"Planet-Hunting Spacecraft Beams Home First Images"
The $600 million Kepler spacecraft was launched last month to try and look through million of targets for about 100 thousand stars that may have Earth-sized planets around them. Kepler does this by using a 95-megapixel camera to cast an "unblinking stare at its target star field". This camera is so sensitive it will be able to record the blip of light created by a planet as it crosses infront of its parent star. These images will act as road maps that will in a few years help us to select a star and be able to tell if a world like ours is there.
The first views of Kepler encompass an estimated 14 million stars between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra; one view includes a cluster of stars known at NGC 6791 about 13 thousand light-years from Earth and other includes a star called Tres-2, known to have a Jupiter-like planet close by. All in all, these images are an important step forward for SETI to be able to determine which planets, if any, have the conditions that would allow for extraterrestrial life to lurk on them.
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