vincent Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 NASA Identifies 54 Potentially Habitable Alien PlanetsNASA unveiled a wealth of new data from its planet-seeking Kepler space telescope today (Feb. 2) - observations that significantly increase the number of possible alien planets and identify potential Earth-size worlds, including 54 planets that could be habitable. To date, more than 500 alien planets outside of our solar system have been discovered, but that number could more than double if all the candidate exoplanets from the new Kepler data are confirmed. Amid the 1,200 possible alien worlds, Kepler has already found 68 potentially Earth-size planets. "We went from zero to 68 Earth-sized planet candidates and zero to 54 candidates in the habitable zone - a region where liquid water could exist on a planet?s surface. Some candidates could even have moons with liquid water," said William Borucki of NASA?s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., the Kepler mission?s science principal investigator. "Five of the planetary candidates are both near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars." The new data also reveal that smaller worlds and multi-planet systems may be more common than previously thought. The data release is based on observations conducted between May 2 and Sept. 17, 2009. "What's incredibly interesting is that they're now going to give us a list of small planets," said Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "Some of them could actually be in what we call a habitable zone. If they were rocky or if they are rocky, they have a potential for being habitats." And while astronomers are ultimately searching for an Earth-size rocky planet in the habitable zone, a lot can be learned from studying planets and systems that are less "We can learn a lot about planet formation and start to understand how these systems form," Kaltenegger said. "So far, we only have our own system, so the more samples we have, the more we can learn about how planets form, how they move, how they migrate." NASA announced the planetary discoveries during a press conference today. At the same time, the space agency and a team of astronomers announced the discovery of a six-planet alien solar system, a find also made using the Kepler observatory. The planetary system was found around the star Kepler-11, which is 2,000 light-years from Earth The Kepler spacecraft is the first NASA mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets in or near the so-called habitable zone ? the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet orbiting its host star. Although additional observations are required over time, Kepler is detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help better understand our solar system's place in the galaxy. During a scheduled contact with the planet-hunting telescope yesterday (Feb. 1), engineers discovered that the spacecraft was in safe mode, with its photometer and star trackers powered off. This is a self protection mechanism that the spacecraft enters when something unexpected occurs, and Kepler is currently rotating along a sun-aligned axis with its solar arrays pointed at the sun. Analysis of all spacecraft data indicates the subsystems remain healthy, NASA officials said. Engineers have begun the recovery process and are evaluating data from the spacecraft subsystems to determine what triggered the safe mode. source: Space.com I've been utterly impressed with the success of this mission thus far. It's only going to get better once it's replacement is deployed, if their is one that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Cool stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiB3R Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Is that Comic Sans? :cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Lyle Global Moderator Posted February 2, 2011 Global Moderator Share Posted February 2, 2011 I guess Stephen Hawkings has to film another episode of his "Into the Universe". That's an astonishing number, but how far are they away? Hundreds-thousands of light years away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purkinje-fiber Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Remember - this is only an estimation, and they haven't confirmed that these planets are in any way habitable by humans. Still very interesting, though. I can't wait to see more of their findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted February 2, 2011 Member Share Posted February 2, 2011 I've been utterly impressed with the success of this mission thus far. It's only going to get better once it's replacement is deployed, if their is one that is. So have I. Remarkable stuff. And it just keeps getting better all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perochan Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 why dont we discover more about the moon and earth's ocean first??????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtrabit racing Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 i am moving one of these. will you come to be my neighbor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 why dont we discover more about the moon and earth's ocean first??????? Ocean = We are, it's called Biology Moon = We are.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quick Shot Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I smell dead space in the future :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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