The Kepler space telescope has found 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are "Earth-like":
NASA's 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's habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.
This is the most comprehensive and detailed catalog release of candidate exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, from Kepler's first four years of data. It's also the final catalog from the spacecraft's view of the patch of sky in the Cygnus constellation.
With the release of this catalog, derived from data publicly available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive, 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.
Also at Space.com, New Scientist, and CNN.
Previously: Kepler Exoplanet Results Briefing on June 19th, Conference From 19th-23rd
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday June 22 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)
Webb will be much smaller than the TMT, but I guess has less interference which is better for spectroscopy, then?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:53PM
http://www.tmt.org/science-case [tmt.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Infrared_astronomy [wikipedia.org]
Adaptive optics is a game changer, but it can only take you so far.
TMT was planned to begin operating in 2022 but that has been delayed due to the construction/permiting controversy. JWST is designed to last 5-10 years and begins collecting data around early 2019. There may be less overlap than you expect between the missions.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]