NASA planet hunter blasts into night sky

[Bill McBlueState]

Source: Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, has blasted off aboard a rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The Kepler telescope rocketed into the night sky late Friday on a historic voyage to track down other Earths in a faraway patch of the Milky Way galaxy. The $600 million mission will last at least three-and-a-half years.

Once it's settled into an orbit around the sun, Kepler will stare nonstop at 100,000 stars. The telescope will watch for any dimming, or winks, in the stellar brightness that might be caused by orbiting planets. It's the first NASA mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun.

Kepler is named after the German 17th-century astrophysicist.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNa2Ximbpmzzu8tJeRmt8L3LqVIQD96OUU480

[Divine Discontent]

1. This wondrous existence that has been gifted to us surely holds similar planets

and if this somehow finds something in the coming years, I can say I watched this Delta II rocket blast off on a comfortable night at KSC.


President Obama Inaugural "A Witness to History" & first inaugural portrait items - www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[Peace Patriot]

2. Aside from restoring transparent vote counting, to be able to continue our democracy

past 2012, and cleansing our atmosphere and stabilizing earth's climate, I can't think of anything more important for us to be doing than discovering and contacting the other intelligent critters who surely inhabit the Milky Way.

Go, Kepler!

:applause:

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. "the other intelligent critters " - "Other" implies we know of some PRESENT intelligent critters

.
.
.

and who might THEY be

cuz it sure ain't us hoomans IMHO . . .

Flipper maybe ??

[Donnachaidh]

7. Think of how far we would be NOW, if we hadn't spent trillions on WAR.

It's obscene how much money was wasted in the art of killing thousands.

[trof]

3. So, are we looking for a fall back position?

After we've trashed this planet, on to another?
:eyes:

[Donnachaidh]

8. I don't even think you have to ask this question.

We've become the equivalent of the aliens in the Fourth of July. Use up planets, move on to the next.

Of course, at the rate we're going, we may not make it to the next one. Personally, we don't deserve to make it to the next one. :shrug:

[Bill McBlueState]

9. Let's say Kepler finds an Earthlike planet

How do you propose people will get there?

[DavidDvorkin]

10. Warp drive, Captain!

Hyperdrive!

By using the {invented technobabble} process!

If Kepler does detect an Earthlike planet, I wonder if that would prompt serious thinking about FTL travel or communication. ("Thinking" rather than "research" because I don't see how we can research anything at this point, given our understanding of how things work.)

[Peace Patriot]

14. Wow! That's quite a condemnation. But who is "we"? All of us? Idiot puppets

who get installed in power by the malevolent among us? You including scientists, teachers, artists, working people, kids, the poor? You including our next Einstein or our next Shakespeare? All the people who voted for Obama, or just the fuckwads of Diebold and brethren who shaved his mandate, and gave him a bunch of "Blue Dogs" and Pukes to muck things up?

I'm more optimistic than you, maybe because I've been an environmentalist for a long time, so I've done a lot of thinking about these things. I know we're losing the planet, but, hey, we are OF the planet. So, if we fail to turn things around, then that is the definition of intelligence on earth--it just couldn't make it to global consciousness quickly enough. But do we stop trying? That would be ignoble. Do we give up--because we have some truly difficult problems? No! But I'm also philosophical about it. We make it, or we don't make it. It is not a matter of "deserving" to survive as a species. It's a matter of...I don't know...something about our collective brains and creativity. We've been VERY creative at messing things up, for what most humans involved thought were good reasons--to have grain for seven years, and silos for the grain, and onto to automobiles and refrigerators and computers. We're very clever, but not very wise. Our cleverness outstrips our wisdom. Can our wisdom catch up? I don't know. But, I'll tell you, in my life span, I have seen an astonishing growth in global ecological consciousness. And I also see a lot of wisdom coming from other cultures than our own--for instance, the Ecuadorans just passed a new Constitution, with 65% of the vote, which grants Mother Nature ("Pachamama," in the indigenous) the independent right to exist and prosper, apart from human needs or impacts. That is quite an amazing development, and it comes from the rise of democracy in South America, in which the wisdom of indigenous farmers and tribes at long last has a voice. I don't know if you are doing this, but don't judge the entire human race by what you perceive of the particular problems we have here in the U.S. We are at the vortex of unconscious, powerful greed, and the panic of the rich. We are its epicenter. So quite a lot has been done to demoralize us, and strip us of our democratic power to lead progressive change. The unconscious greedy criminals who have been running things here want you to feel helpless and depressed. Don't give them the satisfaction! That is the human spirit, to my mind. Principled defiance! Be what you think is deserving. That's all we can do. And then maybe you will find that you are not alone.

