More Kepler Stuff

At a news conference yesterday, NASA released a huge amount of data from the operations of the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft. Two of the main objectives of Kepler are to find Earth-sized worlds and to find worlds that orbit within the habitable zone of the parent star-- essentially, that's the area around the star where water could exist in liquid form on a planetary surface.

So far, Kepler is doing well. The data show 68 potentially Earth-sized worlds, and 54 worlds orbiting within the habitable zone. Five worlds are in both groups. Further research is necessary to confirm, or deny, these results, but the possibilty for exciting finds is there. We should also understand that the concept of a habitable zone simply projects what's necessary for Earthly life into other star systems. That's almost certainly too limiting. For example, three of the strongest possibilities for harboring life elsewhere in this solar system-- Jupiter's Europa, and Saturn's Titan and Enceladus-- all lie outside the Sun's habitable zone.

Kepler is currently in safe mode-- not doing science. Engineers are working to determine why the computer onboard shut things down.