Kepler Space Telescope TETYANA DYACHYSHYN OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR

Kepler Space Telescope TETYANA DYACHYSHYN OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR JENNIFER WEST UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

Outline Design and Physical Specifications: Physical Type; Aperture; Instruments and Detectors; Resolution and Field of View Design and Physical Specifications: Wavelengths; Images/Diagrams; Date Built History and Purpose: Location; Mission; Time for Use; Images/Data; Targets and Projects; Significant Discoveries – Kepler 452 b & Kepler 10 c References

Design and Physical Specifications: Physical Type The Kepler photometer is a simple single purpose instrument. Schmidt telescope design; Mass: 1, 039 kilograms (2, 291 lb); Primary mirror: 1. 4 meter diameter (55 in); Detectors: 95 mega pixels (21 modules each with two 2200 x 1024 pixel CCDs); Dynamic range: 9 th to 16 th magnitude stars; Fine guidance sensors: 42 CCDs located on science focal plane; Science data storage: >60 days. Credit: NASA

Design and Physical Specifications: Instruments and Detectors 0. 95 -meter aperture (diameter) telescope called a photometer or light meter. The diameter of the telescope needs to be large. WHY? To reduce the noise from photon counting statistics can measure the small change in brightness of an Earth-like transit. 1 NASA

Design and Physical Specifications Resolution and Field of View FOV: 105 square degrees (about 12 degree diameter) which is comparable to the area of your hand held at arm's length. The fields of view of most telescopes are less than one square degree. Kepler needs the large field of view in order to observe the large number of stars. It stares at the same star field for the entire mission. Credit: Erik Petigura, UC Berkeley

Design and Physical Specifications Field of View Comparison Kepler 's 105 -deg 2 field of view gives it a much higher probability of detecting Earth-like planets than the Hubble Space Telescope, which has a field of view of only 10 sq. arc-minutes. Kepler: detecting planetary transits Hubble Space Telescope: addressing a wide range of scientific questions; rarely looks continuously at just one starfield. Credit: NASA

Design and Physical Specifications: Wavelengths Bandpass: 430 -890 nm FWHM Credit: NASA

History and Purpose: Images/Diagrams The photometer points to a field in the northern constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Draco, which is well out of the ecliptic plane, so that sunlight never enters the photometer as the spacecraft orbits. The ecliptic plane is also the direction of the Solar System's motion around the center of the galaxy. Thus, the stars which Kepler observes are roughly the same distance from the galactic center as the Solar System, and also close to the galactic plane. The figure shows what we believe to be the local structure of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. The stars sampled are similar to the immediate solar neighborhood. Young stellar clusters, ionized hydrogen (HII) regions and the neutral hydrogen (HI) distribution define the arms of the Galaxy. Credit: NASA

History and Purpose: Date Built NASA's Kepler spacecraft launched on March 6, 2009 from Launch Complex 17 -B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch occurred at 7: 49 p. m. PST. Credit: NASA

History and Purpose: Location In Space! The observatory's an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit with a period of 372. 5 days allows it to watch the same stars constantly throughout its mission, something observatories such as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes cannot do. Kepler spent a little over four years monitoring more than 150, 000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region with continuous 30 -min or 1 -min sampling. Credit: NASA

History and Purpose: Mission Determine the abundance of terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars; Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets; Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems; Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets; and Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems. Credit: NASA

History and Purpose: Time for Use Supporting research in science and technology is an important part of NASA's overall mission. NASA solicits this research through the release of various research announcements in a wide range of science and technology disciplines. To submit a research proposal to NASA, individuals and the organizations with which they are affiliated must be registered in Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). Organizations are required to have a valid registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) before they can register in NSPIRES. NASA uses a peer review process to evaluate and select research proposals submitted in response to these research announcements. Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Images/Data Analysis of four years of precision measurements from Kepler shows that 22± 8% of Sun-like stars may have Earthsized planets in the habitable zone. Credit: Erik Petigura, UC Berkeley Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Targets and Projects The primary science objective of the Kepler mission: Exoplanet detection with an emphasis on terrestrial (R < 2. 5 REarth) planets located within the habitable zones of Sun-like stars. Kepler has discovered thousands of transiting exoplanets and revealed that small planets are abundant in the Galaxy. Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Targets and Projects In the process it is capturing large quantities of data on the target stars which is used not only to search for planets but also to study stars in general. The results from NASA's Kepler spacecraft provide us with new information on a number of specific phenomena related to our fundamental knowledge of stars, their internal properties and evolution in time. Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Expected Results From transits of terrestrial planets in one year orbits: v. About 50 planets if most are the same size as Earth (R~1. 0 Re) and none larger, v. About 185 planets if most have a size of R~1. 3 Re, v. About 12% with two or more planets per system. From transits of giant planets: v. About 135 inner-orbit planet detections, v. Densities for 35 inner-orbit planets, and v. About 30 outer-orbit planet detections.

