Kepler Mission: why no near planets yet ?

I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of observations. This
would mean that they should've dicovered planets with rotation period
of 1.5 momths (about half of Mercury's), if there were any new ones.
Does it mean that there actually very few extrasolar planets out
there ?

Please note that planets with short rotation period are more likely to
have their orbital plane inclined in the right way for Kepler to
discover them than planets with longer periods. So it seems that it
will be even less likely that they will discover any planets in the
habitable zone, now that they have not discovered any planets with
1.5 month period. Does it sound right ?

"ivk" wrote in message
...
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of observations. This
would mean that they should've dicovered planets with rotation period
of 1.5 momths (about half of Mercury's), if there were any new ones.
Does it mean that there actually very few extrasolar planets out
there ?

Please note that planets with short rotation period are more likely to
have their orbital plane inclined in the right way for Kepler to
discover them than planets with longer periods. So it seems that it
will be even less likely that they will discover any planets in the
habitable zone, now that they have not discovered any planets with
1.5 month period. Does it sound right ?

Algol's planet "Androcles" has a period of 70 hours. It's beyond the range
of Kepler, though. Besides, do you expect a result for just one orbit
if other planets are involved? That would be magic.
http://www.androcles01.pwp.blueyonde...lgol/Algol.htm
--Androcles

Dear ivk:

"ivk" wrote in message
...
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of
observations. This would mean that they should've
dicovered planets with rotation period of 1.5
momths (about half of Mercury's), if there were any
new ones.

Why do you think that? Don't you believe that it takes analysis
of the data, and not just reams of data? Do you think one small
area of sky accounts for the whole sky?

Does it mean that there actually very few extrasolar
planets out there ?

Doesn't follow.

Please note that planets with short rotation period
are more likely to have their orbital plane inclined in
the right way for Kepler to discover them than planets
with longer periods. So it seems that it will be even
less likely that they will discover any planets in the
habitable zone, now that they have not discovered
any planets with 1.5 month period. Does it sound
right ?

They have repeated finding known exoplanets, and returned
additional depth of data on those. I think they are just now
collecting data in earnest, if they can keep the computer from
shutting down...

David A. Smith

"ivk" wrote in message
...
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of
observations.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...2c6b2d9d23b911
.... so we'll know more tomorrow.

David A. Smith

N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:
"ivk" wrote in message
...
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of
observations.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...2c6b2d9d23b911
... so we'll know more tomorrow.

David A. Smith


"WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing on Thursday, Aug. 6, at
2 p.m. EDT, to discuss early science results of the Kepler mission.
Kepler is the first spacecraft with the ability to find Earth-size
planets orbiting stars like our sun in a zone where liquid water
could exist."

Where does the press release talk about Oct 7th, 2009?

Yousuf Khan

Dear Yousuf Khan:

On Oct 6, 9:40*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
N:dlzcD:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:

"ivk" wrote in message
...
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of
observations.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...2c6b2d9d23b911
... so we'll know more tomorrow.

"WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing
on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss
early science results of the Kepler mission.
Kepler is the first spacecraft with the ability to find
Earth-size planets orbiting stars like our sun in a
zone where liquid water could exist."

Where does the press release talk about Oct 7th,
2009?

Yes, it could be today (Wed 6th), tomorrow (Thu 7th), or next year
when Oct 7th falls on a Thursday...

David A. Smith

On Oct 6, 9:40*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
N:dlzcD:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:

"ivk" wrote in message
....
I think Kepler has downloaded about 5 months of
observations.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...2c6b2d9d23b911

... so we'll know more tomorrow.

"WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing
on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss
early science results of the Kepler mission.
Kepler is the first spacecraft with the ability to find
Earth-size planets orbiting stars like our sun in a
zone where liquid water could exist."

Where does the press release talk about Oct 7th,
2009?

Yes, it could be today (Wed 6th), tomorrow (Thu 7th),
or next year when [Oct 6th] falls on a Thursday...

Gaaa....

David A. Smith

I am still looking for somebody to answer the original question Let
me try to formalize it.

There were no reports of any new extrasolar planets found in about 5
months of Kepler's operations; does it mean that they did not find any
planet with a period 1.5 months and at least Earth size (or
bigger) ? Or it is just that they are waiting for some other
confirmations, in addition to simple occlusions that are obeservable
from Kepler ?

On 2009-10-07, ivk wrote:
There were no reports of any new extrasolar planets found in about 5
months of Kepler's operations; does it mean that they did not find any
planet with a period 1.5 months and at least Earth size (or
bigger) ?

No, it does not mean that.

They are surely taking and reducing data, and waiting to understand
things before publishing.

I expect a flurry of results next January at the AAS meeting.

"Greg Hennessy" wrote in message
...
On 2009-10-07, ivk wrote:
There were no reports of any new extrasolar planets found in about 5
months of Kepler's operations; does it mean that they did not find any
planet with a period 1.5 months and at least Earth size (or
bigger) ?

No, it does not mean that.

They are surely taking and reducing data, and waiting to understand
things before publishing.

I expect a flurry of results next January at the AAS meeting.

"They" is a computer on board the space telescope called "Kepler".
"They" will not be attending any AAS meeting.

http://kepler.nasa.gov/about/news.html