“开普勒”望远镜发回首批照片

今天中午CCTV1都说了，再不贴就毫无时效性可言了。可是，这些图貌似一点都不cool啊，比起哈勃的美图来，我实在不觉得漂亮。真正的天文研究，不是靠看漂亮大图的哦，我们就不操这个心了。
为了使大家对内容有个初步了解，我把新华网、科技网的中文内容先贴一点，这样大家也方便阅读。
http://www.stdaily.com/gb/stdaily/2009-04/18/content_931716.htm

据新华社华盛顿4月16日电（记者  任海军）   美国航天局16日在网站上公布了“开普勒”太空望远镜拍摄的首批照片，展现了银河系的天鹅座、天琴座及其附近区域，该区域恒星众多，不久后“开普勒”望远镜将“瞄准”这一区域搜寻类地行星。  　　当天公布的这批照片既有“开普勒”望远镜的视野全景图，也有局部放大图。全景图上分布着数百万颗恒星，局部放大图之一显示的是距离地球约1.3万光年的一个星团，其代号为NGC6791，另一幅显示的是包含Tres－2恒星的一片星空。

                               
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　　美航天局指出，“开普勒”望远镜观测的天鹅座、天琴座及其附近区域内预计有1400万颗恒星，其中约10万颗将是该望远镜搜寻类地行星的重点。这次“开普勒”望远镜发回的照片将作为“路线图”，在今后数年内指引探测遥远恒星系中是否有适合生命存在的类地行星。  
　　“开普勒”太空望远镜于今年美国东部时间3月6日升空，是世界上首个专门用于搜寻太阳系外类地行星的航天器。在迄今进入太空的所有航天器所携光度计中，“开普勒”望远镜的光度计体积最大，该装置将帮助望远镜观测行星的“凌日”现象，以搜寻太阳系外类地行星。  

好了，现在是官网内容，可惜全英文。超多内容要翻译……
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/apr/HQ_09-085_Kepler_First_Light.html

April 16, 2009
2009.4.16
J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
华盛顿总部
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳市美国喷气推进实验室
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
加利福尼亚州莫菲特菲尔德市埃姆斯研究中心
650-604-3937
michael.s.mewhinney@nasa.gov

RELEASE : 09-085
NASA's Kepler Captures First Views of Planet-Hunting Territory
开普勒卫星获得它的首张行星搜索版图

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth.
加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳市，美国宇航局开普勒卫星获得它的首富含恒星的星图，很快它将以此开始类地行星搜索工作。
The new "first light" images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. One image shows millions of stars in Kepler's full field of view, while two others zoom in on portions of the larger region. The images can be seen online at:
开普勒卫星第一张“开门”照显示的目标是我们银河系在天琴座——天鹅座的广袤繁星天区。全图中有数百万恒星，并附有2个局部放大图。各图可以在下面的链接观看：
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/20090416.html

"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."
美国宇航局华盛顿总部，开普勒项目主管莉娅.拉彼阿纳说：“开普勒的第一眼令人惊叹，在单张照片中看到数百万恒星真壮观。”
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.
开普勒卫星新图是它的整个视场图——大小约100平方度，相当于2个北斗七星区域并起来这么大的天区。区域中估计包含1400万颗恒星，其中的10万颗将是寻找行星的理想候选。
Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. In one image, a cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the lower left corner. The other image zooms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days.
图中另外2张聚焦图仅有全图的千分之一大。右上一张图是离我们大约1.3万光年的（疏散）星团NGC 6791。另一张包含一个编号TrES-2的恒星，TrES-2已知有一个热类木行星以2.5天周期在环绕它旋转。
"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for Kepler at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."
加利福尼亚州莫菲特菲尔德市，NASA埃姆斯研究中心开普勒（项目）科学组首席研究员威廉.布鲁克说：“看见这么多恒星宝藏令人激动得发抖。我们预料会在那些恒星周围发现数百个行星，而且我们将首次在别的类太阳系的适宜居住区中，发现类似地球的行星。”
Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching more than 100,000 pre-selected stars for signs of planets. It is expected to find a variety of worlds, from large, gaseous ones, to rocky ones as small as Earth. The mission is the first with the ability to find planets like ours -- small, rocky planets orbiting sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans of water.
开普勒将在随后的三年半中，从10万多预选恒星中搜寻标记行星。预计它将发现各种行星世界，从气态的巨行星到多岩石的类地行星。本任务将第一次有能力发现和我们地球相似的行星——同样在宜居轨道上运行的小型类地行星，其温度刚好能使水成为液态而形成湖泊海洋。
To find the planets, Kepler will stare at one large expanse of sky for the duration of its lifetime, looking for periodic dips in starlight that occur as planets circle in front of their stars and partially block the light. Its 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever launched into space, can detect tiny changes in a star's brightness of only 20 parts per million. Images from the camera are intentionally blurred to minimize the number of bright stars that saturate the detectors. While some of the slightly saturated stars are candidates for planet searches, heavily saturated stars are not.
要发现行星，开普勒将在它整个设计寿命期间盯住一大片天区，寻找星光周期性降低的恒星，这表明有行星运行到恒星前方、部分遮住了星光。拥有迄今为止最大分辨率——0.95亿像素的太空相机，开普勒能够发现星光低至百万分之20的极微弱变动。相机的图像特意略微模糊，使星光的晕染影响降到最低。轻微的星光晕染将是行星候选者，严重晕染则不是。
"Everything about Kepler has been optimized to find Earth-size planets," said James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there."

