Da Missão Kepler original à Missão K2, a Segunda Luz

Olá!

Sempre nos sentimos imensamente atraídos pelo Triãngulo do Verão
(ou Triângulo do Inverno, para nós, do hemisfério sul!),
não é verdade?



See Explanation.
Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version.
Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version
available.


Summer Night in Astronomy Town 
Credit & CopyrightBabak Tafreshi (TWAN)

Explanation: This serene view records a late summer night sky over the rolling, green hills of planet Earth. It was taken near the rural village of Saadat Shahr, Fars province, in southern Iran. Saadat Shahr is also known as Astronomy Town, as the inhabitants have demonstrated a remarkable passion for sky gazing. Fittingly, this Astronomy Town sky view finds a lovely part of the Milky Way near picture center. The three brightest stars are the stars of the Summer Triangle, Deneb in Cygnus (top), Altair in Aquila (left), and Vega in Lyra (right). The foreground landscape, illuminated by Astronomy Town lights, includes a kind of wild pistachio tree common in the region. To identify the stars and constellations, just slide your cursor over the image. 





Caro Leitor,
mais do que comentarmos sobre as três estrelas
- Altair, alpha Aquilae, Vega, alpha Lyrae Deneb, alpha Cygnus -,
gostaria de convidar você 
a observarmos com muito carinho
o miolo de abóbada celeste
existente entre essas belíssimas luzes!.............
..........................
.............. Quer dizer, mais propriamente
convidar você
a observarmos atentamente 
o espaço existente entre 
as constelações da Lira e do Cisne!



http://www.stellarium.org/pt/

http://www.stellarium.org/pt/


An image by Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society in Oakland, CA, showing the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft/photometer will be pointing. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each CCD element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square.
Credit: Carter Roberts / Eastbay Astronomical Society. 

Kepler Mission Star Field

An image by Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society in Oakland, CA, showing the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft/photometer will be pointing. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each CCD element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square. Credit: Carter Roberts / Eastbay Astronomical Society. 



Não somente nós, seres humanos, 
você e eu,
estivemos, estamos e continuaremos a estarmos todos
 com nossos olhares voltados para este pedacinho 
dos céus estrelados, Caro Leitor,
como também estêve
KEPLER,
A SONDA ESPACIAL
EM BUSCA POR POTENCIAIS PLANETAS HABITÁVEIS.

A bem da verdade,
a Missão Kepler original
encontrou seu término devido a sério problema,
porém nos fazendo herdeiros de um imenso legado de informações valiosíssimas!
- muitas das quais ainda não analisadas e pesquisadas
e continuando a serem trabalhadas
e a nos proverem com fantásticas descobertas
que ampliam nosso conhecimento sobre o universo em que vivemos
e que mantemos a esperança de não estarmos sós!

Recentemente, recebemos a afortunada notícia
da descoberta do primeiro planeta (similar à nossa Terra)
posicionado na chamada Zona Habitável
- entre as constelações do Cisne e da Lira: Kepler-186f.



Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone
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Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four inner planets, seen lined up in orbit around a host star that is half the size and mass of the sun.
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LEIA MAIS em
http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/kepler-186f-the-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone/#.VFn3vTTF_r0



Onde no céu encontra-se Kepler-186? 
Desenhe uma linha imaginária de Vega a Deneb:
 Kepler-186 posiciona-se em cerca de dois-terços do caminho 
(desde Vega) até Deneb.





Da Missão  KEPLER original
 à
 Missão K2, a Segunda Luz



The K2 mission provides an opportunity to continue Kepler’s ground-breaking discoveries in the field of exoplanets and expand its role into new and exciting astrophysical observations.

Kepler's loss of a second spacecraft reaction wheel in May 2013 effectively ended data collection in the original Kepler field after 4 years of continuous monitoring. However, all other Kepler assets remain intact and can be used for the K2 mission.
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LEIA MAIS em


A Missão K2 permite uma oportunidade de dar continuidade às descobertas inovadoras da Sonda Kepler no campo de exoplanetas e de expandir sua atuação em observações astrofísicas novas e excitantes.

