Kepler Mission Manager Update: 503 New Candidates
06.07.2013 - The Kepler spacecraft remains in its Point Rest State (PRS) and is operating well in this mode.
-
Stars Don't Obliterate Their Planets (Very Often)
06.06.2013 - A new study using data from NASA's Kepler mission shows that migrating planets cease their travels before being consumed by their stars.
-
New NASA Kepler Mission Data Q&A
05.31.2013 - On May 28, 2013, NASA's Kepler mission delivered new data to the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
05.21.2013 - Following the apparent failure of reaction wheel 4, engineers were successful at transitioning the spacecraft to Point Rest State.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
05.15.2013 - At our semi-weekly contact on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, we found the Kepler spacecraft once again in safe mode.
-
NASA Hosts Kepler Spacecraft Status Teleconference Today
05.15.2013 - NASA will host a news teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, today, May 15, to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space Telescope.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
05.09.2013 - During a scheduled contact, engineers discovered Kepler was in a self-protective mode. The spacecraft returned to science data collection on May 6.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
04.29.2013 - The team recently completed a monthly science data download, marking the successful completion of Quarter 16 flight operations.
-
Kepler Discovers Its Smallest 'Habitable Zone' Planets
04.18.2013 - NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone."
-
NASA Hosts Media Briefing to Discuss Kepler Discovery
04.15.2013 - NASA will host a news briefing at 2 p.m. EDT, Thursday, April 18, to announce new discoveries from the agency's Kepler mission.
-
Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein
04.04.2013 - The light of a red star is warped and magnified by its dead-star companion, as detected by NASA's Kepler space telescope.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
03.29.2013 - The spacecraft continues to operate efficiently and the science team has had a chance to examine the high rate data that was downlinked on March 6-7.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
03.05.2013 - Since returning to science data collection on Jan. 27, 2013, after a 10-day precautionary wheel rest safe mode, the spacecraft has been performing well and continues to make science observations.
-
Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System
02.20.2013 - Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.
-
Kepler Data Suggest Earth-size Planets May Be Next Door
02.06.2013 - Astronomers estimate that six percent of red dwarfs have a temperate Earth-size planet, as close as 13 light-years away.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update: Kepler Returns to Science Mode
01.29.2013 - After a "wheel rest" safe mode that began on January 17, 2013, NASA's Kepler spacecraft returned to science data collection.
-
Kepler Mission Manager Update
01.17.2013 - Kepler has completed two science data downloads since the last update, successfully completing Quarter 15 flight operations and beginning Quarter 16.
-
At Least One in Six Stars Has an Earth-sized Planet
01.10.2013 - A new analysis of Kepler data shows that about 17 percent of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury.
-
National Academy of Sciences Honors Kepler Scientist
01.07.2013 - William Borucki, principal investigator for the Kepler mission at the agency's Ames Research Center, is recipient of the 2013 Henry Draper Medal.
-
Kepler Discovers 461 New Planet Candidates
01.07.2013 - Four of the potential new planets are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in the "habitable zone," where liquid water might exist.
Operations
in Point Rest State (PRS) have continued for the spacecraft. The
spacecraft was placed in PRS on May 15, 2013, after the failure of
reaction wheel 4. It has been 53 days since the spacecraft collected new
science data.
As noted in the last update, the team has made adjustments to onboard fault parameters for the star trackers to lessen the possibility of entry into safe mode. We have also made additional adjustments to the Thruster-Control Safe Mode to improve its fuel efficiency. This provides yet more protection for spacecraft fuel reserves while the team continues to work on reaction wheel performance assessment and recovery plans.
The engineering team has devised initial tests for the recovery attempt and is checking them on the spacecraft test bed at the Ball Aerospace facility in Boulder, Colo. The team anticipates that exploratory commanding of Kepler’s reaction wheels will commence mid-to-late July. The Kepler spacecraft will remain in PRS until and during the tests.
