Science
Related: About this forumNASA to announce new Kepler discovery: Watch it live 11am PT/2pm ET
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-kepler-discovery-live-stream-20130417,0,1118452.storyNASA to announce new Kepler discovery: Watch it live
By Deborah Netburn
April 18, 2013, 7:00 a.m.
What did NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission find now? Find out when you watch a NASA news briefing live, right here.
At 11 a.m. Pacific time, NASA will host a news briefing detailing the latest discoveries from the agency's Kepler Space Telescope, and we'll be streaming the press conference live.
The telescope has been scanning the skies for nearly four years, looking for planets where liquid water -- and possibly life -- might exist.
<snip>
The ultimate goal of the mission is to find "Goldilocks planets" where it is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for life to take hold.
You'll find live streaming video of the conference below.
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
bananas
(27,509 posts)MEDIA INAF
?@mediainaf
Due quasi-Terre per Kepler http://bit.ly/17s01h3 @mediainaf #EELT #Esa #Gratton #Kepler #Nasa
10:12 AM - 18 Apr 13
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)announcement that would change text books
bananas
(27,509 posts)The journalist misunderstood the scientist.
They haven't said anything about what todays announcement will be, other than it's from Kepler.
The way this week has been going, maybe they'll tell us they've detected a Borg ship headed our way.
longship
(40,416 posts)That wasn't the Kepler mission. Wasn't it MSL (Mars Science Laboratory == Curiosity rover)?
And it is very likely that MSL discoveries will change the textbooks. Unfortunately, the guy who made that announcement on the MSL team did not make clear that point. He learned the hard way, I suppose, how not to word a statement to the press.
Such is how things are sometimes. Scientists need to learn some media communication skills.
I suspect this will be a candidate Earth-like planet, something Kepler was designed to discover. Unfortunately, it takes multiple orbits to detect each planet. At an Earth-like distance that means three or four transits will likely be necessary. For Earth, that's three or four years, of course.
Who knows what this is? We'll see.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Ames Research Center
?@NASAAmes
Watch the@NASAKepler planet hunters discuss their latest findings at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv at 11PDT today. Ask questsions using #askNASA
10:15 AM - 18 Apr 13
bananas
(27,509 posts)bananas
(27,509 posts)Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)Not related to the topic, but this got me to peruse NASA's website for about the last 30 minutes. All I can say is that things feel like they are happening way to slow for my liking. NASA in on the verge of carrying out some very interesting missions in the next decade and I wish they would do it faster!
Looking back to when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, our understanding of the universe has come a long way.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I'm watching the stream. Pretty interesting, to me at least. They have identified a couple of planets of interest, using criteria that might be conducive to the development of life (size, distance from their star(s), etc.) I think they said they're roughly two thousand light-years from Earth, so we won't be visiting them anytime soon. Anyway it's a fascinating project.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)oh wait, I watched the whole thing too...
I love this stuff. I'm so jealous of the guys who get to work on these sorts of projects. I know better than to say "never", but I doubt we'll be able to get much clearer of an answer about life on planets orbiting different stars during my life time. Maybe my great great great great great great grand kids might witness exploration of exoplanets first hand.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)The finding, reported online today in Science1, demonstrates that Kepler is closing in on its goal of finding a true twin of Earth beyond the Solar System, says theorist Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who is a member of the Kepler discovery team.
Both planets orbit the star Kepler-62, which is about two-thirds the size of the Sun and lies about 1,200 light years (368 parsecs) from the Solar System. The outermost planet from the star, Kepler-62f, has a diameter that is 41% larger than Earths and takes 267 days to circle its star. The inner planet, Kepler-62e, has a diameter 61% larger than Earths and a shorter orbit of 122 days.
Kepler detected the planets by recording the tiny decrease in starlight that occurs when either of them passes in front of their parent star. Astronomers used those measurements to calculate the planets relative size compared to that star.
http://www.nature.com/news/kepler-spies-water-worlds-1.12825
pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Newfound exoplanet Kepler-62f is imagined in an illustration. The shining star to the right is Kepler-62e. Illustration courtesy T. Pyle, Caltech/NASA
Planet hunters are significantly closer to their goal of finding an "Earth twin" with the discovery of two planets similar in size to our own, astronomers with NASA's Kepler mission announced today.
The planets, described at a NASA press conference, orbit a sun that's cooler than ours but is at the right distance to allow water to remain liquid, which is considered essential for a planet to support life.
And because of their sizes and orbits, the newfound planets are likely either rockylike Earthor watery, NASA scientists said. The two planets are located 1,200 light-years away in a five-planet system orbiting a star dubbed Kepler-62.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130418-exoplanets-earth-planets-science-space-kepler-nasa/
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)the water's blue
it's a sunny day
on Kepler 62
The Earth is crowded
it smells like poo
Please darling lets go
to Kepler 62