NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

NASA's just declared its Kepler spacecraft "ready to launch." In case you're not already in the know on this one, the Kepler's mission will be to jaunt out into space, then watch a massive patch of it for 3.5 years to see if there are any signs of habitable planets similar to Earth. The craft will be looking mostly for planets that revolve around stars similar to the Sun, and it will be able to watch about 100,000 of them continuously, unlike the beleaguered but awesome Hubble telescope. The Kepler has a 0.95-meter diameter telescope, and the project has been in the works for about 25 years. It will finally launch tonight, on a Delta 2 rocket. Check out a few images of the Kepler after the break, hit up NASA's Kepler site for the full details of the mission.

[Thanks, Matthew]

[Troels C @ Mar 6th 2009 3:59AM]

Who wouldn't want to live on a cooler earth :)

[required @ Mar 6th 2009 11:39AM]

Something like only 9% of our ocean has been explored and it makes up most of our planet, yet we decide to go look for another planet to not fully explore? That is sad.

[F. C. @ Mar 6th 2009 3:09PM]

Not necessarily a bad thing. The other 91% will be safe and unspoiled.

[i.c. weiner @ Mar 6th 2009 10:42PM]

wow, i thought that there were more than one ocean on the earth.

[seriousam7 @ Mar 6th 2009 4:00AM]

Well, we shouldn't have any trouble conquering that species.

[Adamantinus @ Mar 6th 2009 4:04AM]

The aliens with the spears will be easy but I'm less convinced about those stormtroopers in the first picture...

[zfurie @ Mar 6th 2009 4:34AM]

The Ewoks would take care of them easy.

[Riley @ Mar 6th 2009 7:08AM]

I don't know, man, they can get into your dreams and move through the earth

[feraligatr8 @ Mar 6th 2009 8:31AM]

Are you crazy!? we're no match for their circles and square spears.

[Jake Tobak @ Mar 6th 2009 10:08AM]

Riley knows, you don't want to mess around with those guys, they'll mess you up.
Your best bet is to be a crippled child who befriends them.

[idiot @ Mar 6th 2009 11:33AM]

silly adamaninus, those aren't stormtroopers, they're oompa loompas. they're going to beam the telescope over the airwaves into space...that's why it's so big...

[Enozekun @ Mar 6th 2009 4:15AM]

Haha Earth 2! I watched that show when i was a kid, it was awesome.

[Matt @ Mar 6th 2009 5:19PM]

Yeah it was, with the aliens that lived underground. Although technically, we were the aliens. I remember being upset when they cancelled it.

[A.C.E.R. @ Mar 6th 2009 4:40AM]

Wonder if this one will blow up too...

[CapnShiner @ Mar 6th 2009 4:47AM]

Wait, the telescope or the planet?

[Patriks7 @ Mar 6th 2009 4:44AM]

That would be so very nice of you! Why not bomb them while we're at it?

[Jamieconverge @ Mar 6th 2009 5:23AM]

why? because you're a racist?

[CapnShiner @ Mar 6th 2009 4:56AM]

I think that even if we find another planet capable of supporting human life, it'll be so far away that humanity will destroy all life on this planet before developing the technology to get to the other one. Either that or it will be a scenario similar to the movie Wall-E.

[feraligatr8 @ Mar 6th 2009 8:27AM]

going at a speed of 40,000KM per hour (correct me if I'm wrong) I read that we can leave our solar system in only 13 years.

[rallyprox @ Mar 6th 2009 1:52PM]

The speed of light is actually about 300,000 km/sec. Your calculations are just a little incorrect.

[rallyprox @ Mar 6th 2009 1:53PM]

Oh my bad, never mind. Not talking about the speed of light.

[Tim Brown @ Mar 6th 2009 4:57AM]

No, what we will do when we find one, is round up all the pieces of shit like you and fire you into the sun. That way the rest of humanity can get on with the business of sorting its problems out. With less people like you, that will be a hell of a lot easier..

[cwj @ Mar 6th 2009 4:58AM]

Good. I need a place to put my stuff.

[ED @ Mar 6th 2009 5:02AM]

Is there any way of determining which planets are rich in naquadah?
We don't really want to do to those, as the Goa'uld will be busy mining them. And by mining I mean kicking back while human slaves do the mining.

[ED @ Mar 6th 2009 5:03AM]

And by 'do to those' I mean 'go to those', which I noticed mere moments after clicking Add Comment. FAIL!

