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Kepler Mission
The Kepler mission, led by Professor Thomas Madigan, aims to identify Earth-like exoplanets within the habitable zones of sun-like stars using the transit method and extensive data sampling. The mission's goals include investigating the configuration of planetary systems, estimating the frequency of terrestrial planets, and characterizing their sizes, shapes, and densities. Key findings include the discovery of Kepler-22b, a super-Earth, and the Tatooine-like system Kepler-16.
Kepler Mission
- 1. The Kepler Mission and The Search for Exoplanets Professor Thomas Madigan
- 2. Exoplanets: Extra solarplanets or planets in orbit around other stars
- 3. Prime directive: tofind Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars Sunlike stars: G class, main sequence stars Motivation: to complete the Copernican Revolution, to find our reflection in the cosmos
- 4. Mission Goals: Usingthe transit method and by taking large samplings of data, investigate the range and configuration of planetary systems of target stars in the Lyra / Cygnus region of the sky Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets that are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars Estimate how many planets exist in multiple-star systems and, with that, come to a conclusion regarding their sizes, shapes, mass and densities
- 5. Habitable Zone: directlylinked to a star’s intrinsic luminosity, it is the region around the star where water can exist in a liquid state For cooler, less luminous stars, it is closer to the star and less extensive For hotter, more luminous stars, it is further out and more extensive
- 8. Solar System Temperaturesand Environmental Parameters Planet Distance (AU) Temperature (K) Notes Mercury 0.387 633.65 Venus 0.723 463.59 Earth 1.000 394.19 Habitable zone (inner boundary) 1.116 373.14 Water transitions from gas to liquid Mars 1.523 319.41 Ice Line 2.100 272.02 Habitable zone (outer boundary) - water transitions from liquid to solid Asteroid Belt 2.800 235.57 Asteroid belt center of mass and semi-major axis of Ceres Jupiter 5.204 172.80 Saturn 9.582 127.34 Uranus 19.229 89.89 26.200 77.01 Nitrogen transitions from gas to liquid Neptune 30.103 71.85 Possible liquid nitrogen geysers on Triton Pluto 39.481 62.74
- 9. Why Sun-like stars? Life expectancy of G-class stars is measured in tens of billions of years Habitable zone is far enough from the host star where life-inhibiting gravitational tidal-locking won’t occur
- 12. The Kepler Instrument Launched on March 6th, 2009, Kepler is a 1-meter class, orbiting visible-light observatory
- 13. The Kepler Instrument Using the transit method and modern, state-of-the- art Photometry, simultaneously monitors the light curves of over 100,000 target stars Necessary sensitivity and precision: to accurately measure variations in intensity by one part in 10,000 for earth-like planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars
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- 15. The Kepler Instrument Candidate stellar and planetary systems are confirmed using large, ground-based telescopes
- 16. Kitt Peak NationalObservatory
- 17. The 4-Meter MayallReflector at Kitt Peak
- 18. The 4-Meter MayallReflector at Kitt Peak
- 19. The Transit Method We can’t visibly “see” the planet so how do we detect its presence? – measure variations in the star’s intensity as the planet transits the star – for earth-like planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, a sensitivity and accuracy of one part in 10,000 is necessary
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- 22. The Transit Method We can’t visibly “see” the planet so how do we determine the composition of the atmosphere? Changes in the star’s spectra as the planet transits the star will reveal the composition of the planet’s atmosphere
- 23. Recent Findings Kepler22-b 2-earth radii “Super Earth” – 8 times the earh’s mass – 2x the gravity – believed to harbor abundant water
- 25. Recent Findings Kepler16 and 16-b “Tatooine”-like system