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Mission controllers last night sent a command to the Kepler spacecraft, NASA's unprecedented planet hunter launched last month, to eject its dust cover, effectively opening the telescope to the heavens.

Kepler, now some two million miles (three million kilometers) from Earth, will trail our planet in an orbit around the sun, observing a patch of sky for three-plus years in search of possible companion planets around a group of 100,000 stars. The spacecraft bears the largest space-borne camera ever, a photometer composed of 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs), to monitor those stars for periodic dips in stellar brightness that occur as orbiting planets block a portion of the stars' light from Kepler's view.

The photometer had been protected during launch and initial flight by a spring-loaded oval dust cover (centered in image above) held in place by a latch, according to NASA. When engineers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colo., sent a command to break a wire and release the latch at 10:13 (Eastern Daylight Time) last night, Kepler's cover popped off and drifted away. (See animation below.)

The cover also provided a dark environment for calibrating Kepler's photometer and removing sources of inherent noise. "We have thoroughly measured the background noise so that our photometer can detect minute changes in a star's brightness caused by planets," Bill Borucki, the mission's principal investigator, said in a statement.

NASA says that with the spacecraft's science instrument now receiving light, only a few weeks of calibration remain before Kepler begins its hunt for extrasolar planets. According to Alan Boss, author of The Crowded Universe and a member of the Kepler science team, the spacecraft won't have any conclusive evidence of habitable planets for years, but larger, hotter planets should be spotted in relatively short order.

Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

5 Comments

1. 1. llohman 03:46 PM 4/8/09

   It's too bad that the Kepler is going to be so devoted to what is essentially a single purpose. At one point, Hubble focused for an extended period of time on a patch of 'empty' space and gave us a landmark photograph of previously unseen galaxies. The science that has been done by Hubble is amazing - as could the science be if done by a system as powerful as Kepler. Planet hunting has its purpose - and it certainly should be done. But the work of Hubble could easily be dwarfed by Kepler, were Kepler to be used in a similar fashion to manner in which Hubble has been used for these many years.

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2. 2. Sigma Relief in reply to llohman 09:51 PM 4/8/09

   Kepler is a purpose built machine designed to do one task well for a reasonable price. Asking for a do it all machine in any industry results in astronomical prices, no pun intended. Because Kepler can't blink for even a second over the next few years, additional capabilities couldn't even be used on other targets.

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3. 3. mmfiore 02:57 PM 4/9/09

   Test

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4. 4. mmfiore 03:34 PM 4/9/09

   We are a group that is challenging the current paradigm in physics which is Quantum Mechanics and String Theory. There is a new Theory of Everything Breakthrough. It exposes the flaws in both Quantum Theory and String Theory. Please Help us set the physics community back on the right course and prove that Einstein was right! Visit our site The Theory of Super Relativity: http://www.superrelativity.org

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5. 5. AtlantaTerry 09:12 AM 4/11/09

   With all the recent worries about space junk here we go creating more by ejecting the dust cover.
   
   Why not use a spring and hinge? Once the signal to "Open" is received, the cover would simply flap backward powered by the spring. Neat and simple.
   
   Terry Thomas
   Atlanta, Georgia USA

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