{"id":14518,"date":"2017-06-19T14:55:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T18:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14518"},"modified":"2017-06-19T14:55:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T18:55:49","slug":"video-kepler-spots-219-more-exoplanet-candidates-including-10-earth-sized-ones-in-habitable-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14518","title":{"rendered":"Video: Kepler spots 219 more exoplanet candidates including 10 Earth-sized ones in habitable zones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More exoplanet candidates have been spotted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/kepler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kepler space observatory<\/a> including 10 that are nearly the size of Earth and orbit in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Circumstellar_habitable_zone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">habitable zone<\/a> of their stars. The press release below describes the latest findings and here is a video of a NASA briefing held this morning:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/upQBZhLYYhw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=156&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>=====<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/nasa-releases-kepler-survey-catalog-with-hundreds-of-new-planet-candidates\" target=\"_d\">NASA Releases Kepler Survey Catalog,<br \/>\nHundreds of New Planet Candidates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope team has released a mission catalog of planet candidates that introduces 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and orbiting in their star&#8217;s habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_14519\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14519\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14519\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=14519\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"4268,2400\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Exoplanet Art\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star. Credits: NASA\/JPL-Caltech&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14519\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kepler_11-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star. Credits: NASA\/JPL-Caltech. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/thumbnails\/image\/kepler_1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Larger image<\/a>]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>This is the most comprehensive and detailed catalog release of candidate exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, from Kepler\u2019s first four years of data. It\u2019s also the final catalog from the spacecraft\u2019s view of the patch of sky in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/kepler\/multimedia\/images\/kepler-field-of-view-photo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cygnus constellation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With the release of this catalog, derived from data publicly available on the <a href=\"http:\/\/exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA Exoplanet Archive<\/a>, there are now 4,034 planet candidates identified by Kepler. Of which, 2,335 have been verified as exoplanets. Of roughly 50 near-Earth size habitable zone candidates detected by Kepler, more than 30 have been verified.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, results using Kepler data suggest two distinct size groupings of small planets. Both results have significant implications for the search for life. The final Kepler catalog will serve as the foundation for more study to determine the prevalence and demographics of planets in the galaxy, while the discovery of the two distinct planetary populations shows that about half the planets we know of in the galaxy either have no surface, or lie beneath a deep, crushing atmosphere \u2013 an environment unlikely to host life.<\/p>\n<p>The findings were presented at a news conference Monday at NASA&#8217;s Ames Research Center in California&#8217;s Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cThe Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogs \u2013 planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth,\u201d said Mario Perez, Kepler program scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate. \u201cUnderstanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Kepler space telescope hunts for planets by detecting the minuscule drop in a star\u2019s brightness that occurs when a planet crosses in front of it, called a transit.<\/p>\n<p>This is the eighth release of the Kepler candidate catalog, gathered by reprocessing the entire set of data from Kepler\u2019s observations during the first four years of its primary mission. This data will enable scientists to determine what planetary populations \u2013 from rocky bodies the size of Earth, to gas giants the size of Jupiter \u2013 make up the galaxy\u2019s planetary demographics.<\/p>\n<p>To ensure a lot of planets weren&#8217;t\u00a0missed, the team introduced their own simulated planet transit signals into the data set and determined how many were correctly identified as planets. Then, they added data that appear to come from a planet, but were actually false signals, and checked how often the analysis mistook these for planet candidates.\u00a0This work told them which types of planets were overcounted and which were undercounted by the Kepler team\u2019s data processing methods.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cThis carefully-measured catalog is the foundation for directly answering one of astronomy\u2019s most compelling questions \u2013 how many planets like our Earth are in the galaxy?\u201d said Susan Thompson, Kepler research scientist for the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and lead author of the catalog study.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One research group took advantage of the Kepler data to make precise measurements of thousands of planets, revealing two distinct groups of small planets. The team found a clean division in the sizes of rocky, Earth-size planets and gaseous planets smaller than Neptune. Few planets were found between those groupings.<\/p>\n<p>Using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the group measured the sizes of 1,300 stars in the Kepler field of view to determine the radii of 2,000 Kepler planets with exquisite precision.