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This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the field of view possessed by the space telescope. In particular, an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees, or the equivalent of two side-by-side dips of Ursa Major, the Plough or Big Dipper.
A cluster of stars, called NGC 6791, and a star with a known planet, called TrES-2, are outlined. The cluster is eight billion years old, and located 13,000 light-years from Earth. It is called an open cluster because its stars are loosely bound and have started to spread out. TrES-2 is a hot Jupiter-like planet known to cross in front of, or transit, its star every 2.5 days. Kepler has spent four years hunting for transiting planets that are as small as Earth. (Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech).
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The
important news in the exoplanet hunting community at the moment is that NASA
has recently announced that its Kepler space telescope mission has discovered
no fewer than 715 new planets in multiple-planet systems much like our own
solar system.
Most of them
are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This
Since the
discovery of the first planets outside our solar system roughly two decades
ago, verification has been a laborious planet-by-planet process. Now,
scientists have a statistical technique called multiplicity that can be applied
to many planets at once, when they are found in systems that harbour more than
one planet around the same star. It relies in part on the logic of probability,
it is a process that ultimately verifies multiple planet candidates in bulk and
is unveiling a veritable bonanza of new worlds." These multiple-planet
systems are fertile grounds for studying individual planets and the
configuration of planetary neighbourhoods. This provides clues to planet
formation.
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| This artist's concept depicts the smallest habitable zone planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Seen in the foreground is Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle/AFP/Getty Images) |
Four of
these new planets are less than 2.5 times the size of Earth and orbit in their
sun's
"From
this study we learn planets in these multi-systems are small and their orbits
are flat and circular - resembling pancakes - not your classical view of an atom,"
said Jason Rowe, research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View,
California, and co-leader of the research. "The more we explore the more
we find familiar traces of ourselves amongst the stars that remind us of
home."
This latest
discovery brings the confirmed count of planets outside our solar system to
nearly 1,700. As we continue to reach toward the stars, each discovery brings
us one step closer to a more accurate understanding of our place in the galaxy.
Launched in
March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable
Earth-size planets. Discoveries include more than 3,600 planet candidates, of
which 961 have been verified as bona-fide worlds.
For more
information about the Kepler space telescope, visit:
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