Kepler Discovers 11 New Planetary Systems

The Kepler mission to discover new planets, which there is a blog post about a few posts down, has come up with some incredile results. A confirmed 11 planetary systems that host 26 planets, previously unknown, have been found. This doubles the number of confirmed planets found by Kepler and gives us new insight to how other planetary systems work, esspecially ones compact as these.. More then half of the newly discovered planets are around the size of Earth, and every single one of them is closer to their star then Venus is to our sun. The planetary system with the most exoplanets is Kepler-33, which has five Earth sized planets. Kepler discovers these systems using light detection, noticing when the light from a star is changed. This occurs when an orbiting planet passes in front of it. Once they suspect Kepler has found a planet they focus all of their resources and time to verifying it was a planet instead of some other space mass.
Because these systems are so compact the gravity of the exoplanets can effect each other, causing something called Transit Timing Variations. This is when a planets orbit is either speed up or slowed down by anothers gravity, Kepler is helping us understand how this works in these new systems.
The discovery of these new systems are published in four different papers in the Astrophysical Journal and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and on Nasa.gov.
"Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky. Now, in just two years staring at a patch of sky not much bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and more than 2,300 planet candidates. This tells us that our galaxy is positively loaded with planets of all sizes and orbits." - Doug Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA.

Snoopy in space?

So, you guys know Snoopy from "Penuts"?

                                                        this guy------>

Well in 1968, when the astronauts of the Apollo 10 lunar mission chose "Snoopy"  as the name of their lunar module , Snoopy became associated with NASA's space program.

your probly thinking "hold up a sec! I thought snoopy was a world war 1 flying ace."  well heres the thing. in the 1960's everyone in the US was really into the space race. so Charles Schulz converted Snoopy's  dog house from a world war 1 airplane in to a rocket ship. in the comic he actually beat the USA and the Russians to become the "first beagle to the moon!"

Now reacently an exibit on snoopy and his accotiation with NASA will be apearing at the Charles Schulz Museum  in Santa Rosa, Calif. for the purpose of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 10 mission.

In May 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Gene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford traveled all the way to the moon for one final checkout before the lunar landing attempt.

Because the mission required the lunar module to "snoop around" scouting the Apollo 11 landing site, the crew named the lunar module "Snoopy." Naturally, the Apollo command module was labeled "Charlie Brown."


The astronauts carried paintings of the duo on their spacecraft, with Charlie Brown in space coveralls and Snoopy in his Flying Ace scarf. They used the paintings to calibrate the cameras used for the first live color telecasts from space.

Apollo 10 astronauts Cernan and Stafford will join recovery team members Chuck Smiley and Wes Chesser at the museum on Jan. 31 to kick off the exhibition. Also attending: Jamye Flowers Coplin, a NASA secretary who was photographed bringing Snoopy to see the crew off  The exhibit will feature a one-third scale model of the Apollo command module from the Johnson Space Center, an Apollo-era flight suit, the actual image of Charlie Brown that was flown aboard Apollo 10, and a special children's area for creative play.

Snoopy's connection with NASA actually began before Apollo 10. In 1968, NASA chose the beagle as an icon who would quote: "Emphasize mission success and act as a 'watchdog' for flight safety."

Established that same year, the agency's "Silver Snoopy Award" is considered the astronauts personal award, given for basically trying really really hard. Award winners receive a sterling silver Snoopy lapel pin flown in space, along with a certificate and letter of appreciation from NASA astronauts. Fewer than 1% of the workforce is recognized with a Silver Snoopy annually, making it one of the most prized awards in the industry.pretty cool eh?



http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/snoopy.html
 http://www.schulzmuseum.org/