NASA’s Kepler space telescope was launched for the purpose of finding new objects, like planets, far off in space, and it has done its job so incredibly well astronomers now have more new planets than they know what to do with. Researchers just announced latest batch of worlds that Kepler has detected, numbering a whopping 95, and pushing the space telescope’s total tally to over 2,400 new planets.

The Kepler telescope is currently in an extended mission phase after already completing its primary mission and discovering thousands of new worlds. This new effort, called “K2,” has already resulted in the discovery of nearly 300 new planets, proving that the telescope still has plenty of power to comb the heavens for undetected exoplanets.

In order to spot these new worlds, scientists began sifting through an immense amount of data that Kepler has sent back. Dating back to 2014, the wealth of observations produced a total of 275 “candidate” signals which may or may not have been planets. After sifting through the numbers one-by-one, 149 of the signals were shown to be exoplanets, and 95 of those are entirely new to science.

“Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science,” Andrew Mayo of the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark said in a press release. “As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context.”

The new planets range in size from smaller than Earth to larger than even the mighty Jupiter, and one of the planets was particularly special. The never-bef0re-seen world is orbiting the brightest start ever discovered by the Kepler telescope. That’s particularly important because planets orbiting bright stars are often easier to study, and can yield additional information with subsequent observations.

Because of the distance of the planets from Earth — often hundreds of light years or more — it’s difficult for researchers to determine their potential for hosting life. As telescope technology pushes forward, additional information about the planets may be revealed, but for now we simply know that they exist. </s> Washington-Nasa revealed 10 new rocky, Earth-sized planets that could potentially have liquid water and support life.

The Kepler mission team released a survey of 219 potential exoplanets - planets outside of our solar system - that had been detected by the space observatory launched in 2009 to scan the Milky Way galaxy.

Ten of the new discoveries were orbiting their suns at a distance similar to Earth’s orbit around the sun, the so-called habitable zone that could potentially have liquid water and sustain life. Kepler has already discovered 4,034 potential exoplanets, 2,335 of which have been confirmed by other telescopes as actual planets.

The 10 new Earth-size planets bring the total to 50 that exist in habitable zones around the galaxy.

“This carefully-measured catalog is the foundation for directly answering one of astronomy’s most compelling questions - how many planets like our Earth are in the galaxy?” said Susan Thompson, a Kepler research scientist and lead author of the latest study.

The latest findings were released at the Fourth Kepler and K2 science conference being held this week at Nasa’s Ames research center in California.

The Kepler telescope detects the presence of planets by registering minuscule drops in a star’s brightness that occurs when a planet crosses in front of it, a movement known as a transit. The findings were compiled from data gathered during the first four years of the mission, which scientists processed to determine the size and composition of the planets observed.

The scientists found that the newly discovered planets tended to fall into two distinct categories - smaller, rocky planets that are usually around 75 percent bigger than Earth, and much larger, gaseous planets similar in size to Neptune.

Nasa said the latest catalog is the most complete and detailed survey of potential exoplanets yet compiled. The telescope has studied some 150,000 stars in the Cygnus constellation, a survey which Nasa said is now complete.

“The Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogs - planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth,” said Mario Perez of Nasa’s Astrophysics Division. “Understanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.”

The mission ran into technical problems in 2013 when mechanisms used to turn the spacecraft failed, but the telescope has continued searching for potentially habitable planets as part of its K2 project.

As of next year, Nasa will continue its scan of the galaxy using Kepler’s successor, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which will spend two years observing the 200,000 brightest nearby stars for Earth-like worlds.

Scientists also hope the James Webb Space telescope, which will replace the Hubble telescope in 2018, will be able to detect the molecular make-up of atmospheres of exoplanets, including the possibility of finding signatures of potential life forms. </s> An international team of scientists have, over a period of four years, discovered 95 new exoplanets. The discoveries will allow scientists to better understand how solar systems are created, including our own.

While the scientists have been analyzing data from 2014, the story of these 95 new planets discovered outside of the solar system begins in 2009, when NASA's Kepler spacecraft was launched with the specific goal of finding exoplanets. It's found over 100,000 stars and 2,300 planets in the process.

