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Friday, 07 August 2009 09:57 |
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Artist's impression of HAT-P-7b orbiting close to its Sun. Image: NASA | NASA’s Kepler mission, launched in March 2009, has observed the light of a gas giant exoplanet orbiting 5.9 million km from its star—thus displaying that the spacecraft’s photometers are fully functional and operating to the required sensitivity. The planet, HAT-P-7b, was discovered in 2008. Its orbital properties are well known, making it an ideal test for Kepler. The results are detailed in the 7 August issue of Science.“The headline today is that Kepler works,” commented Alan Boss, who has been involved in the mission from its early stages, “Now we just have to let it get on with the job.”
To read further press coverage on Kepler, click here. For animation showing the light curve and phases of the planet, see Kepler’s Web site.
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