New Kepler Explorer App Puts Distant Planets at Your Fingertips
The new Kepler Explorer app for iPhones and iPads allows users to view the 1,790 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA’s Kepler Mission, including our own solar system. With the Kepler Explorer app, you can view planets in real time, or fast-forward them to watch their motion around their host star. Automatic updates are included with the Kepler Explorer app which will add new planets and planet systems as they are discovered and is currently available for free on iTunes.
Kepler Explorer’s most innovative features are seen when viewing individual planets. The user can manipulate the composition of the planet and its atmosphere and see which mixtures of components (iron, rock, water, and hydrogen) are consistent with Kepler’s observations. This feature represents graphically the type of in-depth analysis that Jonathan Fortney does for the Kepler Mission. “I have pretty good intuition for what the likely composition of a planet is based on its size, but the app allows anyone to explore the properties of many different planets very quickly,” he said.
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