Feb. 19, 2009

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington{at}nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin{at}jpl.nasa.gov

Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-3937
michael.s.mewhinney{at}nasa.gov

RELEASE: 09-035

NASA'S KEPLER MISSION TO SEEK OTHER EARTHS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Kepler spacecraft is ready to be moved to the
launch pad today and will soon begin a journey to search for worlds
that could potentially host life.

Kepler is scheduled to blast into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket on March 5 at 10:48 p.m. EST.
It is the first mission with the ability to find planets like Earth
-- rocky planets that orbit sun-like stars in a warm zone where
liquid water could be maintained on the surface. Liquid water is
believed to be essential for the formation of life.

"Kepler is a critical component in NASA's broader efforts to
ultimately find and study planets where Earth-like conditions may be
present," said Jon Morse, the Astrophysics Division director at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "The planetary census Kepler takes will
be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size
planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly
detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars."

The mission will spend three and a half years surveying more than
100,000 sun-like stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way
galaxy. It is expected to find hundreds of planets the size of Earth
and larger at various distances from their stars. If Earth-size
planets are common in the habitable zone, Kepler could find dozens;
if those planets are rare, Kepler might find none.

In the end, the mission will be our first step toward answering a
question posed by the ancient Greeks: are there other worlds like
ours or are we alone?

"Finding that most stars have Earths implies that the conditions that
support the development of life could be common throughout our
galaxy," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal
investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
"Finding few or no Earths indicates that we might be alone."

The Kepler telescope is specially designed to detect the periodic
dimming of stars that planets cause as they pass by. Some star
systems are oriented in such a way that their planets cross in front
of their stars, as seen from our Earthly point of view. As the
planets pass by, they cause their stars' light to slightly dim, or
wink.

The telescope can detect even the faintest of these winks,
registering
changes in brightness of only 20 parts per million. To achieve this
resolution, Kepler will use the largest camera ever launched into
space, a 95-megapixel array of charged couple devices, known as CCDs.


"If Kepler were to look down at a small town on Earth at night from
space, it would be able to detect the dimming of a porch light as
somebody passed in front," said James Fanson, Kepler project manager
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

By staring at one large patch of sky for the duration of its
lifetime,
Kepler will be able to watch planets periodically transit their stars
over multiple cycles. This will allow astronomers to confirm the
presence of planets. Earth-size planets in habitable zones would
theoretically take about a year to complete one orbit, so Kepler will
monitor those stars for at least three years to confirm their
presence. Ground-based telescopes and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space
telescopes will perform follow-up studies on the larger planets.

"Kepler is a critical cornerstone in understanding what types of
planets are formed around other stars," said exoplanet hunter Debra
Fischer of San Francisco State University. "The discoveries that
emerge will be used immediately to study the atmospheres of large,
gas exoplanets with Spitzer. And the statistics that are compiled
will help us chart a course toward one day imaging a pale blue dot
like our planet, orbiting another star in our galaxy."

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is the home organization of
the science principal investigator, and is responsible for the ground
system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL
manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corp. of Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the Kepler
flight system and supporting mission operations.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

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