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NASA's Kepler Discovers 11 Systems Hosting 26 Planets

Posted by timothy on from the such-nice-hosts-they-are dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form."

3 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Here we go by craigminah · · Score: 5, Informative

    Christianity and belief in life outside of Earth are not mutually exclusive.

  2. Re:And SETI has a new project... by jeff4747 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Any modulated RF that doesn't have a natural or human source.

    We're not going to be downloading plans, like in Contact. It's unlikely that we'll be able to decode the message, since we won't know what it's encoding.

  3. Re:Earth-like planets by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

    54 candidates in habitable zone, at least five roughly earth-sized (but note even gas giant in habitable zone is significant because it might have habitable moon)

    http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=98