Woot! The Kepler mission was successfully launched at 7:49:57 pm PST time on March 6, 2009!
According to Wikipedia, Kepler's goals are to:
- Determine how many terrestrial and larger planets there are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of spectral types of stars
- Determine the range of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets
- Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems
- Determine the range of orbit size, brightness, size, mass and density of short-period giant planets
- Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques
- Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems
Truly exciting times we live in! When I was a child, there were only nine known planets (now there are eight^H^H^H^H^Hnine^H^H^H^Height, grrrrr. Damn IAU.). In the twenty years since Campbell, Walker, and Yang discovered the first extra-solar planet, over 342 such planets have now been discovered. Kepler may add several hundred more to the list, perhaps a couple of thousand more with some good luck and an extended mission.
Not only will Kepler find many planets, I expect it to find many Earth-like planets (small rocky planets approximately in the habitable zone like Earth, Mars, and Venus). As thrilling as discovering Earth-like planets is, Kepler will also permit us to begin cataloging and categorizing entire star-systems (other than sol, of course).
Happy hunting, Johannes!
