🇬🇧 The field that changed exoplanets.

Kepler was a 0.95m space telescope launched in 2009 to detect exoplanets passing in front of their stars. The main scientific goal of the mission was to detect Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars, and measure how common they are. To achieve this, Kepler observed a fixed field at the border between the Cygnus and the Lyra constellation for nearly four years.

This field of view is roughtly 11°x11°, that's about the size of your palm with your arm stretched in front of you. 🤚🏻
Kepler used 42 CCD sensors to measure the brightness of the stars in this region of the sky, respresented as white squares.

Kepler observed approximately 150 000 stars and detected 2 783 confirmed exoplanets, with 1 979 candidates yet to be confirmed.

Small planets are remarkably common: approximately 50% of Sun-like stars host at least one planet smaller than 4 Earth-radii.

The picture was taken from the top of Mont Fort, in the Swiss Alps, at 3300m of altitude.

🇨🇭 Le champ qui a révolutionné les exoplanètes.

Kepler était un télescope spatial de 0.95 m lancé en 2009 pour détecter des exoplanètes passant devant leur étoile. Le principal objectif scientifique de la mission était de découvrir des planètes comme la Terre autour d'étoiles comme le Soleil, et de mesurer leur occurence. Pour ce faire, Kepler a observé un champ à la frontière entre les constellations du Cygne et de la Lyre pendant près de quatre ans.

Ce champ de vue fai environ 11°x11°, c'est environ la taille de votre paume quand vous tendez le bras devant vous. 🤚🏻
Kepler utilisait 42 capteurs CCD pour mesurer la brillance des étoiles dans cette région du ciel, représentés par les carrés blancs.

Kepler a observé environ 150 000 étoiles et détecté 2 783 exoplanètes, avec 1 979 candidates encore à confirmer.

Les petites planètes sont remarquablement courantes : environ 50 % des étoiles semblables au Soleil accueillent au moins une planète de moins de 4 rayons terrestres.

La photo a été prise depuis le sommet du Mont Fort, dans les Alpes suisses, à 3300 m d'altitude.

#MilkyWay #nightscaper #exoplanets #yourESA #astronomy

Light-painting in the Atacama Desert by ericpare

https://tmblr.co/Z7VXvxj7G1t9iu00

#lightpainting #longexposure #atacama #milkyway #flickr #thingsdavidlikes

Why Red Should Be Your Favourite Colour

Have you ever heard of red light therapy? That’s when red light is shone on your skin to help with various skin problems. It’s supposed to reduce wrinkles and help treat acne and scars. As well it’s supposed to help with the appearance of the skin in general.

Meanwhile blue light, at the other end of the visible light spectrum, is considered bad for your sleep. Hours before you go to sleep, you are supposed to stay away from screens, especially blue light screens, because the blue light can negatively affect sleep by suppressing the production of melatonin.

So that’s red light good, blue light bad.

Then there is the red shift of all the galaxies in the known universe except one. All those galaxies are headed away from us. We know this because of the Doppler shift. The further they are away from us the bigger the red shift and the faster they are going away from us.

The exception is the Andromeda Galaxy. It has a blue shift and is headed towards us. Indeed it will hit us in about 5 billion years. Stars are really far away from each other. As a result, it is almost a certainty that none of the stars in Andromeda will hit any of the stars in the Milky Way (our galaxy). However, I think that the Oort cloud will be so disturbed that comets will rain down on us and might cause an extinction event.

So if you’re counting that‘s red shift good, blue shift bad.

Staying with astronomy, astronomers use red light flashlights. This is because red is known not to throw off our dark adaption. Using red light allows astronomers to read sky charts, coordinates on their equipment and anything else, like following instructions. Astronomers stay in the know because of red light.

The rest of the spectrum does throw off our dark adaption. So if you turn on a blue flashlight for instance, to read something, expect to wait another 5 minutes for your dark adaption to come back and you are useful again.

Again that’s red light good, other light bad.

As a useful home hack, do not buy clock radios that don’t have red light numbers. You both lose your dark adaption and if the numbers are blue, you are suppressing the production of melatonin both of which can negatively affect you at night.

What have we learned about all this? Well we have decided that your favourite colour cannot be blue. Red would be the obvious choice for your favourite colour. Make life make sense. Make it red.

The Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380) 🔭⭐🪐💫🌌🌖
——————————————————————————📸 @vaonis Vespera II, L-Quad filter, Bortle 5,

Edit: Tiff stacking app, Photoshop, Graxpert, RC-Astro, Lightroom #astrophotography #astronomy #stars #nightsky #photography #milkyway #nightphotography #moon #universe #astro #astrophoto #longexposure #nasa #galaxy #night #sky #telescope #nebula #science #ig #milkywaychasers #photooftheday #astrophysics #stargazing #deepsky #Vaonis #Astrophotography #wizardnebula #Vespera #space