Kepler detects 1st exoplanet with new pointing system + Interview with Sara Seager

The Kepler Observatory suffered a huge blow to its pointing precision last year when one of its reaction wheels malfunctioned. However, a scheme is being attempted that will use solar light pressure to compensate for the lost reaction wheel and allow for partial restoration of the observatory’s exoplanet finding capabilities.  (For an infographic see Kepler’s Second Light: How K2 Will Work 0NASA.)

A test of the new technique looks promising: NASA’s revived exoplanet-hunter sees its first world – New Scientist.

WASP-28b is about the size of Jupiter and is in a very tight orbit around its star, with a year that lasts just 3.4 Earth days. Unfortunately, K2 will not be able to carry on with Kepler’s original quest to find habitable Earth-sized planets around sun-like stars. To confirm that a planet is real, Kepler needed to see it transit three times, meaning true Earth twins would take about three years to confirm. The modified space telescope won’t be able to maintain its lock on a star for that long.

But the K2 mission will be able to collect data on very young stars and search for planets or planet-forming discs around them. “This will be a window into both star formation and planet formation,” says Howell.

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Check out this interesting recent interview of Prof. Sara Seager (MIT) about exoplanets and the Kepler project: Dr. Sara Seager, Friday, 1-24-14 – Thespaceshow’s Blog.