stars just 4 AU from Kepler-186 (about the
distance between Jupiter and the Sun in our
own solar system). The Keck data helped us
rule out sources at fainter magnitudes. No
nearby sources were seen which we built
into our false positive model to conclude that
the probability that Kepler-186f orbits the Mdwarf star is 99.98 percent.
Kepler-186f, at a distance of about 500 lightyears from Earth, is too far away for any nearfuture ground or space-based observations
that could indicate the presence of an atmosphere or oceans. This confirmation does,
however, show that Earth-sized planets in
the habitable zone of stars other than our
Sun do exist. Given the fact that M dwarfs
comprise more than 70 percent of all mainsequence stars in our galaxy, and that the
majority of nearby stars — which are better
suited for follow-up observations — are M
dwarfs, planets like Kepler-186f may be common, and Gemini will no doubt play a large
role in confirming them.
Elisa Quintana is a scientist at the SETI Institute
and a NPP Senior Fellow on the Kepler Team
at NASA’s Ames Research Center. She can be
reached at: [email protected]
Steve B. Howell is the Project Scientist for the
NASA Kepler Mission, at NASA Ames Research
Center, near San Francisco, CA. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
Tom Barclay is an SO Support Scientist on the
Kepler Team at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
He can be at: [email protected]
Jason F. Rowe is a scientist for Kepler at the
NASA Ames Research Center who helped analyze the Gemini data for this work. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
22
GeminiFocus
2014 Year in Review
January 2015