The Kepler Telescope

Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 6, 2009 

In 2009, NASA launched the Kepler telescope.  Also called NASA Discovery Mission #10, Kepler’s mission was, and

 continues to be, survey of an area of our sky in search for planets in what are called “habitable zones.”  A “habitable

 zone” refers to a planet’s distance from its host star.  Us Earthlings refer to Earth’s orbit as being within the habitable

 zone around our star.  When studying other systems, it is helpful to compare what we see to our own system.  For

 instance, a planet as close to its star as Mercury is to our star, will obviously not be entirely habitable for human

life.  The same can be observed for planets with similar distances from their stars, as Uranus or Neptune are

from our sun.  These planets would be too far away to be within a habitable zone. 

The Kepler telescope explores the structures of various planetary systems.  Some of the mission’s objectives

 include estimating how many planets reside in other star systems, the sizes of their orbits, and determining how many planets
 
are within habitable zones of various star systems.