Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.        Feb. 19, 2008
650-604-3937

RELEASE: 08-14AR

NASA AMES CONDUCTS TESTS OF KEPLER MISSION IMAGE DETECTORS

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- Sensitive detectors that may help find 
habitable planets orbiting distant stars as part of NASA's Kepler 
Mission are undergoing tests at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, 
Calif.

Scheduled to launch in February 2009, the Kepler Mission will measure 
tiny variations in the brightness of stars to find planets that pass 
in front of them during their orbits.  During these passes or 
"transits" the planets will slightly decrease the star's brightness. 
The detectors are similar to the image detectors found in a digital 
camera, but much more sensitive.

"This is a major milestone for the Kepler mission," said David Koch, 
deputy principal investigator for the Kepler Mission. "We will use 
hardware identical to what we will be flying on Kepler in the test 
bed at Ames. We will have the ability to create transits of a star so 
that we can see the change in the star's brightness. By simulating 
transits, we will be able to demonstrate that the flight hardware 
will work," Koch explained.

Kepler mission scientists will determine the frequency of Earth-size 
and larger planets in or near the habitable zone around other stars. 
Although hundreds of larger, Jupiter-like planets composed of gas 
already have been detected, Kepler mission scientists are seeking 
smaller planets where water, and perhaps, life, could exist.

"We expect to find dozens of planets in the habitable zone of 
solar-like stars that are terrestrial size, rocky planets, similar to 
Earth," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal 
investigator.  "We will learn whether Earths are common or rare in 
our galaxy."

There will be 42 charge coupled devices (CCDs) used in the focal 
plane of the telescope during the actual mission. Together, the 42 
CCDs make up a large array measuring about a foot square in Kepler's 
telescope.  This is the largest array of CCD detectors ever flown in 
space, Koch said.

In this month's Single String Transit Verification Test at Ames, 
scientists will be testing only one CCD, measuring approximately 
one-inch by two inches. Scientists will use a Kepler Technology 
Demonstration test bed to generate a star field, a pattern of stars, 
to represent that part of the sky where mission scientists will 
search for transits. The tests will verify the detectors' ability to 
measure the tiny light intensity variations.

In space, the array of detectors will be covered with sapphire 
field-flattener lenses and use a telescope, which Borucki said will 
search a region of sky 30,000 times larger that the Hubble Space 
Telescope is able to observe.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. NASA Ames is the home 
organization of the science principal investigator and is responsible 
for the ground system development, mission operations and science 
data analysis. Kepler mission development is managed by NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.  Ball Aerospace & 
Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the 
Kepler flight system.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:
     http://kepler.nasa.gov/

For more information on NASA programs, visit:
     http://www.nasa.gov
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32