| uary 02, 2011 Possible Earth-sized, habitable planets found
NASA’s Kepler space telescope seems to have discovered five planets that are about the size of Earth and could support liquid water, the space agency has announced.
Previously, astronomers had reported only one or two planets fitting similar descriptions, and these were estimated to be somewhat larger than Earth.
|
A diagram showing the distrubition of planetary candidates found so far by the Kepler telescope, color-coded by size. (Image credit: NASA/Wendy Stenzel )
|
Although further tests are needed to verify the finds, “in one generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said this week. They are part of several hundred new planet candidates identified in new Kepler mission data./.../ |
No comments:
Post a Comment