A perda da segunda roda da Sonda Kepler, em maio de 2013, trouxe um término efetivo à coleta de dados no campo original de atuação da Kepler após 4 anos de monitoração contínua.  Entretanto, todos os demais componentes na Sonda continuam intactos e podem ser usados para a realização da Missão K2.
(Minha, Janine, tradução simples e direta)




 Caro Leitor,
apesar de problemas ocorridos na Sonda Kepler
esta não foi aposentada, não, longe disso!
Bem ao contrário,
existe uma SEGUNDA LUZ
 trazendo um retorno à vida e ao trabalho,
um quase renascimento da Missão Kepler
em sua incansável 
Busca pelo Desconhecido a se tornar Conhecido.

Nesta Postagem, estaremos trazendo
algumas sucintas informações
sobre

KEPLER,
A SONDA ESPACIAL
EM BUSCA POR POTENCIAIS PLANETAS HABITÁVEIS

e

K2
ESTENDENDO A ENERGIA DA SONDA KEPLER
ATRAVÉS O PLANO DA ECLÍPTICA




"... the ways by which men arrive at knowledge of the celestial things
are hardly less wonderful than the nature of these things themselves"
- Johannes Kepler

".... os meios pelos quais o homem alcança o conhecimento dos eventos/objetos celestes
são dificilmente menos maravilhosos do que a natureza destes mesmos eventos/objetos"
(minha, Janine, simples e direta tradução)


LEIA MAIS SOBRE JOHANNES KEPLER
em





A MISSÃO KEPLER ORIGINAL


Delta II with KeplerPublic Domain

The Kepler spacecraft will watch a patch of space for indications of Earth-sized planets moving around stars similar to the sun. The area that Kepler will watch contains about 100,000 stars like the sun. Using special detectors similar to those used in digital cameras, Kepler will look for a slight dimming in the stars as planets pass between the stars and Kepler. The observatory's place in space will allow it to watch the same stars constantly throughout its mission, something observatories such as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope cannot do.



SAIBA MAIS E MAIS
SOBRE A MISSÃO KEPLER
acessando

Kepler Overview

Kepler: NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars

An artists rendering of what our galaxy might look as viewed from outside our Galaxy. Our sun is about 25,000 light years from the center of our galaxy. The cone illustrates the neighborhood of our galaxy that the Kepler Mission will search to find habitable planets. Credit: Jon Lomberg
Credit: Jon Lomberg.




An image by Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society in Oakland, CA, showing the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft/photometer will be pointing. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each CCD element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square.
Credit: Carter Roberts / Eastbay Astronomical Society. 

Kepler Mission Star Field

An image by Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society in Oakland, CA, showing the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft/photometer will be pointing. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each CCD element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square. Credit: Carter Roberts / Eastbay Astronomical Society. 




Kepler's Field Of View In Targeted Star Field

This star chart illustrates the large patch of sky that NASA's Kepler mission will stare at for the duration of its three-and-a-half-year lifetime. The planet hunter's full field of view occupies 100 square degrees of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. 

Kepler's focal plane, or the area where starlight is focused, is depicted on the star chart as a series of 42 vertical and horizontal rectangles. These rectangles represent the 95-megapixel camera's 42 charge-coupled devices, or CCDs. Scientists selected the orientation of the focal plane's field of view to avoid the region's brightest stars, which are shown as the largest black dots. Some of these bright stars can be seen falling in between the CCD modules, in areas that are not imaged. This was done so that the brightest stars will not saturate large portions of the detectors. Saturation causes signals from the bright stars to spill, or "bloom," into nearby planet-hunting territory. 

Image credit: Software Bisque 



Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech 


This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full field of view -- an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees, or the equivalent of two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. 



Kepler was designed to hunt for planets like Earth. Of the approximately 4.5 million stars in the region pictured here, more than 100,000 were selected as candidates for Kepler's search. The mission will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at these target stars, looking for periodic dips in brightness. Such dips occur when planets cross in front of their stars from our point of view in the galaxy, partially blocking the starlight. 

