Hundreds of new exoplanets found
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027724
Nature : A total of 715 newly discovered exoplanets have just been confirmed, which brings the number of known planets beyond the solar system to 1750. The new exoplanets were among the thousands of celestial bodies that have been found by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft since it was launched in 2009. Kepler searches for planets by looking for the dimming of a star caused when a planet passes in front of it. The planets Kepler has found so far all belong to multiple-planet systems, and four of them lie in their star’s habitable zone, where the temperature would allow water to exist as a liquid. The findings indicate that there could be many Earth-like planets in the universe. Kepler‘s main mission may be over, however, because it suffered a mechanical failure last year.
