NASA to announce new exo planet Jan 10

Nasa about to announce a new exo planet.

I don't know why this one is so special as there have been over 300 already found, it might just be that they are announcing it because its been found recently and will be part of the 'Exoplanets & Their Host Stars' presentation that day...

Who knows but it could be something more significant.

NASA chat page

maybe it has life lol

Well, come February and it's ball-game.

If I remember correctly, Kepler found HUNDREDS (something like 700) of exoplanet candidates... They said (last year) that the info would be released in February of 2011.

I can't wait.

Edit - Nice catch, OP. S&F.

Ooh - The NASA spokeswoman/astronomer will be available on online chat to answer questions!

Also, it says "Planetary Discovery". I have a feeling that means more than one, but that's just a feeling.

I was just wondering why its was so special on the site it says:

Natalie Batalha of the NASA Kepler Mission Team will be online answering your questions about this new planet finding on Monday, Jan. 10 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST / 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. PST. Natalie will be chatting with you live from the conference in Seattle.

Is it possible its the first planet discovered in 2011? Might as well do some publicity if this is the case to remind the public NASA is stilla round and actually has some programs that work.

If we want to go with the conspiracy theory side of things, maybe 2011 we will see an upswing in announcements from NASA and other governemnt programs about space objects and what not.

With exo-planet discoveries rather common now, singling out a new one must mean that it's of unusual interest. The way things have been trending lately, that probably means it's Earth-like, in at least some respects.Ross

If it's another jovian planet I think I'm going to have to rage. If it's something to announce just say it, don't build up a hype around it unless it's something significant.

Now granted there's plenty of good information to be learned about jovian planets but quite frankly, the people care about planets that could be earth-like.

the best the kepler team can give us at this stage is an earth size ( 0.75 to 2 earth mass) planet in the HZ of an M class star. That would be a big breakthrough not had one of those yet. Its too early for earth size around G type stars like our sun that will take a couple more years of data.

It's today! Sorry for the one-liner!

Originally posted by impaired
Well, come February and it's ball-game.

If I remember correctly, Kepler found HUNDREDS (something like 700) of exoplanet candidates... They said (last year) that the info would be released in February of 2011.

I can't wait.

Edit - Nice catch, OP. S&F.

Ooh - The NASA spokeswoman/astronomer will be available on online chat to answer questions!

Also, it says "Planetary Discovery". I have a feeling that means more than one, but that's just a feeling.

edit on 1/7/2011 by impaired because: (no reason given)

I remeber that news blurb.. I also remember NASA trying to walk the statement back and not doing a very good job at it, and then they changed directions again and gave some half answer to it.

I am curious what this will be about.. Only a little over 2 hours to go before we find out.

I think this is the announcement:

NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Its First Rocky Planet
www.nasa.gov...

A near Earth-sized planet, but too close to it's star. Not in the life zone. I'm not excited by it.

i'm starting to get slightly worried by kepler and if it will be able to acheive what it set out to do :/

Maybe they found niburu....

I thought NASA has already announced that they have found rocky planets before. If I rmeber right they have announced this numerous times.

I know they have developed a ne way to analyze gasses in the atomsphere to tell whether or not vegetation exists on exoplanets..

I really hope its something completely out of the blue that we arent expecting and something we dont already know.

Unless they have located a planet where life can survive in arsenic.

reply to post by Xcathdra


its the first confirmed "rocky" planet from the kepler mission.

sorry to disapoint but planet kepler 10b will be the announcement today

The live chat is happening now for those interested

www.nasa.gov...

I'm in there, screen name is k1ll

Originally posted by yeti101
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

its the first confirmed "rocky" planet from the kepler mission.

And the smallest exoplanet yet found.

Originally posted by yeti101
i'm starting to get slightly worried by kepler and if it will be able to acheive what it set out to do :/

Not sure why you're worried. They need to see at least 3 transits to verify a planetary body. It's only been operating for just over a year and a half. If someone was looking at our solar system in a similar way, they'd have only seen, at most, two transits by earth in that amount of time.

Updates would be cool,since the Chat is pretty much full. Another thing,it wouldnt suprise me if Nasa wants to confirm with this Discovery,that other Lifeforms,maybe even intelligent,exists out there.

If this is what its about,then its probably not long until the "Disclosure" by the USA.

Edit: Meh,just read the Press Release that came out just now...My Hope vanished again,oh well

reply to post by nataylor


theres been plenty time to see 3 transits of smaller planets closer in. Earth like orbits are big and will take 3 years. Planets in short period orbits will be much quicker like kepler 10b.

Its likely planets smaller than 1.4 earth radius ( 3 earth mass) exist in the kepler data but they have not managed to extract a signal for lower than 1.4 earth radius yet.

I'm hoping its only software tweaks they need to extract smaller signals. btw only 3 transits is very ambitious considering europes CoRoT mission requires 7. I think its likely the mission will be extended by 2 or 3 years (they have enough fuel) and it might be needed to reach the ultimate goal

reply to post by yeti101


The planets with the faster orbits aren't going to be the *really* interesting ones, anyway, since they'll likely be inside the "Goldilocks" zone. It's just going to take time to collect the data, process it, and then verify it. I don't think any of the people in the field are disappointed with Kepler's performance so far.