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cWe like to think of this study as classifying planets in the same way that biologists identify new species of animals,\u201d said Benjamin Fulton, doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, and lead author of the second study. \u201cFinding two distinct groups of exoplanets is like discovering mammals and lizards make up distinct branches of a family tree.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It seems that nature commonly makes rocky planets up to about 75 percent bigger than Earth.\u00a0For reasons scientists don&#8217;t yet understand, about half of those planets take on a small amount of hydrogen and helium that dramatically swells their size, allowing them to &#8220;jump the gap&#8221; and join the population closer to Neptune\u2019s size.<\/p>\n<p>The Kepler spacecraft continues to make observations in new patches of sky in its extended mission, searching for planets and studying a variety of interesting astronomical objects, from distant star clusters to objects such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/ames\/kepler\/astronomers-confirm-orbital-details-of-trappist1-least-understood-planet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TRAPPIST-1<\/a> system of seven Earth-size planets, closer to home.<\/p>\n<p>Ames manages the Kepler missions for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate. NASA&#8217;s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace &amp; Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/kepler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/kepler<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More exoplanet candidates have been spotted by the Kepler space observatory including 10 that are nearly the size of Earth and orbit in the habitable zone of their stars. The press release below describes the latest findings and here is a video of a NASA briefing held this morning: ===== NASA Releases Kepler Survey Catalog, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14518\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Video: Kepler spots 219 more exoplanet candidates including 10 Earth-sized ones in habitable zones<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exoplanets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3Ma","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11050,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11050","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":0},"title":"Kepler spots first earth-size planet in habitable zone of its star system","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the Kepler announcement: NASA\u2019s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the \u201chabitable zone\u201d around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"452b_artistconcept_comparisonwithearth[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/452b_artistconcept_comparisonwithearth1-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12612,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12612","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":1},"title":"Kepler mission confirms 1284 new exoplanets","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest results from the Kepler Mission: Kepler Mission Announces Largest Planet Collection Ever Discovered NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets \u2013 the single largest finding of planets to date. \u201cThis announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler,\u201d said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"kepler_all-planets_may2016[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/kepler_all-planets_may20161.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9598,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9598","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":2},"title":"Kepler verifies more exoplanets and finds 554 new candidates","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Further analysis of data from the Kepler space observatory results in another big batch of candidate exoplanets plus eight former candidates are moving to the verified category. Several new candidates are in the earth sized range and orbit in their star system's\u00a0habitable zone where water can remain liquid if the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"15-004_0[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/15-004_01.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5179,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5179","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":3},"title":"Kepler data analysis increases exoplanet candidate count by 833","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Continued examination of the Kepler Observatory data has increased the number of candidate planets by\u00a0833 to over 3500. Though the observatory is no longer able to maintain pointing precision to the level sufficient to do the transit observations, there is a big storehouse of data yet to be analyzed and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chart showing sizes of planet candidates as of November 2013.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/673xvariable_height\/public\/candidate-sizes-histo_2013-wide_0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5026,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5026","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":4},"title":"Citizen scientists spot 14 exoplanet candidates &#8211; including 7th in first 7-planet system","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Planet Hunters\u00a0citizen science project has submitted a paper to the Astronomical Journal reporting on their discovery of 14 planet candidates in the Kepler space observatory data:\u00a0Seventh heaven with our sixth exoplanet paper - Planet Hunters. See the outline here\u00a0of how the Planet Hunters project takes advantage of human pattern recognition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2256,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2256","url_meta":{"origin":14518,"position":5},"title":"Planet Hunter citizen scientists confirmed exoplanet in star&#8217;s habitable zone","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year participants in the\u00a0Planet Hunters citizen science project confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet called PH2b orbiting within the \u201chabitable zone\u201d of its star, the range where earth-like planets could have liquid water and possibly sustain life. The researchers also announced 42 new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"SPH10102031","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.zooniverse.org\/planethunters\/files\/2010\/12\/SPH10102031-300x203.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14522,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518\/revisions\/14522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}