Orbital
Jun 28, 2019, 02:25 PM
Kepler Star reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.
“Any world that I'm welcome to, is better than the one I come from.” – Steely Dan
The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets, especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.
The Kepler Space Telescope Mission was specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.
After nine years in deep space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope ran out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA retired the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler discovered more than 2,600 planets from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
With “Orbital” I have tried to imagine what one might experience outside our solar system. Outer space = inner space. Put on your headphones and let the journey begin!
Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
“Any world that I'm welcome to, is better than the one I come from.” – Steely Dan
The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets, especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.
The Kepler Space Telescope Mission was specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.
After nine years in deep space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope ran out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA retired the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler discovered more than 2,600 planets from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
With “Orbital” I have tried to imagine what one might experience outside our solar system. Outer space = inner space. Put on your headphones and let the journey begin!
Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space