New-Found Cornucopia of Exoplanets More Than Doubles the Current Cosmic Census

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 12:33 in Astronomy & Space

The Kepler telescope team announces a trove Scores of Earth-like planets orbit sun-like stars scattered throughout the cosmos, NASA scientists will announce today. This morning, the agency released data on more than 1,000 new exoplanets, and early indications are that some 60 of them are at just the right distance from their stars to harbor life as we know it. Small, Earth-sized planets are apparently more common than gas giants like Jupiter, and astronomers have found at least 200 systems with multiple planets, according to Discovery News interviews. Today's results more than double the known exoplanet population. Related ArticlesVideo: NASA Planet Hunters Announce Smallest Exoplanet Ever Found, Just 560 Light Years AwayKepler Data Suggests Hundreds of Exoplanets, But NASA Holds Back DetailsVideo: During TED Talk, Kepler Scientist Unexpectedly Reveals 140 New Earth-Like ExoplanetsTagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, astronomy, astrophysics, earth-like, exoplanets, hot jupiters, Kepler, nasa, planets, space telescope, super-earthsSince launching in 2009, Kepler has been...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net