Are we the only creatures in the universe?

Are we the only creatures in the universe? This problem is as old as mankind itself. Thousands of years later, people turned their eyes to the starry sky and wondered if there were other creatures like human beings in the universe. Are those creatures similar to us? Do they exist in other parts of the solar system or the Milky Way? It was not until 1992 that the first exoplanet was discovered that people were sure that there were other planets outside the solar system.

Look at Kepler telescope from below.

Today, we know more than 3850 planets orbiting other stars and thousands of candidate planets. Do these planets have the conditions to support life? In the growing planetary system, what conditions can promote the formation of terrestrial planets? NASA solved these problems by discovering and describing extrasolar planetary systems. Before we can determine whether there are other planets that can support life, we must first find them.

Comparison of primary mirror size of optical telescope

In order to achieve this goal, NASA has carried out a series of ground observation activities through Kepler mission. The Kepler mission is a retired space observatory. It studies the prevalence of extrasolar planets (how many planets are there in each star) through TESS, which is conducting all-day observation, and searches for extrasolar planets between the earth and giant woody planets.

Test images taken before the start of scientific action. This picture is centered on Centauri. You can see the edge of the coal pocket nebula in the upper right corner, and the bright star in the lower left corner is Centauri? Star.

relevant knowledge

The transit exoplanet survey satellite is a space telescope and part of NASA's explorer program. The main task of the transit exoplanet survey satellite is to investigate whether there are planets in the stars within 300 light years near the earth. The transit exoplanet survey satellite will study a large group of asteroids, including the habitable area of their host stars, the mass, size, density and orbit of the planets.

The first light of the transit exoplanet survey satellite

The transit exoplanet survey satellite will provide James? The Webb Space Telescope and other future space or ground telescopes are the targets for further observation. The transit exoplanet survey satellite will observe asteroids near bright stars and record the nearest and brightest main sequence stars.

The Kepler mission is a space telescope designed by NASA to discover planets around other stars. Using the space photometer developed by NASA, the luminosity of 654.38+million stars in orbit around the sun has been observed for more than 9 years, and the planetary Ling Xing phenomenon has been detected. In memory of the German astronomer Kepler, this mission was named Kepler Mission. Kepler is a low-cost discovery program focused on science by NASA.

The field of view observed by photometer in Cygnus and Lyra.

Kepler is a low-cost discovery program focused on science by NASA. The Ames Research Center of NASA is responsible for this task, which provides the main researchers and is responsible for the development of ground systems, the implementation of tasks and the analysis of scientific data. The progress of Kepler mission is handled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Bell Space Science and Technology Company is responsible for the development of Kepler mission flight system.

The area surveyed by Kepler's first image.

Kepler spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Florida, USA at 22: 49: 57 EST on March 6, 2009. More than 65,438+030 exoplanets have been identified and more than 2,700 candidate planets have been discovered.