Kepler Adds 100 to Galaxy's Planet Count
Kepler Adds 100 to Galaxy's Planet Count
Jul 19, 2016 08:04 PM ET
Revamped after a steering system failure, NASA's orbiting telescope still is contributing to the growing inventory of planets beyond our solar system.
Astronomers have confirmed 104 planets beyond the solar system that were spotted by NASA's revamped Kepler space telescope.
Launched in March 2009, Kepler spent four years staring at small patch of the sky looking for slight dips in the amount of light coming from about 140,000 target stars. Scientists then used the information to determine which light dips are caused by planets passing across the face of their parent stars, relative to Kepler's line of sight, as opposed to, for example, stellar flares or eclipsing binary stars.
A pointing system problem sidelined Kepler in 2013, but engineers devised a new way to operate the telescope using its two remaining gyroscopes, its thrusters and the pressure of sunlight. For stability, the telescope needs to be oriented nearly parallel to its orbital path around the sun, which is slightly offset from Earth's orbital plane, known as the ecliptic.
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