Go, Kepler Space Telescope, Go! With a namesake like Johannes Kepler, who realized that all orbits are elliptical and developed the currently accepted laws of planetary motion, this NASA rig had some big shoes to fill. Launched in March of 2009, the space-based observatory has been watching an area of the sky in the constellation Cygnus for the tell-tale signs of exoplanets—planets orbiting stars other than the sun. Kepler, the telescope not the German, records the brightness of about 150, 000 stars every half-hour. If it notices a dip in the brightness repeated over and over, then everyone celebrates catching a new planet passing in front of its home star.
Just last week, NASA announced that in just the first four months of observation, Kepler has spotted over 1200 potential planets! Here’s an animated visualization of all of the exoplanetary systems Kepler has found so far! (For all of you werd-nerds, the term “orrery” refers to a not-to-scale model demonstrating the relative positions and motions of the celestial bodies in an orbiting system, sometimes using clockwork.)
Maybe you’re wondering whether it would ever be worth it to visit one of these potential homes away from home. OK, Mathlete, but before you start packing your blue track suit for Pandora, you might want to make an estimate of the planet’s value using a handy equation written by Dr. Greg Loughlin of UC Santa-Cruz. The equation factors in the cost of building and launching the Kepler telescope and its original intended yield of Earth-like exoplanets ($600 million for 100 worlds), planet size, stellar age, the planet’s surface temperature and more. (There is an interesting and in-depth walk-through of said equation plus an interview with exoplanet hunter Loughlin by guest blogger Lee Billings on BoingBoing after the jump.)
According to this equation, what’s the Earth’s worth? FIVE QUADRILLION SAMOLIANS! Why? The delicious combination of proximity to the Sun, protective atmosphere, and water present in three phases (solid, liquid, and gas) amounts to a planetary surface teeming with biodiversity. Nicely, this is just a bit more (about 100 times more) than the Earth’s GDP.
Prior to the Kepler mission, the most Earth-like exoplanet theretofore found was Gliese 581 c. Street value: $160. Since the Kepler bumper crop of potential planets last week, the most valuable “Kepler Object of Interest” is KOI 326.01, to which the formula assigns a value of $223,099.93. And that’s quite a jump in just in the first four months of observation!
Excited? Well don’t just sit there! Put on your safari hat and head to http://www.planethunters.org/. There you can help scour existing data for exoplanets, and the discoveries you will make will be checked against future Kepler observations. There have already been 83 objects found by civilian planet hunters that were since confirmed by Kepler Data. So get after it! The future of exoplanet discovery is yours!
Links
Cosmic Commodities: How much is a new planet worth?
Too Cheap to Meter, by Greg Loughlin
Kepler Planet Hunter Finds 1,200 Possibilities
