Planets Recently Discovered by Kepler Telescope Announced

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was launched into space in March 2009. Over the years, the telescope has observed hundreds of thousands of stars and identified thousands of exoplanets (planets outside the solar system).

Now, astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin in the USA have completed the mission in 2018. Discovered the last planets Kepler saw. The findings were published today via the Royal Astronomical Society.

Of the three planets Kepler observed, two are 400 light-years away and the other is 1200 light-years away.

Kepler continued to record the brightness of stars in his final days. on October 30, 2018 Jesus ran out of fuel and officially completed his mission. Researchers led by Professor Andrew Vanderburg and Elyse Incha also from the last week analyzed the data obtained and reached three stars.

After that, it was determined that two of the stars host a planet. It was reported that the third star may have an exoplanet candidate that has not yet been confirmed. NASA also said in a statement that the dimensions of this trio Earth and Neptune is between and close to the stars added that they were.

The smallest of the confirmed planets, the researchers found. K2-416bof the world 2.6 times the size He states that it revolves around its star, which is a red dwarf, about once every 13 days. The second is the size of the Earth. slightly larger than three times and completes its orbit around its star every 6.5 days. K2-417b. 400 light years Both planets far away from us are described as “hot mini Neptunes” because of their size and proximity to their stars.

Kepler Space Telescope

The planet Kepler observed, yet unconfirmed EPIC 246251988b is called. He is almost the world four times the size It is the largest of the three. The planet candidate, which is similar in size to Neptune, is 1200 light-years away from us and revolves around its star in 10 days.

Kepler Space Telescope, which remained in service for 9.5 years, during this time more than 2600 He had discovered the exoplanet. The identification of more than 5000 exoplanets so far is also an indication of how useful the vehicle is in planetary exploration. One of the researchers, Elyse Incha, added that data from Kepler could still lead to many more discoveries.