NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"
By Laura June 
posted Mar 6th 2009 3:50AM
posted Mar 6th 2009 3:50AM
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]
[Thanks, Matthew]
Who wouldn't want to live on a cooler earth :)
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.
Not necessarily a bad thing. The other 91% will be safe and unspoiled.
wow, i thought that there were more than one ocean on the earth.
Well, we shouldn't have any trouble conquering that species.
The aliens with the spears will be easy but I'm less convinced about those stormtroopers in the first picture...
The Ewoks would take care of them easy.
I don't know, man, they can get into your dreams and move through the earth
Are you crazy!? we're no match for their circles and square spears.
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.
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...
Haha Earth 2! I watched that show when i was a kid, it was awesome.
Yeah it was, with the aliens that lived underground. Although technically, we were the aliens. I remember being upset when they cancelled it.
Wonder if this one will blow up too...
Wait, the telescope or the planet?
That would be so very nice of you! Why not bomb them while we're at it?
why? because you're a racist?
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.
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.
The speed of light is actually about 300,000 km/sec. Your calculations are just a little incorrect.
Oh my bad, never mind. Not talking about the speed of light.
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..
Good. I need a place to put my stuff.
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.
And by 'do to those' I mean 'go to those', which I noticed mere moments after clicking Add Comment. FAIL!
MacGyver will stop 'um!
"Stuck on a glacier with MacGuyver!" - best outtake ever!
No, but we can leave you here.
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.
psst.... follow me...
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.
I hope this guy sticks around; he sounds entertaining.
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.
What the... @_o;
It is wise to find a new home prior to completely destroying the surface of the one we have....
I'm sorry Earth. It's not you, its me.
Hubble is 2.4 meters for those who wondered, so this Kepler (at 0.95 meters) is a lot smaller...
NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"
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Ya, to find one with fewer crazy liberals...
Tim Brown, the Sun is a dick, don't give it more fuel. Just launch them into the cold emptiness of space.
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.”
get out of here theist, kepler will destroy religions
um...Johannes Kepler, the scientist that this mission is named for, was a Christian...just so ya know.
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.
They probably found the planet already and are just sending something to mark where they want to start the next human race.......
Don't forget to swing by the moon to get the flag first though.
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!!
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
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.
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!)
Or the Hadron Collider will go haywire and give us a direct route there.