Jan 26 2012
From The Space Library
RELEASE: 12-032 NASA'S KEPLER ANNOUNCES 11 PLANETARY SYSTEMS HOSTING 26 PLANETS
MOFFET FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form. The planets orbit close to their host stars and range in size from 1.5 times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter. Fifteen are between Earth and Neptune in size. Further observations will be required to determine which are rocky like Earth and which have thick gaseous atmospheres like Neptune. The planets orbit their host star once every six to 143 days. All are closer to their host star than Venus is to our sun. "Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky," said Doug Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Now, in just two years staring at a patch of sky not much bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and more than 2,300 planet candidates. This tells us that our galaxy is positively loaded with planets of all sizes and orbits." Kepler identifies planet candidates by repeatedly measuring the change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars to detect when a planet passes in front of the star. That passage casts a small shadow toward Earth and the Kepler spacecraft. Each of the new confirmed planetary systems contains two to five closely spaced transiting planets. In tightly packed planetary systems, the gravitational pull of the planets on each other causes some planets to accelerate and some to decelerate along their orbits. The acceleration causes the orbital period of each planet to change. Kepler detects this effect by measuring the changes, or so-called Transit Timing Variations (TTVs Planetary systems with TTVs can be verified without requiring extensive ground-based observations, accelerating confirmation of planet candidates. The TTV detection technique also increases Kepler's ability to confirm planetary systems around fainter and more distant stars. Five of the systems (Kepler-25, Kepler-27, Kepler-30, Kepler-31 and Kepler-33) contain a pair of planets where the inner planet orbits the star twice during each orbit of the outer planet. Four of the systems (Kepler-23, Kepler-24, Kepler-28 and Kepler-32) contain a pairing where the outer planet circles the star twice for every three times the inner planet orbits its star. "These configurations help to amplify the gravitational interactions between the planets, similar to how my sons kick their legs on a swing at the right time to go higher," said Jason Steffen, the Brinson postdoctoral fellow at Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics in Batavia, Ill., and lead author of a paper confirming four of the systems. Kepler-33, a star that is older and more massive than our sun, had the most planets. The system hosts five planets, ranging in size from 1.5 to 5 times that of Earth. All of the planets are located closer to their star than any planet is to our sun. The properties of a star provide clues for planet detection. The decrease in the star's brightness and duration of a planet transit, combined with the properties of its host star, present a recognizable signature. When astronomers detect planet candidates that exhibit similar signatures around the same star, the likelihood of any of these planet candidates being a false positive is very low. "The approach used to verify the Kepler-33 planets shows the overall reliability is quite high," said Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper on Kepler-33. "This is a validation by multiplicity." These discoveries are published in four different papers in the Astrophysical Journal and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Ames manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission's development.
CONTRACT RELEASE: C12-002 NASA AWARDS SAFETY AND MISSION ASSURANCE CONTRACT EXTENSION
HOUSTON -- NASA has exercised two six-month options to the agency's Safety and Mission Assurance Support Services Contract with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego for the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The options are worth $32.9 million. Exercise of the options provides continuity of support services in safety, reliability and quality assurance, engineering products and technical services for Johnson's Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate for the International Space Station Program, Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and Extravehicular Activity Office. The options also include all new Johnson programs and projects. The options begin May 1 and end April 30, 2013. They will bring the total contract value to $365.1 million. The original contract, awarded in 2006, was for three years, with two one-year options ending April 30, 2011. In April 2011, the contract was extended to add an additional base year and two six-month options ending April 2013. Work under the contract will be performed at Johnson; NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida; White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M.; and SAIC's facilities in Houston.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-016 NASA HOSTS BRIEFING ON NEW OBSERVATIONS OF INTERSTELLAR MATTER
WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a Science Update at 1 p.m. EST, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, to discuss new analysis from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft of material from outside our solar system and the interstellar boundary region that surrounds our home in space. The interstellar boundary region shields our solar system from most of the dangerous galactic cosmic radiation that otherwise would enter the solar system from interstellar space. The briefing will take place at NASA Headquarters in the James E. Webb Auditorium, located at 300 E St. SW, Washington, and will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Briefing panelists are: -- David McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio-- Priscilla Frisch, senior scientist, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago - Eberhard Mobius, professor, Space Science Center and Department of Physics University of New Hampshire and currently visiting professor at the Space Science and Applications Group Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.-- Seth Redfield, assistant professor, Astronomy Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-017 NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR VISITS AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN AN AMERICAN ECONOMY BUILT TO LAST
WASHINGTON -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will visit Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, Va., on Jan. 27 to highlight how government can partner with small business to help create the jobs of the future through investment in science and technology. NASA has partnered with Aurora on a number of projects involving innovative future aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) satellite test bed. SPHERES provides an opportunity for high school students to design research for the International Space Station. Garver's visit comes three days after President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech, in which he talked about creating an American economy that is built to last. Garver and Aurora CEO John Langford will be available to speak with news media representatives during a tour of the Aurora facility beginning at 11:20 a.m. EST. There also will be a photo opportunity as Garver participates in a ground-based demonstration of the Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft. Founded in 1989, Aurora Flight Sciences designs and builds robotic aircraft and other advanced aerospace vehicles for both scientific and military applications. Aurora is headquartered is in Manassas, Va., with production plants in Bridgeport, W.V., and Columbus, Miss., and a Research and Development Center based at MIT in Cambridge, Mass.