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LEIA MAIS
em
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/fullFFINoCalloutsHot300.html



Kepler

Kepler Planet Locations - Kepler's planet candidates by size


Image credit: NASA/Wendy Stenzel






sonda Kepler consiste em um observatório espacial projetado pela NASA que deverá procurar por planetas extrassolares. Para esta finalidade, a sonda deverá observar as 100 000 estrelas mais brilhantes do céu por um período de quatro anos, a fim de detectar alguma ocultação periódica de uma estrela por um de seus planetas.
Kepler não deverá permanecer em órbita da Terra, mas sim em uma órbita de perseguição à órbita solar da Terra, a fim de que a Terra não oculte estrelas que estejam sendo observadas pelo observatório, além de este ficar distante das luzes da Terra. O observatório foi lançado em 6 de março de 2009.
A sonda tem uma massa estimada de 995 kg, e seu principal instrumento é um fotômetro de 0,95 metro de diâmetro. Ele tem um campo de visão aproximado de dois punhos fechados, na distância de um braço esticado. Deverá bater uma foto a cada três segundos e deverá custar em torno de 467 milhões de dólares.
A sonda Kepler não está mais em operação atualmente, devido a um defeito no sistema giroscópico. Os primeiros resultados principais foram anunciados em 4 de janeiro de 2010, estudos realizados na Terra sobre os dados das primeiras seis semanas, revelam cinco planetas antes desconhecidos, todos bem próximos de suas estrelas, um do tamanho próximo ao de Netuno e quatro do tamanho de Júpiter. Um deles, Kepler-7b é o planeta menos denso descoberto até agora.
Tendo tido defeitos no seu sistema giroscópico desde maio de 2013 sem solução, em 15 de agosto de 2013 a NASA anunciou que desistiu de tentar consertar as duas rodas de equilibro que falharam, onde mantinham a "mira' e alinhamento de observação do telescópio. Isto significa que a missão atual precisa ser modificada, mas não significa necessariamente o fim do caçador de planetas.





As of October 2014Kepler and its follow-up observations had found 989 confirmed exoplanets in more than 400 stellar systems, along with a further 3,213 unconfirmed planet candidates.[B][16][17] In November 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billionEarth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy.[18][19][20] 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars.[21] The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists.[18][19]


Kepler Planet Count

Confirmed Planets: 989
Planet Candidates: 4,234
Eclipsing Binary Stars: 2,165

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EM




Figure 4. The new lineup of up to 21 potentially habitable exoplanets according to the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. Kepler-186f is the most Earth-size planet now but it also receives one third the energy from its star than Earth. This significantly lowers its observable similarities with Earth as compared with other planets in the catalog.





KEPLER-186F

NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star
April 17, 2014


Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.
While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.
"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."

he artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f , the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. [Click link below for more.]
Image Credit: 
NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech




Where in the sky is Kepler-186? Draw an imaginary line from Vega to Deneb. Kepler-186 is about two-thirds of the way to Deneb along that line.

Onde no céu encontra-se Kepler-186? 
Desenhe uma linha imaginária de Vega a Deneb:
 Kepler-186 posiciona-se em cerca de dois-terços do caminho 
(desde Vega) até Deneb.





SAIBA MAIS SOBRE KEPLER-186F
em



VEJA O VÍDEO:

NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of Another Star


Astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.







A MISSÃO K2:
Kepler renascendo em Segunda Luz


Launched in 2009, Kepler is NASA's first mission to find and confirm small Earth-size planets around other stars in the habitable zone, the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. To date Kepler has identified more than 4,200 exoplanet candidates and verified nearly 1,000 as bonafide planets. Through Kepler discoveries, planets are now known to be common and diverse, showing the universe hosts a vast range of environments.
After the failure of two of its four reaction wheels following the completion of data collection in its primary mission, the Kepler spacecraft was resuscitated this year and reborn as K2, a mission that extends the Kepler legacy to observations in the ecliptic – the part of the sky that is home to the familiar constellations of the zodiac. The K2 mission will continue exoplanet discovery, and introduces new scientific observation opportunities to study notable star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies and supernovae.



Artist’s conception of the Kepler space telescope observing planets transiting a distant star.
Artist’s conception of the Kepler space telescope observing planets transiting a distant star.
Image Credit: 

NASA Ames/ W Stenzel



 A NASA pediu à comunidade para propor planos de missões alternativas potencialmente incluindo pesquisas que permitam buscas de exoplanetas, usando as últimas duas rodas ainda boas de reação e propulsão. 
Em 18 de novembro de 2013, foi criada a K2 (também chamada "Second Light"), uma proposta de plano que pode incluir a utilização do Kepler mesmo com deficiência, de alguma forma que ainda poderia detectar planetas habitáveis em torno de uma menor dimensão, de estrelas anãs vermelhas, onde foi relatado posteriormente e apresentado com mais detalhes a respeito. Especula-se que sistemas mecânicos, quando em longo período no espaço, tal qual as rodas desse giroscópio, tendem a falhar em temperaturas extremamente baixas e daí a tais falhas irrecuperáveis do telescópio.



