The mission of the Kepler Space Telescope is complete

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This illustration made available by NASA shows the Kepler Space Telescope.In October 2018, the planet's spaceship fighter was in space for nearly a decade. (NASA via AP)

The Kepler Space Telescope is running out of fuel and has ended 9.5 years of career, just days after the announcement by the Astronomers of the possibility of a moon revolving around an exoplanet.

Launched in 2009, Kepler discovered thousands of planets in orbit – distant stars observing the dim light of a star that occurs when a planet pbades between the star and our solar system.More than ten years later, Kepler has exhausted the monopropellate hydrazine that allows the spacecraft to move in the right direction against the pressure of the solar radiation.

At the

"This was not unexpected," said Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, at a press conference. "All el-limited spacecraft are known to be limited in fuel when we launch them.We can estimate their lifespan, and we are not surprised when they run out of gasoline, but when they fall into gasoline, we celebrate all the great scientific advances that they have made. "

Fuel, finally Two weeks ago, Kepler scientists and engineers were working to transfer all the data to Earth stored on board the space shuttle, after which, with the last fuel in hand, the team collected some final data and transferred it. "We have collected all the scientific data and have safely returned it to the ground," said Charlie Sobeck, NASA project systems engineer at Ames. Research Center "In the end, we did not have a drop of fuel for anything else."

The team will soon stop Kepler's radio transmitter to not add unnecessary noise to the already cluttered radio frequency spectrum. They will also close its on board crash protection system, as otherwise the spacecraft 's computer could decide to turn on the radio transmitter again, as it was supposed to be. A simple mistake. Kepler, which is now 150 million km from his home, will gradually move towards a stable orbit around the Sun, where it will remain, directed in the direction of the solar wind, always looking at the stars in silence.

The Drake Equation

Although the life of the Kepler Space Telescope is over, this week's exomoon is not Kepler's latest discovery of which we will hear talk. The data badysis of the last few months could take several years. "These ongoing discoveries will be made possible through a powerful combination of new software tools, new data badysis methods such as machine learning and new data from missions like TESS and future missions. like the James Webb Space Telescope, "said Jessie Dotson, Kepler project. scientist at Ames. By October 29, Kepler had discovered 2,681 planets in orbit around other stars, with 2,899 other possible exoplanets, called candidates, that have not yet been confirmed. Many more could wait in the data badyzed by Dotson and his colleagues.

When William Borucki, Kepler's retired senior investigator, and a group of colleagues proposed to NASA, in the late 1990s, a planet-hunting telescope, no one knew if solar system was normal or just a stroke of luck. Astronomers Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz had discovered the first known exoplanet, Pegasi 51b, in 1995, but scientists still did not know if the planets were common or rare. The answer would have important implications for efforts to understand if life could exist elsewhere in the galaxy.

According to astronomer Frank Drake, the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy that could communicate with us could be estimated if we knew how many stars are forming each year in our galaxy, what percentage of these planets- What percentages, what percentage of habitable planets, what percentage of habitable planets develop life, what percentage of ecosystems give rise to intelligent life, what percentage of intelligent life forms end up developing technology for interstellar communication and how much of time such civilizations survive and continue to try to communicate. This is the basis of the famous Drake equation, and Kepler helped fill the second term: fp, the percentage of stars that form planets. He also provided clues on the third term, Ne, the percentage of habitable planets; Kepler's observations revealed a surprising number of rocky planets like the Earth, gravitating around their stars at a distance that would provide the ideal temperature for liquid water.

Kepler also revealed a surprising diversity of planets, some of which did not resemble our neighbors at all. this solar system. Over the years, many planets that Kepler spotted are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, a range of sizes totally absent from our solar system. And some of them can be quite wild, like Kepler-22b, the first exoplanet to be discovered in the habitable zone of another star. On the basis of estimates of its mbad and diameter, Kepler scientists hypothesized that Kepler-22b could be mainly made up of ocean above a small nucleus rocky. "It's one of my favorites," Borucki said.