[Posteritatis]

13. Yeah, let's just not do astronomy instead! (nt)

[Bill McBlueState]

4. kick for the morning n/t

[livetohike]

5. Thanks for posting this

:hi: It gets lost with all the dire economic news. There are good things happening and this is one of them. Maybe in what is remaining of my life, we will prove once and for all that we're not alone.

[Lost in CT]

11. That is cool... though I admit the headline does amp up the coolness factor

a bit.

[sufrommich]

12. "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. "

[Brother Buzz]

15. Perfect name for the planet-hunting satellite

Kepler was the man the unraveled the physics that described planetary orbits. His simple equation, P squared equals R cubed, allowed us to put a satellite in orbit around the earth and even to put one in stationary orbit (geosynchronous orbit?).

Back in the stone age when I took astronomy, Kepler's work was totally "The Bomb" and the professors were whispering ideas about remote sensing becoming the growth industry.

[flyarm]

16. I saw this last night..it was a fireball in our sky here on the west coast of Fla

I watched it and didn't know what it was..i checked the NASA web site ..i thought the space shuttle was supposed to take off Sunday..so i could not understand what this was..and i called a couple friends to see if they knew what it was..I was sitting on my porch and saw this fireball with a fire tail behind it.
At first i thought it was an aircraft with and engine on fire..but then i quickly realized it was going straight up..i got my bonoculars out and then knew it was some kind of space rocket of some sort..
Our sky was so clear that it was very very clearly visable..then when it got high enough up ..in my bonoculars i saw the red fire turn to a white glob high high up..( well it looked like a white glob to me..it did not have perfect lines around it..it was not symetrical, another words)

It really was pretty in the night sky..once I realized it was not an aircraft..and that it was not going horizontal but vertical.

I called several friends to look at it but they could not see it as i could from a high condo..

One friend found a story today about it..and her note to me about it..

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxx you were right when you called late last night...you saw a rocket launch or something similar and nothing in the news. Here it is today..it was in the St. Pete Times, but could not find it in the online version. Here it is from Bloomberg
xxxx

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=adkVjcoNdOXs&refer=us

NASA Launches Kepler Spacecraft in Search of Earth-Like Planets




By Jeff Bliss []

March 7 (Bloomberg) -- NASA has launched a spacecraft with a mission to help determine something that has been the theme for many Hollywood movies over the years: whether Earth-like planets might exist elsewhere in space.

The 15-foot tall, 2,320-pound Kepler satellite lifted off yesterday at 10:50 p.m. Eastern time atop a Delta II rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for a three-and- a-half-year mission to find other planets that may support life, according to a NASA statement distributed by PR Newswire.

Kepler carries a photometer, a device made up of 42 highly sensitive digital light sensors that will monitor a patch of 100,000 stars to detect planets that may orbit them. Its findings will be essential in determining the course of future missions looking for extraterrestrial life, said David Koch, Kepler’s deputy principal investigator.

“In terms of finding Earth-like planets, this is the only mission that can do it,” he said.

The launch came 10 days after another NASA satellite failed to reach orbit and crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. NASA officials said the fairing, which covers the satellite during the launch, didn’t come off as expected. The weight of the fairing prevented the satellite from reaching its orbit. Without enough power to carry it into orbit, the satellite plunged back to Earth.

Tests After Mishap

In the mishap’s aftermath, Kepler’s fairing was tested and approved for the new mission, which will cost $591 million. The Kepler satellite was built by Boulder, Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., constructed the rocket.

[daleo]

17. I hope this all goes well

The search for extra-solar planets, especially earth like planets is fascinating. As is space science in general.

[Baclava]

18. A $600 million ruse

If we want to go to the stars we could better use the money to capture one of the alien ships already here and hijack our way to space travel.

These bastards have been given the run of our airspace long enough!

Time to get serious and teach them a lesson before their armada arrives.

Perhaps I've said too much.

Viva la resistance!

(edit)who's that knocking at the door