                               
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加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳市美国喷气推进实验室（以下简称JPL），开普勒项目组经理詹姆士.Fanson：“开普勒卫星的一切已经为搜寻类地行星优化，现在的星图将作为路线图，使我们在几年后指出某个恒星系中有类似我们地球的世界。”
Scientists and engineers will spend the next few weeks calibrating Kepler's science instrument, the photometer, and adjusting the telescope's alignment to achieve the best focus. Once these steps are complete, the planet hunt will begin.
科学家和工程师在接下来的几周内将校准开普勒的科学仪器——光度计，并调节望远镜基线以获得最佳焦距。一旦这些步骤完成，行星搜索工作就将开始。
"We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Bachtell has been working on the design, development and testing of Kepler for nine years.
科罗拉多州博尔德市Ball宇航技术集团、开普勒系统首席工程师艾利克.Bachtell说：“我们设计开普勒系统多年，看到它实际投入运作令人十二分的激动”。Bachtell已经为开普勒项目的设计、发展和测试工作了9年。
Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations.
开普勒项目是美国宇航局系列发现任务之一。埃姆斯研究中心负责地面系统规划、任务运作和科学数据分析。JPL负责任务管理。Ball航天技术集团负责设计开普勒卫星飞行（控制）系统和任务支持操作系统。
For images, animations and more information about the Kepler mission, visit:
开普勒任务的更多图片、动画和信息，请访问
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

- end -

PS:
1、first light当然是黎明、破晓的意思，但与我们口语不合哦。
2、1400万是本文这么说，后文说的是450万，差别不是一般的大。
3、本文作者把2个缩略图的位置给搞错了，翻译已经改正。第一批图其实就一大张，位置很确定的。另外图的大小也有差别，后文说星团图是2%，但貌似两张图面积相当。
4、个人以为，完全copy地球环境的星球，不一定有生命哦。但这种星球非常适宜人类在下一个千年去殖民。万年以后，我们能否扮演上帝？
5、 Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.，前面的Ball有人翻译为贝尔，但这与Bell不是同一个词啊，所以就没翻译。
6、由于恒星光芒比类地行星反光强1亿倍都有，所以不可能直接看到它。但是通过行星对恒星光的遮掩，这时的波动幅度很有可能超过10万分之一，就有希望被发现了。如果是类木行星，这种波动都超过了万分之一，现在的仪器都能发现了。
——by gohomeman1

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/20090416.html

第一张图 3000x2400，1.6MB

                               
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This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full fieldof view -- an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees, or the equivalent of two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper.
本图是开普勒卫星的整个视场图——天琴座和天鹅座中富含恒星的区域，视场大小约100平方度，或者相当于2个北斗七星区域并起来这么大的天区。
A cluster of stars, called NGC 6791, and a star with a known planet,called TrES-2, are outlined. The cluster is eight billion years old,and located 13,000 light-years from Earth. It is called an open cluster because its stars are loosely bound and have started to spread out.TrES-2 is a hot Jupiter-like planet known to cross in front of, or transit, its star every 2.5 days. Kepler will hunt for transiting planets that are as small as Earth.
缩略图中标出了2个天体——(疏散)星团NGC 6791和已知包含行星的恒星系TrES-2。NGC 6791离我们大约1.3万光年，年龄约80亿年。它被称为疏散星团，因为它的成员恒星结构松散而且还有恒星在扩散离开星团。 TrES-2已知有一个热类木行星在环绕它旋转，这个行星每隔2.5天就从恒星前面经过一次。开普勒将寻找像地球这么小的行星。
Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