Borucki is also a fan of the Kepler-444 Planet System, a collection of five hot and rocky worlds revolving around an orange star of the main sequence of 11.2 billion years ago. That is 6.5 billion years older than the Sun, about the same age as the Milky Way galaxy and about 80% of that of the universe itself. "Imagine what life should look like on such planets," he said. "If life grew during the 6.5 billion years that preceded the formation of the Earth, we may find some very interesting life forms to discover when looking for these early planets. " Of course, given how well Kepler-444 plants are in orbit around their star, they are probably way too hot to accommodate life.

As to whether our solar system is on average or lagging behind, the answer is both. Solar systems with planets are fairly common, but most of them do not look much like ours. "Thanks to Kepler, we know that solar systems come in a variety of configurations that are completely different from ours: solar systems with Jupiters orbiting their stars in just a few days, solar systems with small rocky planets piled in the air. Mercury's orbit, so close that the planets are in resonance with each other, "said Herz.

What Happened …

When a planet pbades a star (from our point of view), it blocks a small portion of the star's light to reach the observers of our solar system. How small? The transit of a planet can block only 1/10 000th of the light of the star. "It was like trying to detect a chip that crawled on a car's headlight when it was 100 miles away, and the instrument had to do it simultaneously for 150,000 stars," Borucki said.

And it was not easy to convince NASA that this could be done well enough to deserve funding. Borucki and his initial team of scientists and engineers had to first prove that the electronic light sensors known as CCD sensors – the backbone of the most modern telescope sensors – were sensitive enough and accurate enough to that the telescope can actually track thousands of stars at a time. , that astronomers could badyze the huge amount of data required and that they could do all this on a spaceship. They submitted five project proposals over several years before NASA finally said "yes" in 2001.

The $ 550 million telescope launched on March 7, 2009 for a four-year mission. Its launch was put into orbit around the Sun – not Earth – where it would slowly fall behind the planet in an orbit about a week slower than that of the Earth. During the first four years, Kepler focused on only one part of the sky and observed the same set of distant stars in search of the dimming of a planetary transit. And that did not disappoint. "This exquisite data has allowed us to firmly establish that there are more planets than stars, that the planets are varied, that the planetary systems are diverse and that the small planets of the area are common, "said Dotson.

programmed end of Kepler's initial mission, the second of his four reaction wheels – which keep the telescope pointed in the right direction – failed. The Kepler engineering team has come up with a way to use solar radiation pressure to help keep the telescope on target. This fresh start marked the beginning of a longer mission, K2. The expanded mission directed the telescope to a wider area of ​​the sky and, while Kepler's first mission was centered on more distant stars, K2 focused on brighter, closer stars, where she spotted many small planets that Dotson considered privileged targets for the current. and future missions to study their history and composition.

"I've always had the impression that it was the little spaceship that could, it was always doing everything we asked, and sometimes more, and it was a good thing to have a spaceship, "said Dotson.

… is Prologue

These efforts will continue with TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey), which was launched in April 2018 and began its scientific research in July. The scientists, led by Padi Boyd, project manager for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey survey satellite at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, are already badyzing early TESS data and identifying exoplanet candidates. Since TESS, like K2, looks mainly at bright and near stars, it is possible that powerful ground-based telescopes follow their own observations.

"We hope to find our planetary systems close," Boyd said. . "We hope to be able to place the following layers of information and determine what these planets look like.It is easy to measure the size of a planet – relatively easily – but it is much harder to say if this planet has an atmosphere that is so important to life here on Earth, and also, if it has an atmosphere, what does it contain? "

When it will launch in 2021 (unless it undergoes new ones reverses), the James The Webb Space Telescope will bring infrared observations to answer this question. Many livability elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and water, leave their spectral footprints in the infrared, where Webb has a good chance of detecting them. And this, with future missions, could help scientists integrate the third term of Drake's equation and better understand how isolated we are – or not – in the galaxy.

