Kepler telescope begins operations

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., May 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says its Kepler Space Telescope has started its 3 1/2-year search for Earth-like worlds among more than 100,000 stars.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said Kepler, launched in March, has the ability to find planets as small as Earth that orbit sun-like stars at distances where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans.

"Now the fun begins," said William Borucki, Kepler's principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, located at Moffett Field, Calif. "We are all really excited to start sorting through the data and discovering the planets."

NASA scientists and engineers have spent the two months Kepler has been in orbit checking and calibrating its instruments.

"If Kepler got into a staring contest, it would win," said James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The spacecraft is ready to stare intently at the same stars for several years so that it can precisely measure the slightest changes in their brightness caused by planets."

He said Kepler will hunt for planets by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars -- events that occur when orbiting planets cross in front of their stars and partially block the light.

NASA said the mission's first finds are expected to be large, gas planets and could be announced as early as next year.