CaltechAUTHORS
Published January 7, 2010 | Version Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Kepler Planet-Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 2. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 3. ROR icon San Jose State University
  • 4. ROR icon Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
  • 5. ROR icon Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • 6. ROR icon York University
  • 7. ROR icon Aarhus University
  • 8. ROR icon The University of Texas at Austin
  • 9. ROR icon Lowell Observatory
  • 10. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 11. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 12. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 13. ROR icon NOIRLab
  • 14. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 15. ROR icon United States Naval Observatory
  • 16. ROR icon Carnegie Institution for Science
  • 17. ROR icon University of Washington
  • 18. ROR icon University of Hawaii at Hilo
  • 19. ROR icon Eureka Scientific
  • 20. ROR icon University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 21. ROR icon University of Florida
  • 22. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 23. ROR icon Fermilab
  • 24. ROR icon San Diego State University
  • 25. ROR icon Southern Connecticut State University
  • 26. ROR icon Planetary Science Institute
  • 27. ROR icon Yale University
  • 28. ROR icon Marshall Space Flight Center
  • 29. ROR icon Catholic University of America
  • 30. ROR icon University of Idaho
  • 31. ROR icon Villanova University

Abstract

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (~0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

Additional Information

© 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1 December 2009; accepted 28 December 2009; published online 5 January 2010. Kepler was competitively selected as the 10th Discovery mission. Funding for this mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Attached Files

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
17670
DOI
10.1126/science.1185402
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20100304-142558415

Related works

Describes
10.1126/science.1185402 (DOI)

Funding

NASA

Dates

Created
2010-03-12
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-08
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)