NASA's Kepler discovers more than 100 new planets
Astronomers say many might have the right conditions to harbour alien life
In May, NASA blew our minds when they announced that they had discovered 1,284 planets outside our solar system using the Kepler space telescope. This more than doubled the number of known Kepler exoplanets.
Now, an international team of astronomers have discovered and confirmed more than 100 additional exoplanets. Many of these planets might even be rocky and cool enough to harbour life.
The Kepler space telescope is a space observatory launched in 2009 with the mission of finding Earth-sized planets in areas that could potentially support life.
The telescope searches for the faint dimming that occurs when a planet crosses the path of one of those stars. The goal of this is to identify possible exoplanets that are Earth-sized, or larger, in zones favorable to life.
Originally, Kepler surveyed one unchanging patch of sky in the northern hemisphere.
In 2014, after the Kepler telescope lost its ability to remain focused on this one patch, NASA started K2, a follow-up to the 2009 Kepler mission. In K2, Kepler’s field of view sweeps a band across the entire sky, pointing to a new portion every 80 days, Time reports.