- Newly developed technique to spot planets led to massive haul
- Four of the new planets are in habitable zones
- Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth
- NASA has confirmed a record setting bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system.
- Scientists using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope have nearly doubled the number of planets discovered in the galaxy to around 1,700.
Nasa says many of the new finds are multiple-transiting planet systems, which are stars with more than one planet. The planets eclipse or transit their host star from the vantage point of the observer. This angle is called edge-on.
About the discovery of 715 new planets
- Technique used by scientists: Verification by multiplicity that relies in part on the logic of probability.
- Used the planet-hunting Kepler telescope. It observed 150,000 stars and has found a few thousand of those to have planet candidates.
- Nearly 95% of these planets are smaller than Neptune that is almost four times the size of Earth.
- Four of the new planets are less than 2.5 times the radius of Earth, and they orbit their host suns in the “habitable zone” – the region around a star where water can keep a liquid state. In other words, it is defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for life-giving liquid water.
- One of these new habitable zone planets known as Kepler-296f - orbits a star half the size and 5% as bright as our sun. Kepler-296f is twice the size of Earth, but scientists do not know whether the planet is a gaseous world, with a thick hydrogen-helium envelope, or it is a water world surrounded by a deep ocean.
- This latest discovery brings the confirmed count of planets outside our solar system to nearly 1700.
Key terms:
- Exoplanet (or extrasolar planet): A planet outside the Solar System.
- Habitable zone: The region around a star where water can keep a liquid state
Kepler space telescope mission
- Launched in 2009, with the sole purpose of finding new stars and planets. In other words, the Kepler space telescope sought to find Earth-like worlds orbiting distant stars in the Constellation Lyra.
- Orbits around the Sun, 40 million miles from Earth.
- Named after 17th Century astronomer Mr. Johannes Kepler.
Outcome of the discovery: The study indicates that the planets in these multi-systems are small and their orbits are flat and circular, resembles pancakes, not our classical view of an atom.
A record breaking day for Kepler: The histogram shows the number of planet discoveries by year for roughly the past two decades of the exoplanet search. The blue bar shows previous planet discoveries, the red bar shows previous Kepler planet discoveries, the gold bar displays the 715 new planets.
WHAT IS KEPLER?
- The Kepler space telescope orbits around the Sun, 40 million miles from Earth.
- It is named after 17th Century astronomer Johannes Kepler.
- It was launched in 2009 with the sole purpose of finding new stars and planets.
- The new discovery was made by chance as scientists scoured data from the Kepler space telescope looking for evidence of moons rather than planets
- Kepler's mission was supposed to be over by now, but last year NASA agreed to keep Kepler running through 2016 at a cost of about £13 million ($20 million) a year.
- According to Nasa scientists, there is, what's dubbed, a 'Goldilocks Zone' in space where the temperature is not too hot, or too cold, for water to exist in liquid form.
- Any planets found in this zone could have life on them.
- If Kepler is retired, Nasa scientists believe the search for other lives on planets could be severely hindered.
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