Coming our way?
Posted on 04/09/2016 7:40:09 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Kepler spacecraft is in emergency mode, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a statement.
Charlie Sobeck, Kepler and K2 mission manager at NASA's Ames Research Center announced that after a scheduled contact with mission operations engineers last April 7, it was discovered that Kepler is presently in emergency mode (EM), the spacecraft's lowest operational mode.
The team is working on recovering from EM, as it consumes significant amount of fuel. Since the spacecraft is 75 million miles away from Earth, even with the speed of light, communication takes about 13 minutes for the message to travel from the spacecraft and back.
For this, the spacecraft now has priority access to ground-based communication on NASA's Deep Space Network.
The spacecraft was fully operational and in good condition last April 4.
According to the mission engineers, the spacecraft entered into EM about 36 hours prior to maneuvering towards the center of the Milky Way. The extended mission's purpose is to continue planet hunting and provide study material for supernovae, young stars, and other astronomical objects using gravitational microlensing.
The agency said that they will provide further information about the spacecraft once it has more updates.
Launched in 2009, Kepler's primary mission was to look for planets outside the Solar System. The mission, which was completed in 2012, detected about 5,000 exoplanets, more than 1,000 of which were confirmed.
The team hopes to restore Kepler's operations back to normal as it did before. In July 2012, one of the gyroscopic reaction wheels that help aim the spacecraft failed. The second wheel failed in May 2013. The K2 mission began in 2014 and proceeded by using the sun's radiation pressure to orient the spacecraft.
"The chance for the K2 mission to use gravity to help us explore exoplanets is one of the most fantastic astronomical experiments of the decade," said Steve Howell, project scientist for NASA's Kepler and K2 mission.
Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
Warp engines off line obviously.
If NASA wasn’t so worried about Muslims, Cli-amatey Changey and redistribution of wealth...they would have had some money to spend instead of cutting corners.
I don’t get how it can detect 5,000 planets and we can’t confirm one the size of earth is in our solar system.
WHAT? Says the spacecraft is 75 million miles away. But the sun is 93 million miles away. That can't be the center of the Milky Way. I'm confused.
There was a thread the other day about a comet cloud being disturbed by a celestial’s orbit and a bunch of crater-creators on the way to us soon. Sure would explain the psychotic behavior of planetary political leaders recently.
Uh oh, looks like it found something big.
Blue_screen_of_death_pings
Does Planet 9 have phasers on stun?
It uses gravitational microlensing to find the distant planets. If it was in the right place and knew where to look, the planet you’re talking about could be seen.
Don't get too smug Linux folks...
Because it detects planets in distant star systems as the planet passes in front of the star. If you are referring to so-called planet 8 then that is another kettle of fish altogether. If it is exists at all they can’t use those same detection mechanisms.
If you maneuver your car around a pot hole are you in said pot hole?
Not too good. Here’s hoping for a good resolution.
About 10 years ago, nations all over the planet starting building NEAR observatories. No mention was made of this mass buildup of special observatories (to the public). New underground facilities have been built across the nation.
Somebody is getting ready for something.
As you mentioned, it seems world leaders are in a no holds barred, get while the getting is good feast on their citizenry.
South America. Observatories, no toilet paper.
Ever wonder why ?
Not Houston. It’s Silicon Valley, CA we have a problem.
I hope they fix it. Even if it died today, they’ll be studying Kepler data for decades. The spacecraft has made lot of significant discoveries.
The most amazing thing to me is that we actually have a spacecraft 13 light minutes from Earth!
Then I recall how far out Voyager 1 is out: about 7 light DAYS! And it is still talking to us.
Just wow.
Exactly. It's all about the point of view.
Which means that of the 5000 hits/1000 actual possible planets that there could be 10,000 or 1,000,000, or 100,000,000 that they didn't see.
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