PS：轨道半径连0.1个天文单位都不到的行星居然比木星还大，这个恒星系够特殊的。——by gohomeman1

第2张图，全景图 7200X5400，5MB。不要担心，网速很快的。
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/330044main_KeplerFOVsmall.jpg

                               
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This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full fieldof view -- an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees, or the equivalent of two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper.
本图是开普勒卫星的整个视场图——天琴座和天鹅座中富含恒星的区域，视场大小约100平方度，或者相当于2个北斗七星区域并起来这么大的天区。
Kepler was designed to hunt for planets like Earth. Of the approximately 4.5 million stars in the region pictured here, more than100,000 were selected as candidates for Kepler's search. The mission will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at these targetstars, looking for periodic dips in brightness. Such dips occur whenplanets cross in front of their stars from our point of view in the galaxy, partially blocking the starlight.
开普勒设计用途是寻找像地球这样的行星。图中大约有450万恒星，其中的10万将成为开普勒的候选搜索目标。任务将花费三年半时间盯住这些目标，搜索亮度周期性变化的恒星。这种变化发生表明在我们的视线方向，行星周期性的从恒星前面穿过而遮挡了部分星光。
The area in the lower right of the image is brighter because it is closer to the plane of our galaxy and is jam-packed with stars.The area in upper left is farther from the galactic plane and contains fewer stars.
图中的右下区域比较亮，因为它靠近银道面，塞满了恒星。左上区域相对远离银道面，恒星相对稀少。
The image has been color-coded so that brighter stars appear white, andfainter stars, red. It is a 60-second exposure, taken on April 8, 2009,one day after the spacecraft's dust cover was jettisoned.
本图经过伪彩处理，亮星为白色，昏暗的恒星是红色。本图曝光60秒，摄于2009.4.8，就在开普勒飞船抛掉它的防尘罩的次日。

Kepler Eyes Cluster and Known Plane

                               
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This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full fieldof view -- an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees, or the equivalentof two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper.
本图是开普勒卫星的整个视场图——天琴座和天鹅座中富含恒星的区域，视场大小约100平方度，或者相当于2个北斗七星区域并起来这么大的天区。
A cluster of stars, called NGC 6791, and a star with a known planet,called TrES-2, are outlined. The cluster is eight billion years old,and located 13,000 light-years from Earth.It is called an open cluster because its stars are loosely bound and have started to spread out. TrES-2 is a hot Jupiter-like planet known to cross in front of, or transit, its star every 2.5 days. Kepler will hunt for transiting planets that are as small as Earth.
缩略图中标出了2个天体——(疏散)星团NGC 6791和已知包含行星的恒星系TrES-2。NGC6791离我们大约1.3万光年，年龄约80亿年。它被称为疏散星团，因为它的成员恒星结构松散而且还有恒星在扩散离开星团。TrES-2已知有一个热类木行星在环绕它旋转，这个行星每隔2.5天就从恒星前面经过一次。开普勒将寻找像地球这么小的行星。
Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
本图的大图是tif，8MB
http://www.nasa.gov/329161main_fullFFIHot300.tif.tiff