However, a technical failure knocked the Kepler out of commission in 2013. The next year NASA sent up a replacement spacecraft known as K2. A product of worldwide collaboration, scientists from Harvard, NASA, Caltech, UC Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Tokyo have been studying its findings. They've published their paper here.

K2 searches for exoplanets by looking for planetary transits. When a planet is rotating around its star and comes between that star and the Earth, it creates a dip in light. Scientists monitor these dips and determine if they are caused by a planet's rotation.

There are many false positives. "We started out analyzing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries," says PhD student Andrew Mayo at the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, in a press statement.

According to Mayo, "some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft." But the noise didn't keep the team from missing the signal. "We also detected planets that range from sub Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger," he says.

Although exoplanetry is a relatively new field with the first one only discovered in 1995, it has made up for lost time with at times what feels like a deluge of planets. Some of the most famous, like those in the TRAPPIST-1 system, often tantalizing possibilities of life-friendly conditions. Some scientists have taken to creating periodic tables just to keep track of all of them.

Together, Kepler and K2 represent one of the first steps in exoplanetry. NASA is hoping that the upcoming James Webb Telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), made specifically for this purpose, will help to show just how crowded outer space truly is. </s> • NASA's Kepler space telescope, which first launched in 2009 with the goal of finding new exoplanets, is running out of fuel 94 million miles from Earth's orbit.
• The NASA spacecraft has discovered thousands of worlds around other stars in our galaxy, with some of those worlds within a habitable range, where they might have liquid water.
• But though Kepler has lasted longer than some thought it would, every mission comes to an end, and Kepler will soon be pointed back home.

NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered at least 2,342 exoplanets (worlds orbiting other stars) along with another 2,245 potential other worlds. At least 30 of those planets are less than twice Earth's size and in what we think could be the habitable zone around their stars.

Yet Kepler's search for other worlds is coming to an end, 94 million miles from home.

"With nary a gas station to be found in deep space, the spacecraft is going to run out of fuel," Charlie Sobeck, system engineer for the Kepler space telescope mission, wrote in a news release for NASA. "We expect to reach that moment within several months."

Kepler was first launched in 2009 with a mission to survey our part of the Milky Way galaxy, searching for Earth-size and smaller planets that might potentially be in a habitable zone so we can see just how common these sorts of planets are.

The spacecraft itself is a telescope that observes faraway stars to look for dips in brightness, which indicate a planet has passed in front of the star. The observations can be used to calculate how large the planet is and how far from a star it is — which reveals whether or not there could be liquid water, making a world habitable.

In 2013, a broken component put an end to Kepler's primary mission. Yet researchers were able to devise another way to observe distant worlds. The same spacecraft was reborn as "K2," and in that form has discovered at least 307 confirmed exoplanets and another 479 candidates.

At the time, NASA researchers thought they'd be able to conduct 10 observation campaigns before running out of gas. Kepler surprised them and is currently in its 17th campaign.

They can't tell exactly when the craft will run out of fuel, but the end is near. NASA plans on using a last bit of energy to point Kepler back towards Earth to ensure it can gather as much data as possible.

As this mission comes to an end, a replacement will come online. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 16.

"TESS will search nearly the entire sky for planets outside our solar system, focusing on the brightest stars less than 300 light-years away, and adding to Kepler’s treasure trove of planet discoveries," wrote Sobeck. </s> An international team of scientists have confirmed the discovery of almost 100 new planets beyond our solar system which are orbiting nearby stars. They were found using data captured by Nasa's Kepler space observatory as part of its K2 mission.

Researchers have been examining data from the mission - which has so far identified nearly 300 new exoplanets - since 2014. But the latest batch - described in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal - is the most impressive of the K2 mission so far.

"This is more than twice as large as any other single haul of exoplanets found as part of the K2 mission," Andrew Mayo from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, told IBTimes UK. "The previous largest batch added 45 new exoplanets to the K2 sample."

Astronomers can identify exoplanets using Kepler because it is able to register dips in light when objects pass in front of their host star. However, researchers must examine these dimming events closely to confirm that they are being caused by transiting exoplanets.

During the latest research, the team found that some of the signals coming from the 275 candidate exoplanets they were investigating were actually being caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. However, they were eventually able to confirm the discovery of 95 new exoplanets, ranging in size from smaller than Earth to bigger than Jupiter, and even larger.