[Jake Tobak @ Mar 6th 2009 10:12AM]

MacGyver will stop 'um!

[ED @ Mar 8th 2009 4:06AM]

"Stuck on a glacier with MacGuyver!" - best outtake ever!

[MikeC @ Mar 6th 2009 6:35AM]

No, but we can leave you here.

[buttabean @ Mar 6th 2009 7:12AM]

Aw man, I so wish I had a time machine. This thing is going to take so long to find earth like planets. Can't wait to see what they discover and I can't wait till they launch the space array that creates a opportunity to actually spy on those planets.

[feraligatr8 @ Mar 6th 2009 8:29AM]

psst.... follow me...

[Ken @ Mar 6th 2009 8:48AM]

NASA and planetary search zealots are doing a nonsense wasteful pursuit. Only way to get to other planets is to wait for Jesus to transform people to the spiritual dimension. In our present physical makeup, we are only going to be chasing a rainbow. Why waste resources on this idiocy.

[dan @ Mar 6th 2009 8:52AM]

I hope this guy sticks around; he sounds entertaining.

[Brian from Texas @ Mar 6th 2009 8:58AM]

That's why I'm building a large mound of dirt in my backyard. I'm going to stand on top of it during the Apocalypse so I'm closer to Heaven.

[Icchansan @ Mar 6th 2009 9:13AM]

What the... @_o;

[ShyGuy91284 @ Mar 6th 2009 8:43AM]

It is wise to find a new home prior to completely destroying the surface of the one we have....

[NASA @ Mar 6th 2009 9:21AM]

I'm sorry Earth. It's not you, its me.

[SiXiam @ Mar 6th 2009 9:48AM]

Hubble is 2.4 meters for those who wondered, so this Kepler (at 0.95 meters) is a lot smaller...

[Ryan @ Mar 6th 2009 10:07AM]

NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

________________________________________________________________________

Ya, to find one with fewer crazy liberals...

[Jake Tobak @ Mar 6th 2009 10:09AM]

Tim Brown, the Sun is a dick, don't give it more fuel. Just launch them into the cold emptiness of space.

[Ken @ Mar 6th 2009 11:16AM]

1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

[Seightan @ Mar 6th 2009 6:44PM]

get out of here theist, kepler will destroy religions

[seriousam7 @ Mar 6th 2009 1:01PM]

um...Johannes Kepler, the scientist that this mission is named for, was a Christian...just so ya know.

[Samurai Jack @ Mar 6th 2009 11:01AM]

You guys just don't get it. All of your probes that have a chance of discovering our activities here on Earth are destroyed before they have a chance to do so. Your Mars observer? "Removed" before it could discover our Martian staging area. Your global climate observer? "Re-directed" before it could detect the emissions of our terrestrial facilities. This one will be no different. We will not allow you to locate our homeworld.

Yes there are cooler Earths out there. But they are not for the likes of you.

[Hackettman @ Mar 6th 2009 11:05AM]

They probably found the planet already and are just sending something to mark where they want to start the next human race.......

[r3n @ Mar 6th 2009 5:41PM]

Don't forget to swing by the moon to get the flag first though.

[AbbasJin @ Mar 6th 2009 11:09AM]

Go Nasa Go,
I'm from Pakistan, But i still love all the effort you guys've put into these space exploration missions.
NOW i wish if all countries could stop fighting and start investing money into joint ventures. So all the military money gets diverted towards science and well being of all the earthlings.

!!! Keep it up Nasa!!

[DarkLight @ Mar 6th 2009 12:53PM]

I agree completely...

The economic system is stupid altogether. If humans were actually intelligent, we would all be working together without "fees"

But no, turns out that our specie is not actually all that smart....

Wich makes me glad that at least someone is looking for another home, since this one is doomed

[VampireHunter Z @ Mar 6th 2009 12:20PM]

Unfortunately the closest star is light years away. So even if we achieve spaceships that go 99.9999999% the speed of light the distance would still be impractical. Also whatever we see through these telescopes happened eons ago. For all we know we are the only star that still exists. Until we can warp, there is really no way to explore this universe. Sad really, but I still keep a watchful eye of these endeavors.

[Gomer @ Mar 6th 2009 12:55PM]

No worries there. When CERN come back online, it'll create a wormhole so we can get there in seconds. What comes out the other side is another matter. (rim-shot!)

[F. C. @ Mar 6th 2009 3:06PM]

Or the Hadron Collider will go haywire and give us a direct route there.