Kepler Mission Options

[imran]

This NASA Discovery mission is to be launched in June 2008 and will search for Earth-size and smaller planets. Launch was originally scheduled in 2007 but delayed by 8 months due to "funding constraints".

Here's the official web site:
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/

[Greg Hullender]

Although I think this bit is worth posting, since it answers the question of "how long must we wait for results?"

"The first planets discovered by Kepler will be gas giants, similar in size to Jupiter, in close orbits lasting only a few days around their parent stars. Planets in Mercury-like orbits with orbital periods of only a few months will be discovered using data from the first year of operations. Finding Earth-size planets in Earth-like orbits will require the entire length of the 3.5-year Kepler Mission."

If I recall correctly, the reason it takes as long as it does is that they need to see the planet transit three times; once to discover it, a second time to get the period, and the third time to confirm the result.

--Greg