Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 26, 2014 #1 Share Posted February 26, 2014 NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet Bonanza, 715 New Worlds NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system.Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. Read more... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 26, 2014 Author #2 Share Posted February 26, 2014 ScienceCasts: A Sudden Multiplication of PlanetsDetails can be found at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for more.Today, NASA announced a breakthrough addition to the catalog of new planets. Researchers using Kepler have confirmed 715 new worlds, almost quadrupling the number of planets previously confirmed by the planet-hunting spacecraft. Some of the new worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars.Credit: NASASource: NASA - Multimedia 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted February 27, 2014 #3 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Oustanding find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted February 27, 2014 #4 Share Posted February 27, 2014 That is amazing!!! Now all we need is some way to get out there quick. Quicker then thousands of years anyway. I'd volunteer to go on an exploration mission to the stars, but my Wife says I can't go even to settle the Moon till she passes away and the Kids are all grown and settled. So that could be like 40 or 50 more years. Hopefully, I'll not be too old then. Come on science, I'm counting on you to keep me healthy enough to go to space in my 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRIPTIC CHAMELEON Posted February 27, 2014 #5 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Wow 715 newbies and 4 in the goldilocks zone, hmm interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mister Posted February 27, 2014 #6 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Cool! Now this is exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyche101 Posted February 28, 2014 #7 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Absolutely brilliant, however, this is how Kepler works isn't it? Some candidates take more than a year to orbit their suns, so it's a long wait between confirmations? I would think this would be continuing for some time even in those solar systems, Neptune takes 165 years to complete an orbit, so confirmation might be up to over 300 years to properly map a system like ours. With multiple missions happening at once, one would expect a rash of short orbit planets to come out all at once I would think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted February 28, 2014 #8 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Wow! very cool... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolguy Posted February 28, 2014 #9 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Awesome indeed,there has to be some short of life on some of these planets.we are not the only planet with life on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdesert50 Posted March 1, 2014 #10 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I have to wonder if the nearly infinite number of probabilistic events that evolved a sentient human being will be recreated in another world. Maybe so, maybe not. But, if we find we are truly unique, I believe that will be equally enlightening. Astronomy will have provided the final bridge to understanding the importance of every one of us on this planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted March 1, 2014 Author #11 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I have to wonder if the nearly infinite number of probabilistic events that evolved a sentient human being will be recreated in another world. Maybe so, maybe not. Even if sentient life is common humans will still be unique. The almost infinite variety that evolution offers means that whilst it may produce similar solutions for similar problems ( we see examples of parallel evolution on Earth) it will not produce exactly the same answer twice. Whether sentient life is common or rare, humanity is unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted March 2, 2014 #12 Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) Even if sentient life is common humans will still be unique. The almost infinite variety that evolution offers means that whilst it may produce similar solutions for similar problems ( we see examples of parallel evolution on Earth) it will not produce exactly the same answer twice. Whether sentient life is common or rare, humanity is unique. Unless... And I am not saying this is true... the ETs get involved and guide development. Otherwise, I'd agree and say that every planet with life would have life that would have developed very differently from anywhere else. Edited March 2, 2014 by DieChecker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted March 2, 2014 Author #13 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Unless... And I am not saying this is true... the ETs get involved and guide development. I'm glad you are not saying that it is true because this is the science section, not the third rate science FICTION section. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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