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After nine years of scouring the stars and discovering thousands of new planets, Kepler's space observatory has no more fuel and this week was officially closed by NASA.
The spacecraft, designed and managed by the Mountain View Ames Research Center, is renowned for astronomers' understanding of the universe, which is expanding, not least by showing that planets are not only present but ubiquitous throughout the world. the galaxy of the Milky Way.
Now located about 94 million kilometers from the Earth, the satellite was launched in 2009 to search for planets seeking to dim the stars. This finally exceeded expectations: the telescope detected more than 2,600 planets, in addition to 2,900 more promising "candidates" requiring further analysis.
In summary, the Kepler mission has revealed that distant star systems are very much like ours – with a multitude of planets in orbit, "said Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA.
"Kepler revolutionized our understanding of our place in the cosmos," he said. "Thanks to Kepler, what we think of our place in the universe has changed."
Through the discovery of many potentially habitable planets, the Kepler probe has also sparked a renewed interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The theory of distant life became much more plausible once it became apparent that many other planets might have Earth-like environments, said Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at SETI Institute of Mountain View. .
"Until Kepler begins to scrutinize the heavens, we honestly did not know if these environmentally friendly worlds were plentiful or extremely rare," said Shostak. "Thanks to his work, we now know that there are about a trillion planets in our own galaxy, and even though only one in a hundred has oceans and liquid atmospheres, it still means that 10 billion cousins Of the Milky Way Earth. "
Despite its resounding success, the Kepler program initially faced NASA 's skepticism, and the mission might never have happened without the tenacity of its team. The program's lead researcher, William Borucki, initially proposed the concept of a Kepler observatory at NASA in 1992. The idea was to launch into orbit a high-power photometer that could simultaneously search for a set of stars. The data would be transmitted to Earth for computers to interpret and identify any sign of potential planets.
The idea was rejected four times by NASA administrators. Kepler was only accepted for an official mission in 2000, after Borucki had successfully completed a demonstration in principle at Mt. Hamilton Lick Observatory. Kepler's complete spacecraft, which was about the size of a large automobile, was launched from Cape Canaveral in March 2009.
According to the standards of astronomy, the results were immediate. Less than six weeks after data collection, Kepler revealed five previously unknown planets and soon discovered hundreds of others. Retired, Borucki said he was delighted that Kepler could "open a new perspective in astronomy".
The spacecraft was originally supposed to last only three and a half years, but the researchers decided to keep it for as long as possible to keep the data collection. In 2013, solar pressure caused the failure of two of Kepler's four reaction wheels, which meant that she could no longer mechanically point her telescope.
Kepler's team was able to perform an intelligent bypass solution using solar pressure as a makeshift "third wheel" to direct its observation. The vessel was able to continue collecting data for another four years as its systems continued to deteriorate.
"It was the small spaceship that could do it, it always did what we asked, and sometimes even more," said Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at Ames.
The coup de grace for Kepler came earlier this month, when the systems team discovered that the spacecraft's pointing capability had deteriorated significantly. It was later learned that his fuel reserves had dropped and the team began downloading the latest of his data. On Monday, NASA officials announced that they were ending the radio contact and mission retreat.
The loss of Kepler occurs while equipment problems also arise for another iconic space observatory, the Hubble telescope. Earlier this month, the nearly 30-year-old orbital telescope was paused after the failure of two of its gyroscopes. The systems were then restored.
NASA officials are already considering future missions to monitor Kepler's success. Earlier this year, the space agency launched the satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a satellite observatory funded in part by Google. TESS is equipped to carry out searches in an area 400 times larger than that of Kepler, and researchers expect to find about 20,000 additional exoplanets, with perhaps a better idea of the atmosphere.
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