NASA Extends Kepler Mission to 2016
Last edited Fri Apr 6, 2012, 12:43 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: The Daily Galaxy
NASA has just announced that is extending the mission life of its planet hunting Kepler Observatory to 2016. Launched in March, 2009, Kepler was originally set to have a mission life of 3.5 years, which would take it late into 2012. Launched in March 7, 2009, the Kepler observatory was designed to monitor nearly 150,000 stars' brightness, looking for the slightest variances that could signify the existence of a transiting planet. The most recent Kepler news revealed that the total count of Kepler planet candidates has reached 2321 and 1790 host stars, with 1091 planets emerging in the new analysis.
Based on the extraordinary successes enjoyed by the mission, NASA saw funding the mission for an extra 3 years to be worthwhile despite a tight budget.
The headline of the Kepler findings is profound: "A clear trend toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods is evident with each new catalog release. This suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant."
The Kepler catalog database now holds over 200 Earth-size planet candidates and over 900 that are smaller than twice the Earth’s size, which makes for a 197 percent increase in this type of planet candidates, with planets larger than 2 Earth radii increasing at about 52 percent. Ten planets in the habitable zone (out of a total of 46 planet candidates there) are near Earth in size, and the fraction of host stars with multiple candidates has grown from 17 to 20 percent.
In a March 8th analysis in Space Daily, John Rehing suggests that current Kepler findings might prove that Earthlike planets may be extremely rare. But 16 months of observation is insufficient to detect any precisely Earthlike planet, because the ground rule that only those earth-sized candidates with three transits observed means that a minimum of 24 months of observation will be required.
However, as new data comes in, Rehling says the barriers enforced by the geometric bias are pushed outward, and as more candidates are reported, more terrestrial worlds like the Earth, rather than giants like Jupiter, are revealed.
Read more: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/newsflash-hunt-for-superearths-to-continue-nasa-extends-kepler-mission-to-2016.html
18 billion = NASA
688 billion = Military Industrial Complex
60 billion = Homeland InSecurity
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is a great use of a comparatively small amount of money. 
