Kepler away!

The Kepler space telescope (atop a USAF Delta II rocket) blasted into orbit. This new telescope will continuously scan a region in the Cygnus constellation searching for exoplanets. In particular, it will search for smaller ones, perhaps ones about the size of Earth, in the "Goldilocks" zone, the zone around a star where water may remain in liquid form!

There are lots of articles about. Spaceflight Now has a note about the launch. Lots of videos. But you gotta pay for those... NASA has overview information in their portal. But you really want to visit the separate Kepler Mission site. It has detailed information, photos, stuff for kids, etc. And it will be updated regularly...

This is an interesting time. More and more space telescopes are going up. Next month, ESA will be sending up the biggest one yet!