Mar 7 2009
From The Space Library
NASA’s Kepler astronomy probe, named for Johannes Kepler, who had published the laws of planetary motion in 1609, successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]], aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2, at 10:49 p.m. (EST). Kepler’s mission was to identify the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances that would permit water to pool on the planet’s surface. Scientists had designed the craft to search for brightness variations in more than 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region. Astronomers study brightness variations because, when a planet passes in front of a star, the star’s light appears to dim, enabling them to determine the diameter of the transiting object. The Kepler mission would use a photometer to monitor the same star field over approximately three-and-a-half years, allowing multiple observations of transits of exoplanets in orbits of as long as one year. Ideally, the Kepler probe would observe an object at least three times to confirm the measurement of its orbital period. Mission scientists placed the 1,052-kilogram (2,319-pound) craft in a 372.5-day solar orbit to help the probe maintain a stable pointing attitude.
NASA, “NASA’s Kepler Mission Rockets to Space in Search of Other Earths,” news release 09-052, 7 March 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/mar/HQ_09-052_Kepler_launches.html (accessed 4 May 2011); Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 665, 1 April 2009, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx665.html (accessed 10 May 2011); Joel Achenbach, “Kepler Lifts Off, on Age-Old Quest: Space Telescope Seeks To Find Other Earths on 3½- Year Mission,” Washington Post, 9 March 2009.
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