{"id":19389,"date":"2016-05-10T17:51:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T09:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/1284-new-worlds-kepler-mission-doubles-its-tally-of-planets-in-one-fell-swoop\/"},"modified":"2016-05-10T17:51:14","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T09:51:14","slug":"1284-new-worlds-kepler-mission-doubles-its-tally-of-planets-in-one-fell-swoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/1284-new-worlds-kepler-mission-doubles-its-tally-of-planets-in-one-fell-swoop\/","title":{"rendered":"1,284 new worlds! Kepler mission doubles its tally of planets in one fell swoop"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_248793\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248793\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-248793\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planets-630x429.jpg\" alt=\"Planet diversity\" width=\"630\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planets-630x429.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planets-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planets.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A graphic shows the diversity of planets. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The scientists behind NASA\u2019s Kepler mission are using&nbsp;statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine planets rather than celestial \u201cimpostors,\u201d more than doubling its database of confirmed worlds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the most exoplanets that have ever been announced at one time,\u201d Princeton University researcher Timothy Morton said today during a teleconference revealing the latest counts.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler\u2019s official tally of potentially habitable planets close to Earth\u2019s size took a jump as well, from 12 to 21.<\/p>\n<p>NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan hailed the rapid progress. \u201cThis gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The dramatic acceleration in the planet hunt is due to a statistical method pioneered by Morton and his colleagues, and described in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"9 New Habitable Zone Planets! Huge Haul of Worlds Found By Space Telescope | Video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oPx6ExzWrCA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler space telescope has gathered data about 150,000 stars in a patch of sky straddling the constellations Lyra and Cygnus. The spacecraft keeps watch for the faint dimming of starlight that occurs when a planet makes a transit across the star\u2019s disk.<\/p>\n<p>The mission\u2019s most recent catalog, compiled in July 2015, listed 4,302 planetary candidates based on the patterns of dimming. But astronomers know that some of those detections are \u201cimpostors.\u201d For example, a dim star or brown dwarf passing in front of a brighter star could produce a similar pattern.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, astronomers had to rely on other types of follow-up data to sort out the genuine planets from the impostors. For&nbsp;example, they checked ground-based observations for gravitational wobbles, or looked for discrepancies in the timing of transits that had to have been caused by other planets in the system.<\/p>\n<p>The newly developed method doesn\u2019t rely on follow-up observations. Instead, it compares the precise pattern of dimming with models for planetary transits, based on previous observations of different stars. It also accounts for the probabilities for other phenomena, such as eclipsing binary stars.<\/p>\n<p>The software package, which is called Vespa, automatically assigned a \u201creliability index\u201d to each of the candidates. Morton and his colleagues considered a candidate to be verified as a planet if the reliability index was higher than 99 percent. In addition to the 984 candidates that were previously confirmed and the 1,284 that were newly verified, 1,327 were considered more likely than not to be planets, and 707 were considered more likely to be impostors.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248794\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248794\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-248794\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet2-630x471.jpg\" alt=\"Kepler candidates\" width=\"630\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet2-630x471.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet2-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet2.jpg 1028w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Here\u2019s the breakdown for the statistical analysis conducted on a batch of 4,302 potential planets from last July\u2019s batch of Kepler detections. Click on the chart for a larger version. (Credit: W. Stenzel \/ NASA Ames \/ T. Morton \/ Princeton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The verification rate was higher than some expected, but when the researchers checked a sampling of planets that were confirmed by other means, they found that the new method was in close agreement with the previous findings.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler has now discovered 2,325 verified planets, and detections by other planet-hunting missions bring the total tally of alien worlds to more than 3,200. Before Kepler\u2019s launch, that figure was around 320.<\/p>\n<p>The current list includes more than 500 planets that could be rocky like Earth, based on their size. Twenty-one of those orbit in the \u201chabitable zone\u201d of their parent stars, where water could conceivably exist in liquid form. Astrobiologists see that as a key requirement for life as we know it.