[ad_1]
NASA's Kepler Planet Hunting Telescope is "close to death," it has been revealed.
Earlier this week, NASA's Kepler team received an indication that the spacecraft's fuel tank was running very low.
The space agency said the nine-year-old telescope is now in a "hibernation" state as operators attempt to download data from it.
Scroll down for video
The space agency said that the nine-year-old telescope is now in a hibernation state while operators are trying to download data from it
. Once downloaded data, we expect "The next campaign with the rest of the fuel," says NASA.
Since May 12, Kepler is in his 18th observation campaign, fixing a parcel of sky towards the constellation of Cancer that he studied in 2015.
This second look will provide astronomers with The opportunity to co Examine the previous exoplanet candidates and discover new ones.
Returning data to Earth is the highest priority for remaining fuel.
point its large antenna towards the Earth and transmit the data during his time allocated in the Deep Space Network, which is scheduled for early August.
Until then, the spacecraft will remain stable and parked in a safe mode for the use of fuel.
2 August, the team will order the spacecraft to wake up from its state without fuel and to maneuver the spaceship.
If the maneuver and download are successful, the team will begin its 19th observation campaign on August 6 with the remaining fuel.
NASA will provide an update after the scheduled download.
After almost a decade of theft, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope is reaching the end of its life. NASA announced on Wednesday that the spacecraft had only a few more months to "die" because it would soon run out of fuel. Impression of the artist
The agency is closely monitoring the Kepler spacecraft looking for signs of low fuel consumption and expects it to run out of fuel In the coming months.
Scientists keep new data stored on the spacecraft. continue to extract existing data already in the field.
Among other discoveries, 24 new discoveries of the planet have recently been made using data from the 10th observation campaign, adding to the increasing generosity of the spacecraft from 2,650 confirmed planets.
Since its launch in 2009, the telescope has spotted thousands of exoplanets outside our solar system, despite mechanical failures and being "dynamited by cosmic rays," NASA notes.
Now, Kepler has little fuel in the tank, which means his mission in deep space will soon be over.
"With a gas station in space, the spaceship will run out of fuel," writes Charlie Sobeck, chief engineer of Kepler, in a blog post.
"We hope to reach that moment in a few months," he added.
Without a gas gauge, scientists looked for "warning signs" of a low fuel level, such as pressure drops in fuel tank pressure and changes in propeller performance of the telescope.
All in all, scientists do not have a precise knowledge of exactly when the spacecraft will die.
But NASA will continue to operate Kepler as long as possible, in the hope of being able to record all the discoveries of the exoplanets of the eleventh hour.
Then, with a bit of luck, they will be able to "bring the beam back to the ground before the loss of the gasoline thrusters" means that they can not aim at Kepler for data transfer.
"We want to stop collecting data while we are still comfortable that we can target the spacecraft and bring it back to Earth," said Sobeck.
While scientists set a rough estimate of Kepler's remaining lifespan, they remain optimistic.
"We were surprised by his performance before!," Says Sobeck.
In 2013, Kepler's first mission was completed when a second reaction wheel broke, which meant that the spacecraft could not keep a stare. to his original field of vision.
But Kepler soon received a new breath, as NASA gave him a new mission, called K2.
This forced the spacecraft to move its field of vision to new portions of the sky. every three months, notes Sobeck.
Interestingly, Kepler used the sun's pressure to maintain his gaze, "like a kayak in the stream."
The agency initially assumed that K2 could only lead 10 campaigns with the remaining fuel.
However, Kepler swept NASA's expectations out of the water, when he completed an astonishing 16 campaigns.
Danish researchers have located 95 new planets using the Kepler telescope that was launched almost ten years ago. The telescope discovered thousands of planets in distant systems
WHAT IS TELESCOPE KEPLER?
The Kepler mission has spotted thousands of exoplanets since 2014, with 30 planets less than twice the size of the Earth now orbiting the habitable areas of their stars.
Launched at Cape Canaveral on March 7, 2009, the Kepler Telescope helped in the search for planets outside the solar system.
When it was launched it weighed 2,320 pounds (1,052 kg) and is 15.4 feet long by 8.9 feet wide (4.7 m × 2.7 m). the satellite generally searches for "telluric" planets, that is to say that they are rocky and orbit in the orbit of the habitable zone or "Goldilocks" of a star.
