Space Topics: Extrasolar Planets
The Year in Pictures: 2009
First Light for a Planet-Hunter
First Light for Kepler
Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
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Taken on April 8, 2009, these are the first
images taken by the planet-hunting mission Kepler. The large image in the center shows
a 100-degree-square patch of sky containing an estimated 14 million stars.
Kepler will observe this region continuously for more than three years, searching
for signs of transiting planets in a group of 100,000 pre-selected stars.
The dark lines crisscrossing the image indicate the arrangement of the charged
coupled devices (CCD's) in Kepler's powerful camera.
The top left image
is of a region 1000 times smaller than the full field, which contains the
known transiting planet TrES-2. The image on the top right includes star
cluster NGC 6791, at a distance of 13,000 light years from Earth.
Early data from the spacecraft was used to study the
atmosphere of a previously known hot Jupiter named HAT-P-7b,
determining that the planet's dayside atmospheric temperature is a scorching
2780 degrees Celsius (4310 degrees Fahrenheit).
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