<\/p>\n<p>Nine of those potentially habitable, roughly Earth-sized planets were added to the list today. The new statistical method should make the job of identifying life-friendly planets easier, said Natalie Batalha, a co-author of the paper and the Kepler mission scientist at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>Batalha said she was particularly intrigued by two of the brand-new prospects. One is Kepler-1638b, a world that\u2019s about 60 percent larger than Earth and orbits a star that\u2019s a little hotter than our sun, at a distance that would put it between Earth and Venus in our own solar system. The other is Kepler-1229b, which is only a little bigger than Earth, and orbits well within the habitable zone of its cool parent star.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248796\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248796\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-248796 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet3-630x471.jpg\" alt=\"Kepler small habitable zone planets\" width=\"630\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet3-630x471.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet3-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet3.jpg 1025w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248796\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This chart shows how 21 verified planets rank, based on the surface temperature of the stars they orbit and the energy they received (with Earth serving as the standard). The green region represents the habitable zone for the star systems. Click on the chart for a larger version. (Credit: N. Batalha and W. Stenzel \/ NASA Ames)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Those stellar systems are more than 700 light-years from Earth, so there\u2019s no prospect of visiting the planets anytime soon. But getting a better sense of what kinds of worlds are out there, and in what proportions, will smooth the way for future missions that are designed to study closer planetary systems.<\/p>\n<p>One such mission \u2013 known as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS \u2013 is due for launch next year, and will scan the sky looking for planets orbiting nearby&nbsp;stars. NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in 2018, should be capable of analyzing the atmospheres of alien planets. And the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, which is expected to go into service in the 2020s,&nbsp;is designed to take pictures of Neptune-sized planets orbiting their parent stars as closely as Jupiter orbits our sun.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Kepler is continuing to operate in what\u2019s known as its \u201cK2\u201d mission, with capabilities that have been reduced due to failures experienced by its navigation system. Mission manager Charlie Sobeck estimated that Kepler could keep going for two more years before the spacecraft\u2019s fuel runs out.<\/p>\n<p>Why is the planet search so important? Batalha handled that question, which was passed along from a class of fifth-graders on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say to the kids, we\u2019re going to change the way you see the universe,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you look up in the sky, you\u2019re not just going to see pinpoints of light and see them as stars, you\u2019re going to see pinpoints of light and see them as planetary systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s part of that larger strategic goal of finding evidence of life beyond Earth. To know if we\u2019re alone or not, to know how life manifests itself in the galaxy \u2026 Being able to look up and point to a point of light and say, \u2018That star has a living world orbiting it.\u2019 I think that\u2019s very profound, and answers questions about why we\u2019re here and how we got here.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248800\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248800\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-248800\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet4-630x477.jpg\" alt=\"Kepler planet size distribution\" width=\"630\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet4-630x477.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet4-768x582.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160510-planet4.jpg 1005w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248800\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This chart shows the distribution of planet sizes recorded by the Kepler mission. The dearth of \u201csub-Jupiter-size\u201d planets may reflect something about the physics of planet formation. Click on the chart for a larger version. (Credit: W. Stenzel \/ NASA Ames)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>In addition to Morton and Batalha, the authors of the Astrophysical Journal paper, \u201cFalse Positive Probabilities for All Kepler Objects of Interest: 1,284 Newly Validated Planets and 428 Likely False Positives,\u201d include Stephen Bryson, Jeffrey Coughlin, Jason Rowe, Ganesh Ravichandran, Erik Petigura and Michael Haas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A graphic shows the diversity of planets. (Credit: NASA) The scientists behind NASA\u2019s Kepler mission are using&nbsp;statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine planets rather than celestial \u201cimpostors,\u201d more than doubling its database of confirmed worlds. \u201cThis is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1874,559,2826,190,4709],"class_list":["post-19389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrobiology","tag-exoplanets","tag-kepler","tag-nasa","tag-planets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}