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NASA announces discovery of 1,284 exoplanets

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Medium of the Damned
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« on: May 12, 2016, 09:40:05 pm »

NASA announces discovery of 1,284 exoplanets
Posted on Tuesday, 10 May, 2016




Kepler has discovered 1,284 new extrasolar worlds. Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
The incredible new haul has more than doubled the total number of known extrasolar worlds to over 3,200.
Discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, this vast treasure trove of planets is thought to include at least 550 rocky terrestrial worlds as well as 9 that have been identified as potentially habitable.

The telescope also found a further 1,327 'candidates' that are also quite likely to be planets.

    Kepler announces a planet boon- 1,284 new planets! This brings the Kepler count to 2,325.https://t.co/T3BValrvdR pic.twitter.com/zQ7pA7DZHW
    — NASA Kepler and K2 (@NASAKepler) May 10, 2016


"Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy," said NASA's Astrophysics Division director Paul Hertz.

"Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars. This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe."

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Medium of the Damned
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« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2016, 09:41:53 pm »

Nasa announces 1,284 new planets discovered by Kepler space telescope
Nasa believes nine of the newly-discovered planets could be habitable

    Doug Bolton
    @DougieBolton
    Wednesday 11 May 2016
    3 comments

      
   
      
      
      
   
      
   
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kepler33.jpg
A digital illustration of Kepler-16b, a gaseous planet discovered by the Kepler telescope in 2011 NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt via Getty Images

Nasa has announced its Kepler space telescope has discovered 1,284 new planets, nine of which could theoretically be habitable.

The huge discovery more than doubles the amount of exoplanets which have been discovered by the cutting-edge telescope.

In total, the number of known planets outside our solar system now sits at 3,264 - an impressive figure, considering astronomers had never spotted any as recently as 1989.
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« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2016, 09:42:40 pm »

Of the 1,284 new planets, around 550 are believed to be rocky, like Earth. Nine of these also sit in their star's 'habitable zone', where the surface temperature allows liquid water to exist. With this new discovery, the number of known planets in the universe which could hold the building blocks for life has increased to 21.

Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at Nasa's Washington headquarters, said: "This [discovery] gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth."

In total, Kepler spotted 4,302 planet 'candidates' between 2009 and 2013, 1,284 of which had a 99 per cent or greater probability of being a planet.

    Kepler announces a planet boon- 1,284 new planets! This brings the Kepler count to 2,325.https://t.co/T3BValrvdR pic.twitter.com/zQ7pA7DZHW
    — NASA Kepler and K2 (@NASAKepler) May 10, 2016

Another 1,327 are considered "more likely than not" to be planets, so the Kepler discovery could be even bigger than Nasa is claiming. 707 are believed to be "other astrophysical phenomena," rather than genuine planets.

Paul Hertz, Nasa's Astrophysics Division director, said: "Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars."

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« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2016, 09:43:28 pm »

"This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe," he said.
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« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2016, 09:44:07 pm »



A digital illustration of Kepler-16b, a gaseous planet discovered by the Kepler telescope in 2011 NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt via Getty Images
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« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2016, 09:44:45 pm »

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« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2016, 09:50:09 pm »

"More planets than stars." With numbers like that, life is surely to be found elsewhere, It's just a matter of when, and by what means of detecting life, given the vast distances.


SETI/seti@home analyze data 24/7/365. So the option is given that intelligent alien life could be detected within the next half an hour.
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