectacular than anything we dare imagine. There is no doubt these discoveries influence and inspire storytellers. Their very existence serves as cause to dream bigger and open our minds to new possibilities beyond what we think we 'know.'

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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ASTRONOMÍA: DESCUBREN UN PLANETA CON DOS "SOLES" COMO EL DE LA "GUERRA DE LAS GALAXIAS"

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., cada día nos acercamos a la existencia real de vida extraterrestre, estamos tan seguros que dentro de unos lapsos(tiempos que piense la NASA informar a la opinión pública) con el debido conocimiento de las agencias de investigación espacial nos informarán el encuentro cercano con un extraterrestre. Justamente el Telescopio Kepler será el "encargado" de enfocar el próximo vecino habitado de La Tierra.WASHINGTON (EE.UU.), 15/09/2011.- Ilustración cedida hoy, jueves 15 de septiembre de 2011, de Kepler-16 B, el primer planeta conocido que orbita alrededor de dos estrellas. La ciencia ficción se convirtió hoy en realidad cuando un equipo de científicos anunció el descubrimiento de un nuevo planeta que gira alrededor de dos soles, como el que creó hace 30 años el cineasta George Lucas para la saga "Star Wars". No se llama Tatooine, hogar de los protagonistas Anakin y Luke Skywalker, ni gira alrededor de las estrellas gemelas Tatoo I y Tatoo II, de momento, los científicos le han dado el nombre de Kepler-16 B, según la nomenclatura del Sistema Astronómico Internacional. EFE/T. PYLE/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SOLO USO EDITORIAL

El observatorio espacial de la NASA 'Kepler' ha localizado un planeta iluminado por dos soles que recuerda a Tatooine, el astro de superficie desértica donde nació Darth Vader, el supervillano de la famosa saga de 'La Guerra de las Galaxias'.
El cuerpo celeste Kepler-16b, que se encuentra a 200 años luz de la Tierra y está localizado en la constelación de Cygnus, orbita no sólo alrededor de una, sino de dos estrellas simultáneamente. Se trata del primer objeto espacial circumbinario localizado por astrónomos.
Pero a diferencia del mundo ficticio Tatooine, creado por el cineasta George Lucas, este cuerpo celeste real no es un desierto se superficie agreste y clima tórrido, sino un planeta de atmósfera gasesoa y gélida, con una temperatura media de menos de 73 grados centígrados.
El tamaño del nuevo planeta es equivalente al de Saturno, pero su órbita se parece más a la de Venus. El Kepler-16b gira alrededor de sus dos estrellas cada 229 días, mientras que los dos soles, uno rojo pequeño y otro grande anaranjado, se orbitan entre sí cada 41 días.
Aunque no se trata esta vez de un exoplaneta capaz de contener la vida, el hallazgo del Kepler-16b vuelve a demostrar una vez más que la ciencia ficción está más cerca de la realidad de lo que parece. Si alguna vez el hombre pisa su superficie, podrá disfrura del maravilloso espectáculo que supone contemplar dos puestas de sol por el precio de una.Articulo completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/ciencia_y_tecnica/cosmos/issue_29717.html

Cuando la ciencia ficción se convierte en realidad :
Washington, 16 sep (EFE).- La ciencia ficción se ha convertido en realidad cuando un equipo de científicos ha anunciado el descubrimiento de un nuevo planeta que gira alrededor de dos soles, como el que creó hace 30 años el cineasta George Lucas para la saga "Star Wars".

No se llama Tatooine, hogar de los protagonistas Anakin y Luke Skywalker, ni gira alrededor de las estrellas gemelas Tatoo I y Tatoo II, de momento, los científicos le han dado el nombre de Kepler-16 B, según la nomenclatura del Sistema Astronómico Internacional.

No obstante, tal vez dependa del público o de los medios que se le dé el sobrenombre de Tatooine, bromeó el investigador principal Laurance Doyle del Insituto SETI de California en una rueda de prensa en la que no faltaron referencias a la saga de "Star Wars" e incluso se proyectó el fragmento de película en la que el joven Luke mira en el horizonte la estampa de los dos soles al atardecer.
Los científicos conocían la existencia de planetas circumbinarios (con dos estrellas) pero esta es la primera vez que logran captar el movimiento de un planeta alrededor de sus dos soles, gracias a las imágenes del observatorio espacial Kepler.
Este descubrimiento abre la puerta a nuevas cuestiones sobre la formación de los planetas y nuevas posibilidades de encontrar vida.
Kepler 16-B transita ambas estrellas a la vista del telescopio espacial Kepler y ambas estrellas también se eclipsan una a otra, lo que permite mediciones bien precisas de la masa, el radio y las trayectorias de los tres cuerpos por primera vez.

Planeta similar a Saturno:

Se trata de un planeta parecido a Saturno, aunque tiene una densidad superior del promedio y viaja en una órbita casi circular de 229 días alrededor de sus dos estrellas, de las que se encuentra a 65,5 millones de kilómetros.
Ha sido detectado a unos 200 años luz de la Tierra en la constelación Cygnus y demuestra la diversidad de los planetas que existe en la Vía Láctea, aseguró Nick Gautier, científico del Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro de la NASA en Pasadena (California).
A diferencia de Tatooine, el planeta es frío, gaseoso y no parece que se den las condiciones para albergar vida.
Las dos estrellas son más pequeñas y más frías que el Sol, aproximadamente el 20 y 69 por ciento de su masa, respectivamente, por lo que calculan que la superficie del planeta esté entre 73 y 100 grados bajo cero.
Doyle explicó que la estrella más grande tiene una apariencia anaranjada, mientras que la de menor tamaño es roja, y giran alrededor una de otra cada 41 días formando dos eclipses cada mes.
Dada la relación de este planeta con las estrellas, Doyle y su equipo también sugieren que el planeta se formó en el mismo disco de polvo y gas que dio origen a ambas estrellas. Ahora van a continuar explorando en busca de lunas.

La ciencia ficción se convierte en realidad:

"Una vez más, lo que solía ser ciencia ficción se ha convertido en realidad", señala Alan Boss, uno de los científicos que participa en el proyecto, en la revista Science, que publica el hallazgo.
"Este descubrimiento confirma una nueva clase de sistemas planetarios que podrían albergar vida", apunta el principal investigador de Kepler William Borucki.
"Teniendo en cuenta que la mayoría de estrellas de nuestra galaxia son parte de un sistema binario, esto significa que las oportunidades de vida son mucho más amplias que si sólo se forman los planetas alrededor de estrellas simples", agrega Borucki, que define el descubrimiento como un "hito".
Kepler es la primera misión de la NASA capaz de encontrar planetas del tamaño de la Tierra cerca de la llamada "zona habitable", la región en un sistema planetario donde puede existir agua líquida en la superficie del planeta en órbita.
Lanzado en marzo de 2009, el objetivo del Kepler es recoger datos y pruebas de planetas que orbitan alrededor de estrellas con condiciones de temperatura medias donde pueda existir agua líquida y, por tanto, vida.
A pesar de que serán necesarias observaciones adicionales para lograr ese hito, Kepler ha detectado planetas y candidatos a ser planetas de una amplia gama de tamaños y distancias orbitales que, según la NASA, ayudan a comprender mejor nuestro lugar en la galaxia. EFE

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