A noteworthy technological hole has revive the Kepler Space Telescope , and it is once again finding planet beyond our solar system . So far , it has yet to match the astonishing effort of its earlier commission , whenhundreds of potential planetswere announced at a time . Nevertheless , the announcement that the telescope has found its first new exoplanet since the wheels literally came off is cause for solemnization .
Early discoveries of planet circle other champion were made using theDoppler " wobble method acting . " While this is still used today to find planets aroundrelatively nearby adept , it is a dull process .
Kepler , on the other hired man , has detected 996 confirmed exoplanets , and 3,216 that have yet to be verified . It did so through exceptionally sensitive measuring of the light coming from 145,000 stars . When planet go along in front of these stars they blur slightly , and where this happens regularly enough , Kepler can determine the major planet ’s orbital period .
The wealth of data Kepler produced has allow astronomers to cipher thefrequency of planetal systems in the galaxy , as well as pick up someparticularly exciting examples . However , two of the reaction bike that keep the telescope pointing in the right direction in the absence seizure of gravity failed , ending observation in 2013 .
Most of the exoplanet announcements come after this , as the data fill a while to process , but the original mission was over . This , however , was not the end of Kepler ’s capacity . NASA put out a call for suggestion on how the handicapped , but not destroyed , space vehicle could be put to utilise , and in November 2013 adopted the K2 proposal to change over its centering . K2 relies on thepressure of sunlightto create what stargazer are calling a “ practical reaction wheel . ”
mention : NASA . Kepler is bracing itself against the pressure of sunlight to remain static enough to take utile observations .
Kepler is now only one - fifteenth as accurate as its earliest personification , but that is still enough to make observations of asteroids and comets within our solar system , as well as to follow the decline of supernova . Moreover , it was thought possible that this abject preciseness might still be enough to happen planet aroundred dwarf maven , even if the independent sequence star on which Kepler ab initio focused were now out of orbit .
And so it has been prove . Phoenix - like , Kepler is back , with NASA announcing the verification of a possible planet , hip joint 116454b , located during a test run in February . HIP 116454b lies 180 light - eld from Earth toward the constellation Pisces and is around 2.5 times the diam of Earth . Its existence was confirm by the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands .
" The Kepler foreign mission show us that planets larger in size than Earth and belittled than Neptune are common in the galaxy , yet they are absent in our solar system,“said NASA ’s Steve Howell . " K2 is uniquely place to dramatically down our sympathy of these alien worlds and further define the bound between rough cosmos like Earth and methamphetamine hydrochloride monster like Neptune . "
The workplace has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal . Meanwhile , space scientists are exploit on expanding Kepler ’s capacity , with a focus on nearby stars .