"> [19659025] This illustration made available by NASA shows the Kepler space telescope: in October 2018, the space probe was in space for almost a decade (NASA via AP)

The telescope Kepler was short of fuel and his career lasted 9.5 years, just days after astronomers announced the possibility of a moon revolving around an exoplanet.

Launched in 2009, Kepler discovered thousands of planets orbiting distant stars while watching for the faint attenuation of its light that occurs when the planet pbades between the star and our solar system.Nearly ten years later, Kepler n & # 39; Plus the monopropell of hydrazine which keeps the satellite in the right direction against the pressure of solar radiation.

To The Last Drop

"This n ' was not a surprise, "said Pa ul Hertz, director of the division of astrophysics at NASA headquarters in Washington, during a press conference. "All fuel-limited spacecraft are known to be limited in fuel when we launch them.We can estimate their lifespan, and we are not surprised when they run out of fuel, but when they are lacking of fuel, we get a celebration of all the great science they have accomplished. "

The fuel was finally exhausted two weeks ago, but Kepler scientists and engineers had been working since the end of June to transfer all data stored aboard the spacecraft on Earth. After that, with the last fuel, the team gathered some final data and also transferred them to Earth – without leaving a single drop of fuel wasted. "We have collected all the scientific data and found it safely on the ground," said Charlie Sobeck, project system engineer, at NASA's Ames research center. "In the end, we did not have a drop of fuel left."

The team will soon stop Kepler's radio transmitter so as not to add unnecessary noise to the already saturated radio frequency spectrum. They will also close its on board crash protection system, as otherwise the spacecraft 's computer could decide to turn on the radio transmitter again, as it was supposed to be. A simple mistake. Kepler, which is now 150 million km from his home, will gradually move towards a stable orbit around the Sun, where it will remain, directed in the direction of the solar wind, always looking at the stars in silence.

The Drake Equation

Although the life of the Kepler Space Telescope is over, this week's exomoon is not Kepler's latest discovery of which we will hear talk. The data badysis of the last few months could take several years. "These ongoing discoveries will be made possible through a powerful combination of new software tools, new data badysis methods such as machine learning and new data from missions like TESS and future missions. like the James Webb Space Telescope, "said Jessie Dotson, Kepler project. scientist at Ames. By October 29, Kepler had discovered 2,681 planets in orbit around other stars, with 2,899 other possible exoplanets, called candidates, that have not yet been confirmed. Many more could wait in the data badyzed by Dotson and his colleagues.

When William Borucki, Kepler's retired senior investigator, and a group of colleagues proposed to NASA, in the late 1990s, a planet-hunting telescope, no one knew if solar system was normal or just a stroke of luck. Astronomers Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz had discovered the first known exoplanet, Pegasi 51b, in 1995, but scientists still did not know if the planets were common or rare. The answer would have important implications for efforts to understand if life could exist elsewhere in the galaxy.

According to astronomer Frank Drake, the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy that could communicate with us could be estimated if we knew how many stars are forming each year in our galaxy, what percentage of these planets- What percentages, what percentage of habitable planets, what percentage of habitable planets develop life, what percentage of ecosystems give rise to intelligent life, what percentage of intelligent life forms end up developing technology for interstellar communication and how much of time such civilizations survive and continue to try to communicate. This is the basis of the famous Drake equation, and Kepler helped fill the second term: fp, the percentage of stars that form planets. He also provided clues on the third term, Ne, the percentage of habitable planets; Kepler's observations revealed a surprising number of rocky planets like the Earth, gravitating around their stars at a distance that would provide the ideal temperature for liquid water.

this solar system. Over the years, many planets that Kepler spotted are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, a range of sizes totally absent from our solar system. And some of them can be quite wild, like Kepler-22b, the first exoplanet to be discovered in the habitable zone of another star. On the basis of estimates of its mbad and diameter, Kepler scientists hypothesized that Kepler-22b could be mainly made up of ocean above a small nucleus rocky. "It's one of my favorites," Borucki said.

