The Super Earth: New Planet Discovered

If you just sit down and start making a list of every groundbreaking mission NASA has ever attempted, I bet that the Kepler spacecraft will be sitting very near the top heap. The abilities it has to detect planets on the other side of the galaxy has revamped our understanding of how solar systems form, which types of stars tend to pair with which types of planets, and shed light on the early dynamics of solar system formation. But, unfortunately, this groundbreaking mission was forced to an early end due to the problems with its gyroscopic stabilization system. A year ago NASA said it might have a way to bring the satellite back online, and now we know that the method has worked as the Kepler has found another planet, a “Super Earth.”

Want to know about that new method? Alright here you go!

NASA's K2 Balancing Act

The new method is to balance the Kepler on just two reaction wheels and it relies on pressure from photons from the sun. Photons have no mass, but they do have energy and momentum, that is why solar sails work. Solar radiation is sufficiently powerful that mission planners have to account for it and that means it provides an additional source of balance for Kepler to push against.
Previously, it was not clear if the method proposed with K2 would offer sufficient resolution to find a planet, but we now know it will.

Talking of the new Planet, Andrew Vanderburg, the Lead researcher, reviewed data gathered by Kepler during its initial test of K2 earlier this year. The data revealed the evidence of a planet, HIP 116454b. This newly discovered exoplanet is about 2.5 times larger than our planet Earth, with a mass that’s 12 times that of Earth, so, in other words, we would rather call it a super-Earth. The planet is very close to its parent star, completing an orbit every 9.1 days (as opposed to our Earth’s 365 days) and because it’s too close, the planet is probably too hot to support life.

So, with a new successful detection under its belt, Kepler can be officially deemed back on active duty. Of course that declaration is somewhat delayed as the spacecraft has actually been making observations for quite some time since it was initially reactivated with the K2 parameters.
Now we all would like to say this - Welcome back, Kepler — it’s a great Christmas present to have you back with us.

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