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries Kepler mission: v. Candidate exoplanets: 4706 v. Confirmed exoplanets: 1039 v. Confirmed exoplanets less than twice Earth-size in the habitable zone: 12 K 2 mission: v. Confirmed exoplanets: 33 Creidt: NASA Credit: NASA Exoplanet Archive

Credit: NASA Ames/W. Stenzel

Credit: Discovery

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 452 b The most similar to the Earth-sun system found yet. The right temperature within the habitable zone. About one-and-a-half times the diameter of Earth. Circling a star very much like our own Sun. Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 452 b Might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on their surface might be hospitable to life. However, astronomers do not know what this planet is made of. It could be rock but it could be a small gassy ball or something more exotic. Credit: BBC

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 452 b Kepler-452 b is 1, 400 light years from Earth - and each light year is 5. 88 trillion miles - which means it would take the best part of a millenium-and-a-half to reach it if a spacecraft could travel at the speed of light. Based on an Earth-like density, Kepler-452 b would be five times more massive than our planet. This would correspond to a stronger gravitational pull, capable of drawing in a thick atmosphere to create a potential runaway greenhouse effect, which means that the planet’s temperature continues to climb. Credit: ar. Xiv

Credit: NASA

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 10 c Finding Kepler-10 c tells us that rocky planets could form much earlier than we thought. Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 10 c Mass is 17. 2 ± 1. 9 M⊕ Radius of only 2. 35 +0. 09/-0. 04 R⊕ Density of 7. 1 ± 1. 0 g cm− 3 With these properties, Kepler-10 c is best characterized as a solid planet. Kepler-10 c might be the first firm example of a population of solid planets with masses above 10 M⊕. With a period of 45. 29 days, a radius of 2. 35 R⊕, and a density higher than Earth, Kepler-10 c would be at the limit of the transition from terrestrial to gaseous planets. Kepler-10 c might be the first object confirming that longer period terrestrial planets can be more massive than ones with shorter periods. Credit: arxiv. org

Research and Results: Significant Discoveries – Kepler 10 c Kepler-10 c was first identified by Kepler, and later validated using a combination of a computer simulation technique called "Blender, " and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Both of these methods are powerful ways to validate the Kepler planets that are too small and faraway for groundbased telescopes to confirm using the radial-velocity technique. Credit: NASA (Artist’s Impression) Credit: ar. Xiv

References BBC. 2015. 'Earth 2. 0' found in Nasa Kepler telescope haul. http: //www. bbc. com/news/science-environment-33641648 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Discovery Program: Proposing a Mission http: //discovery. nasa. gov/p_mission. cfml Express and Star. 2014. New mega-Earth discovery http: //www. expressandstar. com/editors-picks/2014/06/04/new-mega-earth-discovery/ Exoplanet. eu. 2015 Planet Kepler-10 c http: //exoplanet. eu/catalog/kepler-10_c/ Fressin F, Torres G, D esert G M, Charbonneau D, Batalha N M, Fortney J et al. KEPLER-10 C, A 2. 2 -EARTH RADIUS TRANSITING PLANET IN A MULTIPLE SYSTEM http: //arxiv. org/pdf/1105. 4647 v 1. pdf Jenkins J M, Twicken J D, Batalha N M, Caldwell D A, Cochran W D, Endl M, et al. 2015. Discovery and Validation of Kepler-452 b: A 1. 6 – R⊕ Super Earth Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone of a G 2 Star. Xiv http: //arxiv. org/pdf/1507. 06723 v 1. pdf Kepler and K 2: Liftoff of the Kepler spacecraft. NASA http: //www. nasa. gov/mission_pages/kepler/launch/index. html

NASA Ames Research Center. 2016. Kepler Mission: A Search for Habitable Planets http: //kepler. nasa. gov NASA Ames Research Centre. 2013. About the Kepler Mission http: //kepler. nasa. gov/Mission/Quick. Guide/ NASA Exoplanet Archive http: //exoplanetarchive. ipac. caltech. edu/exoplanetplots/ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 2015. Kepler's Six Years In Science (and Counting): By The Numbers. California Institute of Technology http: //www. jpl. nasa. gov/news. php? feature=4587 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 2015 NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth http: //www. jpl. nasa. gov/news. php? feature=4665 NASA. 2015. Kepler and Kepler 2 Spacecraft and Instrument http: //www. nasa. gov/mission_pages/kepler/spacecraft/index. html

NASA. 2015. Finding Another Earth http: //www. nasa. gov/jpl/finding-another-earth NASA. 2015. Kepler and K 2 Image Gallery http: //www. nasa. gov/content/kepler-multimedia NASA. 2016. How many exoplanets has Kepler discovered? http: //www. nasa. gov/kepler/discoveries NASA. 2016. Kepler and K 2 Mission Objectives http: //keplerscience. arc. nasa. gov/objectives. html NASA. 2016. Kepler and K 2. Space Fellowship http: //keplerscience. arc. nasa. gov/science. html#science-from-kepler Space Fellowship. 2010. NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Takes the Pulse of Distant Stars http: //spacefellowship. com/news/art 23400/nasa-s-kepler-spacecraft-takes-the-pulse-of-distant-stars. html