Hidden in the Heavens: How the Kepler Mission's Quest for New Planets Changed How We View Our Own

by Jason Steffen

Overview

An insider’s account of the NASA mission that changed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbit

Are we alone in the universe? It’s a fundamental question for Earth-dwelling humankind. Are there other worlds like ours, out there somewhere? In Hidden in the Heavens, Jason Steffen, a former scientist on NASA’s Kepler mission, describes how that mission searched for planets orbiting Sun-like stars—especially Earth-like planets circulating in Earth-like orbits. What the Kepler space telescope found, Steffen reports, contradicted centuries of theoretical and observational work and transformed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbit. Kepler discovered thousands of planets orbiting distant stars—a bewildering variety of celestial bodies, including rocky planets being vaporized by the intense heat of their host star; super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, with properties simultaneously similar to and different from both Earth and Neptune; gas giants several times the size and mass of Jupiter; and planets orbiting in stellar systems that had only been imagined in science fiction.

It was, Steffen says, the opportunity of a lifetime to work in the most exciting scientific field on the most awe-inspiring mission. He offers a unique, inside account of the work of the Kepler science team (and the sometimes chaotic interactions among team members), mapping the progress of the mission from the launch of the rocket that carried Kepler into space to the revelations of the data that began to flow to the supercomputer back at NASA—evidence of strange new worlds unlike anything found in our own solar system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691242477
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/29/2024
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jason Steffen is associate professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A longtime science team member of NASA’s Kepler mission, he has contributed to the discovery and characterization of thousands of planets that orbit distant stars.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Hidden in the Heavens records the fascinating journey of a young researcher exploring the myriad of planets orbiting other stars. Jason Steffen provides both a history of the Kepler Mission and a thorough discussion of what we have learned from it—as well as an account of the many surprises he encountered along the way. A delightful read.”—William Borucki, Kepler PI

“This is a compelling book about three launches: the launch of a spacecraft, the launch of a scientific career, and the launch of a new phase of astronomical discovery.”—Joshua Winn, author of The Little Book of Exoplanets

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2024

Astronomer Steffen—who worked on NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission, which lasted from the telescope’s 2009 launch through its retirement in 2018—serves up an eye-opening exploration of the goals, successes, and challenges associated with the endeavor. He describes how the idea for Kepler was conceived in the 1980s as a long-shot attempt to find Earth-like planets, and the first observations of planets outside our solar system in the 1990s convinced NASA to back the project. The mission greatly expanded scientific knowledge of distant celestial bodies, Steffen contends, noting the discoveries of Jupiter-like planets that orbit their stars in mere days and Earth-like planets so close to their stars that they leave “a tail of vaporized rock trailing behind.” Most consequentially, the conditions that gave rise to life on Earth might not be as rare as once thought, with scientists now estimating that “Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits probably orbit roughly a quarter of all stars.” Steffen offers a competent account of Kepler’s construction and findings, but involved discussions of how scientists used “lensing” (the study of how much a star’s light dims as an orbiting planet passes between the star and a telescope) and spectroscopy (breaking light from stars “into its spectrum of constituent colors”) can get a bit technical. Still, this will please armchair astronomers. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"An excellent piece of science writing. . . . For a scientist to write a narrative that is good storytelling is quite remarkable. Steffen accomplished this feat."—-David Bullock, The Space Page

From the Publisher