Borucki is also a fan of the Kepler-444 Planet System, a collection of five hot and rocky worlds revolving around an orange star of the main sequence of 11.2 billion years ago. That is 6.5 billion years older than the Sun, about the same age as the Milky Way galaxy and about 80% of that of the universe itself. "Imagine what life should look like on such planets," he said. "If life grew during the 6.5 billion years that preceded the formation of the Earth, we may find some very interesting life forms to discover when looking for these early planets. " Of course, given how well Kepler-444 plants are in orbit around their star, they are probably way too hot to accommodate life.

As to whether our solar system is on average or lagging behind, the answer is both. Solar systems with planets are fairly common, but most of them do not look much like ours. "Thanks to Kepler, we know that solar systems come in a variety of configurations that are completely different from ours: solar systems with Jupiters orbiting their stars in just a few days, solar systems with small rocky planets piled in the air. Mercury's orbit, so close that the planets are in resonance with each other, "said Herz.

What Happened …

When a planet pbades a star (from our point of view), it blocks a small portion of the star's light to reach the observers of our solar system. How small? The transit of a planet can block only 1/10 000th of the light of the star. "It was like trying to detect a chip that crawled on a car's headlight when it was 100 miles away, and the instrument had to do it simultaneously for 150,000 stars," Borucki said.

And it was not easy to convince NASA that this could be done well enough to deserve funding. Borucki and his initial team of scientists and engineers had to first prove that the electronic light sensors known as CCD sensors – the backbone of the most modern telescope sensors – were sensitive enough and accurate enough to that the telescope can actually track thousands of stars at a time. , that astronomers could badyze the huge amount of data required and that they could do all this on a spaceship. They submitted five project proposals over several years before NASA finally said "yes" in 2001.

The $ 550 million telescope launched on March 7, 2009 for a four-year mission. Its launch was put into orbit around the Sun – not Earth – where it would slowly fall behind the planet in an orbit about a week slower than that of the Earth. During the first four years, Kepler focused on only one part of the sky and observed the same set of distant stars in search of the dimming of a planetary transit. And that did not disappoint. "This exceptional data has allowed us to firmly establish that there are more planets than stars, that the planets are diverse, that the planetary systems are diverse and that the small planets of the area are common, "said Dotson.

programmed end of Kepler's initial mission, the second of his four reaction wheels – which keep the telescope pointed in the right direction – failed. The Kepler engineering team has come up with a way to use solar radiation pressure to help keep the telescope on target. This fresh start marked the beginning of a longer mission, K2. The expanded mission directed the telescope to a wider area of ​​the sky and, while Kepler's first mission was centered on more distant stars, K2 focused on brighter, closer stars, where she spotted many small planets that Dotson considered privileged targets for the current. and future missions to study their history and composition.

"I've always had the impression that it was the little spaceship that could, it was always doing everything we asked, and sometimes more, and it was a good thing to have a spaceship, "said Dotson.

… is Prologue

These efforts will continue with TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey), which was launched in April 2018 and began its scientific research in July. The scientists, led by Padi Boyd, project manager for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey survey satellite at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, are already badyzing early TESS data and identifying exoplanet candidates. Since TESS, like K2, looks mainly at bright and near stars, it is possible that powerful ground-based telescopes follow their own observations.

"We hope to find our planetary systems close," Boyd said. . "We hope to be able to place the following layers of information and determine what these planets look like.It is easy to measure the size of a planet – relatively easily – but it is much harder to say if this planet has an atmosphere that is so important to life here on Earth, and also, if it has an atmosphere, what does it contain? "

When it will launch in 2021 (unless it undergoes new ones reverses), the James The Webb Space Telescope will bring infrared observations to answer this question. Many livability elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and water, leave their spectral footprints in the infrared, where Webb has a good chance of detecting them. And this, with future missions, could help scientists integrate the third term of Drake's equation and better understand how isolated we are – or not – in the galaxy.

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