Kepler is Away!

You may have not even heard, but there was an important launch last night from Cape Canaveral. NASA launched the Kepler spacecraft into orbit around the sun.

NASA's Kepler Portal

The Kepler spacecraft will follow Earth's orbit around the sun (it's "year," though, will actually be 371 days). It's mission is to seek out Earth-like planets orbiting other stars with it's camera, which sports an astounding 95 million megapixel array.

While Kepler won't be able to seek out new life, nor will it boldly go...anywhere, it will be able to tell us if planets like Earth -- rocky planets with an atmosphere and liquid water, able to support life as we know it -- are common. Are we unique in the galaxy? Kepler should be able to tell us.

Ultimately, if Earth is not unique, what does this mean? If there are other potentially habitable planets, especially nearby, I think that this could should spark a renewed interest in space exploration. Perhaps with Kepler's findings, we will be prompted to boldly go where no man has gone before.