Rebooted Kepler spacecraft finds more than 100 exoplanets
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029965
Christian Science Monitor : Despite the failure of two of its reaction wheels in 2013, the Kepler spacecraft has managed to continue its hunt for exoplanets as part of a new, modified mission, called K2. Using Kepler‘s remaining capability, researchers have already discovered 197 new planet candidates, of which 104 have been validated, 30 have been determined to be false positives, and the other 63 require further research. Four of the newly validated exoplanets could be similar to Earth. Based on the spacecraft’s success so far, the researchers predict that over the course of K2’s planned four-year mission, some 500 to 1000 new exoplanets may be discovered.
