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| The fixed point of view for the Kepler Spacecraft |
There are various ways in which humanity has begun detecting the presence of extrasolar planets, that is to say planets outside of our own solar system. Perhaps one of the most remarkable of these methods is that of the
Kepler Observatory Spacecraft. It is a spacecraft like no other. It is a planet hunter. Its only job is to look out into the stars that surround us and detect candidate planets. It has been running for a little over three years now and it has turned up
2,321 candidate planets, 74 of which have been confirmed (as of this post). For most of us, this is difficult to imagine. Only 20 years ago or so, the only planets we knew about were the ones in our home solar system. Now, there are literally thousands of possibilities...planets upon planets out there in the galaxy around us. These happy discoveries still stun us, still excite our senses and the prospect of discovering even more planets in the future is very promising.
Observing these exoplanets is not an easy task. They are not immediately detectable, or even visible, from our star system. The Kepler Observatory uses the
Astronomical Transit Method in order to infer an exoplanet's existence. This consists of observing a star's total amount of emitted light, measuring it and watching for changes in that amount of light. Noticeable and perhaps regular fluctuations can be an indication
that a planet is passing in front of its star relative to our position in space. This could indicate an orbiting planet, which would block a detectable amount of light in regular intervals. The longer that Kepler observes a star, the greater the chance that a planet will show itself. Naturally, longer observations are better than short ones.
