1. Kepler Mission

2. Transit Method Planetary transits cause some light from a star to be blocked. The change in light is small for exoplanets. –Hard to detect on Earth –Requires edge-on orbit 2012 transit of Venus

3. Mission Design NASA designed the Kepler spacecraft to hunt for exoplanets. –Transit method –Precision photometer –Fixed field of view Kepler launched March 6, 2009. Specifications  0.95 m Schmidt telescope  105 square degrees  100,000 star field  Multi-year observation

4. First Terrestrial Kepler 10-b was spotted in 2009; announced in 2011. –1.4 Earth diameter –3.3 Earth mass –Close to star

5. Multiplanet System The Kepler 11 system has six planets. –Between 2 and 4 times the size of Earth –All closer than Venus Nature.com

6. Kepler Planets Data from Kepler now accounts for the majority of exoplanet sightings.  Red – direct imaging  Blue – Doppler shift  Green – transit method wikipedia

7. Exoplanet Mass Doppler data found many giant planets. –Larger than Jupiter Kepler has been very successful finding Earth-sized planets. –Masses like the solar system

8. Catalogs The first extrasolar planet was observed in 1995. Today there are more than 1000 systems. –Almost 2000 confirmed planets –More than 4000 candidates www.exoplanet.eu