The scientists from institutions including Nasa, Caltech, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Tokyo, were able to determine the radius of each planet, its distance from its host star and its orbital period, as well as other parameters.

The original Kepler mission began in 2009 when the space observatory was launched into orbit around the Earth to hunt for new exoplanets in a particular patch of the sky. But in 2013, a mechanical failure crippled the telescope. Fortunately, astronomers and engineers managed to save it by reconfiguring the observatory so that it changed its field of view periodically. This marked the start of the K2 mission.

"The most interesting thing about this new release of planets is that they orbit stars that are quite bright relative to the original Kepler mission, so many will be excellent targets for follow-up observations such as mass measurements and atmospheric characterisation," Mayo said. "In comparison very few targets from the original Kepler mission were suitable for those types of analyses".

Finding planets around bright stars is good news for astronomers because they can learn a lot about them using ground-based observatories. One world of particular interest among the latest batch was found to orbit the brightest star to host a planet ever found using Kepler.

The search for new exoplanets is currently one of the most exciting areas of space science, one that is providing fascinating insights into our universe. We now know that planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception and that there are likely billions in the Milky Way alone.

The field is relatively young – the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992 – but it is rapidly maturing. To date, more than 3,700 exoplanets have been confirmed, with more than 2,500 of those identified by the two Kepler missions.

"The original Kepler mission was our first glimpse into the incredible abundance and diversity of exoplanets in the Galaxy," Mayo said. "It taught us volumes about the types of exoplanets and exoplanet systems that can exist in nature and gave us an idea of what the general exoplanet population looks like."

"The follow up K2 mission, on the other hand, has provided us with a great deal of interesting individual planets and systems that we can now start to study in greater detail. While Kepler gave us a broad overview of exoplanets, K2 is helping us dive much deeper," he added.

Using the new data, scientists can start looking closer at the density, composition and even atmospheres of the exoplanets.

And with upcoming missions, such as the powerful James Webb Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, astronomers will be able to make unprecedented observations of these planets and identify which may be capable of supporting life, among other goals. </s> The universe just got a little more crowded.

Nearly 100 new exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – have been discovered, scientists announced in a new study published on Thursday.

Using powerful telescopes, exoplanets can be detected as they orbit around their star, which causes a subtle dimming of starlight.

These most recent exoplanets were spotted using Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, now in orbit around the Earth. Though the spacecraft had a major mechanical failure in 2013, scientists were able to reconfigure it to enable it to keep watching for exoplanets.

“We started out analysing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets,” said study lead author Andrew Mayo, a PhD student at the Technical University of Denmark. “In turn, 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries.”

Scientists discover the first planets outside the Milky Way – and there may be trillions

Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1995, about 3,600 exoplanets have been found, ranging from rocky Earth-sized planets to large gas giants like Jupiter.

But this is only the tip of a very big iceberg. Astronomers say there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in our galaxy alone.

“Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science,” Mayo said. “As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context.”

Google’s computers help Nasa find two new planets around distant stars

The research was published on Thursday in the Astronomical Journal. </s> As part of the K2 mission – the NASA Kepler telescope’s new lease on life

The number of exoplanets has risen by almost 100, as an international team of astronomers confirms a new batch found in data captured as part of the K2 mission – the NASA Kepler telescope’s new lease on life.

They have been analysing the first batch of K2 data, and have just announced the discovery of another 95 planets – bringing the total number of exoplanets discovered by K2 to nearly 300.

“We started out analysing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries,” said PhD student Andrew Mayo from the Technical University of Denmark, and lead author on the project.

The Kepler mission was launched in 2009. Since then, it has trailed Earth’s orbit around the Sun, searching for exoplanets using the transit method – photographing stars over time, and looking for changes in the brightness.

If a star dims, then brightens again on a regular basis, that more than likely means it’s being orbited by a body large enough to block at least some of its light.

The method requires a lot of painstaking work poring over data to find the periods of dimness, and then confirm them. It also only works if the planet orbits between the observer (us, or rather the Kepler telescope) and its star.

Nevertheless, it’s very effective. The Kepler main mission found 2,341 confirmed exoplanets, according to NASA.

