NASA's K2 extended Kepler
exoplanet search mission is now studying the TRAPPIST - 1 system while Spitzer and Hubble will conduct follow - up observations in preparation for study by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch in 2018.
Not exact matches
Basri: The big news is the Kepler
Mission [NASA's
search for Earth - size
exoplanets, launched in March 2009], which is gathering data right now and has been for more than a year.
This solution paved the way for the follow up K2
mission, which is still ongoing as the spacecraft
searches for
exoplanet transits.
This research will contribute to a once - per - decade report on the field of astrophysics, produced by the National Academies, that NASA uses to help chart a course for future
missions, some of which could continue the
search for planets around other stars, known as
exoplanets.
NASA's Kepler
mission's principal investigator, Bill Borucki, talks about the
search for
exoplanets that might be in habitable zones around their stars.
But if it passes NASA approval, the potential new
mission, called K2, could mean a whole different kind of
search to find Earth - size
exoplanets, along with supernovae, protostars and galaxy clusters.
Primarily, the K2
Mission is
searching for different planets around different stars, determining whether or not these
exoplanets could be habitable.
The discovery by a ground - based telescope is expected to assist future space
missions to
search for transiting
exoplanets.
The
search for
exoplanets is about to receive a huge boost, thanks to a new NASA
mission called TESS — the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite — that is set to embark on a quest to discover thousands of new worlds orbiting the brightest and nearest stars to the Sun.
Planet Hunters enlists the general public to
search the public data from NASA's Kepler space
mission for transiting
exoplanets.
The Harrison committee concluded that WFIRST / AFTA would «significantly enhance the scientific power of the
mission, particularly for cosmology and general survey science,» and benefit the
search for
exoplanets.
Their
mission: survey millions of stars toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy in
search of distant stars» planetary outposts and
exoplanets wandering between the stars.
Luckily for planet hunters, NASA's upcoming TESS
mission is waiting in the wings and will take over the
exoplanet search.
If everything goes according to plan, the observatory will conduct a two - year
mission to survey more than 85 percent of the sky,
searching for
exoplanets around bright stars in the 300 - light - year distance range.