A BUSCA POR PLANETAS CONTINUA!

Image credit - NASA Ames Research Center/ WStenzel/F Mullally and Milky Way Field composite by S Brunier/ESO



A Sunny Outlook for NASA Kepler's Second Light
November 25, 2013
You may have thought that NASA's Kepler spacecraft was finished. Well, think again. A repurposed Kepler Space telescope may soon start searching the sky again.
A new mission concept, dubbed K2, would continue Kepler's search for other worlds, and introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies and supernovae.
In May, the Kepler spacecraft lost the second of four gyroscope-like reaction wheels, which are used to precisely point the spacecraft, ending new data collection for the original mission. The spacecraft required three functioning wheels to maintain the precision pointing necessary to detect the signal of small Earth-sized exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, orbiting stars like our sun in what's known as the habitable zone -- the range of distances from a star where the surface temperature of a planet might be suitable for liquid water.
With the failure of a second reaction wheel, the spacecraft can no longer precisely point at the mission's original field of view. The culprit is none other than our own sun.
The very body that provides Kepler with its energy needs also pushes the spacecraft around by the pressure exerted when the photons of sunlight strike the spacecraft. Without a third wheel to help counteract the solar pressure, the spacecraft's ultra-precise pointing capability cannot be controlled in all directions.
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LEIA MAIS em
Veja abaixo, Caro Leitor, a tradução para a língua portuguesa para o texto A Sunny Outlook for NASA Kepler's Second Light
Extraído do Site português
 Núcleo de Astronomia - Centro de Ciência Viva do Algarve

PROPOSTA "SEGUNDA LUZ" DO KEPLER

Achava que o Telescópio Kepler da NASA já estava reformado? Pense novamente. O Telescópio Espacial Kepler pode em breve retomar a sua pesquisa do céu.

Um novo conceito de missão, baptizado K2, retomaria a busca do Kepler por outros mundos, e introduziria novas oportunidades para observar aglomerados estelares, estrelas jovens e velhas, galáxias activas e supernovas.
Em Maio, o Kepler perdeu a segunda de quatro rodas de reacção, semelhantes a giroscópios, usadas para apontar a nave com precisão, terminando assim a recolha de dados da missão original. O telescópio precisa de três rodas de reacção em pleno funcionamento para manter a precisão necessária para detectar o sinal de exoplanetas pequenos, planetas para lá do nosso Sistema Solar em órbita de estrelas como o Sol, no que é conhecido como a zona habitável - a gama de distâncias de uma estrela onde a temperatura à superfície de um planeta pode ser adequada à existência de água líquida.

Com o falhanço da segunda roda de reacção, o telescópio não pode apontar com precisão para o campo de vista da missão. O culpado não é outro senão o nosso próprio Sol.

O próprio corpo que fornece energia ao Kepler também empurra a nave devido à pressão exercida quando os fotões de luz solar a atingem. Sem uma terceira roda de reacção para ajudar a contrariar a pressão solar, as capacidades ultra-precisas do telescópio não podem ser controladas em todas as direcções.

No entanto, os engenheiros do Kepler e da Ball Aerospace desenvolveram uma forma inovadora de recuperar estabilidade ao manobrar a nave para que a pressão solar seja distribuída uniformemente em todas as superfícies.

Para atingir este nível de estabilidade, a orientação do Kepler tem que ser quase paralela ao seu percurso orbital em redor do Sol, que está ligeiramente deslocado da eclíptica, o plano orbital da Terra. O plano da eclíptica define a banda do céu em que se encontram as constelações do zodíaco.

Esta técnica de usar o Sol como a "terceira roda" para controlar a pontaria do Kepler está sendo testada no telescópio e já foram obtidos os primeiros resultados. Durante um teste de desempenho no final de Outubro, foi capturada uma imagem do campo de visão completo do telescópio mostrando parte da constelação de Sagitário.

