Sunday, February 12, 2012

11 New Planetary Systems… 26 New Planets… Kepler Racks ‘Em Up!

11 New Planetary Systems… 26 New Planets… Kepler Racks ‘Em Up!:

Artist's Concept of New Planetary Systems - Credit: NASA

Eleven ball in the side pocket. Whack! And another 26 planets are discovered! NASA just announced the latest tally and the new discoveries come close to doubling the amount of verified planets and tripling the number of stars which are confirmed to have more than one transiting planet. It’s just another score for understanding how planets came to be… planets which run the gambit from about one and half times the size of Earth up to the size of Jupiter. Of these, fifteen are judged to be between the size of Earth and Neptune – while more observations will reveal their structure. The new bodies orbit the parent star between 6 and 143 days and all are closer than our Sun/Venus distance. (...)
Read the rest of 11 New Planetary Systems… 26 New Planets… Kepler Racks ‘Em Up! (493 words)


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