Monday, January 04, 2010

Kepler finds five new planets

NASA's Kepler space telescope found five new planets beyond our solar system, scientists announced today.

The telescope is searching a field of more than 150,000 stars for Earth-sized planets that could, possibly, support life.

The discoveries of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b, was announced today by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.

The planets range in size from similar to Neptune to larger than Jupiter. Estimated temperatures of the planets range from 2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than molten lava and much too hot for life as we know it, NASA said.

Kepler was launched on March 6 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The discoveries are based on approximately six weeks' worth of data collected since science operations began on May 12, 2009

Click here for more information about Kepler.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Geez, I'm overweight here on Earth, I wouldn't want to weigh myself on any planet the size of Jupiter, or even Neptune. Got anything smaller?

Anonymous said...

I've heard that in the year 2012 an asteroid is going to hit. Could their be life on other planets so that humans can stay alive?