Rise of the exoplanet discovery in 2014

Dear readers and followers,

2014 is an amazing year for the announcements of the discovery of expo-planets. The histogram shows the number of planet discoveries by year for roughly the past two decades of the exoplanet search. The blue bar shows previous planet discoveries, the red bar shows previous Kepler planet discoveries, the gold bar displays the 715 new planets verified by multiplicity.

Credit image: +NASA 

Contact me if you have any specific questions or to correct some typo error in the articles. 

You can support us with Flattr

Stay tuned

A 'second light' mission for the Kepler space telescope

Dear followers,

Few months ago, in May, the research working on the search of exo-planets received a very bad news from the US space telescope Kepler.  Actually, the +Kepler Space Telescope  was down due to a malfunction of a mechanism which allows the telescope to focus on a given point in the sky towards.

However, now, Engineers from the Kepler mission and Ball Aerospace have developed a way of keeping the stability of the spacecraft. The solution is based on the pressure provide by the Sun on the surface of spacecraft. 

based on this solution the second life of Kepler will be start. The US space telescope which has increased the discovery of new planets since 2009 is the first telescope dedicated to the search for planets sisters of the Earth in other solar systems in our galaxy, the Milky Way. So far it has detected 2,740 potential exo-planets which 122 were confirmed to the day using telescopes and other equipment.

Credit: wikipedia

In last April, astronauts had announced the discovery by Kepler, two exoplanets with the greatest similarity to Earth ever recorded and where water could remain liquid and potentially allow life to exist.

NASA does not intend to repair Kepler

Dear followers,

many month ago, we talk you that some technical troubles happened on the Kepler spacecraft. Today, +NASA announced that they do not plan to repair the spacecraft. 

Credits: Wikipédia

Actually, +Kepler Space Telescope is blocked by the malfunction of a mechanism which allows the telescope to focus on a given point in the sky towards.

An engineering study will be done on the modifications required to manage science operations with the spacecraft using a combination of its remaining two good reaction wheels and thrusters for spacecraft attitude control.Depending on the outcome of these studies, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year, +NASA will assess the scientific priority of a two-wheel Kepler mission.

A pink exoplanet found

Dear followers,

an international team of astronomers has found a giant planet around the start GJ 504. The new exoplanet, called GJ 504b, has been discovered thanks to infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. This giant planet is the lowest-mass planet (several times the mass of Jupiter) detected around a start like the sun using direct imaging techniques.

The distance between GJ 504b and its sun is nine times the distance Jupiter-Sun. This point poses a challenge to theoretical ideas of how giant planets form.

The astronomer team estimates the system of the Sun GJ504 located in the constellation Virgo is about 160 million years old. This estimated has been based on methods that link the start's color and rotation period to its age.

The race to find exoplanets is still growing all around the world, and astronomers works hard to find a possible planet with life conditions.

Kepler Space Telescope is down

Dear followers,

bad news for the search for exo-planets. The U.S. space telescope Kepler which has increased the discovery of new planets since 2009, is paralyzed by a technical problem. This dysfunction could spell the premature end of his four-year mission, +NASA said yesterday (May 15th 2013).

Kepler is the first telescope dedicated to the search for planets sisters of the Earth in other solar systems in our galaxy, the Milky Way. So far it has detected 2,740 potential exo-planets which 122 were confirmed to the day using telescopes and other equipment.

Credit: wikipedia

+Kepler Space Telescope is blocked by the malfunction of a mechanism which allows the telescope to focus on a given point in the sky towards said John Grunsfeld, the head of the science division of the U.S. space agency. "The telescope was put into safe mode" to ensure that the solar panels facing the sun to recharge the batteries and continue to communicate with Earth, he said.

Engineers found last week that it did not move despite gyroscope controls from the ground. This problem had already occurred in July with another gyro Kepler has stopped working, said the head of NASA.

"Unfortunately Kepler is not a place where you can send astronauts" to fix it, he said, explaining that the engineers' carefully examined the data (...) to see if it is possible to resume the scientific activities of the telescope. " But "we are not yet ready to declare the end of Kepler," insisted John Grunsfeld, arguing that "in all respects the Kepler mission was a success."

In April, astronauts had announced the discovery by Kepler, two exoplanets with the greatest similarity to Earth ever recorded and where water could remain liquid and potentially allow life to exist.