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pixel01
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Arccording to Nasa, the Kepler telescope will be working for 3.5 years in orbit and during that time it will observe about 100000 stars looking for exoplanets. Howcome it can finish for that workload?
Vanadium 50 said:If you could only look at one star at a time (not true), this works out to 20 minutes per star. If you can look at 100 stars at once, that's one day per star field. 1000 stars? A week. This doesn't sound unreasonable.
pixel01 said:Thanks for the reply.
I am still confused that when focussing at one star, the Kepler Telescope should maitain the position for at least one period of a transit (if there is one), and the period is offen of months if not years.
One more thing, if K. telescope looks at 100 stars at once, is it possible to detect any wink in one individual star?
Nabeshin said:By transit do you mean revolution? Transits only last hours, while revolutions are on the order of months and years.
Waveform said:I don't think Kepler is designed to focus on individual stars, but rather has at larger field viewing area and measures the brightness of the stars in that field.
Simple: It looks at 100,000 stars all at once and looks at the same 100,000 stars during the entire 3 1/2 year mission. Kepler is looking for transits, so catching one requires continual monitoring.Vanadium 50 said:If you could only look at one star at a time (not true), this works out to 20 minutes per star. If you can look at 100 stars at once, that's one day per star field. 1000 stars? A week. This doesn't sound unreasonable.
The Kepler Telescope is so productive because of its high precision and sensitivity in detecting exoplanets. It is able to continuously monitor a large area of the sky and collect vast amounts of data, allowing it to detect small changes in brightness that could indicate the presence of a planet.
As of 2021, the Kepler Telescope has discovered over 2,900 confirmed exoplanets.
The Kepler Telescope uses the transit method to find exoplanets. This involves measuring the slight dips in a star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it, blocking some of the star's light. By analyzing these dips, scientists can determine the size, orbit, and other characteristics of the exoplanet.
Yes, the Kepler Telescope has discovered several potentially habitable exoplanets, including Kepler-452b and Kepler-438b. These planets are within the habitable zone of their stars, meaning they could potentially have liquid water on their surfaces.
The Kepler Telescope has completed its primary mission and is now in an extended mission known as "K2." It continues to search for exoplanets while also studying other celestial objects, such as supernovae and asteroids. The telescope is expected to continue operating until it runs out of fuel, which is estimated to be in the mid-2020s.