{"id":12906,"date":"2016-07-19T14:26:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T18:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12906"},"modified":"2016-07-19T14:26:48","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T18:26:48","slug":"kepler-space-observatory-finds-more-than-100-new-exoplanets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12906","title":{"rendered":"Kepler space observatory finds more than 100 new exoplanets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Kepler space telescope<\/a>\u00a0continues to find more planets around other stars:<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA\u2019s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates, scientists have confirmed 104 planets outside our solar system. Among the confirmed is a planetary system comprising four promising planets that could be rocky.<\/p>\n

\"k2_100planet_header[1]\"<\/a>
Artist concept. A crop of more than 100 planets, discovered by NASA\u2019s Kepler Space Telescope, includes four in Earth\u2019s size-range orbiting a single dwarf star. Two of these planets are too hot to support life as we know it, but two are in the star\u2019s \u201chabitable\u201d zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface. These small, rocky worlds are far closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun. But because the star is smaller and cooler than ours, its habitable zone is much closer. One of the two planets in the habitable zone, K2-72c, has a \u201cyear\u201d about 15 Earth-days long\u2014the time it takes to complete one orbit. This closer planet is likely about 10% warmer than Earth. On the second, K2-72e, a year lasts 24 Earth days, this slightly more distant planet would be about 6% colder than Earth. Credits: NASA\/JPL<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>The planets, all between 20 and 50 percent larger than Earth by diameter, are orbiting the M dwarf star K2-72, found 181 light years away in the direction of the Aquarius constellation. The host star is less than half the size of the sun and less bright.\u00a0The planets\u2019 orbital periods range from five and a half to 24 days, and two of them may experience irradiation levels from their star comparable to those on Earth.\u00a0Despite their tight orbits \u2014 closer than Mercury’s orbit around the sun \u2014 the possibility that life could arise on a planet around such a star cannot be ruled out, according to lead author Crossfield, a Sagan Fellow at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.<\/p>\n

The researchers achieved this extraordinary “roundup” of exoplanets by combining data with follow-up observations by earth-based telescopes including the North Gemini telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the Automated Planet Finder of the University of California Observatories, and the Large Binocular Telescope operated by the University of Arizona. The discoveries are published online<\/a> in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.<\/p>\n

Both Kepler and its K2 mission discover new planets by measuring the subtle dip in a star’s brightness caused by a planet passing in front of its star.\u00a0 In its initial mission, Kepler surveyed just one patch of sky in the northern hemisphere, determining the frequency of planets whose size and temperature might be similar to Earth orbiting stars similar to our sun. In the spacecraft\u2019s extended mission in 2013, it lost its ability to precisely stare at its original target area, but a brilliant fix<\/a> created a second life for the telescope that is proving scientifically fruitful.<\/p>\n

After the fix, Kepler started its K2 mission, which has provided an ecliptic field of view with greater opportunities for Earth-based observatories in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Additionally, the K2 mission is entirely community-driven with all targets proposed by the scientific community.<\/p>\n

Because it covers more of the sky, the K2 mission is capable of observing a larger fraction of cooler, smaller, red-dwarf type stars, and because such stars are much more common in the Milky Way than sun-like stars, nearby stars will predominantly be red dwarfs.<\/p>\n

“An analogy would be to say that Kepler performed a demographic study, while the K2 mission focuses on the bright and nearby stars with different types of planets,” said Ian Crossfield. \u201cThe K2 mission allows us to increase the number of small, red stars by a factor of 20, significantly increasing the number of astronomical ‘movie stars’ that make the best systems for further study.”<\/em><\/p>\n

To validate candidate planets identified by K2, the researchers obtained high-resolution images of the planet-hosting stars as well as high-resolution optical spectroscopy. By dispersing the starlight as through a prism, the spectrographs allowed the researchers to infer the physical properties of a star \u2014 such as mass, radius and temperature \u2014 from which the properties of any planets orbiting it can be inferred.<\/p>\n

These observations represent a natural stepping stone from the K2 mission to NASA’s other upcoming exoplanet missions such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite<\/a> and James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This bountiful list of validated exoplanets from the K2 mission highlights the fact that the targeted examination of bright stars and nearby stars along the ecliptic is providing many interesting new planets,\u201d said Steve Howell, project scientist for the K2 mission at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “These targets allow the astronomical community ease of follow-up and characterization, providing a few gems for first study by the James Webb Space Telescope, which could perhaps tell us about the planets\u2019 atmospheres.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This work was performed in part under contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) funded by NASA through the Sagan Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.<\/p>\n

NASA Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Kepler and the K2 mission, visit:\u00a0www.nasa.gov\/kepler<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information about exoplanets, visit:\u00a0exoplanets.nasa.gov\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Kepler space telescope\u00a0continues to find more planets around other stars: NASA\u2019s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA\u2019s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates, scientists have confirmed 104 planets … Continue reading Kepler space observatory finds more than 100 new exoplanets<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-exoplanets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3ma","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8846,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8846","url_meta":{"origin":12906,"position":0},"title":"Citizens science: Planet Hunters 2.0","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"With the revived Kepler\u00a0space observatory once again looking\u00a0for planets orbiting other stars, the citizens science program\u00a0Planet Hunters\u00a0is graduating to Planet Hunters 2.0:\u00a0A Brand New Planet Hunters\u00a0-\u00a0Planet Hunters On December 16, 2010, the Zooniverse launched Planet Hunters to enlist the public\u2019s help to search for extrasolar planets (exoplanets) in the data\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Exoplanets"","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/673xvariable_height\/public\/k2_explained_25nov_story_0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12782,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12782","url_meta":{"origin":12906,"position":1},"title":"Kepler space telescope spots newborn exoplanet around young star","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Kepler observatory\u00a0finds an unusual exoplanet: NASA's K2 Finds Newborn Exoplanet Around Young Star Astronomers have discovered the youngest fully formed exoplanet ever detected. 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