chicot60
02-03-2011, 01:18 AM
By Leslie Horn
NASA's Kepler mission has made a discovery of several hundred potential planets orbiting the Milky Way, five of which are similar to Earth and located in the habitable zone.
"In one generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality," NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. "These discoveries underscore the importance of NASA's science missions, which consistently increase understanding of our place in the cosmos."
That these potential planets are in the habitable zone means liquid water can exist on their surfaces. They are called candidates because they "require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets," NASA said in a report.
NASA said that the Kepler mission has uncovered 1,235 star-orbiting potential planets.
However, out of the 54 new planets Kepler has found in the habitable zone, just five are Earth-sized. Many of them are much bigger, from super-Earth size, which is nearly twice the size of the blue planet, to bigger then Jupiter.
"For the first time in human history we have a pool of potentially rocky habitable zone planets," M.I.T.'s Sara Seager, who is involved with the mission, told the New York Times. "This is the first big step forward to answering the ancient question, 'How common are other earths?'"
Kepler's findings, which were made between May and September 2009, cover just about 1/400 of the sky, NASA said.
"The fact that we've found so many planet candidates in such a tiny fraction of the sky suggest there are countless planets orbiting sun-like stars in our galaxy," said William Borucki, the Kepler mission's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, said. "We went from zero to 68 earth-sized planet candidates and zero to 54 candidates in the habitable zone, some of which could have moons with liquid water."
The Times said it could be years before these candidates are confirmed as planets, but statistically 85 to 90 percent of them should be legitimate.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379256,00.asp
NASA's Kepler mission has made a discovery of several hundred potential planets orbiting the Milky Way, five of which are similar to Earth and located in the habitable zone.
"In one generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality," NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. "These discoveries underscore the importance of NASA's science missions, which consistently increase understanding of our place in the cosmos."
That these potential planets are in the habitable zone means liquid water can exist on their surfaces. They are called candidates because they "require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets," NASA said in a report.
NASA said that the Kepler mission has uncovered 1,235 star-orbiting potential planets.
However, out of the 54 new planets Kepler has found in the habitable zone, just five are Earth-sized. Many of them are much bigger, from super-Earth size, which is nearly twice the size of the blue planet, to bigger then Jupiter.
"For the first time in human history we have a pool of potentially rocky habitable zone planets," M.I.T.'s Sara Seager, who is involved with the mission, told the New York Times. "This is the first big step forward to answering the ancient question, 'How common are other earths?'"
Kepler's findings, which were made between May and September 2009, cover just about 1/400 of the sky, NASA said.
"The fact that we've found so many planet candidates in such a tiny fraction of the sky suggest there are countless planets orbiting sun-like stars in our galaxy," said William Borucki, the Kepler mission's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, said. "We went from zero to 68 earth-sized planet candidates and zero to 54 candidates in the habitable zone, some of which could have moons with liquid water."
The Times said it could be years before these candidates are confirmed as planets, but statistically 85 to 90 percent of them should be legitimate.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379256,00.asp