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Kepler Planet-Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results

W. J. Borucki, David Koch, Gibor Basri, Natalie M. Batalha, Timothy M. Brown, Douglas A. Caldwell, John Caldwell, J. Christensen‐Dalsgaard, William D. Cochran, Edna DeVore, Edward W. Dunham, A. K. Dupree, T. N. Gautier, John C. Geary, Ronald L. Gilliland, Alan Gould, Steve B. Howell, Jon M. Jenkins, Y. Kondo, David W. Latham, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Søren Meibom, H. Kjeldsen, Jack J. Lissauer, D. G. Monet, David Morrison, Dimitar Sasselov, Jill Tarter, Alan P. Boss, D. E. Brownlee, T. Owen, Derek L. Buzasi, David Charbonneau, Laurance R. Doyle, Jonathan J. Fortney, Eric B. Ford, Matthew J. Holman, Sara Seager, Jason H. Steffen, William F. Welsh, Jason F. Rowe, Howard J Anderson, Lars A. Buchhave, David R. Ciardi, Lucianne M. Walkowicz, William Sherry, Elliott P. Horch, Howard Isaacson, Mark E. Everett, Debra A. Fischer, Guillermo Torres, John Asher Johnson, Michael Endl, Phillip J. MacQueen, Steve Bryson, Jessie Dotson, Michael R. Haas, J. Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey Van Cleve, Hema Chandrasekaran, Joseph D. Twicken, Elisa V. Quintana, Bruce Clarke, Christopher S. Allen, Jie Li, Haley Wu, Peter Tenenbaum, E. M. Verner, F. C. Bruhweiler, Jason W. Barnes, A. Prša

Open publisher page 4,115 citations

Abstract

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (approximately 0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

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What this paper is about

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (approximately 0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

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Available abstract

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (approximately 0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

Key concepts: Planet, Kepler-47, Exoplanet, Neptune, Astrobiology, Circumstellar habitable zone, Kepler, Physics

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