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The Kepler Mission's Search for Earth 2.0

jjhermes
January 27, 2018

The Kepler Mission's Search for Earth 2.0

Outreach talk, 40 min. January 2018: Astronomy Days, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA.

jjhermes

January 27, 2018
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  1. http://jjherm.es
    Dr. J.J. Hermes
    Hubble Fellow
    University of North Carolina
    at Chapel Hill
    The Kepler Mission’s
    Search for Earth 2.0

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  3. PI: Bill Borucki
    1983: Kepler design began
    1992: REJECTED by NASA
    Unsuitable detector technology
    1994: REJECTED by NASA
    Too expensive
    1996: REJECTED by NASA
    No proof of concept
    1998: REJECTED by NASA
    Space too harsh for detectors
    2000: ACCEPTED by NASA
    $550 million budget

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  4. Kepler at a glance
    0.95-m aperture
    (Hubble is 2.4-m)
    95 megapixel camera
    (at time, largest unclassified
    camera launched into space)

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  7. V = 13.3 mag
    Kepler First Light
    April 8, 2009

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  9. V = 13.3 mag
    Kepler data is saved every 30 min
    for ~150,000 stars

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  10. V = 13.3 mag
    Kepler makes a
    time-lapse movie of
    a star’s brightness

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  12. Once a year, viewed from afar, the
    Earth causes an 84 ppm (0.0084%)
    dip in Sunlight for about 10 hrs

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  14. Kepler-10 Light Curve

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  15. Kepler-10 Light Curve
    Period = 45.29 days

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  16. Kepler-10 Light Curve
    Period = 45.29 days

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  17. Kepler-10 Light Curve
    Period = .84 days
    Period = 45.29 days

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  18. Kepler-10 Light Curve
    Period = .84 days
    Period = 45.29 days

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  19. Transit Yields Planet Radius
    10b Size
    Radius = 1.4 R
    !"#$%&'"()*&+,%-"..
    /,$."(0,12*.3
    Dr. Natalie Batalha et al. 2011

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  20. Doppler Measurements Yield
    Planet Mass
    Mass = 4.6 M

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  21. Transit and Doppler
    Measurements Yield Density
    +
    10b Size
    !"#$%&'"()*&+,%-"..
    /,$."(0,12*.3
    Mass
    Volume
    = 8.8 g/cm3
    Density

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  22. Composition of Kepler-10b

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  23. Kepler-10b was
    the first
    rocky planet
    discovered
    outside our
    own Solar
    System!
    (artist’s impression)

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  24. Dr. Susan Thompson et al. 2017

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  26. ~1 per star!
    Dr. Chris Burke et al. 2015

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  27. Kepler has shown us that, on
    average, each of the ~200 billion
    stars in our Galaxy has a planet
    orbiting within 300 days!
    (artist’s impression)

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  28. What about planets
    suitable for life?
    A planet is
    “habitable”
    if its surface
    0-100 C

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  29. 15%(±13%) of Sun-like stars host
    potentially habitable planets!

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  33. =
    Steve Howell
    The solar pressure on the Kepler spacecraft is ~50 µN m-2

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  34. Kepler, resurrected as K2, balances
    against the pressure of Sunlight
    But it must stare at new fields in the
    ecliptic plane every 3 months

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  36. (Mars)

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  37. Juliette Becker et al. 2015
    K2 is still great at searching for new
    planets (though not Earth 2.0)!

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  38. Dr. Aaron Rizzuto et al. 2018
    K2 shows young stars
    lack close-in planets!

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  39. Looking in the Ecliptic with K2,
    we are finding worlds that could
    potentially find us!
    Transit of Venus 2012 (Jim Tiller, AP)

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  41. Dr. Tim White et al. 2017

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  43. Star Earth
    Pulsations (starquakes) let us see
    into the interiors of stars!

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  44. Kepler is in Earth-trailing orbit:
    Porb
    = 372.5 days
    Kepler is currently
    >96 million miles
    from Earth
    Earth’s orbit
    Kepler’s orbit
    Sun
    Earth on
    March 5th
    Kepler,
    1 yrafter launch
    Kepler,
    4 yrslater
    Orbital
    direction

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  46. Doug Caldwell
    In its 16th
    Campaign
    K2 is
    down to
    its last
    cup of
    hydrazine
    fuel!

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  47. How common is life
    in the Universe?
    Kepler: Of the 150 Sun-like stars
    within 50 lightyears, odds are that
    roughly 20 have an Earth-like planet!

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