Video: During TED Talk, Kepler Scientist Unexpectedly Reveals the Discovery of 140 New Exoplanets that are "Like Earth"
Dimitar Sasselov at TED TED Some big news dropped quietly during a recent TED talk in the UK: Kepler co-investigator Dimitar Sasselov jumped the gun -- and likely angered a few colleagues -- with one of his presentation slides, letting the audience (and the world) know that Kepler has identified at least 140 "candidate" planets in the Milky Way that are "like Earth." That is, they are small, rocky exoplanets with at least an outside chance of harboring life. Sasselov describes the planets as "candidates" early on in his presentation, but switches to the more exciting description "like Earth" as the talk progresses. Then the slides come out, showing data collected by Kepler that suggest that there are more planets "like Earth" in our galaxy than there are gas giants and other planetary profiles. "The small planets dominate the picture," Sasselov says. "The planets which are like Earth are definitely...