Kepler Mission |
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Kepler Mission |
 May 14 2009, 12:07 AM
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#166
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Member  Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083  |
QUOTE (tacitus @ May 13 2009, 03:45 PM)  Indeed. I guess we're entering the "hurry up and wait" stage as we wait for the first announcements of hot Jupiters and the like. I assume they won't be announcing anything for several months, even if they find some short period planets within the next few weeks? The NASA press release says Jovians could be announced "as early as next year". I assume that allows them time to confirm the planets with radial velocity measurements. Hot Jupiters should pop out of their data immediately I would think... |
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May 14 2009, 11:51 AM
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#167
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I believe they said it would take a while before Earth like planets could be identified for certain, like 3 years. But I bet before three years they will say, "yes we have X number of dimming's that might be Earth like".
I expect many Earth like planets will be discovered. |
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May 14 2009, 01:52 PM
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#168
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
QUOTE (MahFL @ May 14 2009, 06:51 AM) ... I expect many Earth like planets will be discovered. It will be really interesting to see what ratio of Earth-like to Jupiter-like planets emerges over the years. To see how typical our solar system is in that respect. |
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May 27 2009, 06:24 AM
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#169
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 Special Cookie Group: Members Posts: 2168 Joined: 6-April 05 From: Sintra | Portugal Member No.: 228 |
Drink southwesterner hollow fog grog
-------------------- "Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, "If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Alan Poe |
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May 29 2009, 11:49 PM
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#170
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 272 |
From the latest Kepler Project Manager Update:
QUOTE Meanwhile, scientists at NASA Ames Research Center are continuing their analysis of the instrument calibration data taken during Kepler's commissioning phase. The data are of very high quality and the scientists are very pleased with the precision of the data. Hundreds of eclipsing binaries and variable stars were seen in this data. You know, it's just not fair to tease us like this! 
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May 30 2009, 05:00 AM
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#171
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
They did say that the first science data would be downloaded on June 18. I'm not expecting anything at all before then -- and not expecting much for a while afterwards, I'm afraid. They've been pretty clear that they don't intend to be generous with their data.
--Greg |
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May 30 2009, 07:01 AM
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#172
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I'd bet that it's more an abundance of caution then a lack of generosity. Expectation management's gonna be pretty important; you know there will be worldwide banner headlines trumpeting "New Earth(s)". It will be tough enough for the Kepler team to explain to the general public that the planets are really far away so there will be no pretty pictures & definitely no physical voyages to them.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 30 2009, 11:35 AM
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#173
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 272 |
Yeah, I was just kidding with the tease comment. Even if they see Earth-like planet transits in the first data download, they're not going to announce anything until they've seen it happen two more times, which might not be for another two years. It is nice to know that the telescope is working extremely well, by the sound of it.
(And I am fine with vague updates on the quality of the data -- beats not hearing anything for a year or more!) Mind you, there should be ample time before June 18th to see three transits from a hot-Jupiter, so we should be hearing something fairly soon after that. I guess the question is will they announce confirmed results before any papers are written? |
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May 30 2009, 04:09 PM
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#174
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
More charitably, there's some chance they'll spend months tweaking their classification software. I built a speech recognizer this week (part of a seminar at UW) and found lots of surprises in how the data interacted with my models. Speech reco is a very well studied field, whereas the Kepler guys are out in new territory -- studying much smaller changes in brightness than anyone has before. It wouldn't surprise me if they spend months arguing about what the data actually mean. I can't blame them for not wanting to have that argument in public.
Even though it would be really, really cool to be part of that argument. :-) --Greg |
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Jun 1 2009, 10:08 AM
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#175
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Special Cookie Group: Members Posts: 2168 Joined: 6-April 05 From: Sintra | Portugal Member No.: 228 |
Dandy sargent hunts with sonnet.
-------------------- "Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, "If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Alan Poe |
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Jun 1 2009, 08:17 PM
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#176
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
QUOTE (ustrax @ May 27 2009, 07:24 AM) Drink southwesterner hollow fog grog QUOTE (ustrax @ Jun 1 2009, 11:08 AM) Dandy sargent hunts with sonnet. Yes, let's hope "they" will bring the distant stars closer to our eyes... (EDIT: don't get me wrong - I've no idea what they mean, just a dim idea about what they are... )
-------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
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Jun 1 2009, 09:26 PM
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#177
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
What are they? Crossword clues? Sub-intelligible advertising? Paranoia food (obvious to everyone except me)? Randomness lures (even nonsense may have a purpose)?
I tried anagrams, but shunt tonnes with Dynad garnets doesn't seem like an improvement. |
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Jun 2 2009, 08:49 PM
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#178
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 160 Joined: 4-July 05 From: Huntington Beach, CA, USA Member No.: 429 |
QUOTE (ngunn @ Jun 1 2009, 05:26 PM) What are they? Crossword clues? Sub-intelligible advertising? I guess it's anagrams for ideas that could be either true or crazy. If the idea confirmed, ustrax will show us that he knew it already. For examples of anagram use in astronomy, see http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/galtele.html |
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Jun 3 2009, 10:53 AM
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#179
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Special Cookie Group: Members Posts: 2168 Joined: 6-April 05 From: Sintra | Portugal Member No.: 228 |
Anagrams they are.
Half hip mahatmas broken limitedness. 
-------------------- "Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, "If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Alan Poe |
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Jun 3 2009, 05:35 PM
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#180
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 Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93 |
Ha, I thought they were difficult phrases for Greg's speech analyzer.
-------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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