41 new transiting exoplanets discovered!

Two newly submitted studies verify 41 new transiting planets in 20 star systems. These results may increase the number of Kepler's confirmed planets by more than 50 percent: to 116 planets hosted in 67 systems, over half of which contain more than one planet.

Nineteen of the newly validated planetary systems have two closely spaced transiting planets and one system has three. Five of the systems are common to both of these independent studies.

The planets range from Earth-size to more than seven times the radius of Earth, but generally orbit so close to their parent stars that they are hot, inhospitable worlds.

The diagram shows the newly submitted transiting planets in green along with the unconfirmed planet candidates in the same system in violet. The systems are ordered horizontally by increasing Kepler number and KOI designation and vertically by orbital period. (Credit: Jason Steffen, Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics)

Full size picture can be seen here

The planets were confirmed by analyzing Transit Timing Variations (TTVs). In closely packed systems, the gravitational pull of the planets causes the acceleration or deceleration of a planet along its orbit. These "tugs" cause the orbital period of each planet to change from one orbit to the next. TTV demonstrates that two transiting planet candidates are in the same system and that their masses are planetary in nature.

Read the whole article here

I made a thread on 8 new discovered Kepler planets orbiting in the habitable zone.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Soooo frustrating knowing that they are there but not being able to actually see them in the flesh (as it were).

Wouldn't you love to be able to travel to distant stars for a peak at their own little (Or large) solar system. Could one of the 41 or many others that have been found support life or does life currently inhabit that planet?

Still only one potential Earth like planet has been found (AFAIK) Kepler 22b? again some guess work, 600 light years away? We wont be there anytime soon. Although if you live in a fantasy gaga land like some on the forums, you can travel to distant stars in a few weeks, excuse me a second......

Anyway there you have it, when will the point come when they say we have found enough planets, we cant reach them, stop looking? I hope that day doesn't come and newer tech is developed, I believe ET is out there but I don't believe he has been here yet, and I don't believe we will be meeting him anytime soon.

reply to post by elevenaugust


So it's a well established fact that almost every star we look at has some type of planet orbiting it, and apparently many have multiple planets.

Consider that we have barely scratched the surface of this expedition. Consider that we can't see habitable moons orbiting gas giants, orbiting stars.

Small moves Ellie, small moves.