What was the rational for placing Kepler’s Space Telescopes’s orbit closer to the Sun than to Earth? How is it that a heliocentric or it is beneficial in this context?

Question

What was the rational for placing Kepler’s Space Telescopes’s orbit closer to the Sun than to Earth? How is it that a heliocentric or it is beneficial in this context?

In: Physics

Answer 1

You’re mistaken. Kepler’s orbit was not closer to the sun than the Earth. It was in orbit around the sun in an almost identical orbit to the Earth. It’s essentially “trailing” the Earth in its orbit around the sun. The reason for this is that it avoids Earth occultations (the Earth getting in the way of the telescope), stray light, and gravitational perturbations and torques inherent that would be experienced in Earth orbit.