Astronomers have discovered the first Earth-sized planet outside the solar system that has a rocky composition like that of Earth.
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Browsing Posts in Space Station Reports
President Obama met with two NASA employees and 32 fellow public servants in the East Room at the White House in Washington to express gratitude and acknowledge their selection as recipients and finalists of the prestigious 2013 Samuel J. Heyman Service of America Medals or Sammies.
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Scientists discover the first multi-planet system in which the equator of the host star is misaligned with the orbital planes of its planets.
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Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b.
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Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b.
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42 scientific papers were received in response to a call for ideas for alternative research with a two-wheel spacecraft
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Image credit: NASA Ames/Wendy Stenzel
For four years, the Kepler spacescraft continuously and simulatenously observed and collected data on more than 150,000 stars. Its mission– to determine if Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like our sun are common or rare.
The stability of Kepler’s pointing is measured in degrees, arcminutes, arcseconds and milli-arcseconds. To put that into perspective, the image compares the measurements using a movie theatre screen, a small bag of popcorn, a kernel of corn and a grain of salt.
During the four years of science operations, the pointing precision of the spacecraft was controlled to within a few milli-arcseconds. That is the equivalent of keeping your gaze steady on a grain of salt from a quarter mile away.
The next time you’re asked to pass the salt think of the Kepler space telescope, and share its story.
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With the conduct of the pointing test, engineers have concluded that the damaged wheels are not recoverable to support fine-point science data collection.
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Following months of analysis and testing, the Kepler Space Telescope team is ending its attempts to restore the spacecraft to full working order, and now is considering what new science research it can carry out in its current condition.
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NASA announces the end of Kepler reaction wheel testing, and the end of the prime mission for the Kepler spacecraft.
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