Admit it. You, as have I, have waited years and decades to know that we are not alone in the vast reaches of astronomical space. Today the ESA (European Space Agency) reminded me of the changes that have taken place in the past years since the great race to the Moon.
The ESA recently launched COROT, a new space-based, orbiting telescope. Primarily it is programmed to investigate the interior of stars and to look for planetary bodies around other star systems. They are there, and we are adding to their number all the time. But the launch of this 30 cm telescope not only reminds us that they are being found — not just by Hubble — but that other countries have other space programs and, like the proliferation of nuclear facilities, the heavens are being examined and explored. This effort by the European Space Agency shows off that while reminding us that NASA is not Captain Kirk's Space Command nor Princess Leah's father's bid to rule the united galaxies. There is competition here among friends let alone Klingons or Chinese satellite killers.
The launch of Corot was atop a Soyuz workhorse rocket of the once Evil Empire and lifted off from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 27 December 2006. This week the space observatory opened its eye on the area near Orion we see in our picture-book heaven as "the constellation of The Unicorn".
On the 18th of January the craft had finished powering up and calibrating itself and was oriented with its lens pointed toward the Unicorn. This week the cover came off for the first time. The first photos were shot. There is celebration this week by the partner-nations: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany and Spain.
After a few months of working that section of the universe the craft , a Proteus mini satellite system of the French CES, will turn 180 degrees to avoid direct sunlight and will begin a period studying space from the opposite face. Scientists are undoubtedly rushing madly (mad scientists that they are) to gather all the knowledge that computer-sensing light collectors can accumulate in one direction so that they can make careers from one part of the sky or another.
Way back in ought-two in an interview by Michel Meyor with Didier Queloz, planet-finder extraordinaire, Meyor noted, "Didier Queloz and his colleagues at the Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland have found many of these new planets, and their discoveries include the most tantalizing one yet: a planet that closely resembles Jupiter in our own Solar System. These findings bring astronomers another step closer to detecting an Earth-like world."
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