It utilizes a very precise photometer with a large field of view that takes data every 30 minutes from almost 150,000 stars in one star field in the Cygnus-Lyra region.
This project's Asteroseismic Investigation component is led by Ron Gilliland and Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, among others. It utilizes a very precise photometer with a large field of view that takes data every 30 minutes from almost 150,000 stars in one star field in the Cygnus-Lyra region. An early test of this project was its detection of HAT-P-7b, and this project primary uses the detection of periodic dimming events, followed up by confirmation of the candidates; this is called the (*) transit method. Project member Dan Fabrycky created an animated orrery of all the multiple systems it had discovered as of February 2011. Its light curve data have shown transits of the first known circumbinary planet and the smallest known exoplanet, and may lead to discovery of the first Earth analogue. For 10 points, identify this NASA spacecraft named for a German astronomer who developed three laws of planetary motion from Tycho Brahe's data.
This project's Asteroseismic Investigation component is led by Ron Gilliland and Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, among others.
Kepler Mission or spacecraft