New Kepler Discoveries!

[Airbrush]

From the Feb. 2 New York Times:

 

In a long-awaited announcement, scientists operating NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting satellite reported on Wednesday that they had identified 1,235 possible planets orbiting other stars, potentially tripling the number of known planets.

 

Of the new candidates, 68 are one and a quarter times the size of the Earth or smaller — smaller, that is, than any previously discovered planets outside the solar system, which are known as exoplanets. Fifty-four of the possible exoplanets are in the so-called habitable zones of stars dimmer and cooler than the Sun, where temperatures should be moderate enough for liquid water.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/science/03planet.html?_r=1

 

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And from a Seattle Newspaper:

 

"Before Wednesday, the count of confirmed planets outside the solar system stood at 519. That means Kepler could triple the number. And those findings are from Kepler's scanning of just one four-hundredth of the night sky, so the actual number of planets out there is presumably hundreds of times greater, Borucki said.

 

"Kepler also found that there are many more relatively small planets than there are giant planets".

 

"Sixty-eight of the planet candidates Kepler found are considered Earth-sized, including the first ones ever discovered to be smaller than Earth. An additional 288 planets were less than twice the size of Earth, which is still in that optimum zone for life."

 

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1501ap_us_sci_alien_planets.html

Edited February 4, 2011 by Airbrush

[IM Egdall]

A momentous achievement. I feel lucky to be living in such exciting times.