NASA engineers have determined that the unmanned Kepler Space Telescope has only enough propellant left in its attitude control system to keep it properly oriented for a few more months. When this runs out, the spacecraft will no longer be able to collect data or transmit it to Earth.
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Red dwarf stars are of particular interest to astronomers hunting down distant worlds. The latest study of Kepler data has now identified 15 new exoplanets around red dwarfs, including a system of three “Super-Earths” – one of which appears to be orbiting within the host star’s habitable zone.
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With thousands of exoplanets confirmed, it's now possible to learn something about how they are organized. An international team of scientists has found that exoplanets revolving around the same star show a pattern of similar sizes and regular orbital spacing.
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Data from the Kepler Space Telescope has revealed the Kepler-90 system ties with our own for the most number of planets known to orbit a single star. The discovery of an eighth exoplanet, Kepler-90i, was achieved using artificial intelligence software.
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Thousands of exoplanets have been spotted by looking for “transits” as light from the host star dips when a planet passes in front of it. Now scientists have examined whether Earth could be detected by other civilizations using the same technique, and 68 known exoplanets are in prime positions.
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The Kepler Space Telescope is not only a dab hand at finding exoplanets, it's also revealing the secrets of the Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades, thanks to Kepler's instruments combined with algorithms devised by a team from Aarhus University.
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NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered more than two thousand exoplanets since launching seven years ago, and a newly compiled catalogue of candidates could soon give this tally a sizeable boost.
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A new study using data from prolific exoplanet hunting telescope Kepler has filled in some of the blanks on the TRAPPIST-1 system's outermost planet bringing to light new information on its orbit, temperature and chances of hosting life.
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Over the last 20 years we've discovered over 3,600 exoplanets, and some of these are far crazier than we could've imagined. Suddenly Earth seems pretty boring, so let’s take a quick tour of some of the most bizarre exoplanets that have been spotted so far.
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Lately it seems like everyone has been discovering new exoplanets. With a citizen science project called Exoplanet Explorers anyone can comb through Kepler Space Telescope data to identify exoplanets – and within just two days, the crowdsourced effort found a system with four super-Earths.
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