Kepler mission wins 2010 NASA Software of the Year Award

Kepler mission wins 2010 NASA Software of the Year Award

2010-10-05 04:20:36 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) – The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Monday announced that Kepler mission Science Operations Center (SOC) software system won the 2010 NASA Software of the Year Award.

Kepler mission was named winner by the NASA Software Advisory Panel. The SOC software system was designed, developed and operated at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The software is used to find Earth-size planets using photometric data acquired from the Kepler spacecraft.

"I am absolutely delighted that the NASA Kepler Science Operations Center has been honored with this prestigious award. As a center, we have enjoyed great success in previous NASA Software of the Year competitions, and this award adds to our proud legacy, said Ames Director Pete Worden.

The SOC software system is a suite of 22 custom-designed tools for processing, analyzing, and storing transit photometry and engineering data for the Kepler mission which is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-like planets in the "habitable zone."

The "habitable zone" is the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet. Last June, Kepler mission release data that doubled the amount of known planers outside the solar system.

Through the SCO software, Kepler mission found approximately 750 planetary candidates from the 165,000 stars that the Kepler mission has been monitoring for planetary transits.

Kepler is a space observatory that looks for the data signatures of planets by measuring tiny decreases in stars' brightness when planets cross in front of, or transit them. The size of the planet can be derived from the change in the star's brightness.

The 2010 Software of the Year award will be presented at a formal ceremony to be held on February 9-10, at the NASA Project Management Challenge Conference in Long Beach, California.

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