Think again. Today, NASA’s Kepler team announced the discovery of a whopping 1,284 new planets-the largest number of exoplanets ever reported at once.
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NASA has announced the discovery of the single largest trove of planets outside our solar system, boosting the chance of alien life being found one day. “This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth”.
The £411 million Kepler telescope, was launched in March 2009.
Today’s announcement also includes nine newly minted habitable zone worlds that are less than twice the size of Earth (and therefore, probably rocky).
This method isn’t flawless, and it can lead to false positives.
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.
For the latest mission, adjustments were made that allow Kepler to find asteroids, supernovae and young stars.
The new planets are not new discoveries but have been confirmed as planets using new software. Numerous planets spotted outside our solar system sport thick layers of gas, but this new planet could very well be formed of rock. Kepler requires three transits to prove a planet’s status as real.
The telescope looks for reductions in the brightness that happens when planets pass in front of their stars.
“Planet candidates can be thought of like bread crumbs”, said Morton.
The pie chart illustrates the results of a statistical analysis performed on 4,302 potential planets from the Kepler mission’s July 2015 planet candidate catalog.
1,327 were ruled out as they did not reach the 99% probability threshold required for them to be deemed a candidate planet.
Express.co.uk reported last week how NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said “strong indications of life beyond Earth” would likely be obtained within the next decade. In 2018, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will use the same method to monitor 200,000 bright nearby stars and search for planets, focusing on Earth and Super-Earth-sized.
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Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
