An insider's account of the NASA mission that changed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbitAre we alone in the universe? It's a fundamental question for Earth-dwelling humankind. Are there other worlds like ours, out there somewhere? In Hidden in the Hea...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Steffen, Jason (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press [2024]
Schlagworte:	SCIENCE / Astronomy Extrasolar planets > Detection Orbiting astronomical observatories
Online-Zugang:	DE-Aug4 URL des Erstveröffentlichers
Zusammenfassung:	An insider's account of the NASA mission that changed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbitAre we alone in the universe? It's a fundamental question for Earth-dwelling humankind. Are there other worlds like ours, out there somewhere? In Hidden in the Heavens, Jason Steffen, a former scientist on NASA's Kepler mission, describes how that mission searched for planets orbiting Sun-like stars-especially Earth-like planets circulating in Earth-like orbits. What the Kepler space telescope found, Steffen reports, contradicted centuries of theoretical and observational work and transformed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbit. Kepler discovered thousands of planets orbiting distant stars-a bewildering variety of celestial bodies, including rocky planets being vaporized by the intense heat of their host star; super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, with properties simultaneously similar to and different from both Earth and Neptune; gas giants several times the size and mass of Jupiter; and planets orbiting in stellar systems that had only been imagined in science fiction.It was, Steffen says, the opportunity of a lifetime to work in the most exciting scientific field on the most awe-inspiring mission. He offers a unique, inside account of the work of the Kepler science team (and the sometimes chaotic interactions among team members), mapping the progress of the mission from the launch of the rocket that carried Kepler into space to the revelations of the data that began to flow to the supercomputer back at NASA-evidence of strange new worlds unlike anything found in our own solar system
Beschreibung:	Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Nov 2024)
Beschreibung:	1 Online-Ressource (280 pages) 8 page color insert + 4 b/w illus
ISBN:	9780691242484
DOI:	10.1515/9780691242484