1/29/2024 0 Comments Planet gazer![]() ![]() Last August, Kepler discovered two Saturn-sized exoplanets crossing in front of, or transiting, the same star. ![]() This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. In February, Kepler spotted what NASA called its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in what NASA considers to be the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. While not in an area of space considered habitable, the rocky planet known as Kepler-10b and is never-the-less significant because it showcases the ability of Kepler to find and track such small exoplanetary movements. In January Kepler spotted its first rocky planet orbiting a sun similar to our own - 560 light years from our solar system. NASA said Kepler got back to business at 2:45 p.m PDT Sunday, March 20. This is a normal procedure when the spacecraft enters safe mode. The spacecraft also swapped to its backup subsystem interface box (SIB), an electronics component that provides thermal and power distribution control to all spacecraft subsystems, and powered off the photometer, the instrument used to measure light intensity to detect planets. The Kepler has since successfully reinitiated power to the primary SIB, confirmed its health and status, and also verified the new version of the NIC firmware had loaded correctly, and passed a health and safety check.įrom NASA: " This safe mode orientation provides the vehicle with the maximum power and limits the buildup of momentum from solar wind. During recovery actions, NASA's Deep Space Network was used to downlink telemetry and began recovery of files to help engineers figure out what happened. During safe mode, the spacecraft points the solar panels directly at the sun and begins to slowly rotate along a sun-aligned axis, NASA said. Safe mode is a self-protective measure that the spacecraft takes when something unexpected occurs.
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