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/

[PhilHorzempa]

Here is an image of a Milky Way star field in the vicinity of
Alpha Cygni (Deneb).

http://video.library.gatech.edu/Barnard_Pr...t1-pl045_sm.jpg


This image is near the Kepler FOV and gives an idea of the task facing
Kepler. Recall that Kepler will be staring at a star field, containing
about 100,000 - 200,000 stars, for 4 years looking for planetary transits.
This image is part of an on-line collection of classic Milky Way
images obtained by E.E. Barnard. The search page can be found at

http://video.library.gatech.edu/cgi-bin/bp...rch.pl?search=0



Another Phil