The United Nations have named 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. The twelvemonth was chosen by the United Nations because it tags the four hundred twelvemonth day of remembrance of Italian uranologist Galileo Galilei Galilei's first observations using a telescope.
The International Year of Astronomy will have a figure of interesting international space undertakings and events. The European Space Agency have programs to establish a mobile research lab to Mars. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic service programs to offer commercial sub-orbital space flights that should commence in 2009. Soviet Union should be able to establish its research lab faculty for the International Space Station.
However, the most exciting missionary post in the International Year of Astronomy may well be the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Discovery Mission called Kepler. National Aeronautics and Space Administration means to direct a investigation into space capable of determination little planets like World that have got the possibility of supporting life. The Johannes Kepler telescope is looking for planets in the "habitable zone" of their star or at distances that would let oceans to exist.
To date, more than than two hundred other solar planets have got been found, but none of these finds is a planet similar to the Earth. The fact is that it is very hard to observe a planet as little as World in celestial orbit around a distant star. A bantam planet like World only reflects the visible light from the star and makes not reflect on its own. In addition, this faint planet visible light looks to be so fold to the much brighter star that they are almost impossible to state apart. The 2009 Johannes Johannes Kepler Space Lab is being designed to travel beyond the Edwin Hubble Telescope and traditional Earth-bound telescopes to turn up bouldery Earth-sized planets.
Kepler will be a space-based probe with a cost of over five hundred 50 million dollars. It will utilize state of the fine art engineering (optical interferometry) that have been refined only within the last two decades. The Johannes Kepler investigation will be launched into an Earth-trailing celestial orbit around the Sun by a Delta supporter rocket. Its telescope is being designed to precisely measurement the visible light from stars in a 1 hundred foursquare grade portion of the sky in the configuration of Cygnus to detect both the size and celestial orbit of undetected new worlds.
It is estimated that the mark country of the telescope's observation is place to more than than one hundred thousand stars. The spacecraft's photometer will be able to observe little lessenings in leading brightness when a planet "transits" its star. Three theodolites with a consistent period, brightness change, and continuance will supply National Aeronautics and Space Administration men of science with grounds of the sensing of an extra-solar planet. Johannes Johannes Kepler is scheduled to concentrate exclusively on the configuration Cygnus mark country for four old age with a possible two-year extension.
The Kepler investigation is of import not only for what it may find, but also for what it may not find. For example, if Johannes Kepler can't turn up littler planets like Earth, it may be that planets with "habitable zones" are rare in space. World may indeed be truly unique. However, if planets with a size and location similar to World are discovered, there would be Earth-like planets to aim for subsequent National Aeronautics and Space Administration space missions.
The launch of Johannes Kepler is now only one twelvemonth away and will tag an attempt to detect our topographic point in the universe. If you believe unidentified flying physical objects (UFO) be or simply that life indeed must be elsewhere, NASA's Johannes Kepler missionary post should be a high spot in the International Year of Astronomy.
Of course, the ultimate inquiry in space geographic expedition is the question, are we alone in the universe? In 2009, the Johannes Kepler Space Lab gets the journeying to happen out the answer, as it fulfills its missionary post to Hunt for life supporting planets like World in space.
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