{"id":18913,"date":"2017-06-20T01:09:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T17:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-kepler-space-telescope-points-to-10-new-planets-in-the-habitable-zone\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T01:09:32","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T17:09:32","slug":"nasas-kepler-space-telescope-points-to-10-new-planets-in-the-habitable-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-kepler-space-telescope-points-to-10-new-planets-in-the-habitable-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope points to 10 new planets in the habitable zone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kepler
An artist\u2019s conception highlights the worlds detected by NASA\u2019s Kepler probe. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers say they\u2019ve used NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope to discover 10 Earth-sized planet candidates where life could lurk.<\/p>\n

The 10 prospects are a part of a larger pool of 219 exoplanet candidates announced today.<\/p>\n

One of the newly detected candidates, KOI 7711, appears to be a world only 30 percent wider than Earth with an orbit that lasts about one Earth year.<\/p>\n

\u201c7711 is the closest to the Earth in terms of our current measurements of its size and how far away it is from its star. \u2026 However, there\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know about this planet, and as a result, it\u2019s hard to say whether it\u2019s really an Earth twin,\u201d Susan Mullally, a Kepler science team member at the SETI Institute, said today during a news conference.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s additions to the planetary lineup aren\u2019t the only new revelations from the Kepler mission.<\/p>\n

Caltech researchers also laid out evidence that the family tree for relatively small planets splits into two distinct branches: Earth-sized planets and gaseous mini-Neptunes. The study equates the discovery to biologists finding out that mammals and reptiles are two different branches of the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cAstronomers like to put things in buckets,\u201d lead author B.J. Fulton said in a Caltech news release. \u201cIn this case, we have found two very distinct buckets for the majority of the Kepler planets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Researchers found that most planets discovered by Kepler are the size of super Earths of mini-Neptunes. (NASA \/ ARC \/ Caltech \/ University of Hawaii \/ B.J. Fulton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fulton and his colleagues said that when giants like Jupiter are excluded, the two main types of planets detected by Kepler are worlds that are about 75 percent bigger than Earth and worlds that are just smaller than Neptune (or almost four times bigger than Earth).<\/p>\n

Eric Petigura, a co-author of the Caltech study, says almost all stars have planets bigger than Earth and smaller than Neptune orbiting around them, but our star is different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d really like to know what these mysterious planets are like, and why we don\u2019t have them in our own solar system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the discovery of the new candidates, Proxima Centauri b still reigns as the closest potentially habitable exoplanet to Earth, orbiting a red dwarf star just 4.3 light-years away.<\/p>\n

This catalog of exoplanets brings Kepler\u2019s tally to 4,034 identified candidates. So far, a little more than half have been confirmed to be planets, including 30 Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone, NASA said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The NASA Kepler space telescope discovers planet candidates, including 10 in the habitable zone. (Photo courtesy of NASA\/Ames Research Center\/Wendy Stenzel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kepler identifies planet candidates by looking for momentary blips in the brightness of stars. If a star\u2019s brightness drops, it could be because an orbiting planet crossed in front of it.<\/p>\n

Astronomers have to go back and check Kepler\u2019s findings against different types of measurements to make sure the blip was caused by a planetary transit rather than a false signal \u2013 for example, the gyrations of a binary star system.<\/p>\n

For the first four years of its life in space, Kepler had its eyes on Cygnus constellation. This catalog is the most detailed to date, but it\u2019s also the last for this patch of sky. Kepler broadened its search to other areas for its extended K2 mission, which began in 2014.<\/p>\n