Kepler was a great German astronomer from the 17th century. Now a powerful space telescope has been named after him. It is called the Planet-Hunter. It was launched into space from Cape Canaveral in Florida USA on Saturday March 7th 2009.
Its mission? To keep its giant eye fixed on a patch of space 'equivalent to the size of a human hand held at arm's length'.
Now that is amazing. An ancient philosopher called Heraclitus measured the sun by putting his foot in the air and saying 'The Sun is as big as a foot'. Now here a patch of space is being described as the size of a human hand!
In fact that patch of space contains about 100,000 stars in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations.
The idea? To start looking for new Earths! To begin to answer the question, 'Are there other worlds like ours out there?'
Planets will be found by little 'winks' as they move around stars many light years away from us.
Then scientists will work out if any of them have the same sort of conditions as Earth- being 'just right' for life to evolve.
What do you think? Do you think there could be new Earths out there?
Scientists want to make Mars in our own solar system into a new Earth. But they will have to make huge changes to its atmosphere and landscape. This is known as terraforming.
Should humans colonise other planets? There are lots of arguments for and against. Different people have different points of view. For instance - we could mine other planets for minerals and rocks. Good or bad? We could have a new tourist industry - space tourism. Good or bad? What about little bacteria and microbes that may already be living on other planets? Do we put ourselves before their right to grow and evolve in their own ways?
Think of other reasons for and against. Reflect on your own opinions.
Sources: Express and Star and Shropshire Star newspapers 7.3.09.
Remember that newspaper sources are not always totally reliable. For more facts, or for images of Kepler, go to www.nasa.gov.uk
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