Kepler Planet-Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results

作者：W. J. Borucki, David Koch, Gibor Basri, Natalie M. Batalha, Timothy M. Brown, Douglas A. Caldwell, John Caldwell, J. Christensen‐Dalsgaard, William D. Cochran, Edna DeVore, Edward W. Dunham, A. K. Dupree, T. N. Gautier, John C. Geary, Ronald L. Gilliland, Alan Gould, Steve B. Howell, Jon M. Jenkins, Y. Kondo, David W. Latham, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Søren Meibom, H. Kjeldsen, Jack J. Lissauer, D. G. Monet, David Morrison, Dimitar Sasselov, Jill Tarter, Alan P. Boss, D. E. Brownlee, T. Owen, Derek L. Buzasi, David Charbonneau, Laurance R. Doyle, Jonathan J. Fortney, Eric B. Ford, Matthew J. Holman, Sara Seager, Jason H. Steffen, William F. Welsh, Jason F. Rowe, Howard J Anderson, Lars A. Buchhave, David R. Ciardi, Lucianne M. Walkowicz, William Sherry, Elliott P. Horch, Howard Isaacson, Mark E. Everett, Debra A. Fischer, Guillermo Torres, John Asher Johnson, Michael Endl, Phillip J. MacQueen, Steve Bryson, Jessie Dotson, Michael R. Haas, J. Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey Van Cleve, Hema Chandrasekaran, Joseph D. Twicken, Elisa V. Quintana, Bruce Clarke, Christopher S. Allen, Jie Li, Haley Wu, Peter Tenenbaum, E. M. Verner, F. C. Bruhweiler, Jason W. Barnes, A. Prša · 发表于：Science · 年份：2010 · DOI：10.1126/science.1185402 · 被引用次数：4114 · 研究领域：Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies、Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies、Astro and Planetary Science

The Kepler mission was designed to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets in and near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The habitable zone is the region where planetary temperatures are suitable for water to exist on a planet's surface. During the first 6 weeks of observations, Kepler monitored 156,000 stars, and five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 and 1.6 Jupiter radii and orbital periods from 3.2 to 4.9 days were discovered. The density of the Neptune-sized Kepler-4b is similar to that of Neptune and GJ 436b, even though the irradiation level is 800,000 times higher. Kepler-7b is one of the lowest-density planets (approximately 0.17 gram per cubic centimeter) yet detected. Kepler-5b, -6b, and -8b confirm the existence of planets with densities lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.