The Kepler space telescope, which was launched in early March, has taken and sent home its first images of the region in the galaxy where it will spend the next three years searching for Earth-like planets.
The images sent to NASA show a “vast starry field” in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way galaxy, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. One image shows millions of stars in the craft’s full field of view, while two other images zoom in specific sections of that region [Computerworld]. Kepler’s primary mission is to survey stars for regular slight dips in their brightness, a sign that an orbiting planet is blocking the star’s light [Nature blog]. Eventually, the craft will measure the stars’ brightness every half hour.
The telescope is designed to observe the same wide field of stars continuously for the length of its mission, providing astronomers with a record of the changes in brightness of 100,000 stars [Nature blog]. William Borucki, head of NASA’s Kepler mission, said, “We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars. And for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun.” Kepler is the first space telescope with this capability, thanks to its 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever sent to space [Wired].
Lia LaPiana, Kepler’s program executive, said, “Kepler’s first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring. To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking” [Computerworld].
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Image: Carter Roberts / Eastbay Astronomical Society, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech
April 17th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Awesome news, now let’s just get some astonishing results! Oh yeah, I know, all in time. I just want them NOW!
April 18th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Dude, I agree!
April 18th, 2009 at 12:50 am
We can only imagine what Kepler himself would have thought if he’d known someday we’d be making such observations. I hope he would have been as thrilled as I am.
April 18th, 2009 at 2:06 am
*I* want a 95 megapixel camera!
April 18th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I have an 18,000 x 18,000 pixel image of The Orion Nebula from Hubble!
That 324 Mpx
April 19th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Quasar, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. Shootin down Nicks 95 mpx fore he’s even got it. Aren’t you a nice guy. See who you’re up against Nick? It’s a jungle out there.
April 19th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Steve, I think you may have spotted a couple of size queens.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:14 am
my phone takes 2 megapixel photos. For the uninformed, that’s 1/162 of the picture that QUASAR has.