Showing posts with label Kepler mission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kepler mission. Show all posts

Thursday, September 15, 2011

NASA Kepler Mission Discovers Double Sunset

NASA's Kepler mission, intended "to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems," recently discovered a planet orbiting two stars. One consequence of the planet's position is that it experienced double sunsets. This phenomenon, something of a staple in popular science fiction, has now been established as scientific fact. (Kepler, by the way, is the name of a 17th Century German mathematician and astronomer.)


The image, from NASA, shows the Kepler spacecraft.