Our solar system and people who are interested in other stars

The paper reporting the planet's discovery boasts 58 co-authors.One is Travis Metcalfe, a research scientist at the Space Science Institute of Boulder, and also director of the White Dwarf Research Corp., a nonprofit organization he founded, staffed by volunteers,solar mounting to support space exploration.Metcalfe was part of the seismology team that worked to determine the size of the new planet's host star, a critical step in the determining the size of its orbiting planets."It was about a year ago that we finished our contribution to this paper," Metcalfe said. "The wheels grind slowly over at NASA."Metcalfe in January 2008 launched what he calls the Pale Blue Dot project, which has the goal of raising funds for the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium, which supports the goals of the Kepler mission.

People making $10 donations through the Pale Blue Dot project can then adopt a star, with 100 percent of their donations helping to fund an international team of astronomers who determine the size of parent stars from seismology -- measuring natural oscillations in brightness caused by continuous star-quakes.knife manufacturerSince initiating the Pale Blue Dot effort five years ago, it has raised nearly $60,000. About $20,000 was raised in 2012 alone, making it the most successful year to date.silk road culture tourAbout $5,000 of that went directly to pay for the seismic analysis of the parent stars of Kepler planetary systems, while an additional $15,000 was used to help students and early-career scientists present their research at annual conferences focused on stellar seismology. The balance is supporting an endowment to sponsor future research and conferences.Metcalfe said that due to the small size of Kepler-37b, it took a "huge effort" to determine that the signal the Kepler craft was detecting was a true signal, and not a "false positive."

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Metcalfe said. "It's marvelous. I think it's a testament to how fruitful the collaboration has been, and will be in the future,aluminum profile between people who are interested in planets outside of our solar system and people who are interested in other stars -- because the two go hand in hand."NASA announced in April 2012 that the Kepler mission was being extended through fiscal year 2016. Kepler's ties to Boulder go beyond the fact of its having been built by Ball Aerospace.In addition, a team of about 20 students and 16 professionals from the Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics operate the Kepler craft from the LASP Space Technology Building in the CU Research Park.Solar Camping light