A first look from Kepler
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 16, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery, Unmanned Missions | 
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Kepler, NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars, has returned its first pictures revealing millions of stars within its field of view.
“Kepler’s first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring,” said Lia LaPiana, Kepler’s program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking.”
One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view — a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 millions stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting.
Over the next three-and-a-half years, Kepler will scan pre-selected stars for planetary evidence. It is the first NASA mission optimized specifically to seek out Earth-sized planets.
