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/

[ljk4-1]

Paper: astro-ph/0512251

Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 16:01:29 GMT (988kb)

Title: The Effect of the Transit of Venus on ACRIM's Total Solar Irradiance
Measurements: Implications for Transit Studies of Extrasolar Planets

Authors: G. Schneider, J. M. Pasachoff and R. C. Willson

Comments: Accepted to ApJ 8 Dec 2005; 14 pages of text, 8 figures, 1 table
\\
We used the 8 June 2004 transit of Venus (ToV) as a surrogate to test
observing methods, strategies and techniques that are being contemplated for
future space missions to detect and characterize extrasolar terrestrial planets
(ETPs) as they transit their host stars, notably NASA's Kepler mission planned
for 2008. As an analog to "Kepler-like" photometric transit observations, we
obtained (spatially unresolved) radiometric observations with the ACRIM 3
instrument on ACRIMSAT to follow the effect of the ToV on the total solar
irradiance (TSI). Contemporaneous high-resolution broadband imagery with NASA's
TRACE spacecraft provided, directly, measures of the stellar (solar)
astrophysical noise that can intrinsically limit such transit observations.
During the ~ 5.5 h transit, the planet's angular diameter was approximately
1/32 the solar diameter, thus covering ~ 0.1 of the stellar surface. With our
ACRIM 3 data, we measure temporal changes in TSI with a 1 sigma per sample
(unbinned) uncertainty of approximately 100 mW m^-2 (0.007%). A diminution in
TSI of ~ 1.4 W m^-2 (~ 0.1%, closely corresponding to the geometrically
occulted area of the photosphere) was measured at mid-transit compared with a
mean pre/post transit TSI of ~ 1365.9 W m^-2. These observations serve as a
surrogate to future photometric observations of ETPs such as Kepler will
deliver. Detailed analysis of the ToV, a rare event within our own solar
system, with time-resolved radiometry augmented with high-resolution imagery
provides a useful analogue for investigating the detectability and
characterization of ETPs from observations that are anticipated in the near
future.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0512251 , 988kb)

[ljk4-1]

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0601186

From: Gyula Szabo [view email]

Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 16:10:04 GMT (132kb)

Possibility of a photometric detection of "exomoons"

Authors: Gy. M. Szabo, K. Szatmary, Zs. Diveki, A. Simon

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics

We examined which exo-systems contain moons that may be detected in transit. We numerically modeled transit light curves of Earth-like and giant planets that cointain moons with 0.005--0.4 Earth-mass. The orbital parameters were randomly selected, but the entire system fulfilled Hill-stability. We conclude that the timing effect is caused by two scenarios: the motion of the planet and the moon around the barycenter. Which one dominates depends on the parameters of the system.

Already planned missions (Kepler, COROT) may be able to detect the moon in transiting extrasolar Earth-Moon-like systems with a 20% probability. From our sample of 500 free-designed systems, 8 could be detected with the photometric accuracy of 0.1 mmag and a 1 minute sampling, and one contains a stony planet. With ten times better accuracy, 51 detections are expected. All such systems orbit far from the central star, with the orbital periods at least 200 and 10 days for the planet and the moon, while they contain K- and M-dwarf stars.

Finally we estimate that a few number of real detections can be expected by the end of the COROT and the Kepler missions.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601186

[ljk4-1]

Science/Astronomy:

* Close-Up on the Kepler Mission

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_kepler_060118.html

The next transit of an Earth-sized planet will likely be observed in 2007 by the NASA Discovery Program's Kepler Mission. But the event won't happen in our solar system.

* Asteroid Collision Fueled Ancient Dust Storm on Earth

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0601...eroid_dust.html

One of the biggest cosmic dust storms of the past 80 million years left a blanket of material on Earth after an asteroid in space broke apart, researchers said today.