The Kepler mission since December 2009 has discovered 715 new planets orbiting 305 stars outside the solar system.
According to the latest report from the space agency NASA, the Kepler mission has discovered since December 2009 715 new planets orbiting 305 stars outside the solar system. The most interesting thing is that over 90% of the newly discovered planets are smaller than Neptune. This is a valuable step forward in the field of space science research, especially the discovery of planets outside the solar system because in the past people often only discovered planets the size of Jupiter or just larger. big. It was the discovery of smaller planets that sparked hopes that one day a planet outside the solar system that was the same size as Earth, even under similar conditions. .
“The Kepler mission team will continue to surprise and delight everyone with the discovery of many more planets in the future,” said NASA researcher John Grunsfeld.
One of the reasons for this success is the application of new statistical techniques that allow astronomers to quickly identify and verify the existence of planets outside the solar system. Previously, to identify and verify a new planet, astronomers had to examine and compare the stars one by one.
Researcher Jack Lissauer said in the report: “Four years ago, Kepler began claiming a list of hundreds and then thousands of potentially newly discovered planets. But this list should be checked to make sure the planets are “really new”. Now, we have developed a system that can analyze and verify multiple planets at the same time. “
Many planets recently discovered by researchers belong to systems like ours. These new planets also orbit a central star similar to the sun. What’s more interesting is that there are at least four newly discovered planets that are similar in size and likely to have Earth-like habitable conditions. This means that the planets have surface temperatures that could even allow liquid water to exist.
Also in the report on the discovery of a new planet, researcher Jason Rowe said: “The more new planets are discovered, the more hope we have to one day find the planet which is our second home after Earth.