In total, Kepler found about 5,000 unconfirmed "candidate" exoplanets, with 2,500 other "confirmed" exoplanets that scientists have since shown to be real.
Kepler is currently on a mission 'K2 & # 39; to discover more exoplanets.
K2 is the second mission for the spacecraft and was necessitated by the desire that two reaction wheels on the spacecraft failed.
These wheels control the direction and altitude of the spacecraft and help direct it in the right direction.
The modified mission looks at exoplanets around red dwarf stars.
While the planet found thousands of exoplanets during its eight-year mission, five in particular came out.
Kepler-452b, dubbed "Earth 2.0", shares many features with our planet despite its position at 1,400 light-years away. It was found by NASA's Kepler telescope in 2014
1) & # 39; Earth 2.0 & # 39;
In 2014, the telescope made one of its greatest discoveries by spotting the Kepler-452b exoplanet.
The object shares many features with our planet despite its position at 1,400 light-years
It has a similar size to the Earth, receives about the same amount of sunlight and has the same length of the year. They still do not know if the planet is home to life, but say that if the plants are transferred there, they will probably survive.
2) The first planet to orbit two stars
Kepler found a two-star orbit planet, known as a binary star system, in 2011.
The system, known as Kepler-16b, is about 200 light-years from Earth.
Experts compared the system to the famous "double sunset" on the home planet of Luke Skywalker, Tatooine, in "Star Wars: A New Hope"
3) Find the first habitable planet outside the solar system
Scientists found Kepler-22b in 2011, the first habitable planet found by astronomers outside the solar system.
The super-habitable Earth appears to be a large rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72 ° F (22 ° C), similar to a spring day on Earth.
4) Discovery of a "super-Earth"
The telescope found its first "super-Earth" in April 2017, a huge planet called LHS 1140b.
It is orbiting a red dwarf star about 40 million light-years away, and scientists believe that it holds giant oceans of magma.
5) Finding the Star Trappist-1 System
The Trappist-1 star system, which hosts a record number of seven Earth-like planets, was one of the greatest discoveries of 20 17.
Each of the planets, which orbit around a dwarf star only 39 million light-years away, probably holds water to its surface.
Three of the planets have such good conditions that scientists say that they have already evolved.
Kepler spotted the system in 2016, but scientists revealed the discovery in a series of articles published in February of this year.
Kepler is a telescope with an incredibly sensitive instrument known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in the light emitted by the stars. stars
How does Kepler discover the planets? known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in the light emitted by stars.
He follows 100,000 stars simultaneously, looking for light drops indicating a planet in orbit passing between the satellite and its distant target. the planet passes in front of a star seen from the Earth, the event is called a "transit".
Tiny dip in the brightness of a star during a transit can help scientists determine the orbit and size of the planet, as well as the size of the star.
Based on these calculations, scientists can determine if the planet is in the "habitable zone" of the star. if it could accommodate the conditions necessary for the growth of extraterrestrial life.
The spacecraft enters its 17th campaign this month, Sobeck said.
"While we expect the air operations to be over soon, we are ready to continue as long as the fuel allows," he added.
That said, NASA will also be cautious because it does not want to suffer an "uncontrolled fall".
In the past, NASA has managed moribund spaceships on certain roads in order to avoid dangerous scenarios.
Last September, NASA sent the Cassini spacecraft on a "death dive" in Saturn rather than risk falling. one of the moons of the planet, explained the agency.
But there is less risk with Kepler – especially because he's so far out in space, says Sobeck. Far-space missions like Kepler are far from the Earth or sensitive environments, which means we can afford to extract all the latest data from the spaceship – and that ultimately means bringing back even more of scientific data ".
Who knows what surprises of our universe will be in this last link to the Earth?
Even though Kepler will eventually reach the end of his life, Sobeck emphasizes that all hope is not lost.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey (TESS) satellite will be launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 16th.
Similar to Kepler, TESS will scan the sky to find planets that lie outside our solar system.
NASA says that TESS will focus on the brightest stars within 300 light-years, which "will add to Kepler's treasure of discoveries."
[ad_2]
Source link
