NASA on, Friday March 6, 2009, prepared to launch a telescope that will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.
The Kepler spacecraft is scheduled to blast into space on top of a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida just before 11 p.m. ET.
Kepler contains a special telescope that will stare at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.
The spacecraft will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it - an event called a Transit.
The instrument is so precise that it can register changes in brightness of 20 parts per million in stars that are thousands of light years away.
Once Kepler spots a planet, scientists will be able to calculate its size, mass, orbital period, distance from star and surface temperature; scientists should know by 2013 - the end of Kepler's mission - whether life in the universe could be widespread.
are we now on track to become the aliens we've always 'worried' about? I am curious to see where this leads.
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