In a night launch of stunning beauty, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Friday night, March 6th, on a mission to find Earth-like planets circling other stars.

March 6, 2009: NASA’s Kepler mission successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST, Friday. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet’s surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.

“It was a stunning launch,” said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Our team is thrilled to be a part of something so meaningful to the human race — Kepler will help us understand if our Earth is unique or if others like it are out there.” [...]

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article

 

 

NASA’s new Kepler telescope will seek out new Earth-like planets beyond the scope of Europe’s CoRoT.

BOULDER, Colorado – NASA’s sharp-shooting Kepler spacecraft is ready to take its place this week in the pantheon of planetary detection technologies.

It wasn’t long ago when a question mark loomed over astronomers pondering whether other planets existed beyond our little family of solar system worlds. Today, nearly 330 exoplanets have been discovered in the past 15 years – most of which are gas giants with characteristics similar to Jupiter and Neptune. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article