Later this month, an update to the data processing pipeline software will be deployed. Called SOC 9.1, this enhancement has been underway for several months and is in the final stages of verification and validation. This software release provides additional refinements to better tease out small planet signatures from the four years of Kepler data. It will also decrease the frequency of false positives.
The team continues to disposition Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) found by searching the observational data from Quarters 1 to Quarter 12. With 63 more planet candidates added since the last report, the count now stands at 3,277.
While Kepler data analysis continues, we were pleased to note the discoveries recently announced by European Southern Observatory (ESO). A team of astronomers has combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data from HARPS at ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, revealing a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water might exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.
Also this month, a research team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., used Kepler data to find two planets smaller than three times the size of Earth orbiting sun-like stars in a one billion year old star cluster named NGC 6811. The result demonstrates that small planets can form and persist in an open cluster, and casts the net wider in the search for planets the size and temperature of Earth. With this discovery, 134 planets have been confirmed using Kepler data.
And, finally we note the announcement from France's space agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), on the retirement of the Convection, Rotation, and planetary Transits (CoRoT) mission. The CoRoT spacecraft was launched Dec. 26, 2006, and paved the way for Kepler in terms of space-based identification of transiting exoplanets and also the detection of acoustic oscillations in sun-like stars. We congratulate CNES on a great run with the CoRoT spacecraft!
Regards,
Roger
As noted in the last update, the team has made adjustments to onboard fault parameters for the star trackers to lessen the possibility of entry into safe mode. We have also made additional adjustments to the Thruster-Control Safe Mode to improve its fuel efficiency. This provides yet more protection for spacecraft fuel reserves while the team continues to work on reaction wheel performance assessment and recovery plans.
The engineering team has devised initial tests for the recovery attempt and is checking them on the spacecraft test bed at the Ball Aerospace facility in Boulder, Colo. The team anticipates that exploratory commanding of Kepler’s reaction wheels will commence mid-to-late July. The Kepler spacecraft will remain in PRS until and during the tests.
Later this month, an update to the data processing pipeline software will be deployed. Called SOC 9.1, this enhancement has been underway for several months and is in the final stages of verification and validation. This software release provides additional refinements to better tease out small planet signatures from the four years of Kepler data. It will also decrease the frequency of false positives.
The team continues to disposition Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) found by searching the observational data from Quarters 1 to Quarter 12. With 63 more planet candidates added since the last report, the count now stands at 3,277.
While Kepler data analysis continues, we were pleased to note the discoveries recently announced by European Southern Observatory (ESO). A team of astronomers has combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data from HARPS at ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, revealing a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water might exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.
Also this month, a research team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., used Kepler data to find two planets smaller than three times the size of Earth orbiting sun-like stars in a one billion year old star cluster named NGC 6811. The result demonstrates that small planets can form and persist in an open cluster, and casts the net wider in the search for planets the size and temperature of Earth. With this discovery, 134 planets have been confirmed using Kepler data.
And, finally we note the announcement from France's space agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), on the retirement of the Convection, Rotation, and planetary Transits (CoRoT) mission. The CoRoT spacecraft was launched Dec. 26, 2006, and paved the way for Kepler in terms of space-based identification of transiting exoplanets and also the detection of acoustic oscillations in sun-like stars. We congratulate CNES on a great run with the CoRoT spacecraft!
Regards,
Roger
NASA Hosts Kepler Spacecraft Status Teleconference Today
WASHINGTON - NASA will host a news teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT,
today, May 15, to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space
Telescope
Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, Kepler has been detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help scientists better understand our place in the galaxy.
The briefing participants are:
- John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Paul Hertz, astrophysics director, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator, Ames Research Center, Calif.
- Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager, Ames Research Center, Calif.
For dial-in information, journalists should e-mail their name, affiliation and telephone number to J.D. Harrington at j.d.harrington@nasa.gov. Media representatives and the public also can questions via Twitter to #AskNASA.
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at:
For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario