NASA invites members of the media to attend the fourth Kepler Science Conference to be held June 19-23. The weeklong science conference will take place at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
Scientists from around the world will gather to discuss the latest findings and discoveries from the analysis of observations made by the Kepler space telescope. Kepler detects planets by measuring the miniscule change in brightness of a star caused when a planet passes in front of it, called a transit.
Launched in 2009, Kepler has identified more than 5,000 planet candidates. Of these, more than 2,500 have been verified as bona fide planets, including a dozen that are less than twice the size of Earth and reside in the habitable zone of their host star. The habitable zone is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.
News media planning to attend the conference must contact Michele Johnson at 650-604-6982 or Michele.Johnson@nasa.gov by June 15 to register.
Ames manages the Kepler spacecraft and its missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
For information about the Kepler Science Conference and to view the agenda, visit:
For information about the Kepler spacecraft and its missions, visit:
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Michele Johnson
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
650-604-6882
michele.johnson@nasa.gov