1 / 20

A Profusion of Exoplanets: Key Science Results from the Kepler Mission

Explore the abundance of exoplanets and groundbreaking discoveries from the Kepler Mission, including the search for habitable Earth-size planets. Discover the challenges and possibilities of finding new worlds beyond our solar system.

cmccollum
Download Presentation

A Profusion of Exoplanets: Key Science Results from the Kepler Mission

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SAO A Profusion of Exoplanets:Key Science Results from the Kepler Mission STScI • Jon M. Jenkins • SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center • Thursday September 22, 2011

  2. Do there exist many worlds or is there but a single one? This is one of the most noble and exalted questions in the study of Nature — Saint Albertus Magnus 1206-1280 Scholar, Patron Saint of Scientists Credit: Carter Roberts

  3. The Kepler Mission What fraction of sun-like stars in our galaxy host potentially habitable Earth-size planets?

  4. How Hard is it to Find Good Planets? Jupiter: Jupiter 1% area of the Sun (1/100) Earth or Venus 0.01% area of the Sun (1/10,000)

  5. Kepler Field Of View Credit: Carter Roberts

  6. First Light Image • Launched March 7 2009

  7. The Kepler Spacecraft and Instrument

  8. Pre-Kepler Transiting Planets as of June 2009 Jupiter Neptune Earth

  9. Kepler Candidates as of June 2010 Jupiter Neptune Earth

  10. Kepler Candidates as of February 1, 2011 Jupiter Over 408 Planets in 170 Planetary Systems! Neptune Earth

  11. Kepler Candidates as of February 1, 2011 Jupiter Neptune Earth

  12. Kepler-11: Simply Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

  13. Kepler: Big Data, Big Challenges Big Data: • >150,000 target stars • 6x106 pixels collected and stored per ½ hour • ~40 GB downlinked each month • >40×109 points in the time series over 3.5 years Big Processing Challenges • Instrument effects are large compared to signal of interest • Observational noise is non-white and non-stationary • ~100×106 tests per star for planetary signatures [O(N2)]

  14. Instrumental Signatures Bayesian approaches look promising!

  15. The Search Problem

  16. Solar Variability

  17. Single Transit Statistics

  18. Folded Transit Statistics

  19. Conclusions • Kepler has found well over 1200 planetary candidates • Kepler has doubled the number of known planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy • We’re finding that small planets are more common than large planets • We’ve found a planet similar to Tatooine orbiting two stars • We find that multiple planet systems are quite common • Each day we are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-Sun analog

  20. Kepler-16b

More Related