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planetquest.jpl.nasa/overview/overview22.swf

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/overview/overview22.swf. by Barbara Brown for ASTR 402 Spring, 2006. Kepler Mission test hypotheses: Most stars like our Sun have terrestrial planets in or near the habitable zone On an average two Earth-size planets form in the region between 0.5 and 1.5 AU.

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planetquest.jpl.nasa/overview/overview22.swf

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  1. http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/overview/overview22.swf

  2. by Barbara Brown for ASTR 402 Spring, 2006

  3. Kepler Mission test hypotheses: • Most stars like our Sun have terrestrial planets in or near the habitable zone • On an average two Earth-size planets form in the region between 0.5 and 1.5 AU

  4. What is a habitable planet? • Liquid water on planet surface--determined by size and temperature of the star and orbit of the planet • Size and mass of planet--small planets don’t have enough surface gravity to hold onto a life-sustaining atmosphere • Amount and composition of atmosphere • Affects of moons and giant planets in the system

  5. How are we going to do this? http://kepler.nasa.gov/media/KEPLER.SWF

  6. Kepler Mission Scientific Objective: • The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems. This is achieved by surveying a large sample of stars to: • Determine how many terrestrial and larger planets there are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of spectral types of stars; • Determine the range of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets;

  7. 3. Estimate the how many planets there are in multiple-star systems; 4. Determine the range of orbit size, brightness, size, mass and density of short-period giant planets; 5. Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques; and 6. Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.

  8. Expected Results: • Based on the mission described above and assumption that planets are common around other stars like our Sun, then we expect to detect: • From transits of terrestrial planets: • About 50 planets if most are the same size as Earth (R~1.0 Re), • About 185 planets if most have a size of R~1.3 Re, • About 640 planets if most have a size of R~2.2 Re, • About 12% with two or more planets per system.

  9. From modulation of the reflected light from giant inner planets: • About 870 planets with periods less than one week. • From transits of giant planets: • About 135 inner-orbit planet detections, • Densities for 35 inner-orbit planets, and • About 30 outer-orbit planet detections.

  10. Characteristics of a planetary transit: • Period of recurrence of the transit • Duration of the transit • Fractional change in brightness of the star

  11. How can we detect a planetary transit? http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/science/finding_planets.cfm

  12. What would a transit look like (on a graph)? http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/transit/indexTransit.html

  13. The Kepler instrument: 0.95-meter diameter photometer telescope 105 degrees2 field of view Continuously and simultaneously monitor the brightnesses of more than 100,000 stars for the life of the mission—4 years

  14. http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Kepler/kepler_index.cfm

  15. Kepler Mission Team Members Scientific Operations Center at NASA Ames: William Borucki, Principal Investigator Mission Operations Center at University of Colorado LASP Data Management Center at Space Telescope Science Institute Industrial partner: Ball Aerospace, Boulder, CO

  16. Resources • http://kepler.nasa.gov • “Close-up on the Kepler Mission” by Jon Jenkins, www.space.com • “Solar transits: Tools of discovery” by Edna DeVore, www.space.com • http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Kepler/kepler_index.cfm • http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/transit/indexTransit.html • http://www.ballaerospace.com/kepler.html • “Detecting other worlds:The photometric transit or 'Wink' method” by Dr. Laurance Doyle, www.seti.org • http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/universe

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