A study published in the Nature journal and another study released at the American Astronomical Society’s conference in Austin, Texas, indicate that most stars in the Milky Way have planets. There are about 100 billion stars in this galaxy, and that could mean 160 billion to more than 200 billion planets. Over 700 planets outside our own solar system, called "exoplanets," have been found. Thousands more are waiting to be confirmed as planets, Seth Borenstein reported for the Associated Press on January 11.
Many of the new planets are discovered through the new Kepler planet-finding telescope from NASA.
The Kepler telescope goes beyond the old method of using telescopes in South America, frica and Australia to check for increase3s in brightness that indicate the presence of a planet. That brightness measurement method only locates the large planets that are at a significant distance from their stars, rather like Saturn or Uranus in our own solar system. Kepler can find smaller planets closer to the star. Kepler has even found three rocky planets, smaller than earth, circling a dwarf star itself only slightly bigger than Jupiter.
Additionally, San Diego State University astronomy professor William Welsh has used Kepler to find three different solar systems which have a pair of stars at their center rather than simply a single star.
Summarized from:
http://news.yahoo.com/astronomers-see-more-planets-stars-galaxy-183915678.html
Many of the new planets are discovered through the new Kepler planet-finding telescope from NASA.
The Kepler telescope goes beyond the old method of using telescopes in South America, frica and Australia to check for increase3s in brightness that indicate the presence of a planet. That brightness measurement method only locates the large planets that are at a significant distance from their stars, rather like Saturn or Uranus in our own solar system. Kepler can find smaller planets closer to the star. Kepler has even found three rocky planets, smaller than earth, circling a dwarf star itself only slightly bigger than Jupiter.
Additionally, San Diego State University astronomy professor William Welsh has used Kepler to find three different solar systems which have a pair of stars at their center rather than simply a single star.
Summarized from:
http://news.yahoo.com/astronomers-see-more-planets-stars-galaxy-183915678.html
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