But then disaster struck in 2013, when the second of the telescope’s four reaction wheels failed. The mission was revived as K2 when NASA figured out a way to use Kepler’s thrusters as a makeshift reaction wheel, therefore retaining the ability to reorient the telescope to look at different parts of the sky.

Thankfully, it’s still at work to this day.

The data used for Mayo’s team’s analysis was collected in 2014. They had to comb the data thoroughly to make sure the stars’ dimming was not caused by other factors.

“We found that some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. But we also detected planets that range from sub-Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger,” Mayo said.

“We validated a planet on a 10 day orbit around a star called HD 212657 [about 254 light-years away], which is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host a validated planet.”

The brighter the host star, the more we can determine about the planet that orbits it – perhaps even more so when the next generation of much higher resolution space telescopes is launched.

Astronomers may be able to even glean information about its atmosphere, as they have done for TRAPPIST-1 planets.

Between them, the Kepler and K2 missions have been used to find over 5,100 candidate exoplanets to date.

This is partially about the search for extraterrestrial life, but also because statistical data about the universe around us – such as how many planets there are, the average number of planets per system, and the number of rocky and gaseous planets – can tell us more about how typical (or not) our own Solar System is, and how it fits into our Universe. </s> CLOSE NASA's Kepler spacecraft discovered more than 4,000 potential new planets outside our solar system, some of which are in the "habitable" zone of their star. USA TODAY

This artists’s conception gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way. The planets, their orbits and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. (Photo: ESO/M. Kornmesser)

The universe just got a little more crowded.

Nearly 100 new exoplanets — planets outside of our solar system — have been discovered, scientists announced in a new study published Thursday.

Using powerful telescopes, exoplanets can be detected as they orbit around their star, which causes a subtle dimming of starlight.

These most recent exoplanets were spotted using NASA's Kepler space telescope, now in orbit around the Earth. Though the spacecraft had a major mechanical failure in 2013, scientists were able to reconfigure it to enable it to keep watching for exoplanets.

“We started out analyzing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets," said study lead author Andrew Mayo, a PhD student at the Technical University of Denmark. "In turn, 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries.”

More: Distant Earth-like planets could harbor water — and maybe life

Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1995, about 3,600 exoplanets have been found, ranging from rocky Earth-sized planets to large gas giants like Jupiter.

But this is only the tip of a very big iceberg: Astronomers say there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in our galaxy alone.

“Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science," Mayo said. "As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context.”

The research was published Thursday in the Astronomical Journal.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ocj7t0 </s> NASA is saying “goodnight” to its pioneering Kepler telescope, which a few months shy of its 10th birthday but years past its expected lifespan, has finally run out of fuel.

The planet-hunting spacecraft, credited with discovering thousands of exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, will be retired and left in its current orbit, a safe distance from Earth, NASA announced Tuesday. Kepler’s transmitter and other instruments will be shut down in the coming days.

Kepler was launched in March 2009 with enough fuel to keep it going for at least six years, according to The Verge. It far surpassed expectations, however, collecting data in deep space for more than nine years. In all, the telescope made more than 2,600 exoplanet discoveries, NASA said.

“As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate, said in a statement. “Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars.”

Kepler searched for alien worlds by looking out for their transits, which are dips in the brightness of stars that could indicate orbiting planets.

“It was like trying to detect a flea crawling across a car headlight when the car was 100 miles away,” William Borucki, who led the original Kepler science team, told AP of the telescope’s technology,

When Kepler’s stabilizing equipment began malfunctioning in 2013, NASA feared it was doomed. But the mission team managed to salvage the telescope after figuring out how to use the pressure of sunlight to balance the spacecraft. Once the fix was made, NASA approved a new mission for the spacecraft, dubbed K2.

Kepler continued to hunt for planets during its K2 phase. As Space.com notes, the spacecraft also studied “a variety of cosmic objects and phenomena, from comets and asteroids in our own solar system to faraway supernova explosions.”

“TESS builds on Kepler’s foundation with fresh batches of data in its search of planets orbiting some 200,000 of the brightest and nearest stars to the Earth, worlds that can later be explored for signs of life,” NASA said.
NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered 95 new exoplanets.