Cluster of Stars in Kepler's Sight

                               
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This image zooms into a small portion of Kepler's full field of view --an expansive, 100-square-degree patch of sky in our Milky Way galaxy.An eight-billion-year-old cluster of stars 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the image. Clusters are families of stars that form together out of the same gas cloud. This particular cluster is called an open cluster, because the stars are loosely bound and have started to spread out from each other.
本图是开普勒整个视场图的一小部分的放大图——全图包含银河系100平方度的天区。本图中的天体是已存在80亿年的星团NGC 6791,离我们1.3万光年。星团是由同一片星云形成的恒星家族。当前这个星团被称为疏散星团，因为它的成员恒星结合松弛而且还有恒星在彼此远离。
The area pictured is 0.2 percent of Kepler's full field of view, and shows hundreds of stars in the constellation Lyra. The image has been color-coded so that brighter stars appear white, and fainter stars,red. It is a 60-second exposure, taken on April 8, 2009, one day afterthe spacecraft's dust cover was jettisoned.
本图区域面积约为整个视图的2%，显示出天琴座天区的数百颗恒星（貌似上千——译注）。本图经过伪彩处理，亮星为白色，昏暗的恒星是红色。（后面各图都是这样的伪彩处理——译注）本图曝光60秒，摄于2009.4.8，就在开普勒飞船抛掉它的防尘罩的次日。
Kepler was designed to hunt for planets like Earth. The mission will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at the same stars, looking for periodic dips in brightness. Such dips occur whenplanets cross in front of their stars from our point of view in the galaxy, partially blocking the starlight.
开普勒设计用途是寻找像地球这样的行星。任务将花费下一个3.5年时间盯住类似目标，搜索亮度周期性变化的恒星。这种变化发生表明在银河系中我们的视线方向，行星周期性的从恒星前面穿过而遮挡了部分星光。
To achieve the level of precision needed to spot planets assmall as Earth, Kepler's images are intentionally blurred slightly.This minimizes the number of saturated stars. Saturation, or"blooming," occurs when the brightest stars overload the individualpixels in the detectors, causing the signal to spill out into nearbypixels.
为实现观测精度达到探测到地球这么小的行星，开普勒图像有意略微模糊，这样将把星光溢出的影响降到最低。光溢出或者“星芒”现象，发生在恒星光度超过了探测器（CCD）的设计上限，从而光信号将扩散到附近的像素点。
Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

本图的大图又是tif，8MB，并不比这个jpg清晰多少
http://www.nasa.gov/329166main_NGC6791Hot300.tif.tiff

PS：探测到与在图像上明晰分辨出地球这么小的行星是有区别的，开普勒的精度不能真正在图像上看到这么小的遥远类地行星，但能有个模糊影像或者从分光计上看到证据也比什么都没有好。——by gohomeman1

Host to 'Hot Jupiter' (labeled)

                               
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This image zooms into a small portion of Kepler's full field of view -- an expansive, 100-square-degree patch of sky in our Milky Way galaxy. At the center of the field is a star with a known "hot Jupiter" planet, named "TrES-2," zipping closely around it every 2.5 days. Kepler will observe TrES-2 and other known planets as a test to demonstrate that it is working properly, and to obtain new information about those planets.
本图是开普勒整个视场图的一个小部分的放大图——全图包含银河系100平方度的天区。本图的中心是一个已知拥有以2.5天周期绕其旋转的“热木星”行星的恒星“TrES-2”。开普勒将观测 TrES-2和其他拥有行星的恒星系统，以证明它工作正常，并获得那些行星的新信息。
The area pictured is one-thousandth of Kepler's full field of view, and shows hundreds of stars at the very edge of the constellation Cygnus. The image has been color-coded so that brighter stars appear white, and fainter stars, red. It is a 60-second exposure, taken on April 8, 2009, one day after the spacecraft's dust cover was jettisoned.
本图区域面积约为整个视图的千分之一，显示出天鹅座相当边缘区域的数百颗恒星。本图经过色调处理，亮星为白色，昏暗的恒星是红色。本图曝光60秒，摄于2009.4.8，就在开普勒飞船抛掉它的防尘罩的次日。
Kepler was designed to hunt for planets like Earth. The mission will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at the same stars, looking for periodic dips in brightness. Such dips occur when planets cross in front of their stars from our point of view in the galaxy, partially blocking the starlight.
开普勒设计用途是寻找像地球这样的行星。任务将花费三年半时间盯住类似目标，搜索亮度周期性变化的恒星。这种变化发生表明在我们的视线方向，行星周期性的从恒星前面穿过而遮挡了部分星光。
To achieve the level of precision needed to spot planets as small as Earth, Kepler's images are intentionally blurred slightly. This minimizes the number of saturated stars. Saturation, or "blooming," occurs when the brightest stars overload the individual pixels in the detectors, causing the signal to spill out into nearby pixels.
为实现观测精度达到分辨地球这么小的行星，开普勒图像有意略微模糊，这样将把星光溢出的影响降到最低。光溢出或者“星芒”现象，发生在恒星光度超过了探测器（CCD）的设计上限，从而光信号将扩散到附近的像素点。
Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

8MB tif文件下载
http://www.nasa.gov/329167main_TrES2Hot300.tif.tiff

Where Kepler Sees
开普勒望远镜观测的天区 2385x2974

                               
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This star chart illustrates the large patch of sky that NASA's Kepler mission will stare at for the duration of its three-and-a-half-year lifetime. The planet hunter's full field of view occupies 100 square degrees of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
本插图勾画出开普勒望远镜在它3.5年（预定使用）年限期间将最先开始搜索的天区。天鹅座和天琴座天区内，行星搜索者的整个视场涵盖100平方度的银河系。
Kepler's focal plane, or the area where starlight is focused, is depicted on the star chart as a series of 42 vertical and horizontal rectangles. These rectangles represent the 95-megapixel camera's 42 charge-coupled devices, or CCDs. Scientists selected the orientation of the focal plane's field of view to avoid the region's brightest stars, which are shown as the largest black dots. Some of these bright stars can be seen falling in between the CCD modules, in areas that are not imaged. This was done so that the brightest stars will not saturate large portions of the detectors. Saturation causes signals from the bright stars to spill, or "bloom," into nearby planet-hunting territory.
开普勒的焦平面，或者通俗说聚焦的恒星区域，在本星图上由一系列水平线和垂直线划分为42个区域（不管原文怎么写，明显不是42条线而是42个区嘛——译注）。这些矩形表示42个电荷耦合装置（CCD）对应的9500万像素的信息（开普勒的CCD阵列就是有42个——译注）。科学家选择的焦平面方向避开了明亮恒星区，就是星图中以大黑点表示的区域（牛郎星和织女星，我们很熟悉的哦——译注）。某些亮星刚好落在CCD视场间空隙间没有在照片中显示出来的区域。这样做为的是不让这些亮星在探测器中产生巨大的光溢出。亮星的光溢出会导致星像扩大晕染，并产生“星芒”现象，掩盖附近的行星搜索区域。
Image credit: Software Bisque

美国人的计时方式就不好，看看图中的9/10/04，写成2009.04.10多么清晰啊。因为这个习惯不同，已经产生了大量的误会故事。平方度的说法不常见，图中示例的4种天体分别是疏散星团、球状星团、（弥漫）星云、行星状星云。
——by gohomeman1

o(∩_∩)o...哈哈~~
还是挺壮观的嘛~~~~~

背景资料，开普勒卫星的CCD阵列
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-focal-plane-assembly.html

超级大图，4288X2848

                               
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Kepler Focal Plane Array
The focal plane consists of an array of 42 charge coupled devices (CCDs). Each CCD is 2.8 by 3.0 cm with 1024 by 1100 pixels. The entire focal plane contains 95 mega pixels. Credit: NASA and Ball Aerospace
开普勒卫星的焦平面阵列
焦平面阵列由42个CCD组成，每个CCD长2.8cm、宽3.0cm，分辨率1024X1100。整个阵列包含0.95亿个像素点。
PS：CCD不是对分为二吗？应该说是21个对分吧，这些CCD的两个方向分辨率是不一样的——by gohomeman1

奇怪，1024x1100x42=47,308,800，明显正好是公开宣称的分辨率的一半啊？！

继续背景资料，文章中所说的这个热木星可以参考这几个链接，建议大家看看

http://www.astronomy.com.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=14117&highlight=%E8%92%B8%E5%8F%91%2B%E8%A1%8C%E6%98%9F

http://www.astronomy.com.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=103868&highlight=%E7%83%AD%E6%9C%A8%E6%98%9F

http://www.astronomy.com.cn/bbs/thread-106987-15-1.html  第287#楼

背景资料，看看开普勒卫星的天区银河到底是怎么样的。

                               
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本图显示了开普勒卫星的搜索区域在银河系中的位置
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/284364main_kepler-target-region-galaxy_full.jpg

                               
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上图中的2条旋臂，下方的是英仙座旋臂，上方的是人马座旋臂。现在银河系被定性为棒旋星系，就这2条主要旋臂了。太阳附近的是猎户座支线旋臂。
等哈勃退休时，开普勒已经先退休了。

Misson accomplished。

我自己的疑问：像我们太阳这样的恒星，其星光日常波动大概也有10万分之一左右吧，只是平均值是不变的。怎么区别这种波动呢？貌似首先要用光谱仪发现行星大气的吸收线吧。

楼主辛苦了~

似乎很强大哦