Media requests for interviews with Kepler mission experts should be directed to Michele Johnson, public affairs officer at NASA's Ames Research Center.

[image-51]

[image-67]

[image-83]

[image-99]

[image-115]

[image-131]

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.

Briefing resources:

-- Media advisory (4/15) - NASA Hosts Media Teleconference to Announce Latest Kepler Discovery
-- Press release (4/17) - NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star
-- Media telecon - Ames UStream channel
-- Presentation (PDF, 51MB)
-- Link to scientific paper, "An Earth-sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star" (PDF, 1.5 MB) and supplementary materials (PDF, 1.5 MB). NOTE: This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science Vol. 344 #6181 (18 April 2014), DOI: 10.1126/science.1249403

Panelists: Biographies (PDF, 13KB)

-- Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist, NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington
-- Elisa Quintana, research scientist, SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
-- Tom Barclay, research scientist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames
-- Victoria Meadows, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle, and principal investigator for the Virtual Planetary Laboratory, a team in the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Ames

Video File (including animation):

-- Link to preview news video file, including Kepler-186 animation, panelist interview excerpts, Kepler launch video 
-- Animation caption and credits (PDF, 10KB) 

Social Media: #Kepler186f

Twitter: @NASAKepler
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nasaskeplermission

General Kepler Image and Video Resources: 

-- NASA image usage policy
-- Video: Kepler Field of View
-- Video: Kepler Overview
-- Video: Transit Light Curve
-- Video: Kepler Spacecraft Launch, March 6, 2009
-- For more Kepler images, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/index.html

Related Links:

-- Kepler mission fact sheet (PDF, 2.2MB)
-- Kepler lithographs
-- Kepler FAQs
-- Past Kepler Discoveries
-- NASA's Ames Research Center
-- The SETI Institute