Kepler telescope shows Trappist-1 in glorious low-resolution
Sci-Tech
Notification on
Notification off
Transcript
Images from the Kepler telescope are available to the public.
This 11 by 11 pixel gif, shows 60 measurements or photos taken by the Kepler telescope once a minute for an hour on February 22.
What we're seeing is planets passing in front of the Trappist-1 star Now let's back track a little.
Recently NASA announced that scientists had found seven earth-sized planets orbiting the star known as Trappist-1.
The discovery was made using NASA's Spitzer space telescope.
Located about 40 light-years away, these seven planets could all have liquid water, but three are believed to be in the habitable zone.
The announcement was accompanied by beautiful artist renderings of what these planets could look like.
NASA also made available the raw data files captured by the Kepler Telescope, observing TRAPPIST-1, why?
The data will aid astronomers prep future proposals in how to use ground based telescopes to help investigate TRAPPIST-1 Back to GIF, NASA explains that the flickering of the pixels corresponds to dips in brightness of the Trappist-1 star as an Earth-sized planet passes in front of it.
Are these the best images we will see of the planets orbiting Trappist-1?
No, the Kepler telescope will be supplemented by more advanced instruments, like the James Webb telescope which should provide more clear data.
For more information, check out cnet.com.
I'm Aya Zaktar, and I'll see you online.
Up Next
AMD reveals new Radeon 6700 XT graphics chip
10:45
AMD announces pricing, availability on 6700 XT graphics card
4:22
See the automatic dog trainer coming this summer
5:35
Microsoft shows Cirque du Soleil in mixed reality
2:53
Microsoft unveils Mesh, its new augmented reality platform
6:32
Microsoft demos Pokemon Go on HoloLens 2
2:10
Rumors about AirPods 3 are getting louder
5:20
The next Pixel could be pretty familiar
3:34
Why Elon Musk is giving $100M to capture carbon
8:47
San Francisco Chinatown gets re-created via Minecraft