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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Wed Feb 26, 2014, 03:56 PM Feb 2014

Population of Known Alien Planets Nearly Doubles as NASA Discovers 715 New Worlds

Source: Space.com

NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered more than 700 new exoplanets, nearly doubling the current number of confirmed alien worlds.

The 715 newfound planets, which scientists announced today (Feb. 26), boost the total alien-world tally to between 1,500 and 1,800, depending on which of the five main extrasolar planet discovery catalogs is used. The Kepler mission is responsible for more than half of these finds, hauling in 961 exoplanets to date, with thousands more candidates awaiting confirmation by follow-up investigations.

"This is the largest windfall of planets — not exoplanet candidates, mind you, but actually validated exoplanets — that's ever been announced at one time," Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist at NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington, told reporters today. [Kepler's Exoplanet Bonanza Explained (Infographic)]

About 94 percent of the new alien worlds are smaller than Neptune, researchers said, further bolstering earlier Kepler observations that suggested the Milky Way galaxy abounds with rocky planets like Earth.

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Read more: http://www.space.com/24824-alien-planets-population-doubles-nasa-kepler.html

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Population of Known Alien Planets Nearly Doubles as NASA Discovers 715 New Worlds (Original Post) bananas Feb 2014 OP
Where's Vulcan? warrior1 Feb 2014 #1
They're replaying the press conference at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-arc bananas Feb 2014 #2
Love it! truthisfreedom Feb 2014 #3
Remember kids... geomon666 Feb 2014 #4
Except Europa VScott Feb 2014 #5
Yessss. They are ours for the taking! We have dominion! Wooohoooo. n/t Judi Lynn Feb 2014 #9
But it will take Slipstick Libby's drive to get there!! LiberalArkie Feb 2014 #6
I only want to go to a planet that has no Republicans! santamargarita Feb 2014 #7
Uh, number, not population. We have no idea if they're populated. nt eppur_se_muova Feb 2014 #8
I posted info to the stream and slides here: joshcryer Feb 2014 #10

truthisfreedom

(23,146 posts)
3. Love it!
Wed Feb 26, 2014, 04:45 PM
Feb 2014

I love the discoveries being made during my lifetime. When I was a kid I was afraid I'd missed all of the really big advances in science and technology. I think I was over-worried.

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