Aiden McHugh from the Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships Virginia Tech

NASA's Kepler space probe is searching for exoplanets (planets that orbit other stars). The Kepler Space telescope is in an earth trailing orbit and looks for planets by observing dips in the luminosity emitted by stars as planets pass in front of them. If these dips in luminosity are regular, they can indicate the presence of a planet or multiple planets orbiting a star. This demonstration will give information on how the Kepler space probe works, as well as what it has found and could find. There will also be a simplified mechanical model demonstrating how Kepler detects light dips associated with planetary transits.