Os fotões de luz de um campo estelar distante foram recolhidos ao longo de um período de 30 minutos e produziram uma qualidade de imagem correspondente a 5% da qualidade de imagem da missão principal, que usou as quatro rodas de reacção para controlar a estabilidade. Ao longo dos próximos dias e semanas vão decorrer testes adicionais para demonstrar a capacidade de manter este nível de controlo.

O telescópio precisa manter a sua estabilidade durante longos períodos de tempo, de modo a capturar a assinatura reveladora de um planeta distante à medida que atravessa a face da sua estrela-mãe e bloqueia temporariamente uma fracção da luz recolhida.

"Esta imagem da 'segunda luz' do telescópio fornece um primeiro passo bem-sucedido num processo que pode ainda resultar em novas observações e descobertas pelo Kepler," afirma Charlie Sobeck, vice-gerente do projecto Kepler, no Centro de Pesquisa Ames da NASA em Moffett, Field, no estado americano da Califórnia.

O conceito da missão K2 foi apresentado na sede da NASA e será revisto ainda no final deste ano, juntamente com uma proposta de orçamento.

A missão original do Kepler, cujo processamento de dados está ainda em andamento, era a de determinar a percentagem de estrelas como o Sol que albergam planetas pequenos com tamanho e temperatura semelhantes à da Terra. Durante quatro anos, o telescópio espacial monitorizou simultaneamente e continuamente o brilho de mais de 150.000 estrelas, registando uma medição a cada 30 minutos.

Mais de um ano de dados recolhidos pelo Kepler permanecem ainda por ser totalmente revistos e analisados.
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Encontre também neste mesmo Link, vários outros textos de cobertura da Missão Kepler


Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work



Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work



The conception illustration depicts how solar pressure can be used to balance NASA's Kepler spacecraft, keeping the telescope stable enough to continue monitoring distant stars in search of transiting planets.
In May, Kepler lost the second of four gyroscope-like reaction wheels, ending new data collection for the original mission. A new mission concept, dubbed K2, would continue Kepler's search for other worlds, and introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies and supernovae.
Using the sun and the two remaining reaction wheels, engineers have devised an innovative technique to stabilize and control the spacecraft in all three directions of motion. This technique of using the sun as the 'third wheel' to control pointing is currently being tested on the spacecraft.
To achieve the necessary stability, the orientation of the spacecraft must be nearly parallel to its orbital path around the sun, which is slightly offset from the ecliptic, the orbital plane of Earth. The ecliptic plane defines the band of sky in which lie the constellations of the zodiac.
K2 would study a specific portion of the sky for up to 83 days, until it is necessary to rotate the spacecraft to prevent sunlight from entering the telescope. Each orbit or year would consist of approximately 4.5 unique viewing periods or campaigns.
The K2 mission concept has been presented to NASA Headquarters. A decision to proceed to the 2014 Senior Review – a biannual assessment of operating missions – and propose for budget to fly K2 is expected by the end of 2013.
Image credit: NASA Ames/W Stenzel




The image is a mosaic of "postage stamp" regions taken during the engineering test run this spring by NASA's Kepler spacecraft operating in the two-wheel K2 mode. Highlighted in the image are two open clusters Messier 35 (top) and NGC 2158 (bottom).
Image Credit: 
NASA Ames/T Barclay/W Stenzel


Mission Manager Update: C1 data on the ground; C2 underway

September 23, 2014
The K2 mission has successfully completed its first official set of science observations and the data are on the ground! Campaign 2 observations are now underway.
The team is processing and preparing the data from Campaign 1, which are scheduled to be delivered to the public at theMikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) in November. Campaign 1 targets included more than 12,000 stars for exoplanet transit searches, as well as young and old star clusters and galaxies. The latter are being examined for black hole accretion activity or supernovae.
This past spring the team performed an end-to-end shakedown of spacecraft operations and performance in the new two-wheel K2 mode. While this was primarily an engineering test, science observations were made on approximately 8,000 targets, including the open star cluster Messier 35 and the compact open star cluster NGC 2158, both in the constellation Gemini. Coined "Campaign 0," these data were delivered to the public archive at MAST on Monday, Sept. 8.
The team is now accepting target proposals for Campaigns 4 and 5. The deadline for K2 Cycle-1 Stage-2 Guest Observer proposals is 23:59 p.m. EDT on Sept. 23. For the full schedule of operational milestones see the K2 MissionTimeline.
On Aug. 23, the K2 mission began its second campaign. The Campaign 2 field of view includes the globular star clusters M4 and M80 in the constellation of Scorpius, the very dense star-forming region Rho Ophiuchi, along with 17,000 target stars that can be searched for exoplanets. In mid-October, Comet Siding Spring will be observed for approximately 77 hours as it passes through Kepler's field of view. Many other NASA missions also will be pointed toward the comet. Mars also passes through the field of view, but is too bright to be observed. The campaign is scheduled to conclude on Nov. 11, and will be our first K2 campaign to go from start to finish without a break in the middle.
Meanwhile, the spacecraft continues to deliver robust performance in its two-wheel K2 mode. In early August, a reassessment of the fuel usage increased the expected life of the spacecraft by 25 percent. At the current burn rate, the onboard fuel reserves are now expected to last until late 2017, and perhaps beyond. And last week the spacecraft weathered the effects of a large solarflare without missing a beat!
To learn more about the K2 mission visit the Kepler Science Center website.
Despite ongoing K2 operations, the bulk of the mission science focus remains on finalizing the data processing and products for the formal Kepler mission. Two more releases of the data processing pipeline are scheduled that will include enhancements to increase the sensitivity to small planets in long-period orbits, similar to Earth, and determine their frequency in the galaxy-- Kepler's primary objective.
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A MISSÃO K2

The K2 mission provides an opportunity to continue Kepler’s ground-breaking discoveries in the field of exoplanets and expand its role into new and exciting astrophysical observations.

Kepler's loss of a second spacecraft reaction wheel in May 2013 effectively ended data collection in the original Kepler field after 4 years of continuous monitoring. However, all other Kepler assets remain intact and can be used for the K2 mission. Both missions are founded on the proven value of long-baseline, high-cadence, high-precision photometry and exploit a large field of view to simultaneously monitor many targets. On two reaction wheels, K2 is limited to pointing near the ecliptic plane, sequentially observing fields as it orbits the sun. This observing strategy regularly brings new, well-characterized target fields into view, enabling observations of scientifically important objects across a wide range of galactic latitudes in both the northern and southern skies. K2 will perform a series of long, ecliptic-pointed campaigns to collect data for the astrophysical community that will inform their understanding of planet formation processes, young stars, stellar activity, stellar structure and evolution, and extragalactic science.
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SOBRE
A MISSÃO K2
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Kepler Launch 
 http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/?ImageID=57


Kepler is the world's first mission with the ability to find true Earth-like planets orbiting stars
in the "habitable zone."
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Geoff Marcy - The Search for Habitable Planets and Life in the Universe


Geoff Marcy presents a public talk at UC Berkeley on January 17th, 2009, in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. 

Now precisely 400 years after Galileo turned his first telescope heavenward, where do we humans fit in the cosmos? Science fiction depicts our
Milky Way Galaxy as teeming with habitable planets populated by advanced civilizations that engage in interstellar travel and exploration.
Back in our real universe, Earth-like planets and alien life have proved elusive. Where are they? Has science fiction led us astray? In 2009, astronomers will launch the first searches
for Earth-like worlds around other stars, using
extraordinary new telescopes for the task. These legacies to Galileo's little scope will catapult humanity into a wild race to discover inhabited worlds and extraterrestrial life.

This video is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley IYA team: Steve Croft
Videography: Bryan Mendez
Videography / Editing: Chris Klein
Presenter: Geoff Marcy



Kepler Makes Discoveries Inside the Habitable Zone



NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of Another Star


Astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.


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

For more information about NASA Ames, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ames




The Kepler Mission - Finding the Next Earth Latest News!!!




COM UM ABRAÇO ESTRELADO,
Janine Milward



Meus Gatinhos:
Margarida Gaia, Rosinha Planck, Tycho Brahe e Kepler!

Quatro dos meus gatinhos:
Margarida Gaia (à direita), Kepler (ao centro) e Rosinha Planck (á esquerda).
Dormindo placidamente em uma cadeira ao fundo e ao lado da janela,
o gato Galileu.





Image credit - NASA Ames Research Center/ WStenzel/F Mullally and Milky Way Field composite by S Brunier/ESO