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Today General Knowledge(GK)
The NASA's Kepler Space Telescope was launched to :
A)
Explore black holes in distant galaxies
B)
Measure the atmospheric composition of gas giants
C)
Determine the abundance of Earth-sized planets and their orbits
D)
Study the formation of comets within our solar system

Correct Answer : Option (C) - Determine the abundance of Earth-sized planets and their orbits



A system of seven sweltering planets was recently revealed by the continued study of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope.

About Kepler Space Telescope :

* It was NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, assigned to search a portion of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-sized planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.
It was launched on March 6, 2009.

* The spacecraft was named after the famed German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).

* Its scientific goals included determining the abundance of earth-sized planets and the distribution of sizes and shapes of their orbits, estimating the number of planets in multiple-star systems, and determining the properties of stars that have planetary systems.

* In December 2011, NASA announced that Kepler had found its first planet, Kepler-22b, in the habitable zone of a star.


* On October 30, 2018, after nine years in deep space collecting data, NASA announced that Kepler had run out of fuel. The spacecraft was retired in its current, safe orbit, away from Earth.

* Kepler left behind a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.


Features :

* Kepler detected planets by observing transits, or tiny dips in the brightness of a star that occur when a planet crosses in front of the star.

* The spacecraft was basically a single instrument - a specially designed 3-foot (1-meter) diameter aperture telescope and image sensor array – with a spacecraft built around it.

* The diameter of the telescope’s mirror was 4 feet, 7 inches (1.4 meters), making it one of the largest mirrors beyond Earth’s orbit..

Source : Nasa

Published On : November 4, 2023
Category : Space
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