![]() Still, the Kepler telescope was so successful at finding exoplanets that TESS scientists are hopeful theirs will uncover plenty of planets in our neighborhood, including a handful of Earth-sized worlds.Įngineer A person who uses science to solve problems. The $200-million telescope on TESS will not be as sensitive as Kepler’s is. If TESS finds planets around them, powerful telescopes like the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will be able to probe their atmospheres. Unlike Kepler, which fixed its gaze on distant stars, TESS will focus on bright, nearby stars. Called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, it’s scheduled for a 2017 launch. Those numbers boosted the case for funding NASA’s next exoplanet-hunting mission. In just four years, the Kepler telescope found over 3,000 more. Prior to the Kepler mission, astronomers had identified an estimated 350 exoplanets - planets beyond the solar system. It will, however, be a tough sell: Kepler’s precision focus is what made it an unprecedented scientific asset. Soon, the space agency will decide whether to go ahead and spend all or part of that money for a reduced mission. NASA had planned to spend roughly $18 million on Kepler experiments this year. In fact, Kepler scientists are now exploring what the telescope might be able to do with just its two undamaged reaction wheels. The good news: The spacecraft is not dead. He’s Kepler’s deputy project manager and works at the NASA Ames Research Center in northern California. ![]() “The wheels are sufficiently damaged that they cannot sustain spacecraft pointing control” - at least not for long, reported Charles Sobeck in a telephone briefing for reporters. The reason: The faulty wheel again had encountered too much friction. But then the telescope automatically turned itself off. All seemed to work fine for about six hours. This resistance to spin is a death sentence for telescopes that rely on reaction wheels.Įarlier this month, engineers tried to direct the telescope using the remaining two healthy wheels and the better of its two troubled ones. But as each spun, it encountered unexpectedly high friction. Last month, engineers forced each of the faulty wheels back into action, one at a time. By losing the ability to precisely point the spacecraft toward targeted stars, the telescope can no longer detect the small dips in starlight that signify the existence of distant planets. Two of those reaction wheels no longer work correctly. The spacecraft relies on four “reaction wheels” to help turn the telescope toward the stars that scientists want to target. On August 15, space-agency officials announced that Kepler’s damage was beyond repair. NASA initially hoped it might fix the broken parts. In May of this year, a sister part failed. But in July 2012, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that one important part on the spacecraft had failed. The entire Milky Way contains an estimated 200 billion to 400 billion stars.Since its launch on March 6, 2009, the $600 million Kepler space telescope has been hunting for planets outside Earth’s solar system. Kepler monitors more than 150,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Stars in the search volume are therefore at about the same distance from the center of the galaxy as we are. Kepler’s planet search is conducted in a narrow wedge-shaped volume of space that stretches out ahead of us as we orbit the galaxy. Our solar system lies between two major spiral arms of the Milky Way. A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launched Kepler on March 7, 2009.Īt the heart of the telescope is an array of 42 camera sensors specifically designed to detect alien planets passing in front of their stars. The telescope is 15.3 feet long (4.7 meters) and weighed 2,230 pounds (1,052 kilograms) on Earth. Sensors monitor the brightness of more than 150,000 stars simultaneously, looking for telltale drops in intensity that could indicate orbiting planets. As it travels, Kepler keeps itself pointed at a single patch of sky. Launched in 2009, Kepler orbits the sun every 371 days. Data returned by the telescope will allow scientists to estimate the number and sizes of planets in alien solar systems, and help identify the types of stars that could harbor planets. ![]() ![]() The mission of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope is to identify and characterize Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.
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