Extrasolar Asteroids and Ophiuchans

As promised, the full length interview with Steve Howell from NOAO and the Kepler mission is now online at Slacker Astronomy dot org.

The Kepler mission is designed to discover Earth-like planets around other stars. The Kepler space telescope will stare at a field bordering Cygnus and Lyra for three to five years, continuously monitoring over 150,000 stars for exoplanet transits. According to a recent paper from Howell and collaborators, Kepler should also be able to detect asteroids orbiting white dwarfs.

And just for fun, Steve and I talk about the long lost astrological sign Ophiuchus.