Kepler's Search for New Worlds
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}March 6: Spectators watch the launch of NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, from Cocoa Beach, Fla. (AP)
An artist's interpretation of the Kepler observatory in space. (NASA)
A technician inspects Kepler's lightweight, honeycomb-like primary mirror, which weighs only 14 percent that of a solid mirror of the same dimensions and is made out of ultra-low- expansion glass. (NASA/Ball Aerospace)
This image depicts the 3,000-ight-year-wide target area for NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. (NASA/Jon Lomberg)
A technician inspects Kepler's imaging surface, an array of charge coupled devices (CCDs) similar to what's found in a digital camera. (Ball Aerospace)
Technicians working inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility near NASA's Kennedy Space Center look over the Kepler spacecraft soon after it arrived in Florida in preparation for launch. (NASA/Tim Jacobs)
Workers attach the two-part payload fairing over the Kepler space telescope as they prepare it for launch. The fairing will protect the spacecraft from friction and turbulence during launch, and jettison after it escapes the atmosphere. (NASA/Jack Pfaller)