Kepler Begins
Comments(4)
Kepler Mission Begins. Image credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
What a spectacular launch! By all accounts everything went very smoothly.
You know, when I look at the night sky, I don’t just see the stars twinkling away, I marvel that each one of those stars is a sun, and around many of those suns there could be planetary systems similar to ours. Who knows? There could be somebody looking back this way. So there you have my version of the age old question: are we alone?
Kepler will start us down the road of finding the answer by quantifying by estimating the frequency of the so-called Goldilocks planets. The Goldilocks planets are those that are neither too close to, nor too far to their parent sun. They are in just the right place to harbor life as we know it.
No, Kepler is not going to answer the big question but it’s a very good start.
I’ll put a link into the Kepler site when it comes back online. I guess not “everything” went smoothly 
Great topic – and great site! Just watched the Kepler craft zip into space several hours ago from my front yard (I live in Orlando) and posted an item about it on my own blog. Keep up the good work.
Can anyone tell me if Kepler will be looking beyond the Milky Way galaxy? I beleive it should concentrate here.
HOW COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I observed from my